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foxp3+ regulatory t cells
I often say “Yes” and make commitments based on my commitment to meet a date rather than on a clear understanding of what I am committing to and what the risks are. It’s just the way business is done here and I have adapted to it. When the requirements are sketchy but the demand is great for a particular project, I flex my technical muscles and rise to the challenge. I can and will deliver! I’ve done it before and I’ll make it happen again! But there’s always this nagging feeling that although I am ‘making it happen’ one more time, I am sacrificing something dear to me – my integrity. Frankly that makes me angry and depressed sometimes because I want to do a quality job and often I feel like a victim of the fast paced IT business. Webster defines the word “Integrity” as: honesty; uprightness; wholeness; unity; unimpaired condition. Those last few words…”unimpaired condition” really sting. Some of you may think I am being too sensitive but bear with me. I know many of you feel the same way and think there’s no way to change the pace of work coming at you. Perhaps you have decided that compromised integrity is just part of doing business in IT – it’s not. Operating from an ‘unimpaired condition’ is relevant to everyone in the organization that makes key decisions during the project life cycle. To encourage integrity is to bring relevant information into the light so truly reliable decisions can be made even if they include making quality concessions to meet a tight deadline. The solution to this problem many of us face is to use information to raise integrity even if you can’t change the amount and frequency of fast paced projects. You can responsibly record, track, and report true information that raises your integrity and just may be useful in changing how IT operates in your shop for the better over the long haul. Here’s three things you can do to change things today:
Record EXPECTED and OPTIMIZED Project Timeline Dates with POST-PRODUCTION-RISK: If you use a work flow tool (like MKS Integrity Manager) you can add new OPTIMIZED dates fields and commit to populating them based on what you learn in he requirements and design phases of the project. Build into your process a review of the EXPECTED vs. OPTIMIZED timeline. I know your management won’t let you change the EXPECTED timeline but you owe it to your pursuit of integrity to record an optimized timeline so take the time to do it. RISK in this case means the risk that the project will require fixes in post-production. You should have 2 values to keep it simple – Low and High. High indicates a project that will require expensive, time-consuming, and high risk post-production work that will steal time from new projects. When management sees these designations it will highlight where they are allocating resources away from productive development. Present a Public View of the REQUESTED vs. OPTIMIZED Timeline It is amazing how much power there is in presenting useful information in a public place as long as it is done responsibly. A great way to do this is to develop a management dashboard, publish it on your intra-net, and make it a place where current data is always available. This can be as simple as hyper-links that run reports from your work flow tool or links to spreadsheets you keep up to date. You should show at least two key views here. First, show a report that clearly identifies the gap between the schedule OPTIMIZED for integrity and the business driven EXPECTED timeline. Secondly, show a view that clearly identifies the POST-PRODUCTION-RISK by project. If you have many project in a release, you might total the risk levels clearly showing how many projects of each risk level are going into production. When management sees how many HIGH risk projects are going into production they will most likely want to lower that number. That’s your opportunity to pitch quality and a timeline closer to the OPTIMIZED schedule. You might even suggest taking a few projects and running them in the optimized fashion to prove the efficiencies. Present Views Showing the True Life of Each Project View: In your public dashboard location present a view showing projects with their EXPECTED vs. ACTUAL number of days by phase. Also show a grand total for the project – REQUESTED vs. ACTUAL. To do this, add a phase called post-production maintenance to your SDLC. Record or derive the number of days in each phase including post-production. This will show clearly the true picture of what it took to complete each project including post-production maintenance. When management sees how many days of POST-PRODUCTION work are chewing up time and resources they will realize that their choices are sabotaging their commitment to do new projects. So, Say Yes, but Say it With Integrity! Maintaining integrity is critical to your personal goals and long term success and it should be the goal of every organization as well. Operating from an ‘unimpaired condition,’ a position of integrity, should be your goal. I read once that users don’t remember late software as much as they remember broken software. Folks, integrity matters and you can raise the bar by simply recording, reporting, and applying some powerful information. Even if you are forced to meet unrealistic deadlines you can operate from an informed position of high integrity bringing relevant information into the light where decisions can be made. You will feel better, your users will believe your project estimates, and I just bet your quality will increase over time! Jim Winder is a 20 year veteran of the IT industry with extensive experience helping organizations through the discovery, design, and implementation of SCM process and tools. Jim's current activities involve implementing enterprise change management in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry. Jim regularly implements MKS's Integrity Manager and Source Integrity tools, delivers training, and is organizer of MKS Northeast User group. Jim can be reached at thehardbutrightway@yahoo.com or by phone at 908-963-4872.
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| Last Updated on Monday, 11 August 2008 19:24 |
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