Customer still struggles with software development process... We Will Prevail!
December 2007. Yes, customers are still struggling with the software development proces. Closing the gap between 'what the business desires and estimates" and what " the ICT function creates"...
Who has not been there?
My latest customer has identied the issue and is surely on its way to adress and solve the issue. It brought me back to an interesting dilemma I encountered earlier...
Do you run projects from within the ICT organisation, or (on the far other end) within the business function itself?
Years ago, when ICT was the domain of "techies" there seemed to be only one solution. Only the ICT function could bring the ICT knowledge of what can, and what cannot be done. Obviously without real interest for what 'the uneducated customer desired'.
Through many projects customer-organisations have become much more knowledgeable, computer savvy and outspoken about their wishes.
They might even think they can do the projects without the ever-slowing competences from ICT. As has been illustrated in many Sales and marketing domains where 'one server after another' was dragged in to fullfil a need that was 'clearly not tied to any other ICT-system'. The rest is history.
Another stage in this growth is that organisation outsource project, yet another demand on the organisational capabilities. It is one thing to run projects with your ICT-department but a totally different game with external suppliers. Being able to cooperate with your ICT-buddies is indeed somewhat easier than managing suppliers and the acceptance criteria on a commercial bases...
Testing, demand and supply management, quality controls, governance processes and Service Level Agreements, possibly chosen as a commercially intesting cost-down solution much too quick.
And now Internet (or "the global mind") is racing its capabilities into our every day lives. How do we cope with this and with the ever growing speed of information availability? Twitter.com, Netvibes.com, Freebase.com, YouTube.com, Flickr.com? Are you still there?
My learning: Although it seems to go all to quick, find the business value, choose the cooperation model and admit to ourselves that we struggle to master it, and that we WILL prevail!
Who has not been there?
My latest customer has identied the issue and is surely on its way to adress and solve the issue. It brought me back to an interesting dilemma I encountered earlier...
Do you run projects from within the ICT organisation, or (on the far other end) within the business function itself?
Years ago, when ICT was the domain of "techies" there seemed to be only one solution. Only the ICT function could bring the ICT knowledge of what can, and what cannot be done. Obviously without real interest for what 'the uneducated customer desired'.
Through many projects customer-organisations have become much more knowledgeable, computer savvy and outspoken about their wishes.
They might even think they can do the projects without the ever-slowing competences from ICT. As has been illustrated in many Sales and marketing domains where 'one server after another' was dragged in to fullfil a need that was 'clearly not tied to any other ICT-system'. The rest is history.
Another stage in this growth is that organisation outsource project, yet another demand on the organisational capabilities. It is one thing to run projects with your ICT-department but a totally different game with external suppliers. Being able to cooperate with your ICT-buddies is indeed somewhat easier than managing suppliers and the acceptance criteria on a commercial bases...
Testing, demand and supply management, quality controls, governance processes and Service Level Agreements, possibly chosen as a commercially intesting cost-down solution much too quick.
And now Internet (or "the global mind") is racing its capabilities into our every day lives. How do we cope with this and with the ever growing speed of information availability? Twitter.com, Netvibes.com, Freebase.com, YouTube.com, Flickr.com? Are you still there?
My learning: Although it seems to go all to quick, find the business value, choose the cooperation model and admit to ourselves that we struggle to master it, and that we WILL prevail!
Reacties