David Harris

1
MGMT631 IS Project Management

• Slides Three

2
Overview

• Delighting customers
• Translating needs into requirements
• Organizational issues
• Non-cooperative customers
• Stakeholders
• Organizational commitment
• Customer-developer gap

3
Overview (cont.)
Bohac on Politics

• Politics
• control of outcomes via control of people.
• Use political tools in conjunction with
  product-oriented tools
• Use of political tools NOT inherently bad
• Ignoring politics can result in unnecessary
  losing outcomes

4
Delighting Customers

• Delight not just satisfy
• Knowing who they are, what they want, when they
  are right wrong
• Obsession with customer satisfaction is part of
  the new project management
• Nothing obvious/trivial about identifying
  customers
• (Frame)

5
Delighting Customers (cont.)

• High-value organizations are in business of
  selling solutions, not hardware, and customer
  satisfaction achieved through partnering between
  buyers sellers
• (Frame)

6
Meeting Customer Expectations

• Product/service usable
• Promises kept
• competent/gracious service
• needs understood addressed effectively

7
Customers - Needs/Requirements

• Must work tirelessly to understand them
• Its a translation process twixt ill-defined
  languages

8
Requirements?
9
Customers - Needs/Requirements

• Needs analyst traits
• strong ability to deal with customers
• political skills
• technically competent
• open-minded imaginative
• high tolerance for ambiguity
• articulate
• Technicians tend to produce Mercedes not the
  Hyundai thats wanted

10
Improving Needs Definition

• Understand present system in full context
• Identify multiple customers, prioritize their
  needs
• Needs defining task force involving customers
• Educate customers in rudiments of project
  management
• must realize its an exercise in compromise
• multiple customers, conflicting needs, budget
  schedule constraints

11
Needs Analysis
12
Organizational Issues

• You are PM not CEO/COO
• Yet you need organizations commitment, so
• focus organizations culture on customer value
  (culture change!)
• unbridled change so organize into short,
  achievable deliverables
• total life cycle (?)
• improve processes for customer delight
• strengthen project staff capabilities, e.g.
  business non-technical skills

13
Changing Corporate Culture

• BPR (project oriented) not TQM (process
  oriented), so
• Focus on value
• Encourage upside-down thinking
• Power sharing
• Long term view
• Total customer focus

14
Business Reengineering Quality Management
15
Stakeholder Concept

• In projects stakeholders are the movers shakers
• Stakeholder roles
• Customers/users
• Sponsor(s)
• Line (functional) management
• Project manager
• Project team
• Anyone/everyone else with a stake
• Verzuh

16
Stakeholders

• First identify all stakeholders
• Must delight not just direct customers, but also
  stakeholders
• This is tough!
• Customers, management, project team must all
  agree on project goals
• Project manager must coordinate, guide, lead this
  diverse group through the project stages

17
Organizational Commitment

• Organization committed to PM
• organization has project management system
  defining processes practices
• system disseminated to employees via education
  training
• management instills the discipline necessary to
  ensure system followed
• system is living document not collecting dust

18
Bridging Customer-Developer Gap

• Partnering youre partners
• If fail to get needs/requirements right both
  sides at fault
• Communications barriers
• cultural, vocabulary, medium, feedback
• Tips be up front, cautious (Murphys Law),
  realistic, clear, dont jump to solutions,
  communicate/educate
• Joint Sessions (JPP, JAD)

19
Bohac on Politics
20
Politics vs Product
Product
Ethics
Politics

• product/service provided to customer
• function-quality-service
• Success if meets specs, on time, under budget

• perception of what we provided
• perception-expectation
• success defined by positive surprises

21
Perceptions Expectations

• Stakeholders have preconceived perceptions
  expectations
• Perhaps unrealistic, in hope of solving major
  problems
• These perceptions/expectations are reality to
  them
• If discrepancy, surprise will occur

22
First Law of Politics

• Rule 1 surprise will always happen
• Rule 2 managing surprises is key to customer
  satisfaction
• First Law
• Perception Expectation Surprise
• Perception view of product/service actually
  observed
• Expectation view what should be able to do

23
Reality is a Myth

• Imagined
• Map
• Truth
• . . what you believe
• . . . . subjective

• Real
• Territory
• Fact
• . . . . what is true
• . . . objective reality

24
Second Law of Politics

• Second Law
• Perception Reality
• Doesnt matter what you do, only what people
  think you do
• As many truths (realities) as there are people
  no-one better than any other

25
Third Law of Politics

• There are trade-offs twixt wants and needs
• Also gap twixt wants/needs can create negative
  surprise later
• hence poor stakeholder satisfaction
• Third Law
• Wants Needs Surprise

26
Fourth Law of Politics

• Fourth Law
• Perception today Expectation tomorrow
• This is law of political momentum
• More effort required as time goes on to create
  positive surprises

27
Political Definition of Success

• Notes
• Success exists in minds of stakeholders
• Success varies over time
• Our task is to control surprises
• This takes precedence over product/services !!!

28
Equation for Success

• Success Sum of surprises as perceived by all
  customers over time
• in
• Success ( ? S i ) t
• i1
• n of stakeholders
• t time

29
Equation for Success II

• in
• Success ( ?s i w i ) t
• i1
• w weight associated with each
• stakeholder

30
Political Credibility

• Every person/organizational component has a stack
  of political chips
• There is price when we try to control an
  outcome
• If we dont have enough chips at the time we fail
  to control
• So vital to maintain sufficient pile of chips

31
Political Credibility

• Chips go away when
• we spend in political process
• we create negative surprises
• they evaporate over time
• We gain chips when
• we create positive surprises
• we join
• via our business/technical abilities

32
Attaining Political Credibility

• Establish mission
• what products/services we provide
• Identify stakeholders
• functional (direct)
• political (indirect)
• Survey stakeholders
• what expectations/perceptions exist?
• criteria for measuring them?
• triggers for them?

33
Attainment (continued)

• Survey stakeholders (cont.)
• stakeholders wants/needs?
• contradictions twixt them?
• wall erected?
• Establish vehicles
• For each stakeholder, what vehicle exists to
  control expectations/perceptions in the criteria
  for that user?

34
Stakeholder Analysis Chart
35
Leverage Techniques

• Leverage
• to be effective must apply political credibility
  at right point
• this is principle of leverage
• target chips toward specific owners (we may be
  credible with one person not another)
• not enough to have chips, we must have them in
  right place at right time

36
Leverage Techniques

• Leverage principles
• target chips to be where when needed
• Identify winners/losers winners work for you
  losers against
• Use someone elses chips get one of winners to
  attempt control

37
Persuasion

• Common mistake among technicians
• assume sufficient evidence/logical argument will
  convince people
• that reason logic rule the day
• But best idea backed by credible evidence wont
  fly unless those controlling outcome agree to it
• We must sway the decision/outcome

38
Persuasion Process

• Define decision we want
• List every major player who can affect decision
• people, groups, organizations
• i.e. the stakeholders
• Assess
• position of each player -- for or against
• power of each player
• priority each player places on outcome

39
Persuasion Process (cont.)

• What can we do to cause the power, position,
  priority of each player to change so the outcome
  we want will occur?

40
Persuasion (cont.)
Person Power Position Priority Score
A 4 4 1 16 B 2 -5 5
-50 C 1 0 2 0 (assign value, 1-5,
5 high)
41
Technical Competence is insufficient

• Embrace Politics

42
NIBCO Big Bang Case Study

• Manufacturing Co. info poor
• Consultants propose long phased ERP
  implementation
• NIBCO goes for big bang
• SAP plus IBM as consultants
• Key management players
• Championed by CEO Martin
• Tiger Triad of Wilson, Beutler, Davis
• Exec leadership team
• Implemented within 30 days grace period
• Initial production problems, then success
• Success factors?

43
Summary

• Requirements Usability
• Politics
• Customers Stakeholders