Did you forget your: Username / Password ?

Microsoft

TechWell

Home

CM Journal Articles

Another Tool in Your Bag of Tricks (Part 2)

Written by Randy Wagner

Monday, 15 November 2004 16:00

In the first article we saw that doing CM well is partly an extension of good customer service and customer relationship management. In this article we’ll apply those principles at the transactional level. Again, it’s not the rot-your-teeth sweetness but solid principles in line with our own goals that help us succeed.

The number one aspect of good customer service and relationship management is communication. Without good communication, we lose the feedback from the customer on how well we’re meeting their needs and we miss out on future opportunities. That means both ends of the projects. It's important when getting started on a project but also make sure CM is on the agenda in the lessons-learned phase of the project. Make sure we have a decent working relationship with all the functional areas. Get into their offices in situations outside of a specific project focus. Being seen and heard is to our every advantage. When we see and talk to people regularly, they are much more likely to come to us with issues that can be more easily resolved than long-term powder kegs. Good press principles dictate being seen frequently and honestly, especially in bad times. The sooner things are dealt with, the quicker they become history and we can focus on the next success. Leave the spin to management. The honesty also provides accountability, which is of course, the evil twin of quality and pushes us to succeed. Most of us are not the ebullient sales type, but staying in our cubicles away from our customers is just bad for business.

Good communication also means standards. How long is the expected turn-around time for us? Do they need daily builds? What is the necessary uptime for tools? How many hours are we expected to put in for a project? Are non-business hours expected and what’s the response time needed? The answers are usually something like instant, twice daily, 105%, 80, yes, and instant, respectively. That’s not feasible but working that out ahead of time reduces headaches later. Whether you call it a memorandum of understanding or a service level agreement, get it in writing ahead of time. Give yourself reasonable leeway. Unless the customer is paying to have staff at their desks off-hours, they need to give a reasonable window for calling people in. Make sure there is an escalation plan to keep CM mgmt in the loop, if necessary.

By the same token, make sure our team understands the plan. Often, they are the one alone, on the line, at 3am, when the client is too tired and frustrated to make reasonable requests. The agreement ensures customer satisfaction just as much as it protects the CM team. And filter down all the communication from the other functional areas, too. Keep the team in the loop. CM leadership needs to make sure the troops know what the customer needs. We generally try not to hire the dumb ones, so give them every opportunity to improve the customer relationship. They’re the ones who have to execute.

Obligatory note: make sure they can “hear” your smile through the phone. Be pleasant, courteous, and diligent. Under promise and over deliver. Expect professionalism from the CM team. Make reports easy to read and presentable. As tedious or annoying as these points may be, they really do work. Watch for it the next time you are the customer. That’s all I’ll say on the sugar points.

The customer service rubber meets the CM road in hundreds of places. Every status accounting report we provide, every time they query a CM tool, each CI they access, and especially every audit of our process area is an interaction with the client. We all provide some process for people to follow but how easy do we make it for them? Are the reports, forms, or displays well thought out? Can we reduce confusion? What is easy to understand from our perspective will not be so from others. The more they use our systems, the more dependent customers become on them. That's good for business. What else can we provide for them? Microsoft is king at using "multiple hooks." They want to provide you with the OS, desktop programs, Internet access, communication tools, and, more recently, media content. The same is true of your phone company, cable company, or even your bank. There's no reason we can't do similar things within CM. The more points the organization depends on us, the more relevant we are to them. CI and version control, tools management, build management, release management, process management, status accounting are points we can support. Multiple hooks mean better positioning and stability in the organization, in other words, customer loyalty. You know the value CM brings the organization as a whole. We should explore every opportunity where we can make a solid contribution to the overall bottom line.

Access is key. With appropriate security, give them the ability to acquire the information themselves. Use automation to deliver as much as we can. It may be relevant to set up standard queries or publicize the location for regular reports. Customer service does not have to mean aggravation on our part. Ideally, we can deliver great customer service just by being good administrators to our tools and keeping the lines of communication open.

What's also good for business but not so easy is coordinating between functional areas. If we've done our homework we know the inputs, activities, and outputs of each area. So how well do they match up with the sequences necessary in the lifecycle? Would one group's work be easier if another group mildly tweaked their outputs? If the predecessor group balks, how can we use our tools to facilitate the shift and make it palatable? Whether you are looking at IEEE, CMMI or any other standard, the maturity and sophistication of an organization is the level to which bottom-rung people in a given functional area really understand the effect they have across the SDLC pond. Being the hub of the wheel gives us the unique position and responsibility to help make that possible. Again, use the Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) to every advantage. Give the customers the ability to work out among themselves how to best be served, within reason.

Here's another good tactic taken from the pages of customer service: awards like specific successes, audit results (hopefully), and recognition for special efforts. Give the customers every reason to look on the CM team as highly accomplished. And it serves the additional function of raising retention rates in the team. We are what we believe we are. If the team has meaningful certificates on the wall, they'll feel and project the confidence necessary to work successfully with customers. Note your successes like major implementations or releases with zero CM defects, consistent low turn-around times, 99% up time for tools, or positive feedback from customers on a CM member. Don't be petty with it. Make sure it truly means something and that it has to be earned. The more success we see in ourselves, the more success the customers will see in us.

At the transactional level, customer service is not an added layer of aggravation. It's the paved road toward significant success. Use the knowledge gained through communication to provide access and coordination. Build your teams credibility by showcasing their talents. Use multiple hooks to develop customer loyalty and reduce our own aggravation by automating as much as we can. These things are not just good ideas. They are the ideas put to use successfully every day in the world around us. In the final article of this series we'll look at the strategic opportunities good customer service gives CM.

Randy Wagner is a Contributing Editor for CM Crossroads and VP of Technology Development with Taylor Bean & Whitaker in Ocala FL. His experience ranges from major financial institutions to multimedia multinationals to the Federal government. Working in small to large project efforts has given him a unique perspective on balancing the discipline of SCM and enterprise change management with the resources and willpower each organization brings to the table.

You can reach Randy by email at SR_71_98@yahoo.com.

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email this