Monthly Archives: February 2014

Change is hard — here’s why

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Jeff Toaddy and I recently attended an online course for ITIL’s Service Transition processes. These are the processes by which new services, or significant changes to existing ones, are put into an ongoing, operational mode. As a footnote in the training, there was a mention to the 10 reasons people resist change:

  1. Loss of control.
  2. Excessive personal uncertainty.
  3. Avoid surprises.
  4. The difference effect.
  5. Loss of face.
  6. Fear about competence.
  7. Ripples.
  8. Increase in workload.
  9. Past resentments.
  10. Real threats.

A few of these didn’t make much sense to me without more information (eg, ripples?! potato chips? what?). I’m not sure if it’s cool to link to a blog in a blog, but I ran across this article in my research and thought others might benefit from a quick read:

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/09/ten-reasons-people-resist-chang/

As I think about the changes we are working to enact within our IT organization; within the campus community at large; and, most importantly within myself, I find myself benefiting by using this list to identify what barricades might stand in my way to enact positive change.

It’s far easier to remove a known obstacle than an unknown one.

 

Agile IA??? What is that??

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For the past year, the Institutional Analytics  (IA) team has been working as an agile development team-but what does that mean? The key feature of agile is incremental, value driven delivery.  Currently, new code can be deployed in test each week with planned production moves every four weeks. This approach  gives clients new features incrementally as opposed to a big delivery of a system at the end of a project.

How does the team do that? There are a lot of moving pieces that are involved in the process.

A critical factor in agile is the high level of client engagement and partnership. The team is most successful when the product owner (primary client and decision maker) is available to work on the project 50% of their work time primarily in face to face settings. That’s a large commitment of time but without the commitment, agile is not possible.  Providing demos to the product owner early and throughout development provides confirmation we’re on the right track or we’re not on the right track and can make corrections quickly (fail fast).

The team and the clients meet daily for a 15 minute stand up meeting (we actually sit down for the meeting) to review issues, priorities and what is the focus of the day. This keeps the team on the same page and issues can be addressed quickly.

A third component is that we focus on the next most valuable task. While everyone on the team has a primary expertise, people often work on tasks outside of their area of focus. This keeps the project moving forward and provides learning opportunities in IA.

Lastly, we work as a team. It’s normal to find most, if not all of the team in Hoyt 313 working together and our definition of ‘team’ includes the client.  The clients (especially the product owner) spend a great deal of time in the war room too! Ideas can be shared, questions answered and feedback given very quickly-but the room can also be very quiet as people work on their tasks.

Do we have agile all figured out? Not at all! But we do know it’s helping us work more efficiently and to deliver applications that meet the clients needs. The team is currently discussing how to deliver concurrent multiple projects faster.

Questions? Stop by or attend a stand up meeting! We meet at 8:15 and 8:35 daily!

First Year Miamian

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Hello, I’m Bob Dein, Enterprise Architect for the Information Technology Planning & Strategy office. Long time Miami follower, first time blogger. I learn and render our current business and IT environments and help create plans for IT investment that will help the university get where it wants to go (e.g. 2020 Plan).

I celebrated my 1st year anniversary last Friday with my IT Services colleagues at our annual Souper Bowl pitch-in luncheon. As my fellow architect Roxanne Storer, who started on the same day, explained enthusiastically how great her first year experience at Miami has been, I thought “in-loud” about my own first year, and why I look forward to my commute from Cincinnati each day:

Interesting Times – we do live in interesting times at Miami. By interesting, I don’t mean the Chinese curse, I mean a time of change. Much of our leadership has changed, the Higher Ed “arms race” is impacting our campus and financial priorities, e-learning is affecting our pedagogy and an explosion of mobile technology is changing the way Miamians learn, work and live. I have lived in many interesting times and I have always chosen to focus on the possibilities, not the impossibilities that change brings. These are especially interesting times for a newbie at Miami :).

The Oxford Bubble – I mean this phrase in the most endearing way. Oxford is a very special world apart that I feel blessed to travel in and out of daily. The people, culture and experience are uniquely exquisite.

My Office – I’m writing this entry as I look out of my third floor office window from Laws. As tough as parking can be, I relish being located in the center of everything Miami. Walking down the hallway at Laws is a nostalgic experience of Miami 40 years ago.

My Work – I worked in academia (Cincinnati Public Schools) as an IT architect in another life and it was the most fulfilling experience of my career. That is until now. I am grateful for this opportunity in the academic post-secondary major league to work with so many great Miamians at all levels at a time when so much is possible. I also look forward to the possibility of contributing as an adjunct faculty member when the opportunity arises.

Miami Pride – As part of my Miami immersion, my family (Lette, RJ and Cole) and I routinely wear our brand in public. Over the last year, we have often been warmly and sometimes enviously recognized as and by fellow Miamians.

I am Miami – our Code of Love & Honor is not a just catch phrase and a list of aspirations. I see it in action here in Oxford every day. Miamians really do lead such a life.

No words of architect wisdom this post. Maybe something just a bit more EA related next time.

“Be good to everyone. You never know who you will be working for next week.”

Bob Dein