It’s the little things that count
Managing communication in
multidisciplinary teams
14 July 2004
1
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Objectives

Discuss experience derived from working with
multidisciplinary teams to deliver complex systems
in government, industry and games development.

Address questions such as
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Why use multidisciplinary teams?
What problems do they experience?
How can these problems be reduced?
No silver bullets – just practical tools for the toolbox.
14 July 2004
2
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Questions in system & device development

Why should we build this system?
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Will people use it once we’ve built it?
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Technical standards and interfaces
How will we build it?
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User drivers and models
User interface design
How will it interact with other systems?
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Business drivers, processes and ROI
Fast moving technology, business context, etc
Specialist applications and tools
How will we (or the user) maintain and operate it?
14 July 2004
3
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
For complex systems, we need many skills
Sponsors
Business analysis
Project managers
Ergonomics
Graphic design
User interface
Information
Architecture
Operations & maintenance
Interfaces to other systems
Change mgt
Programmer
Tech Specialists
Technical
System
Users
Tools specialists
Architects
Ethnographers
Operations
specialists
14 July 2004
4
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Each with its own language
Sponsors
Project managers
Business analysis
User Requirements?
What information or
Ergonomics
Graphic design
functions will fill the
gaps?
User interface
User Requirements? What
& maintenance
rules needOperations
to be applied
to
create the information?
Information
Architecture
Interfaces to other systems
Change mgt
Programmer
Tech Specialists
Technical
System
Users
Tools specialists
Architects
Ethnographers
Operations
specialists
User Requirements?
What gaps need to
be filled?
14 July 2004
5
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
And its own mindset

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What is the right trade-off of time versus “quality”?
What is “quality” anyway?
What needs to be done first?
Tolerance for risk & ambiguity
Recognition of what is ambiguous
Preferred style of working (e.g. in a group or alone?)
If the team can’t talk to each other & understand what
each other is saying, you don’t have a team…
14 July 2004
6
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
And its own methods to solve problems

Eliciting requirements

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
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Observation
Structured investigation
Keep trying stuff until something works
Reducing uncertainty
Designing solutions
Managing time, schedules & budgets
The team may be each individually doing great stuff,
but if these methods don’t work together, it can all
add up to much less than an integrated whole…
14 July 2004
7
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Solutions?

Define a standard process and methodology

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Create a standard culture & train (clone?) everyone

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Whose?
Will they all use it?
Can they all use it and still deliver their speciality?
Is that really possible across multi-party projects?
Will we keep all the diversity we wanted?
Use simple communication tools
14 July 2004
8
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Two principles of project management

Projects fail because they lose touch with
reality

In most project teams, someone knows
what’s really going on
So we just want to make it safe & possible to
spread that view of reality.
14 July 2004
9
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Keeping in touch with reality

Build a clear picture and common language
to describe things at the outset

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Build a framework so we won’t delude
ourselves later

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Project Initiation
Project Planning
Project Tracking
Keep in touch with everyone’s view


14 July 2004
Run effective meetings
Do periodic structured reviews
10
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Initiation

Vision

Why as well as what
(Project teams make many ad hoc decisions)

Roles and responsibilities

Common practices

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14 July 2004
Etiquette
Day-to-day activities
Project norms
11
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Planning and tracking
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High level and detailed plans
Inch pebbles with clear criteria
Communications plan
Risks and issues
Actions are performed by people, by a time
(Virtual) Control Centre Framework
14 July 2004
12
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Virtual control centre
14 July 2004
13
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Virtual control centre
14 July 2004
14
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Virtual control centre
14 July 2004
15
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Virtual control centre
14 July 2004
16
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Meetings have

Purpose
Agenda
Result (actions)
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And the best ones are small and frequent
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E.g. daily stand-up with the 3 questions:



14 July 2004
What have I done?
What do I plan to do?
What’s blocking progress?
17
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Reviews

Projects fail because they lose touch with reality

It’s very easy to delude ourselves: external views of
reality are essential
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Multidisciplinary team
Experienced practitioners
Preparation & structure
Capture lessons in a structured retrospective
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14 July 2004
What happened? (Objective history)
What was significant? (Subjective history)
Learn from significant events and gaps.
18
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Review structure
“Fit for
Purpose”
Currently
Assumed
CRITERIA
BASELINE
Business Architecture
Business Transition
REFERENCE MODELS
Correct
Complete
Consistent
Clear
“Best
ITIL
Practice”
CMM
Reference Architectures
Feedback
Loop
Business INPUTS
Programme Brief
Programme plans & budgets
and supporting detail
Technical INPUTS
Technical Architecture Framework
Technology Strategy
REVIEW
Go or
No Go
Analysis
Loop
and supporting detail
Recommendations
14 July 2004
19
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Summary

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We need diversity to succeed
If we don’t manage diversity, we’ll fail anyway
Plan to communicate
Communicate
Check that the communication worked
And ask someone else to check for you too
14 July 2004
20
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com
Thank you
14 July 2004
21
Graham Oakes Ltd
www.fairknowledge.com