Today the Oktoberfest in Munich has started. It’s the biggest festival worldwide with more than 6 million visitors and a perfect mix of entertainment, eating and drinking. During the traditional opening ceremony in the “Schottenhammel” tent the mayor of Munich had the honor of tapping the first keg of Oktoberfest beer.
The festival takes place at Theresienwiese in the center of Munich. And guess where I am living? Right... Munich :) This year the Oktoberfest celebrates its 200th birthday and the whole world is celebrating with it (at least I do). The festival will last until October 4th, so don’t expect many posts within the next two weeks ;)
Links:
Official Website
Oktoberfest (Wikipedia)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Challenge India Part 2: How to handle specifications?
This article is a follow up to: Challenge India (for western cultures) Part1, section “specifications”
Work packages for external service providers are set down in specifications. A specification document is created by subject matter experts in the client company and passed to the service provider. After implementation the service provider hands over the deliverable to the client, expecting his acceptance.
Unfortunately that’s the way western companies handle their business relation with Indian vendors and even believe it really works this way. Eventually the companies realize that the deliverables are far from what was expected. If the specification was written on abstract level, the service provider team doesn’t know exactly what to do. But without demanding further information they start to work according their own interpretation; needless to say that the deliverable won’t match your expectation.
If the specification is written on a very detailed level, the service provider team follows each instruction without reconsidering if things make sense or not. In most cases the deliverable also won’t match your expectation. So how to write the “perfect” specification?
1) Let the service provider write the specification.
Give a rough guideline of the specification contents and the expected deliverables. Let the service provider write the specification in their own words with their understanding. Accompany the creation of the specification, ask for drafts on regular basis and clarify different views immediately.
2) Use an incremental approach.
If it takes 10 months to implement a deliverable, insist to get provisional results presented on regular basis, e.g. every 4-8 weeks. This ensures that misunderstandings are identified as soon as possible and corrective actions can be taken on the spot. Include the approach of iterative delivery cycles already in the specification document, i.e. what is presented when. Not at any time accept an approach with a single final deliverable only.
For sure, both points take more time in setting up the specification and lead to higher costs in the very beginning. But this additional effort will definitively save costs in subsequent project phases.
Work packages for external service providers are set down in specifications. A specification document is created by subject matter experts in the client company and passed to the service provider. After implementation the service provider hands over the deliverable to the client, expecting his acceptance.
Unfortunately that’s the way western companies handle their business relation with Indian vendors and even believe it really works this way. Eventually the companies realize that the deliverables are far from what was expected. If the specification was written on abstract level, the service provider team doesn’t know exactly what to do. But without demanding further information they start to work according their own interpretation; needless to say that the deliverable won’t match your expectation.
If the specification is written on a very detailed level, the service provider team follows each instruction without reconsidering if things make sense or not. In most cases the deliverable also won’t match your expectation. So how to write the “perfect” specification?
1) Let the service provider write the specification.
Give a rough guideline of the specification contents and the expected deliverables. Let the service provider write the specification in their own words with their understanding. Accompany the creation of the specification, ask for drafts on regular basis and clarify different views immediately.
2) Use an incremental approach.
If it takes 10 months to implement a deliverable, insist to get provisional results presented on regular basis, e.g. every 4-8 weeks. This ensures that misunderstandings are identified as soon as possible and corrective actions can be taken on the spot. Include the approach of iterative delivery cycles already in the specification document, i.e. what is presented when. Not at any time accept an approach with a single final deliverable only.
For sure, both points take more time in setting up the specification and lead to higher costs in the very beginning. But this additional effort will definitively save costs in subsequent project phases.
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