Posted by admin on August 18, 2008 under Project Set-Up | 
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I just posted a comment on requirementsnetwork.com that I thought was a pretty good summary of how I’ve learned to set up smallish (under 1000 function points) projects. It’s called Analysis and Design Responsibilities — Coping with Scope Creep (and other perils of contracting).
I’m working on some real articles about this for the Wisconsin Technology Network, too.
Posted by Robert Merrill on August 13, 2008 under uFunctional Values | Be the First to Comment
What a strange topic for a consultant’s blog!
Not really.
Executives engage a consultant because things aren’t going great. The situation is a mess, and it’s their responsibility, and they’re not sure what to do. So they’re anxious, and maybe a little bit ashamed.
Employees don’t welcome a consultant because they and their work will be evaluated and judged by a stranger. So they’re defensive. Or maybe they greet the consultant with open arms because at last someone is going to speak truth to power. So they’re hopeful—maybe too hopeful—and are about to be let down, again.
I always remind myself of these things when getting started. Yes, the situation is probably a mess, but not on purpose. There’s history, and a lot of decisions that probably made a lot of sense at the time.
A client is a group of people, with knowledge and with feelings. I must learn from them, and before they will teach me, they must trust me. Then I will advise and instruct them. My advice and instruction may hurt, and before they can receive it, they must trust me even more.
My success depends on them, and their trust. In order to begin earning that, I must show compassion.
Not such a strange concept for a consultant after all.
Posted by admin on August 9, 2008 under uFunctional Values | Be the First to Comment
The short uFunctional tagline is “Integrity, Insight, Innovation.” Just because it’s a trite, corporate-sounding cliché doesn’t mean I didn’t give it some thought.
It summarizes the flow of a successful consulting engagement.
Integrity means seeing and discussing the facts as they are, without any hidden agendas. Part of my role is to be trustworthy myself, and help this happen. Even though we’ll probably begin our conversation with a technical topic, I’ll also be intentionally building a relationship based on integrity.
Insight means seeing the same facts in a new way. It’s the A-HA that heralds a new-found sense of understanding, confidence, and possibility.
Innovation means following a new course of action and getting different (and hopefully better) results.
Here comes another cliché. There are no shortcuts.
Without integrity, there can be no insight. New ideas might sound, feel, and be trumpeted as insights, but they probably aren’t.
Without insight, we can act, even with great forcefulness, but innovation is an unlikely matter of luck (and without integrity, we might not even see and embrace the good).
Without innovation, we won’t change even though the world is changing, and we won’t improve, even though there’s always room for improvement.
In business, the doors to most prisons are locked from the inside. The key is integrity. Insight and innovation will follow.