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.
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.
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