Digging in
January 26, 2001
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Whether you are designing a new payroll system, web site or a point-of-sale system for a new cash register, as a high-tech careerist you will have to face one issue again and again. Too often high-tech projects are instituted and managed by those people who will use it the least. If you want to develop truly useful products and systems, you have to dig down into a company's structure and find out what the workers really need, not what management thinks they need.
Getting started
Most high-tech projects, whether developed internally or by an outside
consultant, start with upper management. They have seen a need to collect
better information, better manage workflow or provide better service.
These same managers will probably develop a basic project plan based on
their needs and their interpretation of their employees needs. While this
provides a good starting point, it is up to you to delve deeper into the
issues and develop a solution that meets the true needs of everyone concerned.
When you are starting a new project make sure that there is some way to
gain input from the employees or customers who will be using the system
once it is operating. In some cases, you might face some resistance from
management, but if you want your project to succeed, this input is critical.
Too often, management believes it has all the answers when, in reality,
they only see a small portion of the picture. Too many times I have watched
projects developed to increase productivity fail because the extra work
needed to use the system takes up more of the workers time, not less.
It sounds like an obvious problem, but people miss it again and again.
Roll up your sleeves
Regardless of the type of project you are developing, spend time "in
the trenches." This might mean looking at an existing web site from
the viewpoint of a customer, watching people use an existing system or
even spending some time on the shop floor or warehouse learning how materials
are moved from one process to another. Whatever the situation, you must
immerse yourself in the environment in order to truly understand the needs
of those involved.
There are a couple important items to remember, though, when you are doing
your research. First, listen more, talk less. You can and should ask questions,
but you want to avoid offering solutions or concepts at this stage. You
want to spend your time taking in information that you will later process
to develop your plans. Be casual about your note-taking and observations.
Don't make people feel they are being analyzed every moment of their working
day.
Respect the work and the worker. Don't act dismissive about the work you
are observing. Every job in every company is important to the profitability
of the company. If the shipping department doesn't get the product out,
no one makes money. Pitch in and lend a hand if you can. I find that you
sometimes get your best ideas when you are actually involved in the work
you will be automating.
Finally, ask people for their ideas. Letting people know that their concerns
and comments have been heard goes a long way towards building acceptance
of whatever project you are developing. Too many times I have seen a system
languish because there are too many "if they had only asked me"
problems. Issues that could have been resolved up-front become a constant
annoyance to the user of the system and cause them to look for further
reasons to ignore it, if not actively campaign for it to be abandoned.
The best way to approach any new project is to first figure out the question
or problem that it is meant to address. Too often we start developing
solutions before we truly know the nature of the problem. People are your
greatest resource and you should make use of that resource as much as
possible. By talking to employees and customers, observing the nature
of the work and reserving your decisions until this research is gathered,
you can help to insure that your projects will be helpful long into the
future. This, to me, defines true success in the high-tech world.
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