Technology, then people, then process

Some people say process leads technology but I think it's usually technology that leads most peoples' decisions because it's so shiny. 

There's an order to getting things done with technology that should be followed to be successful and not spend too much or buy the wrong thing.  What we ultimately want in life and business is processes or flows that serve us in efficient, effective, fun, valuable, and entertaining ways.  To get these flows (ideal experiences), though, we have to follow a very structured process and invest in technology and experts.  The process starts with technology identification and selection, then leads to people and experts, and then finishes with you (hopefully) getting the processes that you want.

Technology.  The technology selection part is fun.  My mom's looking to get an iPad soon and she's excited about that.  Looking at technologies is fun and we can learn a lot by studying them but we have to first know our goals and criteria.  We can and should build our ideal process requirements in this phase.

Then people.  The people part of the process can also be fun and enlightening.  This phase is about bringing in experts or geniuses to support you in learning and achieving your goals and objective processes.  You'll find that many of the geniuses out there have a vested interest in *their* technologies or solutions and are not necessarily customer advocates.  True business analysts, managers, and customer advocates inquire with the customer then select only those technologies and suppliers that can meet their long-term, strategic needs.

Then process.  The process part is also fun and where the rubber starts to meet the road.  In this phase, it is about putting the technologies and people you bought into a practice and flow and making it work for you for your objectives whatever they might have been.

In review, working with technology is fun but we have to make sure we surround ourselves with advocates for us who help us get the technologies we need to achieve our process objectives.

Two views of Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint can be viewed in two main ways: as a host of things and as a data collection mechanism.  I prefer to view it as the latter because I find that it is far more interesting and compelling that way.

Back in 2001 when SharePoint first came out, I was building web apps for Siemens and they wanted to use SharePoint.  I soon found out that SharePoint was great and offered value beyond the tools I could build.  I would still write custom apps and tools without SharePoint but SharePoint really took off within Siemens as a great data collection mechanism.  The Team Sites feature and all of the lists and modules and such really is the core of SharePoint.

SharePoint has come a very long ways since its early beginnings and added Records Management, Web Parts, Dashboards, and a lot of Business Intelligence features.

Yet some people see SharePoint today as a surface and host for things regardless of its complexity and value.  They see it as a container that doesn't do much.  I don't see it as this at all and am confused by people who think of it in this way.

So get a clue people, it's a database and a holding tank of data and other things; it's a framework.

Know and act as thyself: don't sell out

The soul.  Be it.

Don't sell out.  Know yourself really well and make sure you're speaking and acting from the heart; from the place that you believe.  If you're operating from this place you will find that people will follow you and your beliefs and value.

If you are not clear on your beliefs and values and what is in your core and gut, anything is possibly and you'll sell out; you'll probably fail and be really unhappy in fact.

Sometimes in business we have to sell out or trade something off to gain some kind of reasonable footing or leverage and there are a ton of opportunities to lose yourself in this process.  But don't.

Get clear on your mission, vision, values, and goals and start speaking and engaging people from your soul and your heart; from your core beliefs and values.

4 key things a project manager must do

According to my way of thinking, there are four key things that a good project manager must do:

1. Clearly define work.  Defining what is owed by when.
2. Assign work.  Defining who owes what.
3. Manage risk in the supply chain.  Knowing what you'll do if you do/don't get what you're waiting for. 
4. Lead.  Using your own time efficiently and effectively to unblock and dis-impede the project (lead).  

Clearly defining work is a key element of being a project manager.  What this means is that you are crystal clear on what needs to be done by when.  The project manager must know the "Definition of Done" and what is good enough from a quality perspective.  In order to do this, the project manager must speak with both the customers and the suppliers of any given work item and very clearly define what's needed.  Before the work is produced, there should be a commitment for each item on the statement of work.

Assigning work is a very important part of being a good manager as well.  Assigning the work is all about getting good commitments and trusting that the resources you have doing the things are quality and committed and for real.

Managing risk in the supply chain is a hard part of the project manager's job.  The project manager has to have mitigation plans for what they will / won't do if they do / don't get what they're expecting.  In this way, a big part of the job is to wait for things to happen but when they do or don't happen be very prepared to act upon the failure.

Leading is of course an overall critical skill that the PM must have.  This takes many forms but in this context I'm using it primarily to mean that you are a good professional and know how to use your time and others effectively.  You are efficient and effective at getting the things done that you have to do (the steps mentioned above) and making sure that the whole thing is tracking.

There's a lot to being a project manager, but maybe thinking about it in these four simple "competency areas" will help you figure out where you should focus your efforts at the moment!!

Be Versatile or Be Gone

One of the keys to being a high-functioning technology consultant is to be versatile in your role.  You have to be able to do a lot of things well to make the client happy.  Common roles you (should) have to play well are Analyst, Builder, and Project Manager.  Here’s a quick description of each:

Analyst - Understand and define the problem using your skills of interviewing, math, statistics, process flow, data and information analysis.
Builder - put the necessary pieces together to create the solution.
Project manager – Integrate and communicate what’s necessary about the related parts of the project such that the involved parties understand what’s going on and continue to want what's being produced.  

In total, you have to be willing to do whichever job is necessary to get the job done and make the customer happy.  This requires experience, risk-taking, research, and networking.

Forming a Consulting Group (that is World-Changing, Profitable, Enjoyable, Sustainable, Continuously-Improving, etc.)

The world is full today with people in business who are doing good things and making compelling change to our organizations.  These people are not generally organized as a collective.  It's likely the goal for many of these individuals to find other like-minded people and establish "guilds" around their particular part of the technology and change delivery puzzle, be it sales, product definition, development, delivery, or support.  In total, our system today requires many quality professionals to deliver the services that it has; and the quality of these services and their density is highly variable and in some cases poor, some cases excellent.  The goal is to make high-quality products that the world needs and for which the market will be willing to pay.  "It takes a village" but this village that we will need for this change is smart, involved, well-organized, and planned.  This is not a government, it is an uprising.

What are the attributes of this village we require to bring about the quality products and services of tomorrow?  From where does this village come?  The crowd, I say!  From our networks; current and future.  In my opinion, it is possible to find and support--with the appropriate tools, incentives, practices, and resources--people willing to capably contribute to our current firms and to the firms that we need to bring about.  The goal for the support organization and consulting group would be to offer the training, staffing, and project/program/product services necessary to allow the resources we have today to turn out the products we need tomorrow as fast and at as high of a quality and leading to the greatest economic value possible. The technologies we have today are mature enough to support and sustain such a group.

Today's organizations are either A) antiquated B) outdated C) unprepared or D) non-existing.  Let's fix this!


Critical Components of the Consulting Organization (EfficiTrends):

• Sales & Marketing -- responsibilities are to build the network, filter associates/partners/relationships, educate and train our stakeholders and members.
• Operations & Delivery -- responsible for getting the job done as it's defined and communicating to others when things aren't going according to plan.
• Product Definition and Contracting -- responsible for strategic planning, fine-grained management of relationships, project/program/product management, and contracting.
• Product Support and Operations, Sustainability -- responsible for the ongoing "care and feeding" of completed products and services as well as the definition of new, more streamlined ways of providing those products and services at a lower cost.

Critical Inputs to the Process:

• People in jobs
• Make the most out of the person's role and support them with a great staff and "back office"
• Provide personal marketing, coaching, and resume services about what they're doing, how to market their strengths, develop their weaknesses, and work toward demonstrable results and efficient engagement
• On-site staff augmentation and support services to fill gaps within client team.
• Project and program management definition and sales -- how to "stealthily" grow the scope of the consulting group's influence at the client.
• Replacement services when the individual isn't the best fit
• "Graceful exit" services when the client or engagement should not be the focus of the consulting organization
• Leads, hiring managers, entrepreneurs
• Assist in the definition of programs and offerings
• Put consultants and partners in place
• Seek to define measurable results and a consistent, visible practice, and knowledge base
• Partner via Master Service Agreement (MSA), Joint Venture (JV), etc.
  

Developing the Right Metrics Matters the Most

There are several ways a person could view an organization:

• As a collection of business processes (activities) that the business has to perform to meet its strategic objectives
• As a collection of IT applications that support the processes
• As a collection of people and suppliers who provide the resources necessary to achieve the organizational objectives
• As a collection of metrics or measures that describe the performance of the organization

Although each of these perspectives is equally real, only one is RIGHT in my opinion. Which one? METRICS, I say. Unless we boil our organizations into numbers and shared things that people can understand -- not complex and changing things like systems, processes, tools, and people -- can we really manage our organization as a program. I'm not making an argument for ACCOUNTING, per se, I'm talking about those facts and figures that tell us whether or not our business is being successful at achieving its objectives.

Therefore, it's my contention that a key part of the strategic planning and communications processes is to define and communicate about the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business. KPIs are a bit of a cliche term but they're critical. The fundamental question we have to agree upon is, "How will we know that we are doing well?".

The more we develop this language of numbers and measurement, the more clear we will be together on our perception of what matters and how to allocate our resources and attention.

3 Keys to Making Your Product Development Effort Successful

Through Six Hour Startup--where a new web-based product is developed and launched by a team of 20+ strangers in six hours--I learned what it takes to lead in chaotic situations. At BluWater Consulting I was Scrum Master to three concurrent software development projects and learned that there are a few key principles required to succeed: strength, (team) commitment, systems thinking, and creativity. Based on this I define agility as “a willingness to seek, accept and integrate feedback as frequently and rapidly as possible”.

In my opinion, there are “3 Keys to Making Your Product Development Effort Successful”:

1. Develop relationships with key suppliers. Rely on your suppliers to coach you on the best tools and methods for your organization and situation. Invest the time and resources necessary to procure what’s required to lead the change you seek! At a minimum, put up a whiteboard to track each project and use “stickies” to track the work as it flows through the process. Ensure that there’s shared accountability within the team and the roles of shepherd, pairing partner, and QA are clear. Synchronize your stickie-note process with a powerful information system so you can get real-time statistics, detect, and analyze process variances.


2. Identify and establish the leadership required. The program will only succeed if you have the support and understanding of the right people. This requires persistence and a strong will! Seek to continuously understand who is in charge (the team) and govern as required. Make the roles of Scrum Master, Product Owner, etc. clear but don’t be surprised when they change.


3. Make sure that your team gets it. There are some critical things that your team has to understand before they’ll do well in an agile process. One example is understanding the difference between burning time “up” (tracking actual hours in the case of work that involves uncertainty or risk) and burning time “down” (tracking how much time is left against work that can be reasonably estimated). Make sure that your team has the training it needs to succeed, move forward, and communicate with each other effectively.

If you would like help getting your project or practice off the ground, I'm happy to quickly assess where you're at and help you get get to where you’d like to be!