Prashanth B Panduranga
Friday, September 19, 2014
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Continued . . Part 1
How it all fits together [Solution]
Technology positioning system’s [TPS] output
forms the key to the organizations focus, TechSharp will work on the trending
Languages, Frameworks, Techniques, Tools, and Platforms across domains in the
IT industry, and identify the right ones for the organization to adopt. This
data will be used to propose and implement solution for new projects by the
delivery teams. Sales force will use this data to sell the organizations
capabilities. TPS will also align with the sales pipeline outliers, and form a
combined Technology positioning for the organization.
Imagine the possibilities of leveraging this
data.. The Recruitment team can use this data to plan their hiring. They
leverage TechSharp to put together the JD’s for the technologies. The LEAD team
has a clear technology training focus. Delivery team can plan bench or
recommend up skilling of existing strength. The rest of organization team
members know which skills is in demand for them to learn and excel.
TechSharp also helps conduct a gap assessment
within the organization. When the technology focus is clear and is aligned with
the pipeline, it is easier to conduct the gap drive. Example: Hybris is
recommended as a technology to adopt. There are 8 different clients whom the
Sales force is talking to which needs Hybris skillset. The pipeline suggests
that to fulfill the requirements in the next 6 months the organization will
need 8 Hybris Architects, 26 Hybris senior Leads and 48 developers. The
organization has a few of them working on the same, couple might become
available and rest need to be hired or trained in the same. 30% can be trained
because they either have exposure to the technology or have worked on it
already. All the teams gets atleast 90 days head start to fulfill the
requirement.
TechSharp also creates reference architecture
documents, knowledge base, POC, Training material and Labs for the teams to
leverage thereafter.
TechSharp will be part of the sales cycle
along with the Pre-Sales teams contributing on the Solution stack, RFP
Questionnaire etc. TechSharp will however begin the cycle with the discussions
with the exec level discussions (CTO/CIO/EA) with the client. This will not
only help TechSharp understand product owner vision of the product, but also
understand the client roadmap. TechSharp will create a roadmap for the team to
consume. Based on the roadmap TechSharp will recommend the reusable frameworks
that has already been created/evaluated by TechSharp, by which the team gets to
work on tried and tested frameworks and always has a group to help when
needed.
Implementation of a project:
TechSharp although not part of the delivery
team, will be part of Sprint 0 and Sprint 1, understanding the requirements,
recommending the right technology stack, Solution, getting the right team
on-boarded and helping with the estimate. The teams will follow the agile
process and estimate the work items themselves, TechSharp will only be involved
in aligning the roadmap, vision from the CTO and the technology direction. Post
Sprint 1 TechSharp will be involved in every sprint review meetings and
planning meetings as part of the Audit and governance framework.
Be it critical thinking, Analytical Thinking,
Problem solving or people management, with the right direction and timely input
TechSharp helps the teams to perform effectively at work through the Competency
framework. Mentor program aligns with the TPS program to up skill and recommend
the counselees. TechSharp also facilitates multiple events, and training
programs with special emphasis on Social evangelism.
Programs at a glance
Technology Positioning System:
We know where we want to go, need a program which helps get there.
Program
designed to provide a technology vision, streamlined focus and roadmap to the
organization.
The
program identifies areas that the consulting opportunities exist via
extensive research, feedback from the Sales force, POC, Analysis and market
study [Reuse data from Gartner Hype Cycle, Forrester Wave and other industry
Analysis]. This data is then overlaid
against the pipeline and enriched.
The
program produces the focus area:
Applications,
Trends, Techniques, Platforms, Tools, Languages, Frameworks, and Insights
A
detailed insight of each of the above including best practices, standards and
recommendations on the adoption.
This
information can then used to create cheat sheets for the sales force [Help
with sales] to create a well-defined GO TO Market Strategy and the Mentor
program [Help with recommending counselees].
The
information is also further useful to the Recruitment, HR , and the Lead
teams to align the work force and up skill the resources [including bench]
|
Roadmap:
Program
designed to provide the Stakeholder high-level aspirational view of the end
architecture. The roadmap lists individual increments of change and lays them
out on a timeline to show progression from the Baseline Architecture to the
Target Architecture and future goals.
Helping
the architects in the project to see beyond the scope of the project and
laying down the right foundation and alignment to growth, or keep the
transparency of the technical debt to the client with the decision registry.
|
Gap Drive:
The
TPS program will provide the complete list of skills that the organization
needs to have. The Gap Drive program will drive to fill the gaps in the skill
set.
The
workforce will be provided with tools to self-assess themselves.
The
new hire process will ensure that the gap is covered.
|
People management:
The
program includes setting a benchmark for hiring new skills, conducting hire
drives, interviews.
|
POC + Labs:
|
Provide
an environment to learn and practice skills identified by TPS. Support
Projects and Sales force with POC’s on cutting edge technologies
|
Value Portal:
Program
designed to collect the new ideas from the source, the team who works day in
day out for a project. T# will rationalize the ideas, identify the ROI and
communicate the same to the stakeholders
|
Thinking Architecture:
Program
designed to gamify teams on the tenets of architecture.
Archimedes
|
Hackathon
A Day, 2 days
or even week long hack events, where teams comprising of passionate geeks
hack their way through the newest of technologies such as responsive web,
complex event processing, predictive analysis, augmented reality, Cloud,
cross platform development etc., in the process learning, evaluating
and implementing uber cool solutions for complex problems nurturing their
passion and natural desire for coding, competition, and sense of
achievement
|
Estimation:
Estimating
the effort, time and resources needed to complete project especially for
newer skills against all inherent uncertainties helping Sales force get
across RFPs and teams across projects
|
Governance:
Practice
and orientation by which architecture is managed and controlled:
Implementing
a system of controls over the creation and monitoring of all architectural
components and activities, to ensure the effective introduction,
implementation, and evolution of architecture
|
Risk Registry:
A
Risk management process that identifies flaws in a software architecture and
determines risks to business information assets that result from those flaws.
Impact to the business, mitigations for those risks and governance to measure
the efficacy of the mitigations.
|
Other Programs:
Enterprise
Framework
|
Knowledge
Base
|
Training
|
Social Presence:
Evangelizing
the outreach of teams and worlds degree of awareness of the team members via
blogs, articles, white papers and more
|
Tech Counselling:
Mentoring
program in which an experienced mentor assists mentoree in developing skills
and knowledge that enhance professional and personal growth.
|
Maturity
Program
maturity is based on the following factors:
Friday, September 12, 2014
TechSharp [T#] Going beyond Architecture Center of Excellence
Consulting Services companies goes through multitude of challenges in its Sales cycle, Delivery Cycle and over all Competency building and maintaining cycle. In this 2 part blog, I write about the various issues, Well whats the point in discussing problems with out a solution, Worry Not, The blog culminates with a tried and tested solution.
Tried Architecture as Shared Services? Felt like Abstracting the best of the resources, while encapsulating them well within at the same time? Tried creating COE’s? Have the management shot back stating it is overused/abused concept, tried and failed? Yes there are lot of reasons to fail when NOT done right.
This blog entry documents the RIGHT way, tried and tested Recursively.
Introduction
What is TechSharp? Why do we need it? Is it an
Architecture center of excellence? What is its significance? What issues does it
resolve or even prevent from happening in the first place? Who benefits from
it? What are the levels of Architecture maturity model?
“Inside
every problem lies an opportunity” - Robert
Kiyosaki
Problem Statement
Figure 1
: Summary of consulting problems
The three pillars of Services Companies are:
1. Sales
2. Delivery
3. Technical
Competency
With the ever changing technology landscape –
Quantum Computing, Complex event processing, 3D printing, prescriptive
analytics, predictive analytics, augmented reality, Internet of things, Cloud
computing, etc. . . . , keeping up to it
is always challenging
Sales:
Having a great sales force will get the clients
interested in anything, making sure they are trained and are provided with
relevant information is quite important.
Getting an initial meeting – easy peasy ? We
all know that isn’t the case… Compare it to converting the meeting to an
opportunity ! ! ! First and foremost, the sales force needs the right technical
expertise accompanying them, right case studies, bringing the right people
together, asking the right questions, a lot of persistence and a whole lot of
perseverance, the client is now interested, but you aren’t the only one. .
There are 4 others chosen to submit an RFP !
Submission timeframe too small: Have skilled resources available to get the
RFP on time, Need to depict a very detailed solution architecture, clearly
define the technology stack, identify the existing resources, identify the
availability of the resources for the project, availability of the skill set
internally and in the market, Estimate the cost for the project along with the
time line, assumptions, risk and other project management goodies. .
Need the best people presenting the RFP
“Can we please have an architect more so an Enterprise Architect” !
! !
Delivery:
Won a project, Hurray mails sent ! !
Client
wants to get started immediately, well somehow managed to get 6 to 8 weeks
time, Forming a team with-in the
time frame not always the easiest. Unable to find the resources on time,
especially niche skills, start compromising for average resources, Never a good
idea. . Is it?
The
client had provided an indication on price, the estimated price is way higher..
Do we need an architect? X, Do we need 5 resources? X let’s make it 3, Do we
need so many resources onsite? X lets have them all offshore, and so it goes
on.. ending with Projects without
Architects, No thorough requirements follow through, New team thinks the RFP is under-estimated, The team
members who were part of the RFP or the entire process have changed and there
was no transition. The delivery believes that the effort is still
underestimated, the management thinks enough buffer has been added.. whatever
that means.. Margins are covered? All
set to go !
There is no standard proactive external Audits and Governance in place
Flawed estimation techniques in place
Agile
methodology being used, and the client is driving most of the requirements, the
project members are way too involved losing the track on the architecturally
significant components, architecture
debt on the project is creeping up.
The
initial discussions were with the C-level folks, being a smaller company there
aren’t any technical representatives from the company. The company has
appointed a product owner, who is very clear about the current project
requirements however doesn’t have a clear vision on the roadmap of the company, the product is about to be out, the C level folks are now being demoed and
they want to see the same on their device, It doesn’t work ! ! That was not in
scope. Well the blame is always on the vendor, rightly so?
There
is an architect in the team who talks to the business analyst for the
requirements, there is client services team who have good relation with the
client, and the business analyst have good relation. The technical relationship
is however missing completely. The architect is not too articulate in sharing
the ideas which could have contributed to the extension of the project. The
architect is driving most of the things with-out any external governance, and
out of emergency the architect had to leave. NO STRONG TECHNICAL RELATIONSHIP, SINGLE POINTS OF FAILURE ! !
The team is working on a new tool, language,
framework, etc for which the org has not created a standards/best practice
document yet.
There
are multiple projects/case studies using a particular technology stack, however
every new project the team starts from scratch. There is knowledge base, best
practices document which are 100+ pages, none of the teams bother to read
through them. The best practices have not been updated forever. A new project
manager wants to implement standards however looking at how old it is, discards
it, now it is up to the team’s capability. There are also no reusable
frameworks, other teams have used the same exact stack, overcome quite a few
hurdles, however each team learns the same lessons. It is like part of the non-optional
syllabus! ! !
Performance
issues, we have been trying this forever not able to fix it, can we get some
consultants to help us, client is complaining about the overall quality of the
product, architect says this is the most optimal architecture and client says
it is far from it, client has called for external audit to review the
architecture identified security gaps, client had clearly provided instructions
that the software needs to be SAAS enabled, cloud ready, however the test
performed was no different from the traditional development initial test in the
cloud was a disaster !
A
mandate to follow agile. The team is still getting used to the paradigm. It is
quite interesting, planning poker cards, story points, daily scrum,
retrospectives, backlog refinement, sprint reviews and Quality group has set
other processes around code reviews, check in comments, continuous deployment
and integration, and however there is no architecture governance as part of the
process, and the client isn’t always available so the business analyst has been
made the product owner. Process gaps
Every project manager will have faced
the resourcing dread, and that’s an understatement. Starting from getting
together the team, to managing the time, to managing attrition, the extended
notice periods, the sudden drop outs, week end interview drives, getting a
skilled resource needs a good interview process and a technically good resource
following the process.
“Can we have architects please?”
Tech Competency:
Great team, Geeks, intellectuals, problem
solvers, go to guys, enthusiastic, love what they do.
Time is THE only limiting factor..
A great developer might have a potential to be
a great lead, a great architect or just continue to be a greater developer in
not only one area but in multiple, be able to pick up new skills and excel in
it. However, the projects are taking all the time and is getting impacted by
the issues listed in the delivery area, having to spend ++ hours apart from the
regular time, NO time to up-skill. Have you had people stuck in projects for
years, how about 5, 6. . Well if there is a project for that long, All is well
lol J
Org does not have programs to help upgrade the
resources.
Some might really be exited to even let go of
the work life balance philosophy and spend time to learn the niche, emerging
technical skills, however there aren’t labs or environment/facilities that
enable them to do so, their interest may take them only so far
Org has a subscription to websites which
provides basic training, and it is also licensed on number of users, so there
is a limit to share the same. Did I emphasize on BASIC. The invite/subscription is extended to only those who are
interested. Some of them don’t end up using it at all. Time constraints. Others
don’t get the subscription, too busy to even show interest.
What skill training is being offered? Are they
in alignment with the Org’s roadmap? Where does the cost for the training go?
The client pays for some if they have introduced new skills, the division or
the BU takes care of a few, the corporate takes care of a few. Which skills
should all these investments go in to?
Should the Org be providing the basic
training? .Net, Java still? Cant that be mandated as part of the hiring?
There are resources who know where they stand
but, that would be in their own perspective, there are NO benchmarks for
self-assessments. Org having a view of these assessments is also great. Setting
goals for appraisals, putting together a career plan,
having training courses etc as part of the goal setting exercise, the software
used for performance appraisal, NOT so mature.
There are No clearly defined R & R
Summary table of issues/problems
Issues
|
Category
|
Shortage of people
|
Sales
|
Solution Definition (Includes Team
formation)
|
Sales
|
Context based Technical Questionnaire for
the client
|
Sales
|
Estimation Challenges
|
Sales
|
Pre-Sales team to Delivery team Transition
|
Sales
|
Quality of Pre-Sales documents
|
Sales
|
Tech Competency
|
Sales
|
Communication/Process gaps
|
Sales
|
No knowledge of the client roadmap (team)
|
Sales
|
Understanding
the roadmap of the client
|
Delivery
|
Define
Standards/Compliance
|
Delivery
|
Architectural
Tools/Reusable framework
|
Delivery
|
Identifying and
Highlighting the solution risk
|
Delivery
|
Proactive and
continued Solution review/Audit
|
Delivery
|
Requirements
follow through
|
Delivery
|
Overall
Solution Quality
|
Delivery
|
Team formation/People Availability
|
Delivery
|
Defining and owning the Technical Ownership
|
Delivery
|
Overseeing projects without Architects
|
Delivery
|
Establishing and managing client technical
relationship
|
Delivery
|
Performance of the application
|
Delivery
|
Estimation gaps
|
Delivery
|
Clearly defined R & R
|
Delivery
|
Interview Process
|
Tech Competency
|
Assessment of skills
|
Tech Competency
|
Update to existing skill database and gaps
|
Tech Competency
|
Availability of skilled people
|
Tech Competency
|
New skill building
|
Tech Competency
|
Lack of environment/Lab to learn
|
Tech Competency
|
Lack of knowledge on the organizations
technology direction
|
Tech Competency
|
Lack of a well-defined career growth
|
Tech Competency
|
View the Solution here
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