[consulting] Hiring People

[Henri Poole]

Very insightful example of using Agile in business strategy. Thanks!

On Fri, 2007-05-18 at 15:16 -0300, Victor Kane wrote:
> This is a very interesting discussion.
> 
> On 5/18/07, Michael Haggerty <mhaggerty at trellon.com> wrote:
> > Victor -
> >
> > To some extent, we do all of this already and use hybrid Agile development
> > techniques in our approach to projects.
> >
> > The problem is, clients don't necessarily know what they want until they
> > have it in their hands, no matter how much work is put into visualization
> > and communication.
> 
> Well, that's it in a nutshell. But Agile development is an approach,
> which means it stops being a technique "us techie guys" use... and
> turns into a tool (I do have an agile process cck/views/etc mashup I
> plan on releasing soon as a drupal distribution) to C A P T U R E
> stuff in real-life prototypes the customer was not previously aware
> of.
> 
> One customer hired us to do a Perl based head-hunter job resume web
> app some years ago.
> 
> They asked us to revamp the app.
> 
> We went back and did business modeling with meme maps, had them
> reading the Long Tail, etc., until they, the customers, formed part of
> a team spec-ing out, planning, writing acceptance tests for and
> testing an iterative process leading to a whole new constellation of
> apps: an intranet (housing the workflow of the commercialization of
> courses for businesses, and the job selection process itself) in sync
> with three (yes, 3) web apps: one for the important content (including
> premium content) the company wants to freebalize/preiumize; one for
> professionals looking to blog-pimp their services (free PDF generation
> of CV, free blog, free inclusion in job searches...); and one for
> companies doing job searches, acquiring data (i.e., CV browsing, where
> permission has been granted in exchange for free services benefitting
> the author), and acquiring other services, and the housekeeping for
> those services to be provided.
> 
> So, it's not a question of tacking on functionality to Drupal, it's a
> question of getting the customer involved in the actual iterative and
> incremental process itself (that's the Agile approach) and using a
> framework such as Drupal to first prototype the functionality ("don't
> know what they want until they see it") and then... hey, using a
> framework such as Drupal to actually make that "prototype" (a)
> production web app(s).
> 
> So, there's my excitement about this...
> 
> > And I am not talking about just the main points of
> > contact on a project, I am talking about the executive sponsors and high
> > level stakeholders who have their ideas about what the goals are. Sometimes
> > the disconnect happens between people in the client organization, and I
> > don't know of a process approach that is going to answer that kind of issue.
> >
> 
> there you go: can't be any disconnect when the customer is driving the process!
> 
> > This kind of role would be a softer approach to handling the issues of goal
> > setting and requirements gathering, and is really intended as a value-add to
> > the range of services we already provide.
> 
> Hire the customer!!!
> 
> (of course you need to have people able to catalyze that... and that
> is a second chapter of this how-to process)
> 
> saludos,
> 
> Victor Kane
> http://awebfactory.com.ar
> 
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Michael Haggerty
> > Managing Partner
> > Trellon, LLC
> > http://www.trellon.com
> > (p) 301-577-6162
> > (c) 240-643-6561
> > (f) 413-691-9114
> > (aim) haggerty321
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Victor Kane [mailto:victorkane at gmail.com]
> > > Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 12:07 PM
> > > To: mhaggerty at trellon.com; A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal
> > > service/hosting providers
> > > Subject: Re: [consulting] Hiring People
> > >
> > > Use the agile approach to software development and get the clients (or
> > > someone from among them) to get creatively involved in the development
> > > process, writing using stories, visualizing the business model and
> > > where value can be added, writing test cases... then you may find that
> > > you don't need this "expert strategist": you just need to listen to
> > > your clients.
> > >
> > > Or... you need to have someone on your staff who does that, and forms
> > > part of the development team.
> > >
> > > That's what I do.
> > >
> > > saludos,
> > >
> > > Victor Kane
> > >
> > > On 5/17/07, Michael Haggerty <mhaggerty at trellon.com> wrote:
> > > > Trellon is growing and I am giving a lot more thought to how our team is
> > > > composed. Something I want to do is hire an internet strategist. This
> > > would
> > > > not necessarily be a programmer, but someone who can really understand
> > > the
> > > > goals clients are looking to accomplish and advise them on the best ways
> > > to
> > > > get there. This person would craft strategy documents, review projects
> > > under
> > > > development to make sure they are really meeting the client's goals, and
> > > > keep things organized outside just the production of a Web site.
> > > >
> > > > The problem is I don't really know how to recruit for this position. I
> > > have
> > > > spoken to people with a lot of experience in specific areas, but finding
> > > > someone who is a generalist and knows enough about a lot of things seems
> > > to
> > > > be a tall order. It looks like this kind of work especially appeals to
> > > > project managers, but it's not really a production role so much as a
> > > client
> > > > relations role. It's hard to convey the difference.
> > > >
> > > > Wondering if anyone on this list has any advice...
> > > >
> > > > Thank you,
> > > > Michael Haggerty
> > > > Managing Partner
> > > > Trellon, LLC
> > > > http://www.trellon.com
> > > > (p) 301-577-6162
> > > > (c) 240-643-6561
> > > > (f) 413-691-9114
> > > > (aim) haggerty321
> > > >
> > > >
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