Two Customers
The Other Customer
On projects we often talk about "the customer" as if there were only one of them for our project. However, it's good to remember that there are always at least two customers for every project: the customer that we are doing the work for and also the other customer, our own organisation. It's not just our customer looking for ROI from a project, our employer wants it too. Both have expectations of what's in it for them!
What does your organisation hope to gain from the current project you are working on that's over and above getting paid for it?
Strategic (Or Missed) Opportunity
Every project is an opportunity for driving organisational (and departmental) strategic objectives forward. These don't have to be giant leaps but no one wants to miss the opportunity a project provides. Agile iterations make it easy to plan-do-check-act on your strategic objectives.
What's New?
A good question to ask is "What's new?" about the way we are working. It doesn't need to apply at project or team level, you could even ask yourself this question as an individual.
If you can't easily answer the question about what's new or different about how you are working then the chances are that you are about to become frozen in time and eventually slip into the land that time forgot.
Shadowing Opportunity
Projects are great opportunities to build people and this should be a part of your strategy for every iteration. Perhaps a junior person shadowing a more senior person with some on-the-job coaching will be your approach or maybe you'll try assigning a task that will deliberately stretch someone beyond their comfort zone "forcing them" to learn new skills. Either approach will grow the experience and skills of your people.
Technical Debt / Cost Of Delay
Most hold the view that technical debt is basically stuff that you did that you need to put right in some way but we also incur loss through cost of delay. Failing to automate is a cost of delay and so ultimately is failure to adapt.
The Other Customer Has A Voice
Your organisation is continually telling you what it wants and you may well be listening but unless you channel those demands into the every day work that you do then those demands will go unmet.
Organisations that spend too much time delivering business value to their customers and no strategic value for themselves suffer a slow death. Failure to adapt in an ever-changing world is a simple recipe for disaster.
People: The Problem And The Solution
It's all down to people. People can often be both the problem and the solution. Staying in our comfort zone with a reluctance to change prevents the necessary adaption we need to survive.
All of the technology, tools and techniques are easy compared to managing people to achieve their full potential. I'm reminded of this each time I join a new team and have to build trust and relationship all over again - it's a problem that comes when working in a large organisation where you can't always know everyone and where you are frequently working with different organisations as part of the same project.
The Battle For Hearts And Minds
The real battle is the one for hearts and minds, to challenge people to embrace change and new ways of working that deliver both business value to customers and strategic value to employers. ❤️
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Tim Simpson
15th November, 2019
#LifeAtCapgemini