Switching Roles

We are almost at the end of the year, and I can say that it was a pretty busy one for me. Right at the beginning, I have started a new challenge. It was not about just starting a new job in a new company, but it was also about switching to a new mode of work. This new opportunity was about changing seats in the table of an IT project, from the integrator to the client, from mere analysis to ownership.

My previous experience was strictly with integrators, specifically S2E and consultancy companies. I got used to working in these environments where the structure and the scope of the team was pretty clear, and they gave you a flexibility to work on multiple projects. Usually, once you are done with a specific mission, you would jump into another one and rarely be contacted again by your old client or team.

Moving into this new challenge, I was motivated by the new setting. I believed that I would get out of my comfort zone and learn something new. However, I cannot say that I had a detailed picture of what to expect.

Communication

One of the things that I got used to while working from within the client context is to communicate directly with individuals that would not have enough background to understand the context of the project or the technological standards. In my previous experiences as an analyst and a representative of my development team, I usually talked to one person, the product owner; he would be our main point of contact. This person would have a minimum understanding of how things should work from an IT point of view, and an extensive contextual knowledge.

Therefore, this was a great opportunity to get used to the way we should talk to an non-IT individual. Sometimes, you will have to explain some obvious things. However, you have to know that these things are obvious to you and not necessarily to every other person. In this situation, you will have to have patience and get into the habit of formulating your answers to be straightforward and use the minimum technical jargon as possible.

Ownership

Hopping into another project when you work with an integrator would mean that you hand everything to the next team or to the client and move on. I remember taking pride in the documentation I have left for the next one. I always make sure to document the maximum and aim for clarity and comprehensiveness.

However, when you are working with the client, you are usually working on the same project or product for a long time. The product itself becomes your "little baby" that you help grow. You feel a great sense of ownership. Therefore, even your involvement in maintaining and growing the product feels deeper.

This ownership is not limited to evolving the product itself, but it also includes the substantial task of increasing the awareness and the adoptability of the product and the good practices within the company. You become a sort of a reference, who is always consulted, and an evangelist, who keeps on spreading the "good word." This can be very obvious when you are involved in discussions of any additions or changes in the company's IT ecosystem. In this event, you will be usually included in the decision making process.

I felt this sense of ownership when we were asked to prepare for the Black Friday, one the most important events for e-commerce. This was our first Black Friday online presence. I have made its success as one of my main objectives, and I felt pretty invested, especially when I had to deal with a particularly challenging architecture.

Continuum

As an integrator, you would stay after the deployment to handle any bugs and improvements, and then move on to the next project, unless a support contract was signed. However, as mentioned in the previous point about "ownership", when you are working from within the client, your work does not end after submitting the product. You will need to keep on pushing for evolving and adopting the new solution. You move from the project mode to the operational mode.

As a client, you will stay after the submission and be looking for ways to make the product more efficient functionally and technically. However, evolving the product is just part of the story. When you are working with the client, you will be working on the operational level as well. This means that any problem or question concerning your product will come right to your doorsteps. You will be heavily working on new configurations and setups, especially in disruptive events.

For instance, just recently, we had to adapt, on a very short notice, to the new Canadian tax (GST/HST) break. In this example, we had to work on new configurations and cooperate with different specialities to analyze the whole ecosystem to insure a proper integration of this change.

In conclusion, the obvious thing is that getting out of your comfort zone would introduce new opportunities to learn and evolve. Taking the decision to stop working for a consulting/IT company and move to the client side was not easy for me. However, the operational challenges and the satisfaction of seeing your "baby" grow have confirmed my decision. Taking this step made me stack new hats on my head, right on top of the "business analyst" hat. The most notable of them all is ownership.

I will have to add here that it is not a matter of black and white. The same things that I have listed above can be found when working as an integrator. It all depends on the project and the client. However, working from within the client side amplifies these elements as you become more exposed to them.