I blogged previously about trust and Jon Porcaro picked up on this.
Trust is a key issue here.
Another is silo thinking, which is a definite killer within the organisation. The way the company is organised leads inevitably towards this being the case. In fact every re-organisation seems to increase this as a problem. People always concentrate on what they perceive as priorities - good in of itself but what we fail to do is look at the wider picture. A good example: People within networks want to implement a new piece of kit. It saves them (and therefore the company) money. Its more efficient and effective than the current piece of kit. Great - lets install it.
Does it effect any other part of the business like for example, support, operations, heaven forbid customers?
Of course it does. No one bothers to think about it though, they just go ahead and do it, until someone outside their silo notices and brings it up.
And then there is Marketing. They come up with a fantastic new idea for a product or maybe its an enhancement. They go off and do their analysis which says how this will make us money or save us money, improve the customer experience and deliver shareholder value.
Have they talked to the development team, or the testers, or customer services or technical support, or again anyone outside of Marketing?
Some conclusions and I am open to debate here:
1) Process for delivering projects is poor and doesn't encourage cross business analysis
2) Culture is wrong. It encourages silo thinking and avoidance of process
3) Management is weak or perhaps unable to gain the understanding necessary. because they don't trust
I'm beginning to feel that the phrase ' Abandon Hope all who enter here!' was applied to the wrong place.
Posted by Paul Goodison at June 30, 2003 05:02 PM | TrackBack