Estimation........a ritual?

Have you ever watched reactions from different teams whenever a new opportunity arrives on the desk to respond to? And I am talking here in a typical software service provider environment.

First reaction is from Sales…” It is a great opportunity. We have to win it anyway and price is the deciding factor here. Let us go with very aggressive pricing.”

At the same time Delivery team says …”It is little riskier one. Let us not compromise on schedule. Also we need experienced resources to tackle customer expectations. It is better to go with conservative estimate rather to cut a sorry figure later.”

Quality department says …”Customer expects higher quality of deliverables and let us ensure that sufficient cushion is built for project management, quality assurance, documentation and testing.”

Estimation Group tries to put forth their estimation models & experiences to justify accuracy in estimation with sufficient buffers and validations by delivery team so that no one can point a finger to them tomorrow if anything goes wrong.

Management depending on their style either goes with sales or finds a mean between sales & delivery calls.

All discussions happen around “how much it costs”, “how long it takes”, “how many resources and what skills do we need”.

Is that the right approach? No.

Rather the Estimation Group should take a breather and sit across the table with all concerned i.e. Sales, Delivery, Quality and others involved, discussing first:

-Why the customer wants the project in the first place

-How the contour of the project is defined by the customer i.e. what are included and what are excluded, often an amorphous one

-Why customer wants us to participate in the bid

-Why should we participate …what is in for us

Once the above is fairly understood, then the estimation model and number crunching can happen to come up with reliable and sale-worthy estimates. Estimation is part of the sales process and not a back-office ritual. The onus is on the Estimation Group to see that sales happen in a way to have a win-win scenario for the customer and the firm.

'Solutioning Council'....an internal start-up

For any organization to survive, irrespective of size and scale of operation, it has to balance both – manage earnings against budget and invest carefully into next growth trajectory.

While the well-oiled machinery of sales, delivery and support functions carry out the first one, month after month, assessing variances against budget and taking corrective actions; an independent team or function is normally setup to oversee the second one in a different way to ensure the right direction towards tomorrow’s growth.

Some set up this independent team in a formal manner and some in an informal manner and many names are coined for this internal team as ‘Innovation Council’, ‘Research & Development’, ‘Solutioning Council’, so on and so forth. Irrespective of name, structure and size, three important factors are to be kept in mind while setting up such internal team(s).

- Organization should foster a culture of ideation, conceptual thinking, innovation, and solutioning across the floor; rather than confining it as the sole responsibility of the internal team. It should be treated as a habit where employees can exchange ideas and thoughts freely and fearlessly, cutting across the hierarchical structure; where employees adopt a childlike inquisitiveness and behave as risk-takers and do not feel afraid of failure.

-  The identified team or group or council should have a mindset to oversee the above. Organizations should be careful in selecting the leaders of this internal team, as they are required to be mature, committed, hands-on leaders and moreover avid readers, who not only read, but apply and teach. They are required to be heavily networked both internally and externally keeping eyes and ears open on the trends in the market, discussion topics, and make sure that new ideas and thoughts are being exchanged.   

-  Organization should have a structured process to gather, document, review the funnel of concepts, thoughts, ideas, solutions and select the ones to invest based on the organization’s capability, capacity and market need. However, such investments should be treated as internal projects with set milestones so that the progress is tracked against investment. At the same time, organizations should have a big heart to accept the fact that all investments will not result in desired outcomes and hence should be able to decide winding up a project midway and move on.

Such internal teams or councils are required to operate as internal start-ups, and to be nurtured carefully pursuing tomorrow’s growth.

Daily stand-up meeting.....

We all know the importance of team dynamism, team bonding and team motivation at work place for us to achieve superior results. In that context, daily stand-up meeting is an excellent tool, if practiced in a disciplined way.

Stand-up meeting does not need every team member to be physically present in the same room or floor. Rather it can be conducted either physically or virtually over telephone/video or a combination of both. And also it is not a must that everyone to be present. As long as majority of team members are present, it can continue. The key is the discipline to have it at a given time every day, without any exception. This concept conforms to the present day of reality of remote teams.

Though the team is free to chose anytime of the day to have this meeting, it is preferred to conduct at the beginning of the day, when the mind is fresh and full of energy. This becomes a mini team get–together with a purpose, boosting motivation level and start the day in a great way!

Daily stand-up meeting should be concise to cover yesterday’s experience, today’s plan and any issues or challenges that may impede today's work. Team can synch up and throw ideas for overcoming the challenges and a common understanding is obtained on today’s expected results. Though there is no specific time limit for the duration, it should be short and sweet, of course it depends on the team size, however ideally should not exceed 1hr.

Though the ‘Stand-up’ or ‘Synch-up’ meeting is often associated with Software development following ‘Agile’ methodology, it is conceptually a great tool for any other team in any other industry. It is an excellent vehicle for team coordination to address issues and challenges in near real-time manner.

Also it should not be misconstrued as a status reporting exercise, rather should be used as a tool for team conversation focusing on day’s results and start the day with a unified mind….

Why Stress??..No need..

Everyone wishes to achieve all that one thinks of and also in a way one desires to achieve.

But in reality, it does not happen so. We get a few and miss a few. And quietly we use the proverb, “Man proposes, God disposes”. We become anxious, worried and stressed out from the ones that we could not accomplish; and finally we become sad.

Let us try to understand in a simpler term, what actually makes us stressed and how to avoid. I have drawn a simple diagram below where X axis represents the ones that are within or outside of our control and Y axis represents the ones that are accomplished or not.

Quadrant 2 is the best one where we accomplish whatever is in our control. Here let us pat our back and be happy. Quadrant 1 is where we missed out a few for some reason that we could have accomplished. Reason may be lack of time, low productivity, ignorance or any other that is under our direct influence. Here we should learn from the slippage and move on with a will to improve upon.

Quadrant 3 is a good one where something that is beyond our control is achieved and we should be grateful to God to make our day a lucky one. Let us celebrate this one. Quadrant 4 is the nasty one where we did not achieve the ones that are outside of our control, but we wished to get them somehow. We did not have any direct influence over them and we only prayed that somehow they are achieved! Here we become anxious and stressed out.

There is no point to focus on those that are outside our control, rather focus on achieving all that are within the realm of our direct control.

As long as we are in Quadrant 1 and 2, we are happy and stress free. 

Sales & Delivery

Sales and Delivery are two building blocks for any organization and a conflict between them is inherently natural. And this little conflict is actually not that bad. 

Sales is incentivized to close deals and book orders while Delivery is focused on quality delivery as promised and show profit. Sales tries to excite the customer with price point and faster delivery, while delivery tries to meet the promise of on-time delivery with high quality.  Sales is supposed to be risk-taker and on the other hand Delivery is risk-averse.

Ideally Delivery should be part of proposal preparation and estimation in discussion with Sales so that there is a buy-in from Delivery. Also organizations should look at commission structure where Sales and Delivery both are equally rewarded on metrics like closure, profitability, and customer satisfaction; rather than only Sales is rewarded with commission on deal closure.

In fact, a little discord between Sales and Delivery is healthy sign where both the units are striving together to bring in ‘profitable growth’ to the organization.