Following on from the recent interactions on the lost art of project management under the influence of book-centric education and standards-based IT delivery, I wanted to share my own thoughts on the times in my 10 years of working with India, where I saw the best in software architects, managers, developers, testers etc, as a Mastekeer, and contrasting my work in agile practices for a lot longer than that.
If you contrast the standards-based waterfall and procedural approach, outsourcing drove this due to a lack of trust in the outcome. Follow rigorous steps, validate everything as you go, and spend 40%-80% of the programme writing specifications that are challenged forever afterwards, and 5 years into maintenance of the solution are still untouched since written.
This resulted in Indian solutions companies that were driven by hierarchy, reports, statistics and accreditation as a primary focus. Parameters like on time delivery, defect leakage, pages of documents created, checkpoints passed, and of course number of resources and skills learned in classrooms. Many of my Indian friends felt stifled by this world where you were an employee number with little opportunity to challenge the norm, or even contribute to the direction of travel.
However, if you see the passion that comes from a team that is playing ping pong, or particularly cricket, outside the office, you can see that the Indian mentality is motivated by team work, competition, collaboration and joy – something the workplace often lacks.
It is rare, (and STG is an example of this) that the team at cricket becomes the team in the development/solution programme. Every individual has a role, but also is a contributor to strategy, everyone’s opinion is valued, and everyone has a voice. This doesn’t turn to chaos, (at least rarely ;-), as in such a team, the goal is passionately targeted, defended and celebrated by every team member. And let’s not forget the joy of the customer is as eagerly anticipated, as the roar of the crowd at a match.
Process, hierarchy, specifications and procedural thinking are not valued by customers. Smart software that makes their lives easier, and their businesses grow is. As the Agile methods put the software outcome at the heart of the team, so does a joyous ‘software cricket team’.
“stg2020” is aptly named as it looks at the eye on the future, as well as the observation of the past. Technology is in revolution right now, with more mobile devices than people, digital solutions putting data and process in your hand in real time, and advanced analytics reaching the stage where future behaviour and preference can be accurately predicted.
Teams that can accommodate and embrace change, and focus on outcomes and collaborate together to hit goals every day, are the only way to produce solutions that will last the test of time, and not be looked at as a ‘lesson learned for correction’ using our 2020 spectacles in a few years’ time.
The Indian nation has always been a people of inspiration, deep moral codes, family-centricity, and entrepreneurial mindset. By rejecting the procedural norm, and forming collaborative enclaves to create solutions for genuine customer delight, the number one position for cool solutions can be attained.
Innovation is the place where global leaders gestate, efficiency, productivity and factory processes have their place – but this is in the engineering and manufacturing space. Software is cool again, and it is in the innovation of its capability, alongside the digital enablers of Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC), that the true creativity can thrive again.
That is my sincere wish for stg2020…..
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