OTUG Presentation

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OTUG Presentation

• July 15, 2003

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Topics

• Objectives
• Risk
• Expectations and Results
• Organization
• Team Skills/Profiles
• Team Member Skills/Profiles
• Standards and Methods
• Schedules
• Communication
• Cultural Issues

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• Objectives

• Project (type, location, language, deliverables,
  deadlines)
• Organization (constraints, direction/strategy
• Client (involvement, knowledge, experience, team
  work)
• Key resources (experience, role, goals,
  relationships)

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Risk

• Mission critical/high visibility or low
  priority/low visibility (essential to business
  success, maintenance of low priority system, few
  changes, keep it running)
• Driving factors-- budget, schedule or
  deliverables (not all three)
• Resources (availability, technical, industry,
  leaders, client facing, skills/knowledge)

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Expectations and Results

• Quality (second person testing, rework)
• Productivity (expectations for types of teams,
  leadership factor, learning accommodation)
• Performance measurements (specific for each team)

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Organization

• Steering committee
• Overall program manager
• Core team-- functional area project leaders,
  technical leaders, industry/application subject
  matter experts (SME), project office
• Functional area (FA)-- FA project leaders, FA
  technical leader, FA industry/application SMEs,
  technical resources
• Sub-functional areas (team leader/SME, technical
  resources)
• Parallel teams
• Core teamclient and primary developers
• Functional areas-- primary developers and
  secondary developers
• Sub-functional areasprimary developers and
  secondary developers

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Team Skills/Profiles

• Knowledge industry, technical, application
• Location
• Time zone (standard, daylight savings)
• Distance (travel time, cost)
• Language
• Infrastructure (hardware, software, network, cell
  phones, pagers, office phones, home phones)
• Suppliers/vendors (software, hardware, training,
  lead-times, international licensing)
• Climate (flooding)
• Facility (hours, transportation, commuting
  distance, on-call impact)
• Security (system, physical, social security
  numbers)
• Import/export compliance
• Visa options

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• Pricing
• Availability (ramp-up, ramp-down)
• Shifts
• Turnover
• Track record
• Flexibility
• Leadership support
• Team building experience
• Training/training plan
• Existing knowledge base
• Knowledge transfer between teams and team members
• Training criteria
• Desire

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Team Member Skills/Profiles

• Curiosity, open-minded
• Willing to travel (travel tips, Department of
  State warnings, passport, visa type,
  immunizations, drivers license, language, bank
  cards for out of pocket expenses, checking
  account for payroll electronic deposit,
  air/lodging arrangements)
• Career goals
• Level of experience
• Track record

• Location
• Team association (remote, dotted line, solid
  line)
• Languages
• Customer skills
• Industry
• Technical
• Application
• Leadership
• Mentoring/training
• Communication

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Standards and Methods

• Methodology
• Process
• Procedures
• Reviews/checkpoints
• Tools
• Templates
• Security (system, physical, social security
  numbers)

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Schedules

• Holiday time
• Vacation time
• Office hours
• Communication time
• Reviews/checkpoint time
• Roll-up
• Tracking (frequent, objective)
• Estimates, adjusted based on actual history
• Low staffing numbers over longer time versus
  higher staffing numbers over shorter time

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Communication

• Team building
• Project orientations
• Face to face experiences (working together,
  periodic visits)
• Pictures (team, individual, environment)
• Maps (locations)
• Clocks (different time zones)
• Events (celebrate milestones, learn about other
  holidays)
• Humor
• Outside interests (team and personal, music,
  weddings, festivals, etc.)

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Communication

• Communication plan
• Joint meetings and minutes
• Core team
• Functional area
• Team
• Checkpoint/review meetings
• Parallel meetings and minutes
• Functional area
• Team
• Checkpoint/review meetings
• Decision bulletins
• Escalation process

• Processes, procedures, templates
• Reviews/checkpoints
• Written
• Critical
• Detailed, precise
• Formal (facilitates common understanding)
• Timing, log, acknowledgement
• Oral
• Non-critical
• High level
• Informal (idioms, accents)
• Timing, log, acknowledgement

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Communication

• Tools
• Bridge lines
• NetMeeting
• Audio-visual conferencing (corporate, Kinko's)
• Fax
• Email
• eRoom
• LAN/WAN common directories
• Instant messaging
• Phones
• Pagers

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Cultural Issues

• Research
• Culturegrams at http//www.culturegrams.com/
• Official name, flag, time, weather, currency,
  location, capital, population, literacy, infant
  mortality, literacy, life expectancy, land and
  climate, history, population, language, religion,
  attitudes, greetings/handshakes, gestures
  (pointing, yes/no nods), visiting (gifts),
  eating, diet, recreation, the arts,
  entertainment, holidays, commerce, government,
  economy, education, health, transportation,
  events and trends, holidays, famous people)
• Country/culture books

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Cultural Issues

• News reports
• Magazine articles
• Pen pals
• Sports team tracking
• Awareness
• Special topics and reports during meetings
• Articles posted
• Training

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Summary

• Objectives
• Risk
• Expectations and Results
• Organization
• Team Skills/Profiles
• Team Member Skills/Profiles
• Standards and Methods
• Schedules
• Communication
• Cultural Issues

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OTUG Presentation

• July 2003