Posted: 9/21/2013 11:47:09 AM EDT
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I've applied for a management position in my company, coming from a sys admin position. We've been having issues, there is a disconnect between IT and the users. Both the development teams and the users are dispersed geographically at a number of production facilities.
My question is- what does the communication channel look like between the development teams and the user groups- sales, finance, etc? Is there a group of advanced users that has scheduled meetings with the applicable development group lead? Do they participate in the dev group team calls? How else does IT make are they're developing what the users from several locations want, and the users know their voices are being heard? Any input is appreciated, I need to have a plan how to fix the communication issues when I walk into the interview. BTW, team membership was just purchased. |
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Well, I used to be a technical user that communicated with the programmers and I met with them fairly often. They were thrilled to have the feedback on what they were working on.
The other thing that I've done when I was the programmer was that I went and did jobs throughout the company. Most people aren't technical enough to know what is possible. When you have a programmer working side by side with somebody for a week they will come back with a list of things to fix. Better yet, they will have a direct bond with the people that they worked with to begin building that communications channel. |
| We would ask the developer leads or managers to bring that up during any of their team meetings. What do they need, what needs will they have in the future, usage of existing infrastructure, etc. That information can be sorted by the leads/managers as to what they think they actually need versus whats nice to have versus what won't help at all. That information gets passed to you so you can plan ahead and have it ready. Being able to plan ahead instead of everything being an emergency now will help keep costs down and make better integration into your infrastructure. |
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One place you may look is the PMI PMBOK guide or the watered down version. It deals with standard project management practices. This includes the communication plans. There is also a development theory that starts with the users and developers writing the manual first then building the software from it. I forget what its called.
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Quoted:
Ticketing system. Level one records issues, CC's development representative. Dev rep escalates to person/dept responsible for QA once enough data is collected to reproduce issues. Non-technical enough? I should have specified, the issue is with new development rather than problems in the current environment. Our environment isn't that old, the framework is in place but enhancements are needed and systems are being developed to replace temporary workarounds. Thanks for the info so far. I'm looking for information on who talks to who on a weekly/monthly basis, and who is on conference calls. My environment has 200+ users in around 10 locations around the country. There are indie pendant sales, engineering and finance departments in each location who had different procedures 5 years ago-and still do to some degree, so programmers spending time with their local users isn't enough. |
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Quoted:
I should have specified, the issue is with new development rather than problems in the current environment. Our environment isn't that old, the framework is in place but enhancements are needed and systems are being developed to replace temporary workarounds. Thanks for the info so far. I'm looking for information on who talks to who on a weekly/monthly basis, and who is on conference calls. My environment has 200+ users in around 10 locations around the country. There are indie pendant sales, engineering and finance departments in each location who had different procedures 5 years ago-and still do to some degree, so programmers spending time with their local users isn't enough. Quoted:
Quoted:
Ticketing system. Level one records issues, CC's development representative. Dev rep escalates to person/dept responsible for QA once enough data is collected to reproduce issues. Non-technical enough? I should have specified, the issue is with new development rather than problems in the current environment. Our environment isn't that old, the framework is in place but enhancements are needed and systems are being developed to replace temporary workarounds. Thanks for the info so far. I'm looking for information on who talks to who on a weekly/monthly basis, and who is on conference calls. My environment has 200+ users in around 10 locations around the country. There are indie pendant sales, engineering and finance departments in each location who had different procedures 5 years ago-and still do to some degree, so programmers spending time with their local users isn't enough. Sounds like the job the vp of engineering, directs to the chief development officer who creates the framework (or enhances it) and delegates accordingly via meetings with the "worker bees". Geography is non-issue once meetings via skype (or whatever) are outlined with those needed to accomplish specific tasks. Again, documentation/ticket system needs to be in place so everyone knows what their responsibilities are to meet the goals. "Users" only determine wants and have no involvement once the needs are understood. |
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+1 on the PMBOK. The usual failures in dealing with the management of any development project is often the lack of communication between the users and the programmers.
Programmers tend to have their idea of what the product should look like and users have theirs. Do you have an experienced MIS person on your staff? This is their specialty. The idea is to document and diagram user desires and functions to the programmers, so that the important stuff is not missed. |
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Quoted: Well, I used to be a technical user that communicated with the programmers and I met with them fairly often. They were thrilled to have the feedback on what they were working on. The other thing that I've done when I was the programmer was that I went and did jobs throughout the company. Most people aren't technical enough to know what is possible. When you have a programmer working side by side with somebody for a week they will come back with a list of things to fix. Better yet, they will have a direct bond with the people that they worked with to begin building that communications channel. This. Get the Programmer/Analyst on the floor doing the user's job. |
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One thing I like about the PMBOK is there is a matrix for a persons level of interest and influence and how that affects the communication. Too often everyone is treated the same. So lets say you are rolling out a new application for people in the mailroom. The dude packing boxes has a high level of interest but low influence. Still you want to keep him pretty closely in the loop. Meanwhile the CEO has a lot of influence but probably little interest. Just let him know when the application is in place and how much money it saved. Personally I hate being invited to meetings when I have very little interest in whatever the project is. I deal with dozens and dozens of major projects every year, I don't need anymore. In many cases a "Hey, we are deploying this, just FYI" email is fine. Other times I don't get invited to meetings I should be invited to because those doing the inviting don't want me to know.  |