Yesterday we kicked off our launch of Release 2 of Process MeNTOR TeamGuide at Microsoft’s Heroes Happen {2008} road show in Sydney.  At the event I was lucky enough to help Anthony Borton present a session on Visual Studio 2008 and Application Lifecycle Management.

During my presentation, I quickly flashed up the following graphic in order to get the crowd thinking beyond individual developer productivity:

Now, I love a good sporting analogy – particularly if it helps explain some of the fundamentals behind our approach to maximising team performance via Process MeNtOR.  However, as with all metaphors they have their limitations....

Using the above metaphor, Process MeNtOR:

- Helps teams work more effectively together – fundamentally that is what we are about.  Software development of any scale is about teams of people working together effectively – and Process MeNtOR facilitates this by providing a common language for the group.  In the case of the above Dragon Boat crew, it is difficult to imagine management pulling a key team member out half way through a race and replacing them with someone else from another team.  Yet that is what consistently happens with projects – hence the need to provide teams with structure to allow them to collaborate effectively even when key members change mid race.

- Establishes and maintains clarity of goals – one of Process MeNtOR’s strengths is the focus it brings to requirements and architecture early in the lifecycle, establishing a clear understanding of what needs to be delivered and why. With our Dragon Boat crew, it is unlikely that the finish line will be moved mid-race.  But this is what we expect to happen throughout a project – particularly large projects.  As the project progresses, the business domain typically changes or evolves and through interaction with the project team, key project stakeholders often learn more about their own business and the advantages that a technological innovation can deliver.  These factors often result in a ‘changing of the finish line’.  Our philosophy with Process MeNtOR is to recognise this phenomenon, anticipate it, and seek to support it in a controlled fashion to ensure the project delivers maximum benefit.

- Creates a shared understanding of roles – one of the enablers for effectively team performance is a shared understanding of who does what? and why? Here is the main problem with my sporting analogy - software projects, unlike Dragon Boats, have a much broader set of roles than a crew of rowers.  Software projects will typically include Business Analysts, Architects, Project Managers, Designers, Developers, Testers and Change Managers – to name but a few.  Process MeNtOR provides deep guidance for the optimum performance of all of these roles.

- Aligns individual effort – high performance teams achieve outstanding performance through the tight alignment of individual effort – ensuring that no unnecessary tasks are performed that detracts from the team goal.  This, I imagine is relatively easy to achieve with a Dragon Boat crew of motivated individuals – experience has shown that it is somewhat more challenging to achieve in software teams.  This is where the real strength of Process MeNtOR lies.  The project roadmaps within Process MeNtOR provide the foundation for roles within a team to work effectively and efficiently together as team – making projects a more enjoyable place to be.

During the presentation, I also mentioned the APO (application platform otimisation) initiative that has been developed by Microsoft to help organisations understand where their current strengths and weaknesses are – and provides a framework to help them improve their capabilities.


When I asked the audience if they had heard of APO ... I got nothing.


So, for those that are interested, more information about APO is available at:

http://www.microsoft.com/business/peopleready/appplat/default.mspx?WT.svl=1

http://www.microsoft.com/click/usapo/default.mspx

At Object Consulting, we have found the APO initiative to be a useful way for us to explain the products, training and services that we provide around capability improvement. 

A flyer that maps our products, training and services to the APO framework is available for download here.

Next stop on the Heroes Happen {2008} road show ... Melbourne, then Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Canberra.

Cheers,
Carl


PS – And yes, I couldn’t resist – I had to get my photo with the heroes...