The world of ERP is tainted by horror stories of ERP projects gone wrong. Companies such as Hershey's have had widely publicized lawsuits against ERP software vendors because of their failed implementations. In some extreme cases, these companies sue because they couldn't ship product or their entire business shut down because the software did not work correctly.
So how does one increase the likelihood of ERP success and ERP benefits realization? Many assume success or failure is the fault of the software you purchase, but in reality, 95% of a project's success or failure is in the hands of the company implementing the software, not the software vendor.
Here are just a few ERP implementation critical success factors that we have seen:
1. Focus on business processes and requirements first. Too often, companies get tied up in the technical capabilities or platforms that a particular software supports. None of this really matters. What really matters is how you want your business operations to run and what your key business requirements are. Once you have this defined, you can more effectively choose the software that fits your unique business needs.
2. Focus on achieving a healthy ERP ROI (Return on Investment), including post-implementation performance measurement. This requires doing more than just developing a high-level business case to get approval from upper management or your board of directors. It also entails establishing key performance measures, setting baselines and targets for those measures, and tracking performance after go-live. This is the only way to truly realize the benefit potential of ERP.
3. Strong project management and resource commitment. At the end of the day, your company owns the success or failure of a large ERP project, so you should manage it accordingly. This includes ensuring you have a strong project manager and your "A-players" from the business to support and participate in the project.
4. Commitment from company executives. Any project without support from it's top-management will fail. Support from a CIO or IT Director is fine, but it's not enough. No matter how well-run a project is, problems arise (such as conflicting business needs), so the CEO and your entire C-level staff needs to be on board to drive some of these.
5. Take time to plan up front. An ERP vendor's motive is to close a deal as soon as possible. Yours should be to make sure it gets done right. Too often, companies jump right in to a project without validating the software vendor's understanding of business requirements or their project plan. The more time you spend ensuring these things are done right at the beginning of the project, the less time you'll spend fixing problems later on.
6. Ensure adequate training and change management. ERP systems involve big change for people, and the system will not do you any good if people do not understand how to use it effectively. Therefore, spending time on money on training, change management, and job design is crucial to any ERP project.
7. Make sure you understand why you're implementing ERP. This is arguably the most important one. It's easy to see that many big companies are running SAP or Oracle and maybe you should too, but it's harder to consider that maybe you don't need an ERP system at all. Perhaps process improvement, organizational redesign, or targeted best-of-breed technology will meet your business objectives at a lower cost. By clearly understanding your business objectives and what you're trying to accomplish with an ERP system, you will be able to make a more appropriate decision on which route to take, which may or may not involve ERP.
Source: Panorama Consulting
Jul 31, 2008
Jul 24, 2008
Successful Project Team Management
An enlightened look at the key factors which make project teams successful. Originally written by Russ Finney for The Quality Observer.
What makes a winning technical project team? A quick look at some of the factors which seem to be consistently present on winning project teams is appropriate. The degree of attention paid to each can have a distinct impact on the success of the project as well as elevating the confidence of the business client.
1.
This is absolutely critical. The ability to succeed is established within the minds of the clients as well as the project team members in the early stages of the effort. An essential component of this perception is both the management ability, the technical skills, and the sense of direction possessed by the project leadership. Both the business clients and the team can detect fairly quickly if the project leaders have "what it takes" to take them to a final product. Without question this feeling has a tremendous impact on morale.
Humphrey Watts in his book Managing the Software Process, describes a model for measuring the maturity of a software development organization. These ideas were further refined by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at
Initial Level
A team or organization at this level tends to take a chaotic, ad-hoc, "invent as we go" approach toward every new systems building effort.
Repeatable Level
A team or organization at this level uses planning techniques, gathers requirements in a systematic fashion, utilizes software quality assurance techniques, and follows a patterned approach on each subsequent effort.
Defined Level
A team or organization at this level follows defined methodological steps, uses process improvement techniques to enhance the methodological approach, conducts regular training programs, views the entire systems development process from an integration perspective, and utilizes more disciplined information engineering and structured development techniques.
Managed Level
A team or organization at this level actually captures and utilizes software development metrics for future estimation and process analysis purposes. In addition, some of concepts of Total Quality Management (TQM) are employed to reinforce the effectiveness of the entire development process.
Optimized Level
A team or organization at this level utilizes continuous organizational change management techniques to optimize its own operations (as well as the company's), emphasizes defect prevention rather than defect detection, and constantly seeks technological innovation opportunities.
2. Project Team Experience
Even within organizations with high success rates, one factor which never changes on each new effort is the amount of experience possessed by the chosen project team members. Will the project team include a business expert? If not, will the assigned members be able to effectively comprehend and discuss the business requirements and issues in the client terminology? Having someone on the team (even if only in the initial phases) who understands the business is a great confidence builder! It allows the analysts and designers to ask the dumb or simplistic questions to someone other than the client. This actually makes more effective use of everyone's time and it adds an subsequent level of security. In addition, it puts someone in the position of making sure that "creative thinking" stays within reasonable boundaries.
What about technical expertise? Is the project entering uncharted waters without a guide? Having someone on the team who is familiar with the specialized knowledge surrounding a selected technological environment provides the same confidence creating benefits as those listed above. A technical expert can assist others, make suggestions, develop standards, and prevent time consuming mistakes. In addition, he or she can provide leadership by example. By spearheading the work and creating examples for others, a technical expert can transfer knowledge and experience in a timely and effective manner. The prevents the "invent as we go" situation teams often find themselves in when embarking on a new technology.
3. Project Control and Coordination
Large, complex undertakings which require the participation of many people throughout the development process, demand both high-level and detailed guidelines to assist in the channeling of the individual results into an integrated final product. As each person focuses on his or her's part of the system, a clearly defined set of standards and specifications must exist insure that the final result will "mesh" with the results being produced by others. In many ways, a systems building project can be thought of a series of specifications, each level spiraling from broad requirements into highly detailed procedural instructions. The collection of these efforts into a unified whole presents the ultimate challenge for the group. What are some of the ways to successfully make this happen?
Ultimately, three major factors contribute to the level of success that systems building team will enjoy at each of the required integration points. One of these factors is the creation of "consistency" standards. During each phase, guidelines should be developed for both the content as well as the format of the final work products. A second important factor is cross-team communication. Common requirements, similar issues, shared data, and reusable functionality all should be openly discussed and coordinated. Sub-teams should participate in the development of overall high level shared goals and objectives which encourage cross-team interaction and decision making. A third factor is the insistence on the part of the top team leadership that individual and sub-team successes be innertwined. Consistent deliverable, quality assurance, methodological, and review standards must apply to all team members equally.
4. Team Goals and Individual Objectives
A project team seems to develop a unique "personality" over time. It becomes a reflection of everyone involved, radiating confidence and certainty if spirits are high, seething with doubts and confusion when direction is lacking. How can project dynamics be so different from one team to the next? Leadership certainly plays a vital role, but individual team member attitudes make the difference.
Two fundamental questions illuminate the spirit of the group effort. First, is everyone on the team driving toward a well defined and articulative objective? Second, whose objective is it? An amazing thing can happen on development projects; everyone is busily working away on whatever it is that they individually perceive as his or her's most important tasks. Hopefully, each person's work will mesh with the rest of the group's results. This will probably happen if everyone clearly and precisely understands the ultimate phase objectives. But what if they don't?
This is where human nature begins to step in and things can begin to get interesting. If the attitudes of the team members tend to be goal driven (which is good) but the team leadership is fuzzy about what the objectives really are (which is bad), individual and sometimes scattered goals begin to pop up. Unique and potentially conflicting agendas take shape. Before you know it everyone is busily working away and the atmosphere appears to be productive. But an time of reconciliation lies ahead. At some point the individual results must be combined, and depending on the fit, the attitude of the team will ultimately be affected. The group's mission or purpose at this point becomes very real, because it is at this moment that the team realizes that there may not have really been a common direction in the first place, and that fact is painfully obvious.
Why even take this risk? Insuring that goals and objectives are clearly spelled out, and the activities and tasks which will be followed to ultimately reach them are uniformly understood, will only give the team a shared sense of purpose. Everyone needs to have a stake in, and a share of, the responsibility for the outcome of each phase. Doing this can have an incredible impact on people's attitudes. Clearly comprehending the relevance of the work and how it will contribute to the final product, is a powerful motivator for creating an air of cooperation and open channels of communication between team members. Individual goals can be visualized as a part of the larger team objectives. The goal driven attitude of the team will truly be reflected in the quality of the results.
5.
A "vision" doesn't do anyone any good if it is only in one person's head. Only when it has been absorbed and adopted by the team does its usefulness begin to emerge. A business or system "visionary" plays an important yet sometimes unenviable role in making this happen. His or her willingness to share insight and understanding of a situation, and the necessary steps he or she envisions to arrive at a desired outcome, tend to be dependant on two factors: the level of confidence he or she has in the ideas, and his or her tolerance for scrutiny and criticism. Regardless of these personal risks, a professional system builder must strive to be a system "visionary". With each passing phase of the project, he or she must constantly develop and communicate his or her vision of both the system functionality and the project approach.
Putting forward this vision assists in accomplishing two important results. First, it creates a baseline foundation for continuing discussion. In many cases, the original system/approach vision may not survive for long as better ideas are presented and improvement discussions occur. Second, the vision promotes constructive, critical thinking.
People tend to provide more input in a "review and improve" mode rather than a "create from scratch" mode. The presentation of a baseline vision stimulates this process. In addition, if the "visionary" can relinquish ownership of the original idea, and subsequently encourage it to become the property of the group, the effectiveness of the process can be even more enhanced. The system builder serves to plant the "starting point" ideas, and the team members and business clients assist with, and take responsibility for, the ultimate direction and composition of the shared vision.
6. Project Team Confidence
Another important team attitude is confidence. The development of a complex system presents tremendous challenges to a project team. Sometimes it can even feel like an act of faith. An enormous amount of detail is collected, analyzed, organized, and assimilated into a functional "whole". On very large efforts, only a few key individuals may possess the total "big picture", and this may be at varying levels of completeness. This ambiguity can from time to time test the confidence of the project team members. Given these uncertainties, how does a team feel assured and confident of success throughout the process, and have this reflected in the individual team member attitudes?
Clearly, the realization on the part of the team, that a system design is formed as a gradually evolving solution, from a process which tends to be iterative in nature, helps everyone to be patient with the slowly disappearing level of ambiguity. The more team members who participate on the project who have been through the complete system building life cycle, the more likely the overall team awareness will be that everything will come together at each major milestone. This is an important confidence builder for the less experienced members of the team. The higher the level of confidence possessed by the team, the more secure the business clients feel, and the more likely the team will actually "see" themselves succeeding, even in the face of the unknown.
Jul 22, 2008
10 Trends in Project Management
Here are the top 10 trends in project management for 2008, compiled by the senior management and practitioners of ESI, a subsidiary of Informa and published recently in Baselinemag:
1. Investment in project management training to counter effects of a troubled economy. Keeping projects on track and on budget can counter the ill effects of a down economy. Strategic organizations realize that an unsettled economy is the time to invest in project management training and development to optimize performance.
2. Better, faster project decision-making. The pressures for project managers to “get it done yesterday” keep increasing, particularly with today’s tightening budgets. Project managers need to deploy best practices when choosing projects, knowing when to say no to ventures that won’t deliver a solid return on investment (ROI) and when to green-light promising projects.
3. Critical thinking as a key project management competency. Technical competence alone doesn’t create success. Project management has evolved into a robust discipline, and critical thinking is the key soft skill that can make the difference between success and failure.
4. Emerging relevance of the project management office. Project management offices ensure a higher chance for organizations to reach their goals. (Imagine the space shuttle without its command center.) PMOs streamline processes, coordinate projects and enable more efficiency in day-to-day project management. As more companies see the relevance of PMOs, this trend will become increasingly important to overall project management design.
5. Codependency between project management and enterprise analysis. In active knowledge-management transfer, project managers with greater experience levels and an interest in functions such as risk management are taking on traditional business analyst (BA) responsibilities, including enterprise analysis.
6. Project managers taking leadership roles in organizational change. In the face of unrelenting organizational change, project/program managers need to take a leadership role. However, leadership qualities are not program deliverables, so project managers occasionally need direction in fulfilling their organizational change leadership obligations. They need to understand business implications and what they mean for projects, and how they can drive organizational change through effective project/project-portfolio management.
7. Communication challenges of remote team management. As projects are increasingly conducted remotely through outsourcing and global expansion, project communication is often based on e-mails and conference calls. Unfortunately, a very small portion of what should be communicated is transmitted to the recipients through these channels. To manage virtual teams, project managers need to find and use best practices in communications.
8. Earning certification. Certified Program Management Professionals (PgMPSM) will be joining the workforce in 2008. This new certification from the Project Management Institute has project/program management professionals asking what the inherent differences are between their disciplines.
9. Navigating the overlap between PM and BA tasks. Project managers and business analysts now recognize the symbiotic nature of their relationships. They know where to draw the line on their responsibilities and how to work together on areas that overlap.
10. Talent management’s impact on business ROI. During the next several years, thousands of baby boomers will leave the workforce—and thousands of Millennials (born between 1982 and 1997) will enter it. This will create challenges for managers, who will find that their new workers are motivated by a different set of incentives than the previous employees had been. Organizations need to develop a talent management strategy that focuses on recruiting and retaining talent to improve business performance.
1. Investment in project management training to counter effects of a troubled economy. Keeping projects on track and on budget can counter the ill effects of a down economy. Strategic organizations realize that an unsettled economy is the time to invest in project management training and development to optimize performance.
2. Better, faster project decision-making. The pressures for project managers to “get it done yesterday” keep increasing, particularly with today’s tightening budgets. Project managers need to deploy best practices when choosing projects, knowing when to say no to ventures that won’t deliver a solid return on investment (ROI) and when to green-light promising projects.
3. Critical thinking as a key project management competency. Technical competence alone doesn’t create success. Project management has evolved into a robust discipline, and critical thinking is the key soft skill that can make the difference between success and failure.
4. Emerging relevance of the project management office. Project management offices ensure a higher chance for organizations to reach their goals. (Imagine the space shuttle without its command center.) PMOs streamline processes, coordinate projects and enable more efficiency in day-to-day project management. As more companies see the relevance of PMOs, this trend will become increasingly important to overall project management design.
5. Codependency between project management and enterprise analysis. In active knowledge-management transfer, project managers with greater experience levels and an interest in functions such as risk management are taking on traditional business analyst (BA) responsibilities, including enterprise analysis.
6. Project managers taking leadership roles in organizational change. In the face of unrelenting organizational change, project/program managers need to take a leadership role. However, leadership qualities are not program deliverables, so project managers occasionally need direction in fulfilling their organizational change leadership obligations. They need to understand business implications and what they mean for projects, and how they can drive organizational change through effective project/project-portfolio management.
7. Communication challenges of remote team management. As projects are increasingly conducted remotely through outsourcing and global expansion, project communication is often based on e-mails and conference calls. Unfortunately, a very small portion of what should be communicated is transmitted to the recipients through these channels. To manage virtual teams, project managers need to find and use best practices in communications.
8. Earning certification. Certified Program Management Professionals (PgMPSM) will be joining the workforce in 2008. This new certification from the Project Management Institute has project/program management professionals asking what the inherent differences are between their disciplines.
9. Navigating the overlap between PM and BA tasks. Project managers and business analysts now recognize the symbiotic nature of their relationships. They know where to draw the line on their responsibilities and how to work together on areas that overlap.
10. Talent management’s impact on business ROI. During the next several years, thousands of baby boomers will leave the workforce—and thousands of Millennials (born between 1982 and 1997) will enter it. This will create challenges for managers, who will find that their new workers are motivated by a different set of incentives than the previous employees had been. Organizations need to develop a talent management strategy that focuses on recruiting and retaining talent to improve business performance.
Becoming a successful Business Analyst
A successful BA should have 6 Skills to deliver his/ her job :
1. Business Skills: A BA is not scaled-up version of a Programmer. A Programmer even with 20 yrs is coding / programming experience may not graduate into a successful BA. Business Analyst should have worked with Business some time in his past career because that helps him / her connect with Stake-holders and SME (Subject Matter Expert), essential to deliver his job & KRA (Key Results Area). Capturing MACRO business view and vision is important.
2. Domain Skills: BA’s are like Doctors who must build an expertise in a particular field say Retail / Insurance / Banking / ERP etc. ‘One size Fit All’ does not help in successfully completing the BA role or for that matter to complete the project.
3. Management skills: In present world Projects are complex with huge dependencies on different People, Processes and Projects. BA with management skill plays an integral part in aligning the resources quickly. BA is perhaps the only constant connection between Tech Team and the Business Team while the project is ON; hence he / she should be in position to get the work / info out from both sides with ease. Importantly both sides should respect BA for his / her role in managing & delivering the project. Any disconnect in the team is a recipe for sure disaster.
4. Tech Skills: Tools and Technology: As much as BA is supposed to be a great domain expert, he / she should also be very familiar with Technology Terms and capabilities of employed technologies or tools. A BA can’t function without having decent level of understanding of Languages / Architecture / Databases / FOS / SDLC / PLC / SQL / Online & MS Tools.
5. Editing Skills: BA is like an editor of a magazine. He or she should be in position to grasp the business requirements and convert (edit) them into smart and portable manner. Concise, & Correct conversion of Processes help build the right IT solution.
6. Project Skills: BA is the second line project manager or the future PM in the team. Unless BA thinks that he / she is a project manager and is working towards it, his / her contribution in the project or with the team will not be felt. BA should look his role & responsibilities from Scope / Time and Cost (STC) perspectives all the time.
1. Business Skills: A BA is not scaled-up version of a Programmer. A Programmer even with 20 yrs is coding / programming experience may not graduate into a successful BA. Business Analyst should have worked with Business some time in his past career because that helps him / her connect with Stake-holders and SME (Subject Matter Expert), essential to deliver his job & KRA (Key Results Area). Capturing MACRO business view and vision is important.
2. Domain Skills: BA’s are like Doctors who must build an expertise in a particular field say Retail / Insurance / Banking / ERP etc. ‘One size Fit All’ does not help in successfully completing the BA role or for that matter to complete the project.
3. Management skills: In present world Projects are complex with huge dependencies on different People, Processes and Projects. BA with management skill plays an integral part in aligning the resources quickly. BA is perhaps the only constant connection between Tech Team and the Business Team while the project is ON; hence he / she should be in position to get the work / info out from both sides with ease. Importantly both sides should respect BA for his / her role in managing & delivering the project. Any disconnect in the team is a recipe for sure disaster.
4. Tech Skills: Tools and Technology: As much as BA is supposed to be a great domain expert, he / she should also be very familiar with Technology Terms and capabilities of employed technologies or tools. A BA can’t function without having decent level of understanding of Languages / Architecture / Databases / FOS / SDLC / PLC / SQL / Online & MS Tools.
5. Editing Skills: BA is like an editor of a magazine. He or she should be in position to grasp the business requirements and convert (edit) them into smart and portable manner. Concise, & Correct conversion of Processes help build the right IT solution.
6. Project Skills: BA is the second line project manager or the future PM in the team. Unless BA thinks that he / she is a project manager and is working towards it, his / her contribution in the project or with the team will not be felt. BA should look his role & responsibilities from Scope / Time and Cost (STC) perspectives all the time.
Jul 17, 2008
The Long Tail...
Here's an extract of the review of Chris Anderson's book (last in the series of six books recommended by John) from The New Yorker:
What’s extraordinary is that virtually every single one of those tracks will sell. From the perspective of a store like Wal-Mart, the music industry stops at less than 60,000 tracks. However, for online retailers like Rhapsody the market is seemingly never-ending. Not only is every one of Rhapsody’s top 60,000 tracks streamed at least once each month, but the same is true for its top 100,000, top 200,000, and top 400,000—even its top 600,000, top 900,000, and beyond. As fast as Rhapsody adds tracks to its library, those songs find an audience, even if it’s just a handful of people every month, somewhere in the world.
This is the Long Tail.
------------------------------------------------------
Also, here is an interesting take on Date deluge by the above author, taken from The Edge:
Sixty years ago, digital computers made information readable. Twenty years ago, the Internet made it reachable. Ten years ago, the first search engine crawlers made it a single database. Now Google and like-minded companies are sifting through the most measured age in history, treating this massive corpus as a laboratory of the human condition. They are the children of the Petabyte Age.
The Petabyte Age is different because more is different. Kilobytes were stored on floppy disks. Megabytes were stored on hard disks. Terabytes were stored in disk arrays. Petabytes are stored in the cloud. As we moved along that progression, we went from the folder analogy to the file cabinet analogy to the library analogy to — well, at petabytes we ran out of organizational analogies.
Jul 16, 2008
Importance of a Requirements Manager
Following link will take you to a nice and brief article that brings out the value of a good Requirements Manager:
http://www.jamasoftware.com/media/documents/Jama_5_Reasons_Why_RMs_Deserve_Promotion.pdf
http://www.jamasoftware.com/media/documents/Jama_5_Reasons_Why_RMs_Deserve_Promotion.pdf
Jul 10, 2008
Surge in Middle East Aviation Business...
Business aviation in the
"The
Shaikh Ahmad's comments came as he announced that Dubai World Central (DWC) - the 140 square kilometer urban aviation, multi-phased development in
Industry reports expect the aviation sector to grow at more than 30 per cent annually for the next five years. The impressive over nine per cent growth in the
Khalifa Al Zafein, executive chairman of DWC, said: "The Middle East's share of the overall aviation market in the region is expected to double to 40 per cent and with DWC building the region's largest executive jet terminal with an eventual handling capacity of 100,000 flight movements annually, the region will have unrestrained capacity for business aviation flights."
The $1.36 billion DWC Aviation City will be home to DWC's executive jet terminal and the world's largest MRO centre, is attracting many operators to establish their base at the adjacent Al Maktoum International Airport, set to be the world's largest. Al Maktoum International Airport has been designed to handle in excess of 120-150 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo annually.
"
According to industry watchdogs, manufacturers expect to sell over 1,250 jets this year as compared to 1,138 in 2007. Presently, there are 22 private jet operators in the
- Gulfnews
Super Crunchers and The End of Intuition!
Here is a review of the book, "Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart" by Ian Ayres from The Economist:
EVERY time a world-class chess player loses to a computer, humans die a little. In this book Ian Ayres, a professor of law and management at
The author originally intended to call his book “The end of intuition”. He changed his mind after a Google AdWords campaign which randomly chose which of two advertisements for the book to display: “Super Crunchers” garnered 63% more clicks than his original choice. He tells of credit card companies that are using similar randomized trials to see which combination of offers and advertising make for the most successful mail shots.
Even the occasional government is accepting that properly analyzed data trump ideological conviction. Mr. Ayres sings the praises of
Mr. Ayres predicts that automated decision-making will soon see other professional jobs going the same way as that of the bank-loan officer, once well-paid and responsible and now a mere call-centre operative, paid peanuts to parrot the words a computer prompts. Doctors will have to face up to the fact that computers can diagnose illnesses better than they can, and teachers will find that although their presence is needed to engage their pupils, their professional judgment often is not. When teaching small children to read, for example, tightly scripted lessons, their exact content and timing honed by randomized trials, do best.
This book does not touch on what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls “Black Swans”: rare events that are unpredictable with or without crunching numbers. But it presents a convincing and disturbing vision of a future in which everyday decision-making is increasingly automated, and the role of human judgment restricted to providing input to formulae.
Jul 5, 2008
Overcoming Parkinson's Law
Parkinson's Law states that "work expands to fill the time available for its completion." In many cases, this law also manifests itself as "estimates of work expand to the available (or desired) level resources."In a related publication, Parkinson related his experience with government bureaucracies and observed that a committee was always at it's largest when its influence was at its smallest. This became known as the Coefficient of Inefficiency, and was described in detail in a chapter titled Comitology in his book Parkinson's Law: The pursuit or progress.
Parkinson's law is very real and can create a tremendous amount of waste on projects and programs if not dealt with. In fact, it is Parkinson's Law that drives most managers to reorganize for the sake of reorganization. It shakes things up and sheds a dependency on old processes that are a result of bloated bureaucracies. I am personally not a fan of this approach, although I understand the driving forces and the desire for change. Instead, we should always be looking for way's to optimize our organizations, at every level, to prevent Parkinson's Law from ever taking over.
The following are simple ways to help combat Parkinson's Law:
- Schedules and deadlines should be very aggressive. Seek to get more work done than is actually possible. This said, you need to be willing to accept less than what you are asking for.
- Expose the highly critical tasks and prioritize them to the front.
- Break tasks down into short, measurable increments. Track them at the 8 - 24 hour level.
- Track metrics on how well tasks are executed, by individual (to learn capabilities, not to chastise).
- Maintain an accurate 'task backlog' by skill. This is a queue of sorts and it needs to be kept full.
- Find way's for automation and IT to replace manually intensive tasks, especially those related to quality and compliance.
Jul 3, 2008
The Ten Faces of Innovation - Find out which is yours!
Tom Kelley, the author of "The Art of Innovation", followed up with his next book, The Ten Faces of Innovation, which looks at the different roles people can play within an organization to promote a culture of innovation. Here is a summary of various Personas, in his own words:
The Learning Personas
Individuals and organizations need to constantly gather new sources of information in order to expand their knowledge and grow, so the first three personas are learning roles. These personas are driven by the idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can afford to be complacent. The world is changing at an accelerated pace, and today's great idea may be tomorrow's anachronism. The learning roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused, and remind the organization not to be so smug about what you “know”. People who adopt the learning roles are humble enough to question their own worldview, and in doing so they remain open to new insights every day.
The Anthropologist is rarely stationary. Rather, this is the person who ventures into the field to observe how people interact with products, services, and experiences in order to come up with new innovations. The Anthropologist is extremely good at reframing a problem in a new way, humanizing the scientific method to apply it to daily life. Anthropologists share such distinguishing characteristics as the wisdom to observe with a truly open mind; empathy; intuition; the ability to "see" things that have gone unnoticed; a tendency to keep running lists of innovative concepts worth emulating and problems that need solving; and a way of seeking inspiration in unusual places.
The Experimenter celebrates the process, not the tool, testing and retesting potential scenarios to make ideas tangible. A calculated risk-taker, this person models everything from products to services to proposals in order to efficiently reach a solution. To share the fun of discovery, the Experimenter invites others to collaborate, while making sure that the entire process is saving time and money.
The Cross-Pollinator draws associations and connections between seemingly unrelated ideas or concepts to break new ground. Armed with a wide set of interests, an avid curiosity, and an aptitude for learning and teaching, the Cross-Pollinator brings in big ideas from the outside world to enliven their organization. People in this role can often be identified by their open mindedness, diligent note-taking, tendency to think in metaphors, and ability to reap inspiration from constraints.
The Organizing Personas
The next three personas are organizing roles, played by individuals who are savvy about the often counter-intuitive process of how organizations move ideas forward. At IDEO, we used to believe that the ideas should speak for themselves. Now we understand what the Hurdler, the Collaborator, and the Director have known all along: that even the best ideas must continuously compete for time, attention, and resources. Those who adopt these organizing roles don't dismiss the process of budget and resource allocation as “politics” or “red tape.” They recognize it as a complex game of chess, and they play to win.
The Hurdler is a tireless problem-solver who gets a charge out of tackling something that's never been done before. When confronted with a challenge, the Hurdler gracefully sidesteps the obstacle while maintaining a quiet, positive determination. This optimism and perseverance can help big ideas upend the status quo as well as turn setbacks into an organization's greatest successes—despite doomsday forecasting by shortsighted experts.
The Collaborator is the rare person who truly values the team over the individual. In the interest of getting things done, the Collaborator coaxes people out of their work silos to form multidisciplinary teams. In doing so, the person in this role dissolves traditional boundaries within organizations and creates opportunities for team members to assume new roles. More of a coach than a boss, the Collaborator instills their team with the confidence and skills needed to complete the shared journey.
The Director has an acute understanding of the bigger picture, with a firm grasp on the pulse of their organization. Subsequently, the Director is talented at setting the stage, targeting opportunities, bringing out the best in their players, and getting things done. Through empowerment and inspiration, the person in this role motivates those around them to take center stage and embrace the unexpected.
The Building Personas
The four remaining personas are building roles that apply insights from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the organizing roles to make innovation happen. When people adopt the building personas, they stamp their mark on your organization. People in these roles are highly visible, so you’ll often find them right at the heart of the action.
The Experience Architect is that person relentlessly focused on creating remarkable individual experiences. This person facilitates positive encounters with your organization through products, services, digital interactions, spaces, or events. Whether an architect or a sushi chef, the Experience Architect maps out how to turn something ordinary into something distinctive—even delightful—every chance they get.
The Set Designer looks at every day as a chance to liven up their workspace. They promote energetic, inspired cultures by creating work environments that celebrate the individual and stimulate creativity. To keep up with shifting needs and foster continuous innovation, the Set Designer makes adjustments to a physical space to balance private and collaborative work opportunities. In doing so, this person makes space itself one of an organization's most versatile and powerful tools.
The Storyteller captures our imagination with compelling narratives of initiative, hard work, and innovation. This person goes beyond oral tradition to work in whatever medium best fits their skills and message: video, narrative, animation, even comic strips. By rooting their stories in authenticity, the Storyteller can spark emotion and action, transmit values and objectives, foster collaboration, create heroes, and lead people and organizations into the future.
The Caregiver is the foundation of human-powered innovation. Through empathy, they work to understand each individual customer and create a relationship. Whether a nurse in a hospital, a salesperson in a retail shop, or a teller at an international financial institution, the Caregiver guides the client through the process to provide them with a comfortable, human-centered experience.
Source: http://www.tenfacesofinnovation.com/tenfaces/index.htm
The Learning Personas
Individuals and organizations need to constantly gather new sources of information in order to expand their knowledge and grow, so the first three personas are learning roles. These personas are driven by the idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can afford to be complacent. The world is changing at an accelerated pace, and today's great idea may be tomorrow's anachronism. The learning roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused, and remind the organization not to be so smug about what you “know”. People who adopt the learning roles are humble enough to question their own worldview, and in doing so they remain open to new insights every day.
The Anthropologist is rarely stationary. Rather, this is the person who ventures into the field to observe how people interact with products, services, and experiences in order to come up with new innovations. The Anthropologist is extremely good at reframing a problem in a new way, humanizing the scientific method to apply it to daily life. Anthropologists share such distinguishing characteristics as the wisdom to observe with a truly open mind; empathy; intuition; the ability to "see" things that have gone unnoticed; a tendency to keep running lists of innovative concepts worth emulating and problems that need solving; and a way of seeking inspiration in unusual places.
The Experimenter celebrates the process, not the tool, testing and retesting potential scenarios to make ideas tangible. A calculated risk-taker, this person models everything from products to services to proposals in order to efficiently reach a solution. To share the fun of discovery, the Experimenter invites others to collaborate, while making sure that the entire process is saving time and money.
The Cross-Pollinator draws associations and connections between seemingly unrelated ideas or concepts to break new ground. Armed with a wide set of interests, an avid curiosity, and an aptitude for learning and teaching, the Cross-Pollinator brings in big ideas from the outside world to enliven their organization. People in this role can often be identified by their open mindedness, diligent note-taking, tendency to think in metaphors, and ability to reap inspiration from constraints.
The Organizing Personas
The next three personas are organizing roles, played by individuals who are savvy about the often counter-intuitive process of how organizations move ideas forward. At IDEO, we used to believe that the ideas should speak for themselves. Now we understand what the Hurdler, the Collaborator, and the Director have known all along: that even the best ideas must continuously compete for time, attention, and resources. Those who adopt these organizing roles don't dismiss the process of budget and resource allocation as “politics” or “red tape.” They recognize it as a complex game of chess, and they play to win.
The Hurdler is a tireless problem-solver who gets a charge out of tackling something that's never been done before. When confronted with a challenge, the Hurdler gracefully sidesteps the obstacle while maintaining a quiet, positive determination. This optimism and perseverance can help big ideas upend the status quo as well as turn setbacks into an organization's greatest successes—despite doomsday forecasting by shortsighted experts.
The Collaborator is the rare person who truly values the team over the individual. In the interest of getting things done, the Collaborator coaxes people out of their work silos to form multidisciplinary teams. In doing so, the person in this role dissolves traditional boundaries within organizations and creates opportunities for team members to assume new roles. More of a coach than a boss, the Collaborator instills their team with the confidence and skills needed to complete the shared journey.
The Director has an acute understanding of the bigger picture, with a firm grasp on the pulse of their organization. Subsequently, the Director is talented at setting the stage, targeting opportunities, bringing out the best in their players, and getting things done. Through empowerment and inspiration, the person in this role motivates those around them to take center stage and embrace the unexpected.
The Building Personas
The four remaining personas are building roles that apply insights from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the organizing roles to make innovation happen. When people adopt the building personas, they stamp their mark on your organization. People in these roles are highly visible, so you’ll often find them right at the heart of the action.
The Experience Architect is that person relentlessly focused on creating remarkable individual experiences. This person facilitates positive encounters with your organization through products, services, digital interactions, spaces, or events. Whether an architect or a sushi chef, the Experience Architect maps out how to turn something ordinary into something distinctive—even delightful—every chance they get.
The Set Designer looks at every day as a chance to liven up their workspace. They promote energetic, inspired cultures by creating work environments that celebrate the individual and stimulate creativity. To keep up with shifting needs and foster continuous innovation, the Set Designer makes adjustments to a physical space to balance private and collaborative work opportunities. In doing so, this person makes space itself one of an organization's most versatile and powerful tools.
The Storyteller captures our imagination with compelling narratives of initiative, hard work, and innovation. This person goes beyond oral tradition to work in whatever medium best fits their skills and message: video, narrative, animation, even comic strips. By rooting their stories in authenticity, the Storyteller can spark emotion and action, transmit values and objectives, foster collaboration, create heroes, and lead people and organizations into the future.
The Caregiver is the foundation of human-powered innovation. Through empathy, they work to understand each individual customer and create a relationship. Whether a nurse in a hospital, a salesperson in a retail shop, or a teller at an international financial institution, the Caregiver guides the client through the process to provide them with a comfortable, human-centered experience.
Source: http://www.tenfacesofinnovation.com/tenfaces/index.htm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)