SIMPLY…. FROM THE GUT! – Part III

In my two decades of working at client locations on behalf of a Systems Integrator, I have had several opportunities to take senior executives to India to visit their ‘Offshore Delivery Center’ (ODC). These trips follow a pattern starting with a traditional Indian welcome, the guest is garlanded, a red vermillion is applied on the forehead and a welcome drink is offered. If the visit includes a weekend, then there will be a tour arranged - Taj Mahal if the client is in Delhi - Mahabalipuram, if the client is in Chennai and so on. First time visitors would gain a new perspective on the wonders of India with unlimited opportunities for ‘Kodak’ moments- cows sharing the roads with vehicle traffic, spotting an elephant majestically walking on the road escorted by a mahout.

After a meeting with the management leadership, there will be a series of meetings happening in a well- equipped conference room. Project leaders from diverse groups servicing this customer would make presentation of their project and after 6 or 7 such sessions, one can start seeing the tired face of the customer. To break this monotony, there would be some ‘floor walks’ where the client team will walk through the floor to meet and have informal conversations with the team members, ‘town hall’ session with the entire team etc.

So, there are many positive outcomes from the visit - improved motivation of the team, a good sense of experiencing the enthusiasm of the people and the world class facilities, understanding some best practices from the industry etc. But, still some questions always linger in the mind such as:

·       Why are my business users complaining of slow response from my customer facing applications?

·       Why are we not able to adopt a more frequent release for a specific application?

·       Why do I have to increase the support team for a specific technology application after a major release? 

     There is an uneasy feeling in the mind of the executive as to whether he/she could have challenged the project leaders a little more during the meetings.

New Perspective on Software

Now, imagine a situation when the client is also equipped with Software Intelligence of all the applications under the portfolio of the vendor when he/she is making this tour. This would open a door for the IT executive – giving a new perspective of his own applications based on facts directly from the source code. Fact-based analysis would introduce and maintain visibility, predictability and collaboration in one of the most elusive disciplines – software development.

·       Which applications are at risk from outages?

·       Which team is providing me with best value-for-money for their development activities and how can we repeat it across other teams?

·       Has my investment in transformation projects resulted in quantifiable gains in productivity and maintainability?

 So, if you plan to pack your bag and visit one of your partner facilities, make sure that you have implemented a Software Intelligence platform that tells you what you don’t know about your own software. I assure you that this will add a new ‘spice’ in the discussions with various team meetings and make the visit even more productive!