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I was flipping aimlessly through channels last weekend and I stopped on a NASCAR race (go ahead and insert your joke here). I’m usually not a racing fan, but I was captivated by some of the drama as the race was nearing its end. As I watched events unfold, I started to think about what separated the leaders from those who had been lapped (and for that matter, those that didn’t finish). Each one of these drivers has teams of people behind them calculating and planning the minutia of each move, so how can the results be so different? The two key differences that strike me are 1) The Driver and the team themselves and 2) The Strategy/Approach to the race. What does this have to do with the implementation of cloud technologies you ask? Everything.
Over the past 8 years of implementing cloud-based solutions, I’ve had the opportunity to see the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to implementation strategies, methods, and processes. Over that time, it has become clear that the single most important ingredient in project success is a great team. Strong technicians are great, exceptional individual contributors certainly help, but great TEAMS breed success. Teams that are aligned with a clear objective, embrace unknowns, and support each other in the heated, stressful moments of a project can overcome all of the unplanned for anomalies that come with working with technology.
The value of strong teams and team members may not be any great epiphany, but it is a fundamental criteria for success that gets lost in this age of cloud computing. This may be blasphemous to those in the industry, but cloud computing is not the silver bullet to resolve all of our technology issues. As much as it is scalable, nimble, fast and efficient compared to its predecessors, it does not change the fact that people are ultimately at the root of the project team. There are complexities, differences of opinion, and misaligned priorities to overcome and it is a quality team that will adapt and overcome. Take time to select your team, both internal and external, so that you can be confident that the probably of success is commensurate with your investment.
Once the team is in place, there must be a strategy and methods that help the team to work effectively. One of the most common questions that I am asked by customers approaching a cloud implementation is “What is your methodology?” I love this question because it is a great opportunity to gain alignment with a customer and begin developing a high performing team.
Methodology is not just a series of steps used to complete a project. It is not a project plan. It is not a checklist. A methodology is actually a broader concept and we use the opportunity of discussing it to learn about a clients structure, belief system, regulatory environment, culture, and so much more. We cannot dictate methods unilaterally because we are not in control of some of these factors. Instead, we start with a general approach that fits the organizational footprint of a client and mold the details to align with the team. Just like in NASCAR, the approach to the race must change depending on the track, weather, competition and driver, a project team must alter their methodology to accommodate the team, organizational culture, timeframes, objectives, cost constraints, regulatory conditions, and other factors deemed critical.
So what are the approaches? We tend to look at methodology in 3 general categories including: Agile, Waterfall, and Iterative development. Each of these methodologies has its place and there are infinite permutations of each. In future posts, I will go into detail to describe each, as there is a lot of ground to cover.
While organizing your cloud computing initiative, don’t fall into the trap of focusing solely on the technology. People and processes matter, and they will ultimately determine your level of success!
Tags: Agile, Cloud Computing, Methodology, Model Metrics, Teams