Individual Enlightenment

MWBA – Management By Walking Around

“Management By Walking Around” is one of my leadership style.

Today, I gone thru a very good article about MWBA: http://www.futurecents.com/mainmbwa.htm 

Twelve Guidelines for Managing By Walking Around (MBWA) 

Do it to everyone.

You may remain in such close contact with your direct reports that MBWA is redundant with them. The real power of the technique lies in the time you spend with those in lower levels of your area of responsibility. Get around to see those who work for your direct reports and any others whose work is important to you. 

Do it as often as you can.

MBWA sends positive messages to employees. It reveals your interest in them and in their work, and it says you don’t consider yourself “too good” to spend time with them. MBWA also enables you to stay in touch with what is going on in your department, section or unit. Put aside at least thirty minutes a week to spend with all employees. Aim for once a quarter to see those you must travel long distances to visit. 

Go by yourself.

MBWA is more meaningful when you visit with employees alone, and one-on-one. It encourages more honest dialogue and speaks loudly of your personal commitment to the idea. 

Don’t circumvent subordinate managers.Some employees may take advantage of your presence to complain about a supervisor who is your subordinate. Counsel them to discuss the issue fully with their supervisor first. If you have cause to question the supervisor’s judgement, don’t indicate so to the employee, but follow up privately with the supervisor. 

Ask questions.

MBWA is a great opportunity to observe those “moments of truth” when your employees interact with your clients. Ask them to tell you a little bit about the files, projects or duties they are working on. Take care to sound inquisitive rather than intrusive. 

Watch and listen.

Take in everything. Listen to the words and tone of employees as they speak to you and to each other. You’ll learn a lot about their motivation and their levels of satisfaction. In the words of Yogi Berra, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” 

Share your dreams with them.

As a Yukon Dog Team handler used to say, “The view only changes for the lead dog.” MBWA is a solid opportunity to make sure that when you lead the sled in a new direction, the employees behind you won’t trip over themselves trying to follow. Tell them about the organization’s vision for the future, and where your vision for the department / unit/ section fits in with the “big picture.” Reveal the goals and objectives that you want them to help you fulfill together as a team. Ask them for their vision, and hold an open discussion. 

Try out their work.

Plop down in front of the computer; get behind the wheel; pick up the telephone; review a project file. Experience what they endure. Sample their job just enough to show your interest in it, and to understand how it goes. Think of great ways to reconnect with your front line workers, and gain a current understanding of exactly what they are dealing with during a typical work day. 

Bring good news.

Walk around armed with information about recent successes or positive initiatives. Give them the good news. Increase their confidence and brighten their outlook. So often employees are fed only gloom and doom. Neutralize pessimism with your own optimism, without being non-credible. 

Have fun.

This is a chance to lighten up, joke around, and show your softer side without being disrespectful or clowning around. Show employees that work should be fun and that you enjoy it too. 

Catch them in the act of doing something right.

Look for victories rather than failures. When you find one, applaud it. When you run into one of the many unsung heroes in your job site, thank them on the spot, being careful not to embarrass them in front of peers or to leave out other deserving employees.Don’t be critical.  

When you witness a performance gone wrong, don’t criticize the performer. Correct on the spot anything that must be redone, but wait to speak to the wrongdoer’s supervisor to bring about corrective action.

 

Core Values of R&D or Software Development Department

Effective reporting to your boss

1. Self-initiative to report work progress/status to your boss (let your boss know)
2. Ask if you dun understand, don’t assume (let your boss has a peace of mind)
3. Self-initiative to strengthen skill set (hard and soft), so that you will understand what is boss talking about. (let your boss relax)
4. Accept critics with an open mind, never make the same mistakes 3 times. (let your boss save trouble)
5. if you are available, help other colleagues with self-initiative. (make your boss more efficient)
6. Accept assignment without complaint (complete your boss)
7. Self-initiative to raise suggestions to improve processes. (let your boss improve)

Highly Motivated Working Environment

I would like to share with you 8 important practices in creating and maintaining a highly motivated working enviroment. Here, I won’t highlight the importance of motivation and morale of a team to productivity. You can refer the following articles:

1. Microsoft, A Highly Motivated Environment

2. The 3 Factors Needed To Have Highly Motivated Employees

Research & Development Center Agile Process Model

I would like to share some experiences in designing process model in a R&D center. I have tailored the concept presented by Michael Hugos in this book: CIO Best Practices: Enabling Strategic Value with Information Technology. The next article (in the short future) will explain how we incorporate this concept into our software development methodology.
R&D centre need to be agile to keep up with the market and stay aligned with the enterprise. A tactically agile R&D centre senses and responds to environmental change efficiently and effectively. In other words, R&D centre must1. Constantly collect and analyze information to detect change2. Respond appropriately when changes are detected.Agility is an ongoing process. An organization cannot be agile unless all its members are agile, so agile work principles need to be understand and practiced by everyone.
The following figure outlines the process flow that creates agility throughout the R&D centre. Three feedback loops illustrate how an agile organization works. New products that deliver success become part of standard processes thus changing business operations over time.

The following figure illustrates the system dynamics of the agile R&D centre. The agile R&D centre continuously observes its environment and orients itself in that environment. Based on orientation, people decide and act. When they act, they choose to either improve existing products, create something new, or perform some mix of the two.

LOOP 1: The Boyd Cycle

Observe This involves collecting and communicating information about the environment. For instance, performance statistics for all systems, project status for all development work, and budgetary status. Orient This is the most important activity because it is where information is turned into understanding. Understanding is used to build an appreciation of the situation and its possibilities. Decide People 1. investigate different responses to threats and opportunities 2. create and evaluate plans for implementing different responses. Act Depending on the decisions made in the orient and decide steps, the act results in a tactical action that either improves an existing process (Loop 2) or creates a new process (Loop 3). In this step, action is taken with either favorable, not favorable, or indeterminate results. These results are picked up in the observe step and the loop continues. LOOP 2: Management by Objectives Management by objectives (MBO) is a systematic and organized approach that allows management to focus on achievable goals and to attain the best possible results from available resources. It aims to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization. Ideally, employees get strong input to identify their objectives, time lines for completion, etc. MBO includes ongoing tracking and feedback in the process to reach objectives.   MBO Principles: 1. Cascading of organizational goals and objectives 2. Specific objectives for each member 3. Participative decision making 4. Explicit time period 5. Performance evaluation and feedback Type of Objectives: 1. Routine objectives 2. Innovation objectives 3. Improvement objectives The objectives must be 1. focused on a result, not an activity 2. consistent 3. specific 4. measurable 5. related to time 6. attainable MBO strategy: 1. All individuals within an organization are assigned a special set of objectives that they try to reach during a normal operating period. These objectives are mutually set and agreed upon by individuals and their managers. 2. Performance reviews are conducted periodically to determine how close individuals are to attaining their objectives. 3. Rewards are given to individuals on the basis of how close they come to reaching their goals. LOOP 3: Define-Design-Build From the perspective of the CTO and other senior executives who sponsor a software development project, Define-Design-Build is a way to manage project risk. In the Define phase, small amount of time and money are spent up front to qualify a business opportunity 鈥?5-10 percent of the total project cost. If findings warrant, the enterprise then spends only a moderate amount of further time and money to design 鈥?15-30 percent of the total project cost. In the Design phase, a small, prototype system is created to prove that the opportunity is real and justifies a larger investment. The Build phase is where enterprise spends the most of the time and money 鈥?60-80 percent of the project total. Notice that the decision to move into the Build phase is made with the greatest amount of information and the least risk. Define-Design-Build is a 3-step sequence that could also be described as move it! Move it! Move it! In order to support an agile organization in a high-change world, systems must be built with a quick and iterative process. The project team must strictly adhere to the time boxes for each step in the development sequence. Complexity is as much perception as it is reality, and a disciplined, fast-paced approach is the best way to handle complexity. When the CTO allows project teams too much time to contemplate the situations facing them, team members begin to perceive excessive amounts of complexity and sink into that dreaded state called analysis paralysis? Agility means learning to deal effectively with complexity. People learn to become agile when guided by a discipline for developing new systems in a fluid and coordinated manner. They learn by participating in project teams with people trained to use the Define-Design-Build process.

Software Development Department Strategic Planning

Technorati Tags: Balanced scorecard,BSC,Strategic Planning,Software Development

I would like to share some of my experiences in designing Balanced Scorecard in a R&D center.

Mission

Software Development Department operates as a strategic partner with Company XYZ.

Vision

1. Becomes a department focused on developing and delivering world-class capabilities to serve Company XYZ distinct CRM business needs.

2. Operates as a separate professional services business on a full recovery, non-profit basis.

3. Supports the achievement of company strategies and goals.

4. Becomes the “supplier of choice” of CRM system development and information services.

Theme

1. Timely, targeted CRM system development and support.

2. Agile to keep up with the market need and stay aligned with the enterprise

Strategy Matrix

Focus	Goal	Objective	Metric	Target			Initiatives
Corporate Contribution	To enable and contribute to the achievement of business objectives through effective delivery of value added information services.	Strategy of services aligns with business	Not applicable				1.        To be proactive participant in strategy planning and execution. 2.        Regularly conduct review meeting with user and management.
		Value delivery	Not applicable				1.        Produce accurate and on-time billing. 2.        Enhance customer experience by enhancing online features in the Company XYZ website. 3.        Produce accurate and relevant customer analysis reports to marketing and senior management. 4.        Enhance core capabilities of marketing by providing/enhancing marketing automation software and customer interaction management. (Refer to CRM Strategic Planning)
		Compliance with budget	Expenses < Allocated budget	< 100%			1.        Control head count by maximizing productivity per head count. 2.        Strengthen internal core capabilities and competencies in order to reduce dependency to vendor.
Customer & User Experience	To enable and contribute to customer/user experience excellence and customer profitability through effective delivery of high-quality competitive solutions and services.	Accurate and on-time billing	Number of incidents where bill statements are delayed	0			1.        Produce accurate and on-time billing.
		Enhance core capabilities of CRM	Not applicable				1.        Produce accurate and relevant customer analysis reports to marketing and senior management. 2.        Create a “single view” of the customer. 3.        Provide/enhance marketing automation software and customer interaction management.
		Deliver timely support to users.	TAT for New Feature/Improvement/Task.	≤ 3 Days	≥ 75%		1.        Team defect analysis. 2.        Implement a tracking system to monitor the whole development process, from collecting user requirements to product release. 3.        Review and analysis of issues with users.
				4 – 6 Days	≤ 15%
				7 – 10 Days	≤ 7%
				11 – 14 Days	≤ 3%
				> 14 Days	0%
				Score	≥ 85
			TAT for Bug/Question.	≤ 2 Days	≥ 75%
				3 – 5 Days	≤ 15%
				6 – 7 Days	≤ 7%
				8 – 10 Days	≤ 3%
				> 10 Days	0%
				Score	≥ 85
			User satisfaction survey	≥ 85			1.        Conduct interviews with key business managers in every 6 months.
		Deliver timely solutions to users.	Project delivery efficiency	≥ 90			1.        Review and analysis of requirements with users. 2.        Schedule creation and review with users. 3.        Conduct interviews with key business managers in every 6 months.
			User satisfaction survey	≥ 85			1.        Conduct interviews with key business managers in every 6 months.
Operational Excellence	To deliver timely and effective solutions and services at targeted service levels, quality levels and costs.	Increase quality of delivered software and support.	Issues reported by customers after solution is released.	Blocker		0	1.        Implement quantitative performance measurement on product quality. 2.        Regular design review and code review meeting. 3.        Design and implement a quality assurance framework to assure high product quality.
				Critical		≤ 2
				Major		≤ 10
				Minor		≤ 20
				Trivial		≤ 30
				Reopened		≤ 5%
				Score		≥ 90
			Total Containment Effectiveness	≥ 85%
		Streamline development process	TAT for New Feature/Improvement/Task.	≤ 3 Days		≥ 75%	1.        Implement a tracking system to monitor the whole development process, from collecting user requirements to product release. 2.        Adopt best practices of software development and service management. 3.        Design a development framework that consists of reusable classes and functionalities to shorten development time and reduce development cost. 4.        Regular design review and code review meeting. 5.        Team defect analysis.
				4 – 6 Days		≤ 15%
				7 – 10 Days		≤ 7%
				11 – 14 Days		≤ 3%
				> 14 Days		0%
				Score		≥ 85
			TAT for Bug/Question.	≤ 2 Days		≥ 75%
				3 – 5 Days		≤ 15%
				6 – 7 Days		≤ 7%
				8 – 10 Days		≤ 3%
				> 10 Days		0%
				Score		≥ 85
		Enhance internal consulting excellence	Not applicable				1.        Implement service management framework (based on ITIL)
Future Orientation	To develop the internal capabilities to continuously improve performance through innovation, learning and personal organizational growth.	Increase ClearBasic, Oracle PL/SQL and Java/.Net proficiency.	Number of training conducted each quarter.	≥ 4			1.        Work closely with partners to conduct technical sessions with staffs. 2.        Conduct in-house system training in .Net programming. 3.        Appoint professional training institute to conduct course. 4.        Code review process.
		Enhance software development process knowledge	Number of training conducted each quarter.	≥ 4			1.        Conduct in-house training on software development process. 2.        Appoint professional training institute to conduct course.
		Enhance internal consulting excellence knowledge	Number of training conducted each quarter.	≥ 4			1.        Conduct in-house training on service management framework. 2.        Appoint professional training institute to conduct course.
		Enhance management skills among developers	Number of training conducted each quarter.	≥ 8			1.        Conduct management training. 2.        Appoint professional training institute to conduct course.
		Increase employee job satisfaction	Total score of Employee Job Satisfaction survey	≥ 80			1.        Conduct survey with staffs in every 6 months.
		Boost employee retention rates	Staff turnover rate	≤ 20%			1.        Enhance working environment based on result of Employee Job Satisfaction survey. 2.        Developer highly motivated working environment. 3.        Provide continuous learning and training opportunities to staffs.
		Enhance retention of knowledge	Not applicable				1.        Document all requirements and changes properly and upload to issue tracking system.