Volume 4, No.4

“Helping You Accelerate Your High-Tech Development Projects”

“Helping You Accelerate Your High-Tech Development Projects”

Welcome to the ANGOTTI PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT email newsletter!

The newsletter’s goal is to help you accelerate your development projects by sharing some of the many tips, techniques and strategies we’ve honed during our two decades of providing high-tech consulting services.

This issue focuses on two of the challenges that outsourcing can bring to project management.

IS OUTSOURCING REALLY A NEW CHALLENGE?

For Non-High Tech Manufacturing and Construction Companies, outsourcing has been going on for years. On the other hand. For American High Tech Companies, the changes have been more dramatic due to the shattering of several ideas about business models and personnel. Here are just a two of them:

  • Rapid Change in Business Models and Company Structure
  • New Impact on “White Collar” (Safer, Knowledge Based) Jobs such as QA, Design and Development engineering, Customer Support, etc.

How will these factors affect your company’s High Tech Projects?

RAPID CHANGE IN BUSINESS MODELS AND COMPANY STRUCTURE

Rapid change can easily add more chaos to that normally present in a high tech project. Teams are formed and broken up rapidly. Of all the times when creating a structure for the teams is necessary – this is the time. Structure is needed for the internal team members, as well as those working on the outside. More than ever, following a more formal process makes sense. This means Project definitions, Work Breakdown Structures, team kick off meetings, review meetings and many others. It is almost as if the Project Manager must act as if all portions of the project team are working outside the firm.

In this fast changing environment, the project will be what holds the team together, not so much the organization. Team members must identify with the project to a very high degree.

Some of the areas critical to success in this environment are not unique or new to outsourcing and have been described in past APD newsletters such as:

Value the Early Days of a Project – Are the early days of a project more, or less important?

The Critical Value of Specifications – The importance of specifications and related documents to project success –

Make Projects Work with Proper Planning – Planning can make or break a project

Periodic Review Meetings – Why hold them? Why they don’t work? What to do about it.

So, what needs to be done isn’t new, it is just more critical. Planning and execution make the project more real. Good, important, team meetings keep the focus on goals, and off other side issues. If you follow what is described in these newsletters, you will have far fewer problems in the outsourcing environment.

NEW IMPACT ON “WHITE COLLAR” JOBS

The old idea that persons that have a high technical knowledge, such as Design and Development Engineering, QA, Customer Support, etc, are more in demand, and therefore immune from layoffs, is now no longer the order of the day. These “White Collar”, jobs are now being outsourced, just like manufacturing tasks have been.

This situation has everyone on the project much more interested in making sure that their tasks provide them with skills that will be useful during later projects, at this organization or another. Everyone will also want to know that his or her knowledge and skills will be useful during the later phases of the project. This is often the case if they are making real contributions to the project, and they see how what they are doing is directly needed both now and later.

In addition, rumors that the project is in jeopardy can really impact productivity. The most critical skill in this more fragile team situation is that of learning to very effectively support the team, so that the focus is shifted from a team member being a “cog in the wheel” to their being someone that is critical to the project. Each and every team member must sense that they are supported by the Project Manager. They must have a sense that they are a real contributor to the project team. A quality working team will always exhibit far fewer problems.The antidote to this more fragile employment situation isn’t all that new. What is needed has already been described in detail in an earlier pair of APD newsletter articles covering

Supporting the Project Team #1 and #2 – How to learn to support the Project Team:
https://angotti.com/newsletter-volume-2-no-4/
https://angotti.com/newsletter-volume-3-no-2/

By following the principles outlined in these newsletters, you will be well equipped to check out the general situation with the project team including an increase in negative attitudes and false rumors. False rumors can be corrected as soon as they begin. Morale problems can be gleaned, focused on, and corrected in a short time.