Tradeoff vs corruption

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How do you know when you've crossed the line from making trade-offs to fomenting corruption?

That's not a question asked very often in the is space, and not usually asked in polite company.

Nonetheless, it happens.

And, what is "it"?

"It" is making decisions about doing 'this' or 'that' that are a violation of accepted norms wherein the outcomes have an inappropriate personal benefit, rather than a decision among legitimate alternatives where the personal benefit is non-existent or indifferent to the outcome. 

 

Corrupting decisions take many forms: There may be a financial benefit, like a stock option that gets out of negative territory; there may be a job benefit insofar as the decision comports with the business narrative; or there could be a 'traitor in our midst' problem.

Sovereignty

They say that in a republican democracy (small 'r', small 'd') that the people are sovereign and that political power is simply a delegation from the sovereign -- such a delegation intended to benefit the sovereign (the people at large). Political corruption is then using that gifted and delegated power to work against the interests of the sovereign to one's own benefit. 

How does that work in a project? Who is the sovereign? What is corruption in the project sense?

You could say the owners and shareholders are sovereign. You could say that customers are sovereign and that all business value is a delegation from customers. 

• To work against the customer's interest (or owners and share holders) with false claims and hidden quality shortcomings is committing corruption. 
• To work for a compromise that is beneficial to customers and business alike is making trade-offs.

 

Enough!

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Buy them at any online book retailer!

That Financial Alphabet-DCF,EVA,NPV,IRR-for Program Managers

Good grief: talk about acronyms!  It's enough to keep up with the earned value system--PV, AC, EV, SPI, CPI, ETC, EAC--and now add in the accounting world.

In a whitepaper I wrote some time ago, I shed a little light on accounting for project managers.

It's entitled That Financial Alphabet�DCF, EVA, NPV: are they affecting your project?

For many in the crowd, this is pretty sleepy stuff, but wake up long enough to take notice that many projects never see the light of day because of unfavorable discounted cash flow--what's that?--and other projects get cancelled mid-stream, and still others disappoint their sponsors in ways that can rub on program managers.

So, it may be worth your while to take a few notes and be able to discuss your project with your accountant.

After all:

Cash is fact; profit is an opinion.

Is your project likely to make a profit for your enterprise, and are you being a good steward of cash?  You might be surprised--Check it out!

Project Management the Agile Way

It's almost here! "It" is my new book, "Project Management the Agile Way...Makng it work in the enterprise", most likely in Amazon by January 2010 if everything continues on the path with the publisher-Gods.

In this book, I expound on my top-five for agile, and actually blow it out to 12 major themes, from a quick overview of 4 agile methodologies, through a business case, test strategy, and eventually ending with benefit capture.

You know, on this last point, the NPV of the typical agile project is better than the traditional plan-driven methodology, at least for a few periods where the early deliveries start earning benefits early.

If you work in a business environment where the executives need to be persuaded to do projects, and a business case becomes a contract for performance, this may be the book for you. This is about agile in a business situation where projects may not be a core competency, but simply a means to an end.

I hope you enjoy the read as much as enjoyed the write!

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Driving Adoption -- Benefits realization in the agile space

There's no time like the present--Benefit tracking begins with the first release.

Adoption may be slow. Because of the natural reluctance to change, embracing new capabilities may not be automatic. To encourage adoption, competing or legacy capabilities should be withdrawn as soon as practical.

Remove the legacy
It may be possible to help adoption by having the first few iterations produce product increments that are naturally attractive and capable of creating a buzz.

Early adopters
There are, of course, early adopters who will eagerly grab new capabilities, especially technology capabilities rich in software features and functions, and especially those that are user-configurable. But early adopters are only one of five personalities in the body of knowledge known as diffusion of innovations.

The five are:
1. Innovators: Those who are anxious to work with the product in a preproduction or beta status and take risks with immature product; usually very personable and networked individuals, well connected with technology, and able to handle a high degree of uncertainty;
2. Early adopters: Those with opinion leadership eager to put product through its paces and be first on the block to have the advantage of a new capability;
3. Early majority: Those willing to adopt after visible proof that the bugs have been worked out and operational effectiveness has been proven;
4. Later majority: The reluctant but willing, not too comfortable giving up what they know best; and
5. Laggards: Those that might never adopt and so drop out of the pool of users.


Innovators often make their own decisions to engage using new ideas; they are often in at the beginning and may be drivers behind the original vision. Early adopters may wait for official sanction before taking up a new product; later adopters may be forced by decision makers to get involved. Regardless, Everett Rogers, one of the early academics in the theory of diffusing innovation, posits that everyone passes through a five-stage decision-making process, albeit on difference timelines.

Roger’s paradigm is:

1. Seek knowledge: Seek basic information to become familiar and acquainted with a new idea, product, or service;
2. Accept persuasion: Evaluate benefits in context of personal use and application;
3. Decide: Decide to adopt or reject;
4. Implement: Begin to apply the product or service to the everyday routine; and
5. Confirm: Accept the product as a fully qualified alternative to the prior capability.

Agile impact
In the agile space, this five-step process repeats with every release, although the steps begin to merge and the timeline is shorter as each release builds upon the past. The mission of business preparation is to smooth this decision process as much as possible; to prepare the knowledge base; and to prepare persuasive information so that moving to implementation and confirmation is as rapid as possible.

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