Custom Web Site
A local Bellingham company provides Microsoft and Cisco certified engineers to support customers in the 4th corner area. The engineers bill by the hour for their services, but the process of entering time and creating customer invoices was very labor intensive and slow. The business owners could not see important information like utilization rates for weeks and often months after time was entered.
We created a web site using Microsoft Active Server Pages and SQL Server scripts that made it easy for engineers to enter their time and gave the business owners instant visibility into how their business was running. Engineers liked it because they could enter their time remotely, and the owners liked it because it gave them the information they had always wanted. And the whole project took barely two months.
Custom Business Process
A small business resells and customizes a large Contact Management System to mid-sized businesses in the Seattle area. They have been quite successful getting business, but customizing the software to meet their customer's needs frequently left both organizations less than satisfied. The client was in constant fire-fighting mode, and wanted to transform his business to provide proactive professional services that would be more profitable and professionally delivered than most of his recent engagements.
We were asked to observe how they conducted business with their clients and quickly realized that they had no formal process by which they managed their engagement projects. Over a period of only two weeks, we developed a custom business process, tailored to their specific business needs. The process defined the engagement phases, roles and deliverables that moved between roles. We produced templates of many of these deliverables and wrote up a complete description of the entire process.
The value to the client was immediate and immense. He is now able to drive engagements proactively and profitably, and he has a significant competitive advantage. He can show his prospects the process definition description document and say, "This is the way we do business."
Requirements Definition
A small business that depended heavily on their web site to deliver client services wanted major functional enhancements to their web site so they could provide new and better services to their clients. Historically, they have contracted with external resources for all web development and hosting services, but have learned that communicating clearly with software developers can be a frustrating and often costly process. They wanted to produce a clear description of the upgrades they needed so they could request a fixed priced bid from their developers, and be assured that the new software would meet their needs effectively.
They asked us to meet with them and develop these requirements. We met with them several times over a period of a month to develop and review a requirements document that they were able to read and understand. We raised a number of questions that required them to make clear business decisions about issues they had not previously considered. They handed these requirements to their developer who was able to generate a fixed price bid that met their budget constraints and produce the upgrades they needed without frustrating and costly communications breakdowns.
IT Customer Service Breakdown
A department of a major university was having difficulties getting adequate customer service from their internal computer and IT support team. We were engaged to assess the problem and recommend solutions that improve customer support to a level they could feel more comfortable with, without increasing their budget at all.
We interviewed faculty, staff and students in the department to get a broad cross-section of ideas and opinions, read job descriptions and performance reviews of the customer service staff, and determined that the lead customer service technician was a perfect fit for his job description, but that the job description had nothing to do with customer service. We also determined that the customer service team would be able to deliver substantially better support if they had a more effective reporting structure. We then documented my observations and recommendations and reviewed them with all of the key parties to get a broad agreement on both the observations and the recommendations.
The client was delighted with the quality of the results we produced and the integrity and speed of the process.
IT Strategic Process Definition
The IT department of a large bank needed a process that defined how ideas were assessed, evaluated, approved and prioritized. We were engaged to facilitate this process definition effort.
We met for two days with senior IT management from each of the major business units to craft a clear definition of this process. We looked at all aspects of the problem and created a clear and simple process model that was quickly adopted by IT leadership. The feedback we received from the client was that the process definition was extremely well done and that the quality of the results was a direct reflection of the quality of my facilitation skills.
Political Turf Wars between Government IT Organizations
Two IT organizations within a state government were at odds with each other over how to develop software. One organization was responsible for developing standard architectures and tool sets that would be used state-wide, while the other organization was tasked with building and delivering an application to help manage state transportation construction projects. Their application was well into its development, but used an architecture that was not consistent with the proposed new state-wide standards. An international consulting firm had been engaged to review and assess all of the current software development projects in the state, including the transportation construction management project. One of their consultants had produced a technically correct but politically insensitive assessment that had produced severe tensions between all of the parties.
We were asked by the international consulting firm to broker a solution, and given only two days to do so. The first words out of the transportation project manager's mouth during my first meeting were, "Why are you here spending my money and taking my time?" By carefully and respectfully interacting with both her and the others involved, we were able to craft a solution that was also technically accurate, but was politically safe for everyone involved. And we were able to stay within the two-day time frame. All three parties, the central standards team, the transportation project team and the consulting firm's team were delighted with the results we produced, and we were was subsequently invited to speak at the consulting firm's annual meeting. We were the only external consultant given this honor.
Possible Run-Away Project
A former client moved to a different company and was given responsibility for managing all internal software development efforts and over 100 developers. One project he inherited was particularly important to the company, but the development manager was concerned that the project manager may have lost control of the project. We were was invited in to assess the status of the project and advise the development manager accordingly.
We interviewed the project manager and all members of the project team as well as others in the organization who had a stake in this project and learned quite quickly that the project manager did not have the skills, tools or sensitivity to manage his upwards relationships effectively. The project plan was rather ad-hoc and poorly maintained, but the project itself was not at significant risk.
We worked with the project manager and his key assistants to help them develop both the sensitivity and the skills to communicate their status more effectively, and helped them improve their project management skills considerably. The project was delivered on time, the project manager was recognized for his work, and the development manager was so pleased that we were invited back to help solve many other problems with his organization.
Ineffective Software Development Methodology Department
A large internal software development organization had a team of several people dedicated to creating and promulgating a single software development methodology for use throughout the organization; however, their methodology and recommendations were being ignored by virtually all of the project managers and developers. We were asked to assess the team and its methodology, determine the problem and recommend effective solutions.
We interviewed all of the methodology team members and many of the project managers and software developers who were their intended internal users. In only two days, we determined that the methodology team leader had a personal agenda that was not at all consistent with the needs of the larger organization and he was a very poor fit for his job. The project managers and software developers held the methodology team in universal distain because none of the team members had ever been "in the trenches" and actually had to use their own methodology.
We recommended that the methodology team leader be assigned to different work or be let go, and suggested that the rest of the team be rotated into existing projects to apply and validate or alter their ideas. Our recommendations were accepted and implemented.
Software Development Methodology Training
We were engaged by an international consulting firm to help develop a software development methodology training program for their project managers. They provided custom software development services for large projects and clients all over the world, and needed a single course and methodology that could be adapted to fit various technology environments, procurement processes, process and data distribution architectures and design styles.
Working with senior partners and experts from this consulting firm and one of our affiliates, we developed and piloted a five day course that taught project managers how to construct an activity level project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that fit the needs of a specific engagement.
Software Product Assessment
A small consulting company had developed some software that it wanted to turn into a product and market. We were asked to evaluate the product and advise them.
We spent almost an entire day with the software development team reviewing the architecture and functionality of their proposed product. We also spent several hours with the CEO and founder of the company discussing his plans for raising capital and growing his organization. We documented our understanding of the software product and identified what we considered to be the strengths and weaknesses of the idea, the implementation team and the company itself. One significant concern we raised was the issue of focus. The company had experience with consulting, but not with software development. We considered this to be a significant risk factor because the two business models and cultures are very different.
We finished my assessment with a series of specific recommendations that we believed would help them. Our major recommendation was to separate the two organizations, preferably into separate companies. Virtually all of our recommendations were adopted.
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