Technical Advise Week #25 - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

We got thinking, after a very successful conference, that many of our friends and colleagues are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. What is perplexing us is whether this is caused by the work, the inputs to our work, or simply the result of too many years of abuse at the hands of an unwitting business climate. When you talk with others in IT they will often lament the work, and fantasize about hobbies or other ventures other than work. The spring has all but left their step and when challenged to move along in their chosen profession they sigh a breath and say it's too late to make changes. We almost feel a bit ashamed to say that we are having a ball. Maybe its because we can stretch out our abilities and our experiences fully and there are no holds/limits placed on our innovation. Will Max & Dexter love to be the creative ones, I (Mabel) chose to take these wild ideas and make reality from them. This goes without saying that Dad & Mom really help out too at least in terms of providing a reality check. We can only wish that Dad didn't have to travel so much. He is off again to China to help them build the capability of their outsourcing companies. Good for us as it keeps us in toys and food, but there are times when we simply enjoy his warm body in bed. Guess this shows that we have our own form of stress disorders, but it's not the type borne out of what we can't control, but from what we can.

Will be talking with you shortly and hope that everyone has or will have a pleasant weekend.

Mabel, Max & Dexter

Technical Advise Week #24 - Technical Conference

We decided that we shouldn't let another moment go by without having a major conference. Max and I decided to invite our new friend Dexter to provide some invaluable input and independent insight into his world of specialization. Dexter comes to us from the practical side, and has tremedous street smarts for his age. His area of specialization is assessments.

Assessments are an important status tool, it helps companies to determine where they stand and can be used to help promote improvements going forward. The best known assessment assessment is CMMi (Capability Maturity Model Integrated) and this has been around since the late 1980s and was introduced by Watts Humphrey of SEI. At the time of introduction is was simply CMM. There is also ITMark which is of a simplier form but is sized to support small to medium sized organizations (offered by the European Software Institute http://www.esi.es/).

There are specialized assessment like V&VMMx offered by Certellus Corporation (introduced in 1988 and is the only one that places heavy review on the use of automation, agile methods and uses a 21 KPA model), TMM that is promoted by Sogeti. There are also International Standard Organization appraisals (ISO) that evaluate capability and quality of delivery.

Many companies, especially those doing outsourcing, have found these useful in promoting their businesses. It shows consumers that the company is interested in improving their 'delivery' operations and also can point to an independent appraisal (vs. self-appraisals). Unfortunately, when buying services, especially far afield, one of the first questions asked is whether the company is strong enough to continue in operations. The International Institute for Outsource Managment provides a VIABILITY assessment that measures this aspect. Originally carried out by Certellus Corporation over 100 Global Star Certification (GSC) assessment around the globe. Many of these original assessments were done for the buyer, but today we are seeing more and more outsourcers seeing value in building their business and also providing a level of certainty about this aspect. As is often said, "You may be capable of delivering but if you aren't viable, you are going to be out of business!".

Hope you enjoyed our work for the week. We (Mabel, Max & Dexter) wishing you a happy and productive week.

Technical Advise Week #23 - Friend or Foe??

Over the few years of our life, and the many years of dad's life, the question of friendship has always found it's way into business. Despite dad's valiant attempts, the question of friendship has always be brought up as a question about business issues. His favorite response is "friends are friends and business is business". To this end he has held true to this and never has allowed one relationship to spill over into another.

Some would say that this is an impossibility, there has to be some degree of consideration. Let us share with you a few cases to illustrate that we are truthful in his conviction.

1. Friendships are not used as a basis for business offerings, in fact on more than one occasion he has turned away offers because of friendships. Some friendships continued but many fell by the wayside. While this makes dad sad, it was probably for the best as it relates to the people who were asking the favor.

2. On a few occassions friends were having personal problems, and asked for business concessions. Dad's view is simple, it's not my concern as a business about your personal issues, it is my concern as a friend only.

3. Making wise decisions in business is a far different situtation than making personal decisions. One cannot apply personal beliefs, then try and then transfer them to business (they don't even apply when trying to reach for similiarities in behavior).

Why do we say this? Your professional life is rich with relationships (some will become friends, whereas most are simply acquaintances). One would more than likely not trust acquiantances as a basis for making strategic business decisions. Friends will most likely not engage you in support for hard personal issues. Therefore it's like oil and water, they don't mix. A friend of dad's make the comment that business & friend relationships is like the farmer who wants as many eggs as possible but realizes that this isn't going to happen so he kills the chicken only to discover that the hen wasn't lieing, there really wasn't an abundance of eggs in the body. A business looks at facts, works from professional statements of agreement, and doesn't use friendship as a stick to pursuade events in a different direction. One will only find that when these sorts of things happen that the eggs aren't there.

Our advise, keep business in business and keep friendship out. It will serve you in the long term.

- Max & Mabel