a012b - software development product & services - the people framework
TRANSCRIPT
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Mar 2008
Software DevelopmentServices: The People
Framework
Creating Technology ChampionsBernard Sia
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe document will attempt to rebrand the existing notion of a Support/Operations Vs Project
dichotomy and propose a service oriented, career growth planning and human capital
development infrastructure that ties the organization as a seamless whole. Components of
the service chain and the responsibilities of the each proposed unit will be expounded to
tackle the weaknesses of a project/support team split. At the end, there will be 5 key
departments for Software & Solutions delivery namely; Professional Services, Service Desk,
Program Management, Product Development & System Administration.
The structure and process flows introduced are by no means complete and can be expanded
to accommodate business needs.
THE PROBLEM STATEMENTS
HUMAN & KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL RETENTION & GROWTH
The crutch of any organization is in its myopic treatment of human resources. In a service
industry that translates raw brain power into software product, no other arena of gargantuan
failures can compare against an organization that:-
a) Are biased against any one function within the organization, typically against the
technical artisan and leaning towards management. In particular where career growth
and advancement are concerned.
b) Do not provide transparent career planning and attainable goals and objective as one
progress through the years of service.
c) Do not have a reward system that differentiates performers from their peers, hence
eliminating any desire towards progress.
AGGRANDIZING THE DIVISION OF ROLES BETWEEN SUPPORT AND PROJECT
TEAM MEMBERS
It is extremely tempting to maintain the line of thought of separating project team members
and operations/support personnel. Often the difference in psyche is further heightened with
character prejudices, e.g. support personnel are more laid back, less motivated and hence
suited for the doldrums of repetitive work; where as a project team member is averse
towards litany. Once accepted, this mentality drives deeper the wedge between the 2 units
where the organization haplessly profiling less driven candidates for support & operational
roles. Coupled to that, it is as if a caste system of old is stamped across the forehead of all
support personnel, dooming them to play the same role in their next corporate incarnation.
Humbly, it goes against the roots of any good leadership to allow hiring based on ineptitude;
new hires need to possess the skills and acumen to succeed and ultimately contribute to the
overall human & knowledge capital of the organization. It is with the accumulation of
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likeminded, performance oriented individuals that will elevate the organization to the next
level.
SEPARATION OF STRUCTURE RESULTS IN SKILL DISJOINT
Naturally, the project team will have first dibs on the forefront of tools & technology, and it is
through each project that the organization learns and applies the lessons from it. Often byseparating the units, the support team will perpetually be several steps behind. The chasm
is further widened with the rapid pace of technological change and heightened demand for
services. Typically, the support team that was intended to fix a bug will revert to the project
team; a self defeating admission of skill limitation on top of grinding to a halt the
performance level of project team members.
The solution of implementing a common development framework and methodology has
often been used to ensure standardization of skills. Unfortunately, the rate of technological
and required process change has made this decision counterproductive. Epitomized by
enterprise architecture thats not only several generations behind the current scenario but
also with mountainous documentation that has to be constantly kept abreast to remain
relevant. This in turn hinders the organization to move at the pace of new competitiveentrants that are able to bring to business solutions rapidly.
The organization then begins to make excuses for the initial standardization approach and
stay dormant instead of investing in constant improvement. The argument here is not to
reduce the merits of standardization, but to argue against barnacle like resistance towards
change. Secondly, standardization as an end in itself will again lead to stagnation. A
technology organization has to be agile to adapt to moving circumstances and subscribe to
accelerated delivery whilst maintaining quality of work.
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SOLUTION SUMMARY PROFESSIONAL SERVICES & PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
In summary, the creation of a Professional Services Unit which separates user requests,
incident and problem management engagements from the project team is required. The
project team should only focus on Software Development & Bug Fixing and the mapping of
current processes to the proposed infrastructure is as follows:
I nc
ide
nts/R
eq
ues
ts,
Requ
ire
me
nts
Bug
Fix
es
,T
rainin
g,
New
Pro
duc
ts,
Pro
toty
pin
g
Functi
ona
lS
upport
,C
onsu
ltin
g
New
Softw
are/
Fix
es
Prototype/
Mockups/Functional
Specs
Problems/Bugs/
Requirements
Requests/
Incidents
Professional Services
Change Managers
/Agents &Configuration
Managers
Problem &
Service LevelManagers
SME/Product
QualityAssurance &Functional
Software developers(Projects)
Software Developers(Bug Fix)
Product Development aka ProductTeam
Architects &
Software CodeQuality Assurance
Software Trainers,Intellectual Property
Configuration Mgmt
Rotation
Customer
Trainin
g/M
anua
ls/
Fun
ctio
nalS
upport
AvailabilityReports/
ImprovementPlans
Customer
Support Team
Bug Fixers Problem MgmtSource CodeControl &
Release Mgmt
Service Level Team
Service
Catalogue
Service Level
Reporting
Availability
Reports/
Improvement
Plans
Availability Reports/ImprovementPlans
Improvem
entPlans
Functio
nalS
uppo
rt/
BugFi
x/Training
Now To Be
Product Development aka Product
Team
Software developers(Projects)
Software Developers(Bug Fix)
Architects &
Software DeploymentSoftware Trainers,
Source Code Mgmt,Configuration Mgmt
New
Products/
Hand
ove
r
In
cide
nts/R
eque
sts
Problems
Probl
ems
The vision is a clean separation of task and duties by creating a unit thats customer
focused, and another which is technology focused. We are able to achieve less
communication end points as well as a central accountability of user related issues.
Secondly, the Product Development team is shielded against unnecessary communication
with the user.
Finally, the move of Software Bug fixers to the Development team instead of support will
ensure that the bug fixers are abreast with the rest of the project team. In fact, the proposed
solution requires project team to rotate bug fixing duties. This will ensure redundancy
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among team members and more programmers to solve bug related issues as well as project
requirements.
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Software developers(Projects)
Software Developers(Bug Fix)
Software Development Product & Services:- The People FrameworkTuesday, March 18, 2008
Rotation
Product Development aka Product Team
Professional Services
Change Managers/Agents &
ConfigurationManagers
Problem &Service Level
Managers
SME/ProductQuality
Assurance &Functional
Customer
Architects &Software Code
Quality Assurance
Softwar e Trainers,
Intellectual PropertyConfiguration Mgmt
System
Administration
ApplicationSystem Administrators
(Performance Tuning etc)
1)Re
quests/I
ssue
s
2)Incidents/Requests
6.1) Services/Solu
tions/Guidance/Tra
ining/Follow
Through
Server Build,Deployment Engineers,
Back Up & Restore.
5.1)
New
Produ
ct/Fixe
sService Desk
IncidentManagement
Access &ID Management/
Requestfor Services
(Messaging/LAN/Telephony)
6.2)
Servic
es
4)Deploymen
tScripts
5.2
)S
ervic
es
3)
Bu
gs/F
un
cti
on
al R
equir
em
ents
Project Mgmt/Contract Mgmt/Financial Mgmt/
Portfolio & Pipeline Mgmt
Program
Management
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SOLUTION 1 - CREATING THE SERVICE DELIVERY CHAIN
REBRANDING SUPPORT
Foremost, we must forgo the word support in its entirety, a new business entity known as
the Professional Services Unit will be in its place. The rebranding exercise will also
extend to the Product Development Unit (Product Team), the Service Desk,
Application System Administration and Program Management.The focus of this
document will be more towards the Professional Services Units role and responsibilities as it
is a huge departure from the existing traditional support model.
Within this section we will also tackle the key responsibilities of each of this unit and how
they interact with each other.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES UNIT (PSU)
The Professional Services Unit is intended to be customer centric by nature, the values thatthe unit should subscribe to is constant vigilance in ensuring customer satisfaction, and the
necessaryfunctional skills to master the product and services that are delivered to the
customer. Fundamentally, the PSU personnel will be involved in the initial requirements
gathering process, and also through their own input, be able to translate business
requirements into a format that is understandable by the Product Development Unit.
Subsequently be involved in the Quality Assurance process to ensure that the product is
delivered as required, and the follow through in terms of Product Usage Manuals & Change
Management activities to prep the users for the product; finally, the tracking of product
service levels and problem management of crisis situations.
Value creation is capitalized when the responsibilities and ownership below is kept within
this unit.
Change Management
Any software or services implementation would require change management. Sadly the
word itself is a misnomer and a serious shift in paradigm and process orientation is required
to do justice to this role. Often implemented in within low budget constraints; change
management activities are whittled down to a broadcast website and passable training to
the impacted users.
The vision for a strong change management team is the infusing of fundamental skills to:-
a) Assess the Current Business Scenario & Problem Statements
b) Recommend the aspired TO BE landscape
c) Assess and record the Gaps that needs to be fulfilled
d) Prepare & Implement the Strategy & Tactical effort required to fill the gaps.
e) Assess the efficacy to the business post implementation
f) Provide problem management post implementation
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g) Recommend further improvements to both the business and the Product
Development Unit.
h) Influence and promote change agents within the user scape.
Customer Centric Product/Service Configuration Management
A single point of ownership for all product & services delivered to the customer is required.
Currently, the organization goes into a frenzy of broadcasts and guessing game whenever
any of the interconnecting services become unavailable. Being customer focus, a hierarchy
of customer vs. product/services matrix needs to be built and vigilantly maintained, more
importantly, the interdependencies among these services. By far, it is better to preempt and
manage the customers expectations of a downtime compared to unannounced system
unavailability. Example of a customer centric Configuration Management hierarchy:-
1. User Impacted (Customer)
1.1. User ICT Investments (Product/Software/Service)
1.1.1. Underlying ICT Infrastructure
1.1.1.1. Vendor Underpinning Contracts & Service Levels
Product Problem & Service Level Management
The PSU should also be responsible to track & monitor Service Levels of each product.
Coupled with Quality assurance responsibilities, the ownership of customer satisfaction and
eventual management of crisis will fall on the Professional Services Unit should there be
underlying bugs that were not captured earlier, hence leading to more stringent quality
testing. Secondly, performance improvements from the standpoint of the customer can beproposed to the Product Team. The organization needs to keep the Service Level
Management responsibilities as close to the customer as possible, and with the relevant
Problem and Change Management skills, the ability to explain and manage the users issue
statements.
The strength of Problem Management lies with the skills acquired in Change Management.
This ensures that the Professional Services Unit will be in the forefront and midst of any
major incident, managing each user contact and functional work around and passing
confirmed bugs to the product development unit.
Finally, problem management tracks bug closures end to end. This ensures a single point of
contact upon bug report and bug fix deployment to the users. Please note that this isseparate from the Incident management approach that ideally should be handled by the
service desk. Separate because incident management should focus on taking in calls, while
the follow up is done by the Professional Development Unit.
Product Quality Assurance
The PSUs involvement here comes prior to Unit Testing and deployment to production.
PSUs role is to ensure that the product is free of defects; ideally, the PSU has final say
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whether the product is ready for user consumption and will be preparing user test scripts
that are more reflective of the users usage patterns. This responsibility is highly crucial to
be owned by PSU as in the event of a disaster, it will fall onto the PSU personnel to resolve
the aftermath and user management via the Change Management activities. Hence
functional expertise are gained during the Quality Assurance/Control phase and reinforced
as they provide training to the users once its gone live.
Product/Business/Service Subject Matter Expert
The PSU team member should also be the product expert within the context of Product
Security Access, Functions, Data Model & non programmatic configuration of the product
deployed. The vision here is a team thats able to assist the users with the intricacies of the
new software. Secondly, based on their interactions, be able to pass suggestions
representative of the users feedback to the Product Development Unit, better ways to
model and present user interface and business rules.
Thirdly, for usability and data related issue, be able to diagnose and provide the solution.
The emphasis here is separating coding level fixes i.e. true bugs, vs. issues that are data
related. Should it be process and data related the skills in Change Management kicks in tomanage the users experience.
Finally, as Product & Subject Matter Expert that are closely linked to the customer, the PSU
should be responsible for the publication and upkeep of product manuals, user help files,
training & presentation materials.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT UNIT (PDU)
The Product Development Unit epitomizes technology mastery and excellence. Key take
away for the proposed structure is an almost 90% shielding of the product team from havingto deal with the day to day gripe and groans of the customer. Secondly, people exposure will
only come in during close-group sessions ala a rapid prototyping engagement/agile
methodology.
It is extremely important for the productivity of the team as customer interruptions lead to
forced follow through and jarring of thought processes. Often project plan are impacted and
source code quality at risk. The major responsibilities for this unit are as follows:-
Effort Estimation, Architecting & Continuous Research
The Product Development team needs to be experienced and verse in translating functional
specifications provided by the Professional Services Team into workable code. Value iscreated from the ability to streamline customer requests and counter propose their
requirements with something that is easier to use as well as easier to development.
Ultimately, time to market and quality delivery is the true guiding principle towards any
software product.
The architecting responsibility comes with experience and exposure. The team should focus
on being able to deliver the code base faster, with fewer lines of codes which ultimately
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translate to lesser bugs. In summary the team will need to form software technology
standards and broadcast those standards across the organization.
Software Development & Bug Fixing
The problem statement that is resolved here is the fact that the Product Development Team
will perpetually be at the forefront of technology, hence to have another unit that focussolely in bug fixing and user support will lead to a gap in knowledge and expertise.
Eventually, the support team will tend to revert to the project team for a solution. Keep the
bug fixing portion separate from user facing support functions.
Software Developers(Bug Fix)
Software Trainers,Source Code Mgmt,Configuration Mgmt Role Rotation
Role Rotation
JuniorSoftware
Developers
Architects
Software developers(Projects)
A rotational time table is introduced, where team members are required to perform bug fix
duties. Naturally it is not recommended for the person to be on both project and bug fixing
detail at the same time, however, in times of crisis, the potential of that happening will arise.
Bug fixing rotation is a more managed approach to keep the project team on their toes and
ensures that they are responsible for their codes.
The best element of this model is the fact that every programmer can fix every other
programmers work; this introduces elements of peer pressure to sustain quality and code
standards. The weaker programmer will be pressured to buck up for fear of being scrutinized
by the next programmer on bug fix duty.
The model will succeed exceptionally when quality assurance from the Professional Services
team is strong and comprehensive to identify show stopper bugs. Should there be any bugs
found once the system hits Production, it should be minor enough to attach a manageable
service level tagged time frame for the solution. For example:-
Priority/Severity
Bug Type Description Example Service Level
Low Typo on screen labels. (1 Day)End of Day
deployment to
Production
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Medium/Hard Page Crash, Page not found 440 (3 Days) end of
Week deployment to
production
Hard Page Performance Slow, Error on Report Calculation
Values, Integration Failures
(5-8 Days) end of 2
Week Deployment to
Production
The idea is to sustain a single code base entity and rapid transfer of knowledge among the
team members as they belong to the same unit and hierarchy. The standardization and
processes proposed will be modeled cohesively as the team will be the same team thats
involved in projects. Therefore, the team will have a bigger sense of ownership to avoid all
major bugs, and perform comprehensive unit testing before even involving the Professional
Services Team in the Quality Assurance phase.
In summary, we envision a team that is able to rapidly, and safely perform code fixes and
production deployment on a daily basis without fear of interrupting business. Finally, a team
that has a strong sense of quality to avoid major bugs that eats into their Non-Core
utilization.
Source Code Control and Intellectual Property Management
Again, being the same entity, source code control and intellectual property management
can be better achieved, as we can assign a single custodian to all the source code that has
been deployed to production. Although certain level of automation is available, one cannot
dismiss the need for human touch where policing is concerned. Secondly, the skill set and
learning curve will be further heightened when the same team that are managing the code
base for project, can track the code base that is required for bug fixing. The challenge lies in
the discipline of code merging, and the most logical way to manage it is to keep both project
and bug fix within the same team.
Source Code Quality
Profiling, optimization and refactoring are 3 common activities that must be in the to do
list of any software development shop. It ensures that the code base is constantly cleansed
prior to deployment to production environment.
Code Libraries, Automation and Tool Smiths
As the team adapts to larger demand, the requirements for creating automation within the
development process is required. Secondly, generic code libraries reused for future works.The role of a tool smith is required to build as well as research 3rd party APIs and provide
recommendations to rapidly deliver common functions across different projects.
Technology Trainers & Boot Camp
Reigning in order out of chaos requires a curriculum that is flexible enough to adapt to the
ever changing technology environment. The Product Development Team will be required to
run and manage boot camps to ramp up new hires to the standards and methodologies
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applied within the organization. More importantly the technological ladder and verticals that
needs to be mastered, within this framework also, the career path and planning for new
hires and existing personnel can be better managed.
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT UNIT (PMU)
The idea behind program management is the ability to absorb all the resources and abilities
within the organization and channel it towards project delivery. Add to that, is the function
of stakeholder management and the acumen required to drive home difficult solutions that
requires assistance from different parties.
Within the Service Oriented Organization Structure proposed, the Project Managers role now
is temporal by nature. He should receive authority via the Project Charter and prescribe
standard methodology in facing the customer and the activities surrounding scheduling and
planning.
The discussion is kept short as a number of major publications already cover key tasks that
a Project Manager should be responsible with.
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION UNIT (SAU)
Amazingly, this skill is exceedingly lacking in general. This is primarily attributed to the
myriad technologies required to manage the process of deployment. In summary, the
personnel would require knowledge of the application framework, in particular web based
technologies, configuration and tuning parameters, also performance parameters, profiling,
error logging and diagnostic, capacity management, redundancy management i.e. server
clustering, network load balancing, security configurations and administrative knowledge of
the deployment platform.
The Deployment Process
In ITIL although covered by Release Management, does not do justice to the tasks required,
within this context we focus at the gate keeping of the deploying activity. Ideally, no
personnel from the Product Development Unit should have direct access to the server. At
most a dummy account is provided for the Professional Services Unit Team to replicate
errors that have been encountered by the user.
Finally, by detaching server access between the development team and system
administrators, it ensures the traceability of change and the identification of bad
deployments.
Web Services Configuration, Tuning, Capacity & Availability Management
The team is required to constantly prune and manage optimum settings for any application
and the server environment. Based on their research and management of server farms, the
most optimum use of processing power and hardware should be proposed. The ASA needs to
manage and balance server resources, growth planning, and the vision of being able to
provide resources on demand during peak periods. The SAU team should be the one
proposing the best hardening and redundancy approach to the Product Development Unit
team members, hence alleviating programmers from having to meddle with server
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configuration. In fact, developers should not have direct access to production server
configurations.
The takeaway here is the creation of a mini staging environment to dry run code releases,
secondly, data wise, the mirroring of production data will ensure that bug incidents can be
traced without having to work with the highly sensitive production environment.
Second big takeaway is the skills required for an application specific systems administration.
It is no longer as simple as looking at RAM, CPU or Hard disk capacity management, but in
depth knowledge of the Operating Systems nooks and crannies, e.g. Registry Settings,
Security Settings, Network optimization, Web Server Settings, Clusters and such. The list
goes on, and the boundary between hardware and software is seriously blurred and biased
towards software.
Database tuning and Availability Management
Database server administration is a minefield in itself, expert database administrators are
able to trace deadlocks server performance down to the hard disk sector contention level
and provide feedback to the developers, on top of which they are able to propose hardwarebase as well as network optimization that are transparent to the development teams
implementation of the code base.
The big takeaway here, the best performance, hardening and redundancy methodology on
the hardware & infrastructure level should be adapted by the development team and not the
other way around. When the responsibility lies with the development team, they will tend to
circumvent infrastructure best practices in order for codes pieces to work. Finally, it ties
back to the concept of Change Management during the Deployment process, no
configuration changes as well as code pieces should be migrated to the server without
identifying accountability and impacted users. More importantly, software developers should
not have access to the production environment.
SERVICE DESK (SD)
A service desk for an outsourcing environment should be that of rapid, courteous and
contact/incident capturing nature. The biggest challenge for the team is the large number of
daily phone calls, and the need to rapidly end the conversation to free the line. Secondly,
the large number of products and services proffered plagues the service desk personnel with
information overload. Regardless of the amount of training provided, the team will have
issues in managing the nuts and bolts of even functional details of a product when it is
multiplied by a thousand permutations. Hence the need for a focused Product to
Professional Services Team that follows up with the customer on the solution to the
problem. The keywordproblem borrows from ITIL and it deals with the root causes and an allencompassing solution.
The discussion on service desk is kept short as this is not the focus of the document.
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SOLUTION 2 - HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE SERVICE
DELIVERY CHAIN
The cornerstone of human capital development lies with the retention of performing staffsand sharing of the performers knowledge across the organization. Without which, the cycle
of intense productivity, burn out, and resignations will repeat ad infinitum. Secondly, within
each organization, the definition and value of capital would need to be defined; in particular,
the knowledge and expertise in creating and maintaining products and services. As an ICT
Outsourcing company, no greater value should surpass the cumulative experience and
contribution of its resources in ensuring that the organization continues to service its
customers beyond the service levels defined.
The Human Capital Development principles recommended are centered on grounding the
personnel in the fundamentals of the technology and gradually growing his exposure across
multiple technology verticals to achieve Architect status. The objective is the sustained
capabilities and knowledge wisdom to undertake any manner of future customer requests.
The weakness of a single pillared approach tends to be greater intelligence but lacking the
birds eye view of the technology landscape and potential pitfalls. What we intend to create
is an Architect that can span software development, networking, hardware, security and
operating systems.
The timeframe required to achieve this is quite frankly long in internet years. A proficient
software developer can be molded within 2-4 years, add to that, the infrastructure operating
system knowledge another 1 year, networks another year, and the more esoteric areas of
performance and security profiling, we could see a duration of 10 years before technologist
achieves sufficient breadth and depth of skills to architect an end to end solution for the
customer. Like it or not, an ICT organization should not approach a solution like 4 blind menon an elephant, the viewpoint needs to be holistic and the goals aligned.
In order to do so, the organization needs to break an evil spell that has cursed ICT human
capital development, the over jarring preference for named title such as Manager, and the
notion that a personnel must be a manager in order to warrant a better paycheck.
THE CASE FOR DUAL CAREER PATH
Problem Statements
As it is, ICT organizations that are not careful in managing their technical resources result in
mediocre performance & service delivery. At best the average cumulative experience is nomore than 3-5 years due to resignation or staff choosing to enter (or cajoled) into
management related duties. The most often quoted reason for exit are lack of career
advancement within the technical arena and they find multinationals that can pay more for
their technical skills.
Solution The Dual Career Path
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Within Malaysia in particular, rarely is there an organization that sustains the career of a
technology artisan, at best, after a 3-6 year working period, the individual is forced to make
a hard choice. Adapt management skills, in particular project management, or risk being
sidelined as a dead end programmer with personality issues and stay within the lower rungs
of the organization.
With a dual career path, the choices are easier and more attuned towards staff retentionrather than ushering them away. For example, in SUN Microsystems, the following 4 tier
career ladders are provided for.
Management Technical
Engineering Manager 1 Staff Engineer
Engineering Manager 2 Senior Staff Engineer
Director Distinguished Engineer
Vice President Fellow
Titles aside, the salary ranges and benefits at corresponding levels of the two ladders areidentical. For example, Distinguished Engineers and Directors have the same salary range,bonus, and stock plans. Fundamentals to any career are remunerations; the organizationcan harp about how job satisfaction and environment plays a better part (which it does),however within the context of this argument, you must admit, that ice cold environmentalfactors trumps lip service.
It is highly odd that although Malaysia aspires to be a technology powerhouse with theMultimedia Super Corridor project, after 12 years (at the writing of this document) we haveyet to adopt a single lesson from technology powerhouses on how they maintain and sustaintechnical personnel.
Aligning the dual career path with the Organizational Structure Proposed
Once we have the principles in mind, it is fairly easy to design a career path that celebratesperformance and experience. The scenario below explains it, with each level compoundingto the next:-
Experience Level Requirements and Description of Responsibilities
Associate Grunt work, either code, or produce product manual. Constantlearning of conformed standards & framework
Consultant Able to produce work with minimal guidanceSenior Consultant Able to coach, train and produce architectural advice and
improvements.Managerial/Technologist
ManagerialProgram Management. Able to sustain administrative function of theorganization. To own & drive home organizational improvements.
TechnologistAble to chart new territories, conduct assessment and propose
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improvements as well as driving home and owning theimprovements.
SeniorManagement/Technologist
Senior ManagerStrategic Planning, Business Development, People grooming andSuccession Planning.
Senior TechnologistsCross vertical architecting & Proposals.To Champion Research & Development and in house productdevelopment activities.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS AND END NOTE
In rebranding support and creating an organization that is service and performance oriented,
we must first eliminate any verbiage that even resembles support. A Professional Services
Unit exists to nurture and ensure customer satisfaction via its expert knowledge of solutions
and services extended to the customer. On the Product Development Unit, their reason for
survival is the continuous creation and raising the bar of products released. All of which
aligned towards the customer. The organization should eliminate positions that functions
solely as postmen with no future growth. For example, help desk personnel should graduate
to professional services unit.
Lastly, the People Framework career paths should be readily available to all personnel
regardless of unit that they belong to. Ultimately, creating the momentum and providing the
platform for each individual to excel within the organization.
To end, there should be no dead end jobs in any organization!
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