PowerPoint Presentation for IS-207Copyright 2006 © Michael W. Schaffer. All rights reserved.

Slide 1

Systems Analysis & Design

Class 2: People and Organizations04/18/23 09:18 PM

Slide 2

Thoughts from Class #1

Products are much more diverse, so teams are more diverse.The more complex your project, the more complex your team:

The harder it will be to understand “who’s who”, and what everyone wants & needs.

Slide 3

Myers-Briggs Personality Types

Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N). Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F). Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). http://www.myersbriggs.org/

Slide 4

Management 101

A quick overview of management principals, organizational issues, and personnel mattersEnable “managing-up”

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Teach PointsMatrix managementRoles and TitlesKey Roles on a S/W Team

Evolving roles by phaseInherent conflict by role

Roles and ToolsTesting … (if we have time)

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Passion

Corporate America does not really do well with passion

but the best results come from people pouring their passion into their work

The processes that we use, and our ability to understand each other will allow us to be passionate about the work, and produce great things.

Slide 7

People and The Matrix

Matrix ManagementDepartments organized by functionTeams / Projects staffed “cross functionally” -- i.e.: engineers, a marketing person, visual design, project management, training, ITHow does this work?

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An Engineering Team

Director, Engineering

Senior S/W Developer

WWW

Manager, S/W Dev Inventory

Senior S/W Developer Backoffice

VP. Engineering

Director, QA& Prod Devel.

QA Eng WWW, plus

QA & Release Eng

QA Eng. Backoffice, plus

S/W Dev (Junior)

Director,Information Tech.

Windows Admin

Unix & Networks Admin

Database Admin

Senior S/W DeveloperCatalogs

S/W DeveloperSearch, WWW

Slide 9

A Cross-functional Team

Senior S/W Developer Backoffice

QA & Release Eng

QA Eng. Backoffice

Unix & Networks Admin

Project Manager

BackofficeProductManager

Backoffice Ad-hoc Project Team

Slide 10

Challenges of The Matrix

Priorities and ManagementManaging without line authority on the team.Conflicting priorities and projects New initiatives vs. maintenance

Need Clarity from Senior Mgmt! Communicated broadly and formally Ensure alignment and focus

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An example of ClarityProject deliverable Core team Deliverable date

1 Launch seller search, consol and sitesSeller communications & pre-launch on HubLaunch Web & Hub changes

Robin, David, Molly, Jesse, Kelly, Monique

Oct 11th Oct 18th

2 Amazon Seller ServicesSeller communicationsTest plan complete Dev completeStart Beta tests with Amazon

Dudley, Geoff, Manan, David, Aaron, Jesse

Oct 11th Oct 17th Oct 21st Oct 25th

3 TRIPE: initial A/B tests in production on Web site

John, Paul, Robin, Steve C

Oct 26th

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Titles vs. RolesJob Titles reflect an organization's structure, and an individuals rankA project role – what work you do. At Alibris, our Project Mgr.’s include:

Randy, ControllerAric, Director of Product DevelopmentDudley, Director of Business Development

Throughout this class, focus is on roles

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Roles and “Hats”In most small teams, people play multiple roles (wear “many hats”)You must embrace (you have no choice), but manage it explicitly.Authority is vested in the role.High-risk when senior people play contributor roles

Slide 14

People: Vision and Ownership

Who drives the vision of the product, and to whom do they report?Who drives the delivery of the project, and to whom do they report?Who is “on the hook”?

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People: Key Roles in S/W Dev

Business Owner, Product Manager, Project Manager, Technical Architect, Quality Assurance Lead, Designers (Visual, Interface, Database, Implementation)

Stereotypes and ArchetypesConflict and Passion“Multiple Hats”

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People: Business Owner/Sponsor

Responsible for Strategy: WHY is this project being undertaken?

Keep asking “why?” – re-visit and re-justify as design details and cost estimates become clearer.Revisit tradeoffs and alternatives.Watch out when Sponsorship shifts or becomes unstable.

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People: Product Manager

Responsible for “What” is to-be-built (feature mix)

Will normally push for “bigger” (more features, more stuff).Must maintain a clear understanding of external forces (competition) and customer needs – fact-based.Authority on the team needs balance from other senior team members.

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People: Technical Architect

Responsible for “How” to buildNot responsible for saying “no” – only for designing solutions and estimating costs, providing optionsWatch out for “grumpy IT guy” syndrome (too many scars)Flip side: watch out for “gratuitous complexity”

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People: Quality Assurance Lead

Responsible for measuring quality & alignment to requirements

Not the scapegoat for bugs and slips in the schedule. Not the only “bad cop” on the team. QA is your trump card in process & managementWhere does QA report?

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People: Designers

Responsible for VisionEnsure great communication of requirements to these folks to get great designsApplicable in technical and non-technical areasLimit them with process to get on-time deliverables in scope.

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People: Project Manager

Responsible for “When”Not responsible for understanding every detail of implementationPM needs to engage all team members to extract dependencies and contingenciesPM needs serious “spine” to get straight answers to “how long?”

Slide 22

Ad-hoc Teams

Teams that exist for one phase or a specific deliverable

Prototype TeamRelease TeamBeta Team

Slide 23

People: Seniority and Scale

The project’s scope & scale can determine the relative seniority of each resource in the project, for each role. A specific title, like “Senior Software Engineer” could take on many roles - Technical Architect, Lead Developer, Tester, Project Manager

Slide 24

Dual Career paths

Associate Software Engineer

Entry level engineer

Software Engineer - (II)5-9 years

Software Engineer - (I)2-5 years

Senior Software Engineer10+ years

Manager, Software Engineering

10+ years

Staff Software Engineer

Software team leader, architect

Director, Software Engineering

15+ years

Senior Staff Software EngineerSenior Software architect

ManagementTrack

Technical Track

Slide 25

People: Work and ToolsThe work you do is defined in part by the tools you use. Be aware of your time spent in specific tools … and how that reflects on your role and focus.

Executive: Email, PowerPoint, Excel, WordVisual Designer: Illustrator, PhotoshopData & Process Designers: Visio, Erwin, DB Artisan, etc.Project Mgr: MS Project, etc.Developer: Dev. Environments, “hand tools”, misc. lang.’sQA: Test tools, etc.

A quick way to really see who is doing what (or not) on a particular project. Follow the money

Slide 26

People: Work and Tools (cont)

Look around to see that someone is using the right tools. Tools “Gap” analysisRegardless of title, is someone maintaining a project plan? A budget? A requirements doc?Are managers using “hands-on” tools? Is this OK?

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Testing Basics

Unit TestingIntegration TestingCompatibility & Platform TestingPerformance & Stress TestingPathological testing

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Beta Testing, Old School

Alpha: feature complete, all features testable. Specifications frozen. Ready for end-to-end testing, using “friendly” testers.Beta: ready for external testers (customers, partners, etc). Formal program with measured feedback.

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Beta Testing (cont).

Manage carefully: not a time for enhancement requestsLimit participation to ensure you get value from each siteCode that is too “raw” can create more damage than value“Rolling Beta” ...

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Prototypes vs. Production

Be clear on purpose. Develop metrics and validate.Be clear on limitations“Build one to throw away”

Fred Brooks, Mythical Man-Month

Slide 31

Exercise

Release Team Bug AssessmentQA, Product Mgr, Project Mgr, Development Engineer, UI / UE GuyReview stack of bugs: defer, fix, document, “not a bug”, dupeConflict?

Slide 32

A Customer-centric model

Everybody has a customer: external, or internalNeed to understand who your customers are, and how to serve those customers