Application Portfolio Analysis framework can help improve return on IT Assets

Globalization and the dilution of trade boundaries have forced industries to evaluate various options for cost-effective operations. Industries now face the challenge of channeling resources to meet organizational objectives in continuously changing environments. Information Technology plays a major role in such a dynamic business environment. However, with the advent of new technological tools and continuous advancement, the IT environment has become very complex.

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) regularly add new assets to their IT portfolio, making the portfolio more and more complex. In addition, they face the task of aligning business needs and IT assets. Cost consideration is becoming increasingly important. The challenge is to do more for less.

In such a dynamic situation, the Management of the IT Portfolio has become an increasingly important and crucial task. Increasing number of CIOs are now pursuing IT Portfolio Management as a tool to prioritize investment decisions, decide the location of various activities, evaluate the various assets with the value it delivers, and much more.

Each asset in the portfolio is evaluated against parameters like cost of procurement, cost of managing, and indeed the cost of replacing the same. “Total cost of ownership” is seen in conjunction with the value delivered by the asset. Optimal Management of the assets leads to minimal TCO.

A study by Gartner states that, “Approximately 30 percent of the total cost of ownership during the life of an application is for its maintenance and management.” One can achieve a significant degree of cost reduction by maneuvering the costs associated with maintenance and management.

Portfolio Management is the process of managing assets and investments in order to achieve desired organizational goals. The portfolio is a combination of assets that are expected to provide certain returns. It has risks associated with it. Portfolio Management includes selecting a set of assets congruent with the set goal, managing the economic lifecycle of those assets, dynamically divesting and investing in different assets to optimize gains. In the IT context, the portfolio includes application software, hardware, infrastructure, resources, processes, and so on. While financial Portfolio Management has been in practice for many years, IT Portfolio Management is relatively new and gaining ground. An integrated framework that helps in investment, divestment, modifications, and movement of application assets has become a necessity to align business and IT goals of an enterprise.

There are applications to help manage IT portfolio for a CIO. I think it may be prudent to get into the habit of understanding IT Portfolio as a concept before investing in expensive Software. A heuristic method for managing IT Application Portfolio is very helpful and cost effective. It is easy to implement. The framework has been implemented at several places and has given enormous benefits to the clients. The detailed methodology is available at http://www.codeproject.com/info/search.aspx?artkw=bishram.

Relentless Effort leads to Success

We all understand what the word “Success” means. But at the same time defining success precisely is impossible. Does the success lies in the eyes of the world: winning an Olympic gold medal; running a large organization; making things happen; making a lot of money; creating a big name for self; receiving the noble prize? Or is it personal success: the person who towards the end of life feels that it has been a happy, fulfilled, and enjoyable life? Whatever may be the definition one thing comes up clearly that success means different things to different people. It is important to sketch a mental map of success and put efforts relentlessly towards that. Sometimes you may get it, sometimes you may not. Don’t be discouraged simply because you could not taste the fruits of success in line with your own definition.

This reminds me of some key learning from the book titled “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. The author describes four factors affecting the success.















Out of the four factors mentioned by the author we can control only one “Effort”. Therefore, keep concentrating on the effort and don’t worry much about other factors. Many times, despite of the best effort you may not succeed. We all know the legend Amitabh Bachan who was rejected for voice test by All India Radio. There are numerous examples like that. Amitabh did not lose his hope. He kept his effort on. And we all know the end result. Success followed him.
Sometimes, you may partially select a better opportunity- hoping your judgment is right. Even a mediocre performer in a fast growing company does much better than an excellent performer stuck in a mediocre company. This may be kept in mind while short listing opportunities.
The bottom line is concentrate on “Effort” intelligently. Success will follow you.

Setting Up Holistic Metrics System for a Software Company

Since then, Metrics based management has come a long way. Many companies have adopted Metrics for reporting their performance. I have noticed a very interesting scenario. Metrics is collected, and presented with beautiful charts, and trends are shown but the project still limps. Many buzz words like “Defect Prevention” are a part of regular quality discussion in the companies. I have noticed that the Metrics program, very often, are not connected with a set of parameters which can be used to meet customer expectations. I have seen that many times a schedule variance is computed in product release scenario with zero deviation. Whenever product releases are planned, the release date is announced. If the release progress is not in line with the release date, the scope is adjusted to meet the release date. In such a situation, going with the traditional definition of schedule variance is elusive. What is required here is a Metric which points out the problem and leads towards the possible solution. In software companies, you can find many such instances where the buzz words keep floating without any real benefit to the organization.

A set of Metrics is put in place and the same is collected and tracked for all similar projects. There is no customization to suit the requirements of customers, employees and shareholders.

This paper attempts to identify the specific needs of these stakeholders and suggest a framework for developing Metrics to suit specific needs of various stakeholders. In the process, the organization will have holistic dashboard representing health of the project from different perspectives.

Read the full article at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/mentor/HMetricsSystem.aspx.

Confronting the Brutal Reality: foundation for a sustained success

The famous book by Jim Collins- Good to Great was a synopsis of research on the traits of successful leaders and flourishing companies. The book turned out to be the #1 best seller, Since the findings were simple yet powerful in driving success. One of the traits was “Confront Brutal reality”. I consider this as a very powerful milestone for a journey towards success. Very often in our life, we tend to evade the truth. We rarely report the fact to seniors in the “as is” form. I believe there are many reasons that compel us to adopt such behavior.

A few of these reasons are:

1. Managers do not want to hear unpleasant truth. They like good news. As a result, the organization develops a tradition of sugar coating the “brutal reality“ before reporting it to the higher authorities. I wish this would make it really sweet.

2. The reporting manager hopes that he would be able to correct the “brutal reality” in a short time, and the lapse will be short lived. Seniors may not be aware of the fact. Unfortunately, very rarely it remains that way. Those of us coming from industrial unit background or sales background (FMCG, Telecom Service Providers, etc.) know very well that in order to show the numbers against monthly target, particularly when there is a shortfall, month closing is often dragged to 1st or 2nd of the following month. The cycle continues, and 2nd becomes 3rd, 3rd becomes 4th and so on so forth. But to no avail.

3. People have reluctance to confront the reality and resolve the issue. They keep procrastinating solving the issue. They forget that delaying a problem is not same as resolving an issue. Sometimes, capability to resolve a problem is also a concern.

Many a times, there could be other reasons too. I think the causes listed above are the most common ones in many companies.

I would like to emphasize that most of the companies are in the “Trap of not confronting the brutal reality”. If you look at the study by Jim Collins, only 11 companies out of 1435 good companies were classified as great companies in the study. This means, just less than one percent of the companies are great. Few of the companies from 11 slipped downwards subsequently. Nothing is perpetual. Change is inevitable. The Great companies will slide to good or bad depending on the prevailing leadership. If less than 1 % companies are really great, not all of us may get a chance to work in such an environment in our life time. My recommendation is to believe in this universal principle. If the environment does not allow it, try doing it in different form. Do not circumvent. It does not help.

I recommend internalizing the Principle of “Confront Brutal Reality”. You are fortunate if your leadership also believes in the principle, if not, try out different manifestations. Do not leave the concept.

Always remember, delaying a problem is not solving the problem. Confronting, leads you to look for solutions. It creates a better culture. It creates simple working environment which is based on truth. There are many more advantages.

The learning is: Confront the brutal Reality. Even though you have to pay the price in the short run, you will reap long term benefits. I believe “Confronting the Brutal Reality is like putting a strong foundation for a soaring structure. It is a must for sustained success.

Differentiation is the key for Success

Differentiation is a cultural issue. It is a mindset. It is the way managers create value in the organization and make the organization successful. Many times we keep on thinking about differentiating our products and services. However we find difficulty in coming up with a clear differentiator. I think it is a mindset issue. If we remember Darwin’s principle – “Struggle for existence” and “survival of the fittest”, the answer becomes very clear. We have clear choices- differentiate or die. The moment one internalizes this thought; one starts getting ideas that create differentiation.

The next question that arises is where to create this differentiation? The answer is simple. We can put in a single word – “everywhere” – people, process, product and technology.

Jack Welch showed an excellent example of creating differentiation. 20-70-10 rule was very famous in his management style. It was about classifying people in different buckets. The 10% at the bottom had to go. This created a performance oriented culture, a competitive environment and clarity of goals among people. The outcome was a boost in the performance of the entire organization.

Jack Welch also talked about getting out of the industry if you are not among the top three in any industry. This philosophy brings alive the spirit of differentiation. It helps. You have to look for the best of the class processes and the best of technology.

Life is all about differentiation. You have to keep it up or allow it to die. Companies suffer when every business and person is treated equally and bets are sprinkled all around like rain on the ocean. Each one of us has limited resources. However the winning leaders invest the resources where the payback is the highest. This again is the differentiation principle.

In fact it is very interesting to know that our school system, our play system and any system you can think of is nothing but a model of differentiation. The results are based on classifying people in different buckets. Isn’t this a classic example of differentiation? We all accept this fact in our school days but for some reason we struggle to accept this simple truth in our professional lives. Isn’t this a mindset issue? The answer is simple.

Here are a few myths about differentiation:

1. Differentiation is unfair because it pushes people, and processes out. One needs to understand that sending nonperformer out helps others who stay behind. Also non-performers find their own way and area where they finally emerge as winners. This is an adjustment process and fair to all. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that the system should not be polluted with politics. Keeping the system apolitical is the boss’s job. If the boss fails to keep it apolitical, the decline is certain.

2. Differentiation pits people against one another and undermines teamwork. I would argue that team work is a necessity for creating a great organization. In fact differentiation and team work can be integrated. One can create a differentiation at the team level as well.

3. Differentiation favors people who are energetic and extroverted and undervalues people who are shy and introverted, even if they are talented. Each role has its skill requirements. If being extrovert is a requirement of a role, then differentiation has to be created for it. Shy as well as talented people will emerge in top brackets for different kinds of role.

Therefore, differentiation is the key for success. The leader has to create an environment, a culture which supports differentiation, which is apolitical, and is based on merit. After all, results speak; neither numbers nor the differentiation, Principle lies. It is the ability of the leader to bring differentiation that is important and needs to be tweaked for achieving success. The bottom line is: differentiate to succeed.

Importance of Voice and Dignity in creating a Successful team

Last week, I wrote on “Importance of candor” in creating a successful organization. Candor is great. Candor should not hurt dignity of an individual in the team. I will talk today on the importance of “Voice & Dignity” in creating a successful Organization.

Every person in the world wants voice and dignity and they.deserve them. This is a great philosophy and gives voice and dignity to an individual as a right. However, this phenomenon has a great implication on the performance. Voice and Dignity allows people to express themselves freely. Some people are smarter than the others. No one has proprietary on great ideas. Creating a culture where everyone can express themselves brings many ideas on the forefront. Few of the ideas will be great, some of them will be average and others may not have great potential. But it is important to have a culture of free expression. People feel empowered; they give their best under such culture.

It is good as long as the culture allows idea generation and a free expression. Managers or anyone who is accountable for the result has to get the idea and take a call on the appropriateness and its implementation. That’s what management judgment is all about; it’s a tricky game. The giver of the idea tends to have a great passion for their ideas. In the long run people have to trust that ideas are shortlisted on the basis of merits. There could be judgmental error and every system allows for such error. But fairness in short listing of ideas and its acceptance helps in creating an environment full of trust. This leads to better outcomes.
Being too candid sometimes might hurt ones dignity. This is a delicate balance and it’s the work of the manager to balance candor & Dignity evenly. One may have their own way to bring about such a balance. But a proper balance between the two goes a long way to create a positive environment.

I have been privileged to interact with customers from the western countries. They have always squeezed out their reservations on Indian resources thereby expressing themselves freely. I have realized that there are certain inhibitions towards creating an open environment for Voice & Dignity. Few of them are as follows:

• Cultural issues: Certain cultures are more expressive as compared to others. If you are from such a culture where traditionally being extrovert is not encouraged; you have to realize this and do an extra bit to overcome such an inhibition.

• A proper platform is necessary. Like in a Scrum meeting everyone is supposed to talk about his work, his challenges and his plan. If Scrum master manages properly, such interactions are bound to create a proper atmosphere.

• For a given problem, one may have multiple perceptions. Perceptions lead to solutions and since perceptions are different, solutions are bound to be different. In order to come to an understanding, communicating ideas, listening to others point of view is necessary. Communication corrects a lot of gap and creates a better environment. It gives dignity to the participants.

• Sometimes we are impatient for results. We see through our own eyes and start cutting free expression. I think attempt has to be made to listen and then a proper decision can be taken. This could be time consuming but a balance is necessary. It has tremendous upsides.

In order to bring this culture, one will need
• A Process
• A measurement how we are doing and
• Independent feedback

This is an important aspect for building a successful team, a successful organization which can sustain and grow under all odds.

Importance of Candor in creating a successful Organization

A leader energizes people, guides them to move on the path of excellence and finally helps the company to succeed. “Candor” holds a central position in leadership. Many a time leaders believe in giving positive feedback to employees and abstain from being straight and candid on difficult issues. Leadership is not mathematics. But if one looks at the success stories of legends like Jack Welch, one will find that Candor played a central role in his leadership style. It is worthwhile to look at a few quotes from his famous book: “Winning”.

“My bosses cautioned me about my candor. Now my GE career is over and I’m telling you that it was my candor that helped to make it work.”

“From the day I joined GE to the day I was named CEO, twenty years later, my bosses cautioned me about my candor. I was labeled abrasive and consistently warned that my candor would soon get in the way of my career.”

Leadership is based on trust. If you are able to create trust amongst your people, even a tough message is taken positively. Everybody is intelligent; he understands the positives and negatives of their actions. Sometimes, one might get derailed. If the bosses communicate straight and is concerned about well being of his manager; the message gets across. “Candor” is the key.

Candor leads to many positives in the team:

1. Builds Trust: I have discussed about the same in foregoing paragraph. I believe Candor is the key for creating a team based on trust. Sugar-Coating a difficult message does not convert a failure to success, or an unpleasant situation to a pleasant situation; it just creates a pseudo feeling of cohesiveness.

2. Candor brings more people in the conversation. This leads to a lot of thoughts and ideas. People express themselves.

3. Candor leads to quick action.

4. Candor creates transparency. We all talk about transparency.

5. Finally, candor helps reduce cost. Time is not wasted; expectations in the organization are clear. Decision revolves around facts and communicating the same straight. Hence it leads to savings.

If Candor has so many positives let us look at why it is not the most accepted “Word” in the corporate world. Some of the inhibitions are:

1. I think the first and foremost reason is our belief that respect comes from not telling unpleasant truth. We speak pleasant ones but shy away from the unpleasant ones.

2. Our upbringing plays important role too. We have been taught to soften bad news. It is hard to change the style once we come in professional career.

3. Candor comes from Confidence. Sometimes lack of confidence and perceived risk in being candid is also the reason for lack of Candor.

Having discussed the inhibitions, let us spend some time talking about the steps in bringing Candor in a set up. Ideally, leadership styles flow from top. Sometimes bringing candor at a lower level of leadership chain can create a little bit of conflict. However, if one is careful and works towards bringing a balance one can bring a candid culture in a section of the organization as well. What you need to do is to align ‘Candor’ in your management style. It means:
• Reward it
• Praise it
• Spread it
• Declare winners out of people who demonstrate it.
• Keep on trying. Change takes time. Once people learn it and internalize it, change becomes self sustaining

There is a fine line between Candor and treating people with respect. I think a balance is necessary. To conclude, whenever you read stories of successful organizations, you will find “Candor” as the nucleus.

Align, Simplify, Contain and Push – You will always win.

Frequently, I have come across several success stories, and the way the success was achieved by different companies. We come across failure stories more often than the success stories.It is interesting to note that numerous companies which followed similar techniques have different experiences with the success rates. A few companies got success and others failed despite using the same techniques. Let us take for example, the success of GE under the leadership of Jack Welch- Of course his charismatic leadership was the most important factor for success. They made use of six-sigma as one of the tool for driving change in the organization. I have been associated with another company (name not important) where six-sigma was used as a tool to drive improvement. The result was not even closer to what GE accomplished. The question arises; what are the factors, which create such an amazing difference?

I would like to share my experiences on this subject. Following are my observations:

1. Leadership: Our famous Election commissioner, T N Seshan mentioned that the bottleneck is always at the top of the bottle. Leadership is the most important factor. You need Passion, focus and drive to make things happen.

2. Alignment: The second important factor is aligning the initiatives. A clear goal, properly cascaded down the line with ample clarity (purpose) of the initiative is an absolute necessity. In the absence of alignment, there is hardly any progress. Employees put a lot of efforts and there are burnouts. Eventually, Results evade you.


3. Simplicity: Keeping the initiatives simple is a great power. Ram Charit manas (written in simple Hindi) became a huge success compared to Valmiki Ramayana (written in Sanskrit). The single important reason was simplicity. It is very clear from the acceptance and popularity of this literature in masses.

4. Containment: Containing the number of initiatives is of paramount importance. The number should be ideally three, certainly not more than five in any organization. Whenever, you come across increasing number of initiatives; use align and simplify to contain the numbers.


5. Push: A push from leadership, seriousness in implementation is the Execution Mantra of the initiative. One needs to talk about the initiative each time you see your reports. You need to take appropriate feedback and be willing to tweak the initiative.

Whenever I have looked at these factors, the winners and losers have stood out clearly. Therefore, before getting and implementing any big idea think of “Align, Simplify, Contain and Push”- you will win.

Do what you Love: Fame will follow you.

I happened to watch a short movie on a famous book – The 8th habit by Stephen R. Covey. The summary of the movie can be stated as – “Find Your Voice & Inspire Others to Find Theirs”. This is a great paradigm. I have realized this to be very powerful in whatever we do.

The 8th habit is: Find your Voice & Inspire Others to Find Theirs. The essence of this habit is that you will find your voice, when you can say that you are cent percent involved in what you are doing with your life. By cent percent involvement, what is meant is that your body, mind, heart and spirit are all engaged in the endeavor - whatever that is for you.

I read the convocation speech by Steve Jobs, Apple CEO. I found it thought provoking. The speech is available at the following link:

http://www.lifeofexcellence.com/audio/SteveJobs_StandfordConvocationSpeech.pdf

I am reproducing here an extract from the speech:

“Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm
Convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love?”

One of the aspects the paragraph highlights is “Doing what you Love”. I think both Stephen Covey and Steve Jobs talked about the same concept. The convergence of doing and your Inner Voice makes you successful.

It is often hard to get into doing what you love. We get carried away with social, family, organizational and peer pressures. I do not think “success is copy able” One can achieve new heights in doing what he loves. Today’s society offers tremendous opportunities in each area. First you have to find for your “Inner Voice” before you start helping others to find theirs. Henry Winkler had once quoted: “Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.”

I will discuss some of the visible symptoms once you have found your voice. The process is iterative. Just keep on trying till you see some of these symptoms in your daily life:

1. You start feeling very passionate about doing the things you love. PASSION is the key word. You feel a high energy level.
2. Great ideas cross your mind on the subject. You bring or influence big change.
3. You live with the thought; you work with it; you sleep with it.

There could be many more, but I think these three are most important. These will be visible to people around you.

Let us spend few minutes on the timing of finding your voice. I think there is no rule. Someone can find his Inner voice very early in life, someone may find it quite late. One thing I like to mention here is pursuing something you Love is the key. It is never too late. You can find many more examples around you on timing. One thing which is common is the after effects it brings. And they are Success and happiness. Do what you love; fame will follow you.

Creating Stickiness in the Work Force

The IT industry in India has seen unprecedented growth in the last decade. It has helped the growth of Indian export thereby serving a bigger purpose in our national framework. Today the IT industry contributes 6% of our GDP. In such a short time it is a great achievement. However, it has also brought a lot of challenges for the company. One of them is high mobility in the work force. The opportunities are enormous and it leads to high mobility. IT is a knowledge industry. People are the Main assets. If one witnesses a high turn around in people, quality of deliverables suffers. We will discuss some key issues related to high attrition.

Industry survey, exit interviews are and other analysis of exits point to few important parameters for high attrition. Few top ones are:

1. Growth in business: Absence of growth in business is the most important factor resulting in high attrition. The industry is young; its participants are ambitious. They look for fast growth. The business growth brings enormous opportunities for them. It is noticed that the larger companies like TCS, Infosys have lower percentages of attrition compared to mid-sized companies. Undoubtedly these companies have also been showing faster pace of growth as well.

2. Opportunities for working in exciting technologies: Techies are those who love working on newer stuff. They are passionate about new technologies. If a company can create a platform which imparts learning opportunities on newer technologies, it creates a big stickiness for many techies. There could be companies working in niche markets like on mobile Technologies, which provide tremendous opportunities to work with leading edge technologies. For others, there is a high correlation between growth and technological opportunities. A company can also create an environment where technological initiatives are encouraged but finally; it has to be aligned to its business direction.

3. Work Environment: This term becomes a little abstract unlike the previous ones. It includes the work culture, participation, empowerment, your concern for the growth of the employees, etc. etc. I will argue that one can create a work culture inside the four walls of the office, which may be different than the prevailing work culture in the company. This could be very positive. Wipro Chairman Azim Premji has said- “if you see higher attrition in a team, look at the manager of the team”. Taking this positively, a team manager can create a unique work environment to create stickiness in his team. I will deliberate more on this aspect and the softer issues.

“Salary is often proved to be one of the main causes of high attrition”. I will argue this is the most misrepresented factor for attrition. The trigger starts from the other factors and finally in pursuit of a job, one lands up getting a better salary. Therefore, I argue, salary is the hygiene factor. We all need it but it does not trigger attrition!

Having discussed all these, how can we create stickiness in our team? I shall discuss today a softer factor which might bring a tremendous impact on the work force. In our industry, we deal with people. And people have emotions. If we are able to support someone’s emotion, I think, we can create a better relationship and a better environment for work. Many companies use competency management as a tool to manage growth and to bring about meaning to their work. I think this could be a great tool in the hands of managers. We need to look at it from two different aspects:

1. Short Term Goal: This is to find out how a resource can add maximum value to his\her current engagement. Typically, we go about identifying factors for the role and assess each resource against the requirement. The gap is found and actions are initiated to bridge the gap. Surely, it helps. It provides aid in executing project successfully. I am afraid it will not help much in creating any stickiness.

2. Long term Goal: Talk about the career aspirations of an individual. Each one of us needs coaching. Use your experience to plan out his career progression journey. Coach him, mentor him. It will bring a different level of relationship between the manger and the resources. You are helping them grow. Many times we get stuck with opportunities available in the company. I think this aspect should not be kept in mind while planning such sessions. Look at the individual and help him grow and build his competency. If this company cannot take care of his needs, someone else will. This is a philosophical initiative, a real initiative, which will help to create a much better work environment.

Therefore, I recommend using the competency analysis not only to manage the current problem but also to support a long term view of helping someone realize his goal. If your company grows, you have an advantage of a competent person managing growth. Due to some reason, if it does not happen then you have made someone capable and you have made a big contribution towards the society. Do not forget, if you have a huge good will, people will queue to come back when you need them. It is a win win situation.

Achievement is Contagious

Some time back I had talked about “Innovation at work place”. There could be various techniques to bring about Innovation. Over a period of time, we have seen that excellence is achieved in certain pockets. It is a challenge to internalize the process and keep on getting continuous improvement through best practices across the company.

It goes without saying that the focus of the CEO or the Operating Manager and his push behind the program is the key to success. Jack Welch talked about giving focus on key programs at each and every touch point with the stake holders. He used to pick up few initiatives – may be two or three. He would work around those; create a reward system, align Performance Management and measurement systems to the initiatives. He would talk about them in each and every meeting. It takes time before it is accepted across. It takes time to change a habit or to develop a new one.

I would like to talk about another simple step which might help bringing internalization quickly and create wonders. I ran a scheme where each individual had to give one suggestion per week to change the customer’s life. The implementation faced a lot of resistance. Some teams got excited and did very well. Others thought it was not possible to give one suggestion per person per week; this was too demanding for them. Naturally, these teams lagged behind. Pushing did not yield much result. Changing the mindset was necessary.

We came with a simple idea of getting all project managers together and discuss their performance on the program. We identified some metrics like (percentage) % compliance, number of suggestions accepted by customers and the value created through these suggestions. We also put a scheme “REWARD for the BEST” wherein we rewarded the best contributor of the month and also the best team. . Criteria’s were defined. All managers voted for the best individual suggestion and team after the brief presentation. This scheme was participative and it empowered every one. They felt a sense of involvement. The situation started changing fast and in a very short time compliance started improving.

The initiative is resulting in more and more suggestions to improve customer business and to create more value. We are on a journey to change the game. Although, the initiative is simple in nature; it brings about Communication, participation, empowerment, transparency and recognition. It goes without saying that a team’s achievement is contagious: It creates positive vibe in the organization. It is a game changing event.

It will not be out of place to mention “Achievement is contagious”. Create an environment which brings various elements like communication, participation, empowerment, transparency and recognition together. Success will follow.

Importance of Set-up Phase in Project Success

Most of the software companies have matured Project Management processes. Generally Project Management has the following phases:
1. Project Initiation
2. Project Planning
3. Project Execution
4. Project Closure
Each of them has its own importance towards the success of the project. I would like to discuss today; the special importance which Project Initiation or Set up has on the project’s success. I would also like to address on the areas where we get caught in meeting the process requirement syndrome and are not able to capitalize on the process benefits from set up process.

The term “Set Up” is taken from Manufacturing, where before each batch production a time is spent for preparatory work. For example lathe machine can do various types of activities. It can turn; it can create threads and many more activities. Each of them requires a particular type of set-up phase. I have never come across a machinist skipping the set up phase or just not thinking through and doing a set up relevant for type of parts he would be manufacturing. However, in Software Engineering area, we all have “Initiation” or “set-up” as a phase. It describes certain elements but invariably the same is not followed in spirit but rather complied within words. The result is inconsistency in delivered quality; Customer dissatisfaction and lost projects. I will highlight on the two examples; one each of a successful case and another case which could have been done better.

We had a project where around 200 Stored procedures had to be documented for intended use of users. This Project will have a different life cycle as compared to a development project where we talk about Requirement Gathering, Analysis, Design, Coding & Unit Testing, Integration, System Testing and User acceptance. Every company may not have a pre-defined life cycles for the work mentioned here. This case was different than a software development case. Initiation elements were mapped for the requirement and a definition was brought for each item. For instance Unit testing could not have been applied in a classic sense here. However, a more relevant unit testing was thought of like a mapping of the technical document to the code base. This becomes a mandatory step for the developer. Similarly, each and every element of the Set-up process was mapped; brainstorming was done with team, SQA and the client. A final blue print of the customized set-up phase was evolved, which was implemented throughout the project. The result was completing the project before scheduled time and meeting 100% quality expectation. It would be wrong to say that only set-up played the role. But one thing which goes without saying is, “Good set-up was the foundation to Quality delivery”.

We had another instance where the customer was a small company and Agile was a buzz word influencing their decision on life cycle selection. The team was new to agile world and there was no onsite element during the life cycle of the project. We did set-up as a process but I think we left a lot of holes in terms of implementing the same in spirit. Some of the items which could have got more attention in the beginning are mentioned below:
• Work shop on agile for the team
• Establishing the ceremonies of agile between customer and the contracting company
• Simulating Team skill required and working for filling gap
• Defining standards explicitly like coding standard, UI standard etc
Some of them were done but not in spirit. The result is struggle during the project implementation.

Many times we mix the technological requirements and commercial expectations together. I recommend in keeping them separate and evaluate each aspect of technological needs. In today’s world, if you want to grow then you have to be aggressive and innovative in your approach. Compromising with the technological requirements will elude success. These could include items like set-up items, transition time frame, transition location, on-site presence etc. We should evolve a solution which is the best and meets aggressiveness and innovation elements. After doing that bring the cost element. The price to change to the customer is a bigger call and may get influenced by many other factors. One should exercise caution in getting influenced with pricing requirements leading to compromise on technical issues.

Therefore my recommendations are:
1. Follow a set-up process in sprit. Do brain storming upfront. Customize the phase to suit project needs.
2. Evolve a technically viable, aggressive and innovative solution. Pricing considerations and customer expectations should be brought in later.
These are some best practices which help in succeeding.


Typically, what I have observed is the process is followed but enough effort is not made to address all issues and life cycle is not tuned to the requirement of the work

Bringing Innovation at Work Place

I have analyzed hundreds of Customer Satisfaction Survey results in my career. I find a common theme in most of the feedback: - that is lack of Innovation. Customers appreciate good work. If you keep on delivering good work consistently, it is quite natural that the customer will get used to it. Many times, even after consistently meeting performance requirements of the work, the Customer Satisfaction Index starts declining. The customer expects more and more compared to what you have been delivering. Meeting requirements become stale. How do we manage customer expectation in such situation? Among the many solutions, “Innovation” is the most important.

I have discussed this issue with many people. Everyone talks about Innovation. Generally, teams or companies differentiate themselves on the “How” part. Knowing the problem is a no brainer; knowing the solution isn’t! I will discuss some simple steps to introduce a culture of Innovation. The method suggested is not exhaustive; it is just an indicative one. One can find out thousands of other ways to bring innovation in his/her environment. Let us keep in mind; only simple methods work.

Before I talk about the prescription, let me take you to the period of the World Wars. History teaches us that innovation, in technology and battle techniques, took place when we were fighting wars. This clearly indicates the mankind has been forced to innovate when survival was at stake. Extending this logic, if we can create a culture which puts demands on individuals; individuals will respond to the demand positively.

I have led many teams of Kaizen and Value Engineering in my life. Let me take a situation. A Kaizen team picks up a problem. It is an informal small group. They brainstorm on the solutions and come up with small improvements. One of the principles of brainstorming is to generate maximum number of suggestions/ solutions without bothering about the quality of the solution. Once the idea generation engine starts working at full capacity; some excellent suggestions will come to the surface automatically. The key is to run the engine at full capacity, empower the participant. I faced a lot of resistance in the beginning in almost all cases. It takes time to pick up momentum. Once momentum picks up, it is hard to stop it. It moves in an auto pilot mode.

One can use a technique like Kaizen or Value Engineering to bring innovation or can have some methods which challenge the participants, focus them towards the goal and define some challenging goals in a short time. The group will perform. I have seen some small routine activities like “one suggestion per person per week towards improving customer’s life”, brings a huge difference in customer perception, morale of the team and project performance. It goes without saying one has to go through “The Inertia” – both static in the beginning and dynamic ones it picks up. Our task is to manage the first Inertia and leave it to auto pilot mode the second part. Naturally, we do not want to stop it.

As mentioned earlier, there could be multiple ways to bring about Innovation. I will share the well known case of Google. Everybody working for Google can work one day in a week on a subject of his or her liking. The subject should be aligned to the overall goal of the organization. This has created a huge impact in the company. The company is known for Innovation. The salient points of this program are:

• A defined method
• Resource allocation
• Empowerment
• A Discipline
• Simplicity

While designing a system, one should keep in mind the above parameters. You can start your own system; as long as it has the above ingredients, it will succeed.

Attention to Details is lifeline for a Project Success

Every time I analyzed a failure, I found a common thread responsible for causing the failure: “Attention to Details”. Ramcharan, in his book “Execution”, has recommended all Managers and business leaders to practice this attribute. Here’s the excerpt from the book.

“You get the impression (implicitly), that it is about doing things more effectively, more carefully, with more attention to the details. But nobody really spells out what they mean. To understand execution you have to keep three key points in mind:
• Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy.
• Execution is the major job of the business leader.
• Execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture.”

It is very hard to internalize this; practice this principle for success. I have seen that if you are able to do this you will become the most successful person.

I was reviewing a project issue. The project was managed using Agile Scrum methodology. We finished a sprint and the customer found some basic issues with the code. The coding practices, agreed between the customer and the vendor, were not adhered to. When I asked the PM, his reply highlighted the following reasons::
• The team underestimated the task
• We got input late from the customer
• The customer had approved the demo
• While completing the demo, the team hardcoded certain things
• The team completed the work on time and delivered
• The quality aspect was not included while considering the completion date
If you sit down and look back, you will find that this is not unique. This happens every time we face some challenges. If you dig deep into the situation you will get replies like “I asked X and he told me that he would complete it, etc., etc.”

Let us look at some of the issues in this case. Before I preach, the principle let me confess “Execution is very difficult. Building the culture takes a lot of time and is also impacted by the surrounding environment. However, if you understand and internalize the principle, you will succeed in the difficult task of execution.”

How do we find issues with code? We all know the answer – “Code Review”. How we achieve effective code review without getting into each aspect of code? Some questions like the ones mentioned below may be helpful.

1. Who reviewed it?
2. How much time was spent on the review?
3. How many bugs / observations were found?
4. What reference documents were used for review like checklist, guidelines, etc…?
5. How many lines of code or pages of document were reviewed per hour?
If you ask few of them or a combination there of, I can guarantee you, you will know the effectiveness of the review. Based on your observation, you can take course correction measures before it becomes too late. One can ask many simple questions like these and can unearth the truth. “Execution is not about asking and reporting; it is about finding, exploring and helping people get into right mind set.

I think I have used simple words to explain the principle of “Attention to Details”. These questions will take a different form depending on whom you are dealing with. It will also change with the maturity of your subject. All people are not alike and they do not need the same treatment. What I am advocating here is to apply this principle differently depending on maturity of the subject.

I think this principle can get deep into our strategic thinking. This applies at each level in an organization. It is very core to our culture. If we do not have deep understanding and cultural alignment, I fear, the company is likely to oscillate like a pendulum between two extreme ends called “Success & Failure”. Sustainable success demands attention to details and its internalization into working culture.

Getting out of “Compliance - Correction” syndrome leads to Project Success

After getting quality certification, one of the most important ways of pushing implementation is often verifying the success with periodical audit. “NC – Non Compliance” is a buzzword in software industry. You see various forms of audit - Internal, External, Statutory etc. These are conducted periodically. The frequency of such audits could be monthly, quarterly or annually. The non-compliance instances are discussed and actions are initiated. A lot of preparation is required before the scheduled audit. The audit report is prepared and it is sent to seniors. Normally, the success is judged based on % compliance. Bosses often ask for these reports for achieving higher compliance. Although an audit is important, one question keeps coming to my mind, “Does this add enough value for sustained improvement?” One may not have a very clear answer here as very often we come across high % compliance and on the other hand we also come across project failures. I’ll name this phenomenon as “Compliance -Correction “Syndrome.

Postmortem has its own importance and so is the audit. One can learn a lot from postmortem. Do you have a better way which can be used for sustained improvement and still one uses audit for some spot checks? Let us look at an analogy of One Way Street. Few of us must have been caught by the police while entering one way street from wrong side. Police imposes fine on violators. Normally, you find police standing on the other side of the road or at the exit point. The intention is to catch violator. Can we think differently? What about if police is deployed at the entry point? And he starts stopping vehicles entering one way street from the wrong side. This will certainly have an implication over the fine collection. I argue; it will have a better impact in bringing discipline and in bringing sustained improvement in behavior. Therefore, if the goal is not penalizing for doing a mistake you can always think of a better way of doing the same thing effectively.

I think we often miss the spirit of a quality standard. We start following in words and not in spirit. It is important to remain focused on the goal and look at the spirit of these quality standards. The moment you do that “Compliance” will have a lower ranking on your priority list. You will start thinking in terms of using quality for improvement.

I am sharing here an example from one of my project experience. We had a software project where we did not have conventional coding. The existing code was to be analyzed and appropriate documentation was to be created. Naturally, this project had a different lifecycle phases. At a higher level one can look at conventional Development Life cycle phases and customize the same to suit the specific needs of the project. The same was done here. All the quality steps like unit testing, review, testing was looked upon from project necessity perspective. All the stakeholders were taken in confidence and their concurrence were obtained on the customized processes applicable to the project. The team was empowered to tweak the process for better effectiveness as they proceeded on the project. Transparency, empowerment, and continuous learning were the buzz words in the project. The SQA played a role of reformer. He worked with project team to customize the process, remained an active participant throughout the life cycle. The result was phenomenal. Fortunately compliance in the audit process was 100%. Let us look at the results:

Test Cases Success Rate 95.74%
% Schedule Variance -15.38%
TDI’s to SP Ratio – Last Milestone 1.26 TDIs/SP

In the above table TDI’s to SP ratio is the measure of defect density and negative variance means savings. The defect density improved by 66% over the first iteration. Besides the positive metrics, the Client experience was superb.

I term this as an experience which is very positive. It is not oriented towards “Compliance-Correction” syndrome. Compliance here is a byproduct. One can repeat this every time irrespective of the type of project. I suggest the following steps:

1. Customize the Quality Steps looking at the type and need of the project. This step is critical. Look carefully at Design, Construction, Unit Testing, Review and Testing. Define the specific steps for each of them. Do not forget to make SQA as a partner here.

2. Work in a culture of transparency, empowerment and participation. This sounds a little theoretical. Believe me if you attempt it, you will find your own way for doing this. Success will teach you to follow this in all projects during your life time.

3. Listen to all stake holders. Be open for change.

4. The steps finalized as a part of customization, are not final. Tweak them as you progress based on your learning on the project.

5. Look at Customer Success Factor (CSF). It may be advisable to understand the personal success factors for the immediate customer contact and integrate those as a part of your project success. Define your measurements and success criteria in line with CSF to Monitor and control.

I have seen projects failing because the team simply does not do the basic simple steps as mentioned above. My advice is to remain focused, get out of “Compliance-Correction” syndrome and follow the above steps. You are bound to embrace success.

In the Wonderland of Quality Certification

I was a student of engineering. I have often heard student’s talk, “what principles are taught in class room and what get’s implemented in life are two different things”. This is because of the failure of implementation. I have a different opinion on the subject. I have always found that whatever principles are taught, they can be applied in totality in practice. The gap is often found in understanding and putting the principles in simple steps for implementation. The art of putting a principle in simple steps for implementation and the passion for implementation are the two keys for success. This is same as having an Engineering degree and being an engineer. I studied engineering and regularly scored high grades in Design, Applied Mechanics etc. But my work life began in Industrial Engineering field. I never practiced Design principles in my life. In practical sense I have an Engineering degree but I will not call myself an Engineer. To become an Engineer you need practice, an art of applying the principles in your practical life.

If I look at software engineering and quality movement, I often think the industry is generally suffering from similar “Degree Syndrome”. CMM, CMMI and ISO are the standards which have brought excellent principles in life. Many companies have graduated and have passed the examinations; the certification process. Rarely companies have applied these principles fully and reaped benefits. All these standards give you short of curriculum. The practitioner has to understand the principles, pass the exam and practice the art of implementing in real life. First two things always happen but the practice is always a victim. That’s the reason; many companies having CMM level 5 certifications are not able to produce consistent results.

Malcom Gladwell in his book “Outliers” has talked about a practice 10,000 hours to become expert in any field. I think this principle applies perfectly in quality implementation as well. In order to make the process seamless with the workflow, the company needs a practice of 10,000 hours or more. Practice has to be in such a way that it can be synthesized and can create a learning experience too. Project Managers often tell, “Let me complete the work then we will do the documentation”. If you hear such words in any company then you should conclude that the company lacks many more hours of practice before it reaches the level of maturity in applying the principles which the degree; certification has provided. The result will never come until one has attained a perfect integration of process in work flow. The work and process have to be seen as a single entity and not two separate tasks. As long as they are seen as two separate tasks, the effectiveness of process rigor will be farfetched.

I would like to give a simple analogy of process integration with work. Let us take a payment transaction in a privately owned company. The payment assistant normally makes payment on authorization of the payment. There is a process of request, authorization, verification, payment and finally acknowledgement. The person making the payment considers all these as a single process of payment. Even if the owner asks for 10,000 rupees, the payment assistant creates a voucher and gets his signature or signature of his secretary before making any payment. This is a perfect integration of documentation with the workflow. You find such process implementation work flawlessly.

I therefore suggest implementation is a bigger task then getting certification. One needs to get out of “Degree Syndrome”. Getting a degree is the first step. Implementation of the principles needs understanding of the principle, putting them in simple steps and finally nitrating with the overall work. This simple principle can act as a guide for process implementation and therefore leads to success. Just ensure that the basics are being done, they are integrated with work, documentation is not separate than the work; you are bound to succeed.

Doing More with Less

Custom development in software industry has come a long way. Today more and more companies are looking for off-the-shelf solutions. It goes without saying that such solutions may not meet all the needs of a company. But it certainly is quick to implement, cost effective, and scalable. Even today we come across many cases, where custom solutions remain inevitable for a client. There may be couple of reasons including specific application niche, where no readymade solutions exists.

This emerging situation brings a new set of challenges for Development, Project Management etc. Let us take a case of winning a project. Earlier we devoted our time to accuracy of estimates. Various methods evolved like Function Point Analysis, Work Breakdown Structure etc. The software vendor matured their practices and came up with robust estimation and sizing model. The accurate sizing is necessary, but does not guarantee success. Such failure creates a tremendous disconnect in the organization’s functional entities like sales, solutions, operations etc.

The myth here is sizing what? Sizing is appropriate, only if solutions approach is similar and cost effective. I have seen companies losing business to competition, who are Agile, Innovative and utilize its software asset base to provide cost effective solution to the client. Therefore as a management, as a Project Manager, as an architect we have to think differently. Some of the experience I would like to share here:

1. The Brick and Mortar age is gone. Building everything from scratch will not work in an era of off-the-shelf products. Avoid Brick & Mortar based solutions as far as possible.

2. Reusability, Replication are some of the mantras for success. We have been talking this for ages. Putting this in practice requires some strategic thinking and direction. These directions will come from focus and scale. Companies touching everything are not able to compete with companies, who are specialists in a domain, have more opportunities in the same area. They leverage their asset base better and come up with a more cost effective solution despite having rate disadvantage. What I am referring here is even a local western country vendor can easily compete with an offshore vendor from a low cost location utilizing the above principles.

3. Building Tools and Templates: Tools and templates help in accelerating development. Their building efforts can be amortized over a large number of projects.

4. Technology developers have come up with language based frameworks, design patterns etc. Their efficient usage is paramount to stay competitive.

5. It is the time to look at innovative approach to solutioning. The old industrial engineering approach is very handy. Some of the principles from manufacturing like Kaizen and Lean manufacturing can be applied in software situations as well.

It is easier to talk about these principles than implementing them. This requires a strategic direction for the company to start with. Once you have strategic direction, you can start building assets and implement some of the thoughts mentioned above. This requires replicable work opportunities, economies of scale. The replicable opportunity has to be in domain and technology areas. One can not compete, if you are a generalist. Stay focused on a technology, specific domain, create scale, utilize five principles mentioned above, you will succeed.

Darwin’s principle for Evolution holds perfectly fine in this environment - “Struggle for existence and survival of the fittest”. This is a time of non-linear thinking. With smaller increase in resource base we need to deliver non-linear output. Do more with less- is the final goal. This is a paradigm shift. If you do it correctly, you could be more profitable and provide a very cost effective solution to your customer.

Using Theory of Constraint to manage large Software Project

“The Goal” – a book written by Eliyahu M. Goldratt & Jeff Cox is reaching closer to 8 million copy sale. This is incredible. I am not sure how many business books have reached such a level. The sale clearly indicates something inherently great about this book. I found this book written in a story style. The concept of Theory Of Constraint ( TOC) is explained in a very simple language taking simple situations. I was thinking there could not have been better way to explain TOC concepts than the way explained by the authors. The examples are taken from manufacturing industry.

I am reproducing a short extract from the Preface of the book.

“Companies, even the relatively small ones, are incredibly complex. When facing complex systems, it is so easy to fall into the trap of looking for complicated solutions. Still, we all know that complicated solutions do not work! Instead, what we should do is realize that every complex system is based on inherent simplicity. The way to rapidly improve our systems is to search out that inherent simplicity and capitalize on it.”

I am sold on principle of simplicity. When I finished reading this book, I was struggling with a project of 50 persons with an estimated effort of 20 man years. The project was delayed. The completion date appeared like a moving goal post. It was challenging. Although TOC principles are primarily applicable to Manufacturing type of systems, I found it very relevant to apply the principle to solve the complex situation we were in.

We in software business talk about life cycles like Waterfall, Agile, Iterative etc. The principle of TOC can work in conjunction with any one of them. Let us look at the brief case study.

On 1st October 2009, we saw this project getting out of our hand. We brainstormed and brought major changes the way we managed the project. We looked at each element of project team. The team structure can be depicted as sequential block of related activities. Each block represented a processing station.

We noticed a lot of backlog, late working and low motivation at Integration station. UAT team, which was a Client team also, had a similar problem. The natural outcome was to define Goals for the project and structure the team around the defined goals. The goals were agreed as:

1. Improving throughput through the system.

2. Ensuring high quality of deliverables. It was thought to reduce UAT defects at least by 67%.

Besides the above goals, a working discipline was agreed to support the stated goals. Every station will work towards ensuring the utilization of critical stations ( Integration & Acceptance in this case) and the work allocation will be done to assist faster throughput and not ensuring higher utilization of the members in different stations. The work was structured in batches and batch movement across various stations was monitored and managed on above principles.

Implementing this discipline in the team faced resistance from both internal team members and the Client. A series of discussion were held with stakeholders and finally a concurrence from the customer was obtained for trying this out. We were confident to demonstrate the benefits within a week or so. This was used to make Client agree to watch the process for a fortnight.

After agreeing with the basic rules of the game, all team worked to support the goals. We carried through system of daily stand up call concentrating on three questions - what got done in last 24 hours, what are the plans for next 24 hours and what are the bottlenecks. We worked to solve the bottleneck.

The first batch with the new process was submitted on schedule. The result of the UAT was very encouraging and changed the morale of the team. People had renewed level of confidence. They were upbeat with the results. This changed the whole game. The theory was followed in word and spirit and in three months time the project got completed and accepted by the customer. Although we had a bad start, the excellent finish gave us excellent respectability from the client and great sense of achievement for all of us.

Software industry is gradually maturing. Time is getting apt for applying proven principles of manufacturing ( Factory Management Principles) in this maturing industry. TOC is one of them and I am upbeat with my experience on solving large complex project issues using this theory. It has worked well and can work with any life cycle selected for the project execution.

A heuristic approach to Application Portfolio Management

1. INTRODUCTION
Globalization and the dilution of trade boundaries have forced industries to evaluate various options for cost-effective operations. Industries now face the challenge of channeling resources to meet organizational objectives in continuously changing environments. Information Technology plays a major role in such a dynamic business environment. However, with the advent of new technological tools and continuous advancement, the IT environment has become very complex.

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) regularly add new assets to their IT portfolio, making the portfolio more and more complex. In addition, they face the task of aligning business needs and IT assets. Cost consideration has becoming increasingly important. The challenge is to do more for less.

In such a dynamic situation, the management of the IT Portfolio has become an increasingly important and crucial task. An increasing number of CIOs are pursuing IT portfolio management as a tool to prioritize investment decisions, decide the location of various activities, evaluate the various assets with the value it delivers, and more.

Each asset in the portfolio is evaluated against parameters like cost of procurement, cost of managing, and indeed the cost of replacing the same. “Total cost of ownership” is seen in conjunction with the value delivered by the asset. Optimal management of assets leads to minimal TCO.

A study by Gartner states that, “Approximately 30 percent of the total cost of ownership during the life of an application is for its maintenance and management.” One can achieve a significant degree of cost reduction by maneuvering the costs associated with maintenance and management.
2. WHAT IS APPLICATION PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT (APM)?
Portfolio management is the process of managing assets and investments in order to achieve desired organizational goals. The portfolio is a combination of assets that are expected to provide certain returns. It has risks associated with it. PM includes selecting a set of assets congruent with the set goal, managing the economic lifecycle of those assets, dynamically divesting and investing in different assets to optimize gains. In the IT context, the portfolio includes application software, hardware, infrastructure, resources, processes, and so on. While financial portfolio management has been in practice for many years, IT portfolio management is relatively new and gaining ground. An integrated framework that helps in investment, divestment, modifications, and movement of application assets has become a necessity to align business and IT goals of an enterprise.


Application Portfolio Management can be best described as:

• A "living program" that allows you to assess the applications in your portfolio, evaluate potential changes, and understand the risks and impact of these changes to the portfolio.
• A discipline and a set of tool that enables a CIO to respond to the pressures of managing an application portfolio.
• A framework helping in relating the total cost of ownership to revenue, identifying redundancies and gaps in current capabilities, pinpointing trouble spots, and highlighting opportunities to pursue sourcing alternatives.

3. WHY IS IT NEEDED?
An APM framework…

• Continuously monitors the environmental changes in business and keeps it optimal.
• Aligns business and IT objectives.
• Reduces portfolio complexity and creates a portfolio roadmap.
• Reduces the total cost of ownership.
4. AN APPROACH TO APM
The introduction of APM in an organization has to be phased balancing the costs, benefits, risks, and business objectives. The APM is a continuous process like a Financial Portfolio Management where the portfolio manager continuously watches the environmental changes and fine-tunes the portfolio for optimal gain.

The Application Portfolio Management necessarily requires a life cycle for effectiveness. The phases of the lifecycle are described hereunder:

4.1 Define Goals & Strategies
IT initiatives are meant to facilitate better business goal achievement. Business goals are defined for the overall organization. A top-down approach is recommended to create IT goals congruent with business goals. One of the options could be the use of Balance Score Card (BSC) developed by Kaplan and Norton. Once the IT goals are frozen, the same is broken into functional goals. This leads to a broad-level functional and technological implementation strategy.

Some key tasks are listed below:
• Identify relevant business Goals
• Identify IT goals and initiatives
• Map IT initiatives
• Cluster the applications on the basis of
o Functional
o Technology
• Evaluate alternatives strategy for clusters
• Finalize the strategy for each cluster
• Set goal for APM initiatives



4.2 Resource the initiative

Management sponsorship is a must to take the initiative forward. It is suggested that one must identify an owner for the initiative, get a budget approval, set improvement goals, and create a plan to complete the exercise. Some of the tasks during this phase are:
• Obtain management sponsorship
• Identify a lead to carry the initiative
• Get budget allocation
• Get Plan approval

4.3 Conduct an assessment
An analytical framework must be put in place to assess each application from the Maintain, Improve, and Retire perspective. The assessment is a combination of interviews with stakeholders and relevant data collection. The collected data is sanitized and analyzed using the framework. An index representing the ease of movement and value creation is established for each application. The set of applications are classified in different bands based on ease of movement, value creation, functional grouping, and technological grouping. A final sequence is arrived at by superimposing customer comfort level on the final analysis. The task sequence is listed hereunder:
• Portfolio analysis
• Model Building / Customization
• Analysis and computation
o Application Index
o Criticality, Volatility, Complexity indices
o Value Creation Index
• Evaluate applications and decide the strategy

4.3.1 Developing application indices

A detailed analysis in terms of criticality, complexity, value, cost, etc. is necessary to get an insight into the state of the application and conclude its future. Since the analysis is aimed at examining the application portfolio and improving the cost–value performance, an index is established to throw light on ease of movement.

Application index is a measure of moveability of the application. Higher the index, the more difficult it is to move. Developing the index helps in classifying applications in different bands and gets a relative assessment of application moveability.

4.3.2 Portfolio Analysis
Application portfolio analysis is the first step towards application outsourcing planning. It details:

• Application
• Technical Environment
• Functional Group
• Documentation Group
• Associated costs

The following table provides a high-level overview of the Portfolio Analysis phase:

Portfolio Analysis

Entry Criteria

1. Go ahead
Exit Criteria

1. Identification of application portfolio.
2. Determination of technical and functional grouping.

Methods and Tools

1. Data Collection—Forms/Questionnaire
2. Interviews
3. Data Summarization
Key Tasks

1. Establish a high-level plan.
2. Discuss the detailed approach.
3. Conduct interviews with application managers, key users, and IT directors.
4. Collect data from available records.
5. Identify functional group.
6. Identify technical grouping.

4.3.3 Model Building and customization
This phase helps in customizing the framework to suit specific requirements of the customer. The diagram depicts the base model, which is customized during this phase.

The following table provides a brief overview of Model Building and customization:

Model Building and customization

Entry Criteria

1. Attribute-wise application inventory.
2. Technological and functional grouping.
Exit Criteria

1. Definition of application attributes and its factors.
2. Model for application index.

Methods and Tools

1. Sum of position digit method.
Key Tasks

1. Identify significant factors affecting application outsourcing.
2. Define each factor as an index.
3. Assign weight to each application factor.

4.3.4 Analysis and computation
During this phase, significant factors are grouped together to develop various application indices. The data is checked/examined for range behavior, indices are computed, and normalization of indices is done to bring parity amongst the indices.

Analysis and computation

Entry Criteria

1. Application indices definition
Exit Criteria

1. Application index
2. Functional group
3. Technological group

Methods and Tools

1. Statistical analysis (distribution, range analysis)
2. Delphi techniques
Key Tasks

1. Establish the indices.
2. Normalize the application indices.
3. Compute composite application index.
4. Map Technological and functional grouping to each application.
5. Compute Documentation index.

Factors contributing to each index are identified along with the value range. Data cleansing and analysis is done to arrive at normalized indices. After developing various indices, the Delphi method is used to arrive at the Application Index and the Value Creation Index.
 

4.3.5 Studying Indices
The analysis of the indices gives real power to the framework. It helps to view the application portfolio from different angles and to arrive at conclusions. The following sections provide an overview of the different perspectives:

(i) Cost Vs Criticality
The criticality index for each application is a measure of the application’s criticality from the business standpoint. The quadrants of the Ansoff Matrix depict four possible situations.

Quadrant I: Low criticality and low cost: These applications will require further analysis before any recommendations are made.

Quadrant II: High on criticality and low on cost: These applications can be evaluated for retention.

Quadrant III: Low on criticality and high on cost: These applications are potential candidates for replacement.

Quadrant IV: High criticality and high cost: These applications should be examined for cost performance improvement.

(ii) Volatility Vs Criticality
Critical applications are the lifeline of an organization. The role of the CIO is to provide stable applications to the organization. The Ansoff Matrix of Volatility-Criticality helps to identify the application/application group to improve stability. This study leads to further analysis in terms of design improvement, platform rationalization, re-engineering, and so on.

Quadrant I: Low on criticality and low on volatility: These applications require more analysis for action.

Quadrant II: High on criticality and low on volatility: If there are no other compelling factors, these applications can be continued on an as-is basis. For example, if some applications from this group have the potential for savings by replacing or off-shoring them, they can be moved, or else they can be continued in their present state.

Quadrant III: Low on criticality and high on volatility: We do not have any application falling in this quadrant. Normally, these applications can be evaluated for retiring.

Quadrant IV: High on criticality and high on volatility: These applications need to be improved. The improvement should aim to reduce volatility. This could be possible by replacing or fixing the cause of volatility.

(iii) Analyzing Functional Group Complexity
The various functional group systems must be aligned with business objectives. The Complexity Index helps in identifying the most complex functional group using the Pareto analysis. The Complexity Index of each application is used to derive the Group Complexity Index through the Pareto analysis. This analysis provides an insight for group-wise BPR and re-engineering to reduce system complexity.


(iv) Gas Guzzler
Organizations have limited dollars to support application portfolios. Interestingly, all applications in the portfolio do not consume equal amount of dollars and follow the 20-80 rule. This analysis sheds light on what needs attention, what needs better control, and/or what applications need to be moved reduce overall maintenance cost.

4.4 Implement
Implementation is a crucial phase of APA frame work. A plan is developed and concurrence is obtained from stakeholders. It is recommended to have an implementation team, proper management oversight for implementation. Some of the tasks are:
• Finalize recommendations
• Discuss with stakeholders
• Present to management and obtain their concurrence
• Implement

4.5 Monitor & Control
Portfolio analysis is an ongoing work. Once the recommendations are implemented, there is a need to have periodic evaluation of the portfolio assets. It is recommended to align the periodic portfolio evaluation in the CIO’s KRA for success. Some select tasks shall be:
• Define appropriate Metrics
• Develop a score card
• Collect info, evaluate & monitor
• Realign the overall APM process
5. CONCLUSION

Application Portfolio Management is an important concept for a CIO. It is very helpful in integrating business goals with IT initiatives. There are tools available to practice in different space. However, without waiting for application of tools a beginning can be made to introduce the process and get a better understanding before one invests in the tool.

The heuristic model discussed in this paper is a great tool which can be practiced in an organization. A beginning can be made without any additional investment in APM tools.
There are always applications that consume a significant portion of support resources. An APM study revealed that the top 20 applications in an organization out of 120 accounted for 88% hours spent on maintenance. A differential strategy was suggested for these applications, which included better supervision, reassignment of key resources, and aligning some of the applications with the long-term road map of the enterprise. This helped in reducing the overall maintenance time.

The analysis can also help in identifying applications in different buckets like Maintain, Continue, Improve and Retire.

Role of Project selection in building a successful company

I remember one of my Professor’s during my MBA days; once he gave us a powerful explanation on ‘Option of Choice’. During that time, one of the exams was close by. Typically students were used to the habit of answering five questions out of seven asked in the exam. Unlike other Professor’s, this professor was a little different and would never give options in the examination. When asked, “Father“, will we have any options this time? He replied, you will have a few of them. You can answer all 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 or don’t answer anyone. This short narration taught me the value of options in life. When I started working I found this short story to be of immense value. At every step of our lives we are confronted with several options. We may choose a few or let all go. The freedom of choice helps us to define the road ahead in our life.

Quarterly reporting has forced the company to just look one quarter ahead. The revenue targets and reporting to investors force company executives to dilute their freedom to choose an appropriate option. In hard times this becomes even more complex and the company executive tends to pick up “everything” which comes in front of them. This brings about serious consequences. In my long career path, I have come across such situations several times. May be dropping them could have lead the company to prosperity and growth.

I would like to share a case which was a result of wrong selection. The case demonstrates that how pseudo teaming happens when everyone in the management team says a yes. As such affirmative response gives a positive image to the participant. The whole team joins to cover up the failure and takes pride on great cooperation. The debate is whether such event is an example of great teaming up and co-operation or should this be viewed as team’s inability to arrive at the right decision in the beginning; this would have been profitable for the company and brings focus towards the goal.

The client was building a product which was running behind the schedule. The client had an urgency to expedite the work and meet release deadline. They wanted a vendor to take up some portion of their work and also help them in completing their work. The high level requirement was shared. The initial study of the requirement and sizing exercise indicated that it was not possible to complete in the given time frame. The client believed that if the vendor puts 3 qualified resources onsite, the job can be done. It was more of a feeling and did not have any back up of any scientific methods.

Sales team was constantly under the pressure to meet budget numbers and acquire new clients. Although the initial discussion on sizing was leading to a no-bid situation, they wanted to work with other operation division which agreed to work with them and complete the work in the given time frame. The result was simple and pleasing for everyone. A SOW was signed against the scientific estimation, based on a set of people who said yes to the unrealistic propositions. There was a sense of winning a new order which lead to a mood for celebration.
An onsite Project Manager was identified. She had working background in testing where as a substantial portion of the work was development. Meeting tight schedule was the key for success. Two developers were hired from the market. The three persons constituted the onsite project team.

It was hoped that on the success of this phase the subsequent phase moves offshore. The company was expected to give a fixed price bid for offshore portion. The offshore Manager was asked to help the Onsite project team. On first scrutiny of team’s capability and skill gap it was found that the team was not capable of delivering the contracted outcomes. This note was sent before the team assumed work onsite. The Manager controlling the activities along with sales believed that this was the best option in a given situation. The team went ahead with the onsite work. The activities went on for around 6 weeks. The outcome of this can be easily guessed by anyone. The client terminated the project. It was a LOSE-LOSE situation.

This event isn’t unusual - in any company. We all commit mistakes. It is important to learn from mistakes and not repeat the same in future. The success and failure depends on exercising the option of choice. Denis Waitley says;”Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success". Choice always comes in life. Going on a right path helps to create a sound work culture, brings focus in operating teams and drives better results. Let us argue that management starts rejecting such opportunities. It will bring focus in sales team. They will start looking for right opportunities. Teaming up is very essential in today’s environment for success. Probably the team started defining the “Teaming up” in an inappropriate sense.

This short case tells us a lot. Few of the lessons are:
1. Requirement assessment is the key to project’s success and profitability. Even under pressure, compromising on basics may not lead to success. I think the proper understanding of the situation is important. We should also work with stretch goal.
2. Taking every piece of work is putting your company in a troubled position. It prohibits bringing focus and growth. Saying ‘NO’ requires courage and conviction for success.
3. Technical feasibility of doing work and risk assessment should be treated as separate items. Balance between risk and appetite to take the level of risk is essential.
4. Teaming is the key to success. Teaming compromising functional boundaries leads to failures and provides a pseudo teaming feeling.
5. Role of devil advocate is very important. This brings a culture of discussion and looking at all aspects of the opportunity before a decision is arrived. The hierarchy or prevailing culture may be a deterrent in creating a proper climate for devil advocate’s role. The leadership should provide appropriate climate for devil advocate. Their contribution in helping to take a sound decision cannot be undermined.Whether the projects are small sized or large sized, every project must bring about appreciation, intelligence and a good business sense. To achieve our goals we should have a well planned Project Selection Process.

Delivering Quality

Software Development has gone through a lot of transformation over the last few decades. Many practices have evolved. A lot of metrics have been collected. Project Management software’s have been used to plan and track the project execution. Many new practices have come and gone by. New Practices keep on coming. A lot of change has happened in the lifecycle area. Agile is the BUZZ word at this point in time. The question is, has the industry delivered quality consistently? I am sure many one of us will come up with an answer “NO”.

There could be various reasons for not delivering “Quality” consistently. The industry has grown at astronomical pace. This has led to the lack of maturity in the practices. The industry will mature one day. The implementation of projects will become more predictable. What should we do in this transition phase – Maturing Software Industry? I have learnt a simple principle which I would like to share with you.

The software best practices are meant for delivering consistent quality. The principles are known to all. This is not a rocket- science. But most of us have struggled in implementing them successfully and thus couldn’t reap the benefits. I suggest here with a two phase formula for a quick result:

1. The Long term success & Consistency: The best answer would be obtained by following the best practices in requirement management, design, implementation, testing and deployment. I wonder if programmers shall ever be able to develop a set of bug free codes. If it happens then the tester communities will be unemployed. This certainly will impact sagging job market of a country like US and growing Job market of a country like India. Thanks to the effectiveness of Programmers, the testing job has been growing. The developers should continue trying hard for bug-free codes which would eventually lead to elimination of testing work. Think; if they code perfectly and implement all functionalities flawlessly, then at the crack of dawn our dreams shall come true. Practice for improvement will lead to better and better development and reduction of cost. Elimination of testing is still a farfetched thinking.

2. Deliver best to the customer in short term: Since the elimination of testing work or reducing the same to minimal is much more than a dream. We need to have some mechanism which produces better results. This may not be a very cost effective solution. But I have seen this helping win back the customer’s confidence. Unless we win customer’s confidence, work will not continue. Therefore, for point 1, – it is essential to keep going. The suggestion here is to divide the project team into Two teams
a. Development Team
b. Independent Test Team
The test team should be fully empowered and given independence. The team should report at a much higher level than the Project Manager. All testing best practices should be followed. I’m a witness to this and have seen this giving the best results. It helps in filtering the defects before it goes to customer. You have to incur additional cost to fix the bugs. But you are buying the customer’s confidence in the absence of best quality development. Unfortunately, many companies are doing this and striving for near flawless development. This is the right strategy to endure in today’s software industry.

I have noticed tremendous resistance by line managers to implement independent testing in each and every case. Such practices give a pseudo feeling of loss of authority. People tend to forget that “deferring problem” is not solving the problem. I have seen some techniques like Coaching; Training in testing, vigorously implementing this practice will help a lot. You may decide your own way to tread the path to success.

Create an Independent Test organization, carve it out from total project and implement. You will enjoy customer blessings. If you keep on doing point 1, you will continuously keep on improving profitability over the years.
Peter Drucker has rightly said, "The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a Satisfied CUSTOMER."

This shall help in delivering Quality consistently.

Successful Execution results from Tactical Approaches and Strategic Focus

In my last blog, I had mentioned about “Mindset Matters”. The article focused on the importance of positive mindset on finding solutions. Execution is considered to be the first and an important step towards improvement. After identifying the solution the more important aspect lies in “Executing the solution”. Effective execution occurs when the right things are done efficiently. If you do not have thinkers inside, you can use consultants to give you the solutions. You have to execute them yourself.

Stephen Levine has rightly said, “Buddha left a road map, Jesus left a road map, Krishna left a road map and Rand McNally left a road map. But you still have to travel the road yourself”.

This is all about execution. In your endeavor to travel the road, you might come across small hurdles. Some of them may go against your prescription based on the value system. Do not forget you have to succeed; you have to create an execution engine which delivers first time and every time. First time delivery is important to go on to the second part “Every time”.

I am sharing some of my experiences in delivering first time” and also on the approach towards delivering “Every time”. I suggest the following framework:

1. Tactical approach:
Let us assume you are in a situation where project is in deep red state. You have lost the customer’s confidence. Customer has an image of the problem. The image may not be right in entirety. But it is customer’s perception. Since the project is in red, your own management generally, may also be watching each step cautiously. Small successes are important here. Concentrate on small successes. This will help getting customer confidence back. This will help in generating a ray of hope and positivity in the mind of customers. This will also bring back management’s confidence in project team. Sometimes, your long term approach may not be gelling well with the short term actions you need to take to get small results. Let us say you have a customer nominee who has set a mind set. It is important to take him to confidence. Eventually, your success will help you change his mind set. At this stage do not work towards changing his mind set. Work towards getting quick fixes. Concentrate on low hanging fruits. Needless to say you have to win long term battle. Keep on doing what is required for long term success.

2. Strategic Approach:

I am assuming you have simple solutions which maps with the problems. That is the first step for proceeding. This will tell you to find a solution which will work. There are two key aspects for strategic success:
a. Long Term solution success:
During the execution process, attention to detail is required. Ideally this is PM’s work but if you sense that the PM needs help, then you need to step up and coach him. Let the PM understand the philosophy behind the solution. He accepts this one and pushes for success. You need to ensure that your monitoring system is fully aligned with the solution. During the course of execution there may be a need to course correct based on the feedback received from the monitoring system. If these simple steps are followed, the success will greet you.

b. Internalization:
I have personally tested the success going through the above framework. Let me also confess that I have also slipped back on few occasions. I have realized that once solution is achieved then process has to be internalized. You cannot keep on having close watch regularly. You need to step out but keep a watch through certain control system till there is an evidence of internalization. You may continue using the dash board you used for successful execution. If you think appropriate, the dash board can be tweaked.

The success Mantras are: stay focused, ensure attention to details, coach the people, slowly pass control and make them expert.

Mindset Matters

Each one of us has experienced many projects successes in our professional career. We have also come across situations where project goes through a tough time. We all would agree that the most common scenario is when the Customer complains The Project team gets into a syndrome; I will name this as “It’s Customer Fault Syndrome”. It finds a cause which is external to it; may be it has to do with some action or elements at customer’s end. Whenever a problem occurs, some causes are found which points to the pre-identified cause. Sometimes the cause may be valid. I would argue it gives the team, tremendous power if they get out of “It’s Customer Fault Syndrome” and start looking inside out.

Let us take a case for discussion. Due to privacy issue, the data available to us was always dated. Sometimes we came across a situation where the testing was constrained due to dated data. The defect was difficult to produce. Our team did not look at the alternative ways and took an easy path. Think; if the team members would have looked for an alternate way then I am sure they could have found some alternate (BEST) solution. Instead the team preferred to continuously stay in “It’s Customer Fault Syndrome”. This wasn’t helpful.

There was another situation where the team had developed the software under discussion from ‘scratch’. The software was under maintenance mode. Whenever the customer found many defects, the team came up together to identify the defects. The team would classify the defects as Existing defect, Change Request, etc. The team went an extra mile by identifying the change requests but the Change requests were never agreed by the customer in a joint meeting. This way of classification gave the team a pseudo-satisfaction of not committing too many defects. This continued to go on for a while. You can imagine the amount of noise being generated; we were on the verge of losing the work. Management realized that they were under “It’s Customer Fault Syndrome”. Finally they decided to come out of it. Initially a lot of explanation was required. There was also resistance in the team. But the decision was to be taken. Both the causes mentioned above were got rid off. The goal was to own all the defects. The team discussed them and very soon, we came across a situation where improvement was visible.

This is not a rocket science. But unfortunately many times we become a victim of this syndrome. I suggest that whenever you see many fingers shown towards customer, look at it. Let us not forget customer pays our pay check. Start looking inside-out. Try changing the situation democratically. If it takes time; think of other options. Your success depends on coming out of “It’s Customer Fault Syndrome”. You will get good solutions. You will succeed.

Success- is all about Mindset. It’s the Mindset which matters.

Joint Requirement Discovery

Requirement management is the essence of Project’s Success. In simple words, it means that most of the problems that the projects encounter could have been avoided from the very begining by making it very simple and to understand the Customer’s expectations from the respective projects. Very often we hear the story of changing requirements. I was going through a project review; I came to know that the requirements were changing very often. May be that is a truth. But when we hear the customer’s side of the story you often get a different perspective. Customer often thinks that development teams lack the domain understanding and the ability to interpret requirements. There is always a fine line between understanding of requirement and seeking clarifications from customers. When you come across a story of frequent change in requirements and many requests for pending clarifications, it is time to look at your requirement elicitation process.

There are different stake holders in the Project. They view the requirements differently. They all may be right in their respective perceptions but collectively going by their understanding of requirements one cannot deliver a project to meet all their understanding.It reminds me of a very famous story of “Six Blind Men and the Elephant”.

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day an elephant came to the village. They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, “Even though we would not be able to see the elephant, let us go and feel the elephant by touching it”. Each of the blind men touched the elephant. Perceptions emerged about the elephant. Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg. "Oh, no! It is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail. "Oh, no! It is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. "It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. "It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. "It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

I think requirement process is very similar to the process of six blind men feeling the elephant. The designer, the developer, the tester and the user perceive the requirement differently. They are touching the requirements at a different point of time. They carry different perceptions and often get into a conflict about the requirement. Think of the situation where the six blind men had reconciled their respective observations. Obviously, a holistic picture about the elephant could have emerged.

Therefore it helps if different stakeholders sit together after their initial feel, reconcile their understanding and then come up with a unified view of the requirement. A simple three step process may be very useful in rationalizing requirements:
1. Every Stakeholder studies the requirement separately. They are Designer, Developer, Analyst, Tester etc
2. They come with their findings and questions and sit and discuss their understanding. Reconcile them and finally put a unified understanding to the customer.
3. Customer validates and rationalize the requirements.

These simple steps can avoid a confusion which crops in at a later state. Although these steps are simple and do not require great processes, we rarely implement them. These steps can be implemented in different flavor across different development methodologies.

These are Simple fundamentals but it works.