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To be an effective manager, you are faced with this problem:
I have been given the responsibility for a bunch of resources, especially some very valuable staff. My organization expects value from this ongoing expense. As a manager, how can I deliver the most value from these resources?
As explained here, finding a solution to this problem is especially challenging for the development manager – there is a wide range of factors to consider. There is no simple ‘one size fits all’ solution.
Figure 1. What is your mix?
Drawing on a wide range of techniques, agile software, agile management, lean operations, lean startup, Kanban, systems thinking, software and system economics, and development intelligence, the tailored solutions depend on your particular development context:
- Innovation mix (Figure 1)
- Size of efforts, teams
- Required level of quality
- Need for rigor in communication due to team size
Figure 2. Different levels of management have different, but interlocking goals
The Development Organization Management Service delivers a management solution tailored to your particular situation and level of management (see Figure 2), consists of:
- Measurable and actionable goals
- Measures and feedback loops to set and track goals
- Organization structure to manage communication and collaboration (including opportunities for self-organization)
- Governance, including delegation of decision rights.
The Engagement
This engagement has two phases:
Phase 1 – Assessment
The engagement starts with an inventory of the current efforts, including ongoing projects, continuous delivery teams, and sustaining engineering and support. These are sorted into buckets according to innovation class.
Phase 2 – Discovery, Design, and Delivery
Based on the initial assessment, this phase consists of one or more of the following workshops:
- Goal setting – One or more workshops working with the effort leads and their management at the various organization levels to create a set of interlocking, actionable goals
- Development Intelligence – A set of workshops with the process and data owners to explore how to provide the necessary analytics, dashboards, and data necessary to support the measures
- Organization and Governance – One or more workshops with team leads and architects/tech leads to see how the organization aligns with overall software and systems design and support for communication, collaboration, and self-organization
- Next Generation Lean – One or more workshops with tech leads to focus on optimizing work product design and flow. To learn more click
This phase includes a one-day site visit to deliver the report and recommendations document as well as an executive briefing on the findings and recommendation. If desired there can be additional meetings to discuss the engagement results.
Deliverables
The deliverables from this engagement consist of:
Phase 1
- A report and briefing of the initial assessment, together with recommendations for moving forward.
- A proposal for phase 2.
Phase 2
- A detailed report of findings, actionable recommendations, and detailed roadmap for putting in place the tailored management solution consisting of (depending on the scope):
- Goals
- Measures including analytics and data architecture
- Organization structure
- Work product streaming
- An executive presentation summarizing the report and guidance to evolving the solution.
- The implementation proposal.
The expectation is that this engagement would be followed by implementation and process integration. This would be lead by consultants who focus on the various recommended methods. Ongoing monitoring and supervision of these activities is also available.
Costs:
Phase 1 is $12,000 plus T&E.
Phase 2 is priced depending on the scope and size of the organization.