Sunday, May 27, 2012

Enabling Offshore Product Development (OPD) - Notes and observations (Part-III)

Having a defined set of objectives for the various phases of the OPD helps in setting clear goals and managing expectations of all the involved stake holders.

From a Software Product Development and associated services stand point, the OPD could help in:
- Extending the Product Development stream (Release and Research initiatives)
- Extending the Product Engineering stream (Support and Maintenance)
- Extending the Service Delivery stream (Custom Software and Project based delivery)

Each of the above streams involve a different mix of technical skill(s) and experience background to provide the needed jump-start in the initial phase and sustaining the setup in its journey to the subsequent phases.

To limit the number of variables at play, it is advisable to agree on the various work processes and workflows that will be used in the OPD.

With OPD in its nascent stage, trying hands at experimenting on processes may add further stress in stabilizing the operations.

The existing set of work procedures have proven fit and have undergone the needed refinement over the period and are best fit for roll-out in the new unit. Established practices help in gaining momentum and can be adopted to suit the needs of specific team constructions and/or other aspects of distributed development.

To achieve a jump start, having a good number of senior members with some medium experienced members is advised.

However as the OPD embeds itself into the organization and moves into the stabilization phase, it is good to get a fair mix between senior, medium and junior profiles across the various functions to ensure that a majority of the members have a clear growth path in the organization. Not everyone on board will retire in the current organization :). Identifying the key members and grooming appropriate members to pick up the various operational and leadership roles is a critical part during the stabilization phase to create a sustainable organization.

Knowledge management is another crucial aspect to establish so that the leave of certain members does not create knowledge gaps and impact on the work continuity.

The distribution of work across the two sides must also be balanced in terms of mundane/routine and challenging/interesting nature. Living with the idea that the counterparts on the other side get to do all the new/interesting work will surely hamper the motivation of the smart workforce that we hired :).

Having said that, it is not before the OPD builds up the required level of knowledge on the various technology and functional aspects that these aspirations can be met. Working in collaboration with the parent teams, over the period, the OPD teams must be able to independently function on the stable aspects of work before aiming for more leading edge nature of work.

Matching the interests/expectations of a mixed workforce is not practical. However being able to retain the critical mass to ensure continuity of work, the required level of knowledge retention and sustainable capacity is needed. The crucial factor then is to prepare for a certain level of churn out and its impact on knowledge and capacity.

After the strategic phase of narrowing down to having an OPD, there are a number of operational elements that need to be timely managed to shape up the OPD to match its vision, get it embedded in the parent organization and collaborate, contribute to the success.

In this series, I have drawn the above observations having worked closely in setting up and running both captive and hosted offshore development setups over the course of last seven years. I have tried to touch base upon various elements at play from the operational aspects of establishing, managing an OPD.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Enabling Offshore Product Development (OPD) - Notes and observations (Part-II)

Every initiative to scale-up comes with its own specific set of opportunities and constraints. Multiple elements are involved in getting an OPD to work:
~ people & objective
~ knowledge & process
~ cultures & mindset.

Some of the above elements need preparation and planning. Some aspects like the objective should be upfront shared in the existing organization and needs acceptance to enable participation and support at the different layers in the organization that will have a role in the formation and operationalizing the OPD.

The other aspects of Organizational Preparedness are:
* Executive level support for the OPD endeavor - to ensure that the people responsible for this initiative on both the Parent Organization and the OPD sides are sufficiently empowered to make timely decisions and are not left to defend and justify all their actions and decisions. This is best enabled by having an executive level member entrusted as the Single Point of Contact on the parent organization side.

* Organizational focus from all involved departments in setting up the OPD - to ensure that the needed support from the different functions across the organization happens in a coordinated manner without having to chase all the stake holders to pitch in for their part.

* Acceptance at the employee level to adopt, mentor and work with new setup without the typical fears associated with outsourcing - by keeping the employees informed on the background and objectives the chances of being motivated to participate and support this endeavor are high.

* Organization culture enabling participation (openness, transparency, trust) - to ensure that both at the parent organization side and especially at the OPD side people feel comfortable to discuss the real issues and realistic options without the fear of being shot down for identifying/reporting improvements. There can be no perfect plan to enable an OPD. A lot of improvisation has to happen as the OPD starts rolling out. Hence a culture that enables participation, delegating responsibility and building trust between the existing and new units is a big enabler.

Some of the elements can be tamed and amended to suit the needs. However some of them cant be solved (for e.g. culture, it existed much before this endeavor, your best bet would be to get the different cultures to work together). The overall approach should be to in-source solution(s) and not out-source your problem(s).

In the next part, I will share my experiences on the aspects of working with smart knowledge workers and setting the right expectations from the OPD.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Enabling Offshore Product Development (OPD) - Notes and observations (Part-I)

Among the various alternates to scale, if the option is having an Offshore Product Development (OPD) setup to prepare an organization to handle the expected growth, a decision to establish one is a good starting point. However establishing an OPD center requires some ground work and preparations to realize the vision.

From inception to embedding it as an integral part requires an Organization culture enabling participation (openness, transparency, trust). As the OPD embarks on its journey making the first steps, it needs continuous support in shaping up to its vision. An OPD transforms from a start-up to a partner in progress over a period through the nurturing in its growth phases and embedding in the overall organization.

The critical success factors (CSF's) for an OPD are the build-up of the required levels of knowledge and the formation of a stable and critical mass to be able to independently operate and deliver its value, establishing collaboration with the other counterpart units of the organization.

During the ramp-up phase, a defined approach for knowledge build up is needed. The approach should enable applying the technical/domain skills on the various product areas and build a good understanding of the various work processes. Apart from the initial training, establishing team based mentoring helps in Team formation (new recruits becoming a team) and Integration across geographies (distributed development, cultural integration, co-existence), balancing skills, experience levels to give a head start and enable team collaboration.

After the initial ramp-up as the OPD moves into its stabilization phase, the CSF's change to managing the additions in people, assimilation of knowledge, settling down with the chosen way of doing work, balancing aspirations with growth opportunities apart from knowledge management and knowledge retention. In this phase, there is a need to prepare for some churn out and its impact on the short-term and medium-term plans of the OPD.

In the next part, I will share my experiences on the aspects of Organizational preparedness for establishing, working with an OPD and working with smart knowledge workers and their influence on the success of the OPD.