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Alejandro Arnes Poggi

TU811 - Activity 4.7 Approach to strategy

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Thursday, 12 Jul 2018, 19:56
What is the most prevalent approach to strategy in your chosen area of practice? (or SoI) with which you may be familiar?

  • SCRUM - The starting point of the whole process is a business problem declared in the form of a statement of work (SoW). It is usually a text-based document describing the overarching business strategy or vision and a set of objectives that the project is meant to achieve. This document, or set of documents, is used to guide the conversations with the Product Owner and the SMEs (subject matter experts). The result is a high-level list of requirements (Epics) which is then prioritised and decomposed into user stories.
To what extent is this compatible with the SODA approach?

  • There are situations whereby the SoW is very broad or where the mandate to the project is to define or explore best possible alternatives for achieving the vision or overarching strategy. In these situations, which are not uncommon, SODA-related mapping exercises could be used to clearly define and collectively agree the list of objectives and their priorities. This output would be used to seed the SCRUM process and increase the probability that the outcomes/deliverables would be in agreement with what the organisation requires.
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TU811 - Activity 2.11 - Describing a feedback loop

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Question - what is happening in the top-most loop (B1)?

  • (starting from B2) An increase in traffic volume increases the travel time
  • increased travel time increases pressure to reduce congestion
  • increased pressure to reduce congestion increases road construction
  • increased road construction increases highway capacity after delay
  • increased highway capacity decreases travel time

An increase in travel time creates pressure in this feedback loop for the expansion of roads by increasing highway capacity but there is a delay caused by road construction. As there is only one negative link on this loop, it is a balancing loop suggesting that after delay there will be a decreased pressure to reduce congestion hence decreasing road construction.


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TU811 - Activity 2.10 - Concepts and tools

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TU811 - Activity 2.9 - Situations to focus on

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Situations to focus on
Unwelcome dynamics problem situations where actions have led to worsening the situation

Consultant has been complaining of tiredness due to extended commuting times during the week. Due to family circumstances, it is not possible to get much rest during the weekend. This becomes a recurring pattern that stretches over a two-month period. The result is an even more tired, nearly exhausted Consultant who raises this problem with the Consultancy.    

As a solution to this problem, the Consultancy offers options to work from home one day a week. Consultant agrees. 

Because of the nature of SCRUM, face-to-face interaction is crucial to the development of the project.    

During this single day that the Consultant spends working from home, there are back-to-back questions on instant messaging, a deluge of emails, as well as the work that a Consultant is expected to deliver and complete.

Upon returning to site, Consultant finds that, although more time was available from not commuting, the gap in face-to-face interaction has created even more work and more time is now needed to deliver.

Possible feedback loops  The more time Consultant spends working from home, the less overall time commuting (but because of the nature of the SCRUM process) and this creates a greater backlog of work due to lack of face to face interaction hence requiring to allocate even greater amounts of time towards getting work completed.
Instances where the models being used, mental or otherwise, may not be appropriate

“Short-termism” (reductionist thinking) - considering that allowing a few individuals (who spend too much time commuting due to project location) will “make up for additional time” by working from home.  

Although, in principle this is true, in practice it does not provide long-term solutions as the whole team and project have been assembled using a simplified and standard approach which assumes mainly that:

A) each individual assigned to the project will work 8 hours every day  

B) the whole team will be working based on the same physical space


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TU811 - Activity 2.8 - Describing my area of practice (AoP)

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Monday, 11 Jun 2018, 19:04


Describing my AoP
Problem being fixedConsultancy committing to and planning for 8 hour days delivered at client site - when that decision commits the Consultant to extended commuting times
Action taken to fix it  Using this course to find strategic options to balance this situation
Immediate effect   Learning about SD and viewing the situation from different perspectives has palliated the situation by providing a glimmer of hope 
Longer term effect  Hopefully, it will be possible for Consultant to influence some positive change in the Consultancy’s practices


  


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TU811 - Introduction to the System of Interest

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At the time of writing this blog entry, the year is 2018 and, for those of us born in the second half of the past century, it is a moment filled with excitement, fear, wonder, and uncertainty. And those emotions are ignited from a bubbling global political climate, where plots, intrigues, and schemes are layered with false information and true facts. There is also fuel for anxiety being pumped from new discoveries in Mars, climate change on Earth, the promise of and threat from artificial intelligence, seas of plastic, and the promise of longer life-spans rooted in new studies around cellular regeneration.

And using my memory as an imperfect source of reference, I recall my grandparents and their strenuous routine, their disciplined and committed work ethic, how their lives seemed to revolve around work, how they worked to live. Moving one generation forward, my parents and their peers were clocking fifty-hours-plus of work every week, time of their lives needed to compensate for economical upheavals and the military junta-de-jour so common in some parts of South America during the 1960s, 70s, and even in the "modern" 80's.

It is again 2018 and this is the United Kingdom. I have the privilege of working for a consultancy firm that has gathered many accolades that acknowledge its excellence in the very competitive industry of information technology. Although working and living conditions are far from similar to those found in the copper mines of the Atacama desert or the perilous roads of rural Ecuador, the balance between time spent working and enjoying life does not have the gentle swing of a hammock facing the Ecuadorian beach during sunset. And my question lingers on, where is progress? why is it possible to access monstrous amounts of information almost instantly and it is not possible to find time for a much needed siesta?

-> The need to work less is a matter of life and death

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TU811 - Activity 2.7 - Phrases of explanation

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Monday, 11 Jun 2018, 06:45

Task

Add any phrases or metaphors you can think of to the list above. These will help you identify situations where system dynamics effects may be in play.

(from my chosen situation of interest)

Phrases of explanation

IT Consultant’s perspective
  • It drained me 
  • It wore me out
  • We managed to pull it off
  • I lived to work
  • We were wasted  

IT Consultancy’s perspective

  • We nailed it
  • We exceeded all expectations
  • We went the extra mile
  • The team was fully committed
 


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TU811 - Activity 2.6 - Feedback and delay effects

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 18:01

APPENDIX 2: SYSTEMS ARCHETYPES

Senge, Peter M.. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization: First edition (Century business) (Kindle Locations 6764-6766). Random House. Kindle Edition. 

Task

identify at least two of his laws that you are able to illustrate with phenomena from your own experience.

archetypes identified have been marked with icons on the map below.


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TU811 - Activity 2.5 - Peter Senge

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TU811 - Activity 2.4 - Donatella Meadows

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TU811 - Activity 2.3 - Jay Forrester

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TU811 - Activity P1.5 - Alternative metaphors for my situation of interest

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Context

Task

Returning again to the metaphors you chose in previous activities, consider alternative metaphors that would embody different mental models of the situation and make notes on: 
a. how these metaphors may influence the actions and behaviours of various people in the situation
b. what might be the unintended consequences of trying to introduce alternative metaphors?
A. How these metaphors may influence actions and behaviours of various people in the situation

To illustrate the answer to this question, I will choose three perspectives:

  1. IT Consultant who has just finished a previous project - the pressure to be ready and available
  2. Account manager responsible for managing the fulfilment of the commercial agreement - potential for lack of transparency to client as only individual skill sets are highlighted in the assignment of the consultants, for example, in relation to whether the team has previous experience of working together
  3. Client (or client representative) - There is an implicit expectation for very brief time periods needed to have a fully productive delivery team available
B. What might be the unintended consequences of trying to introduce alternative metaphors?

  1. IT Consultant who has just finished a previous project - might display lack of motivation and/or engagement
  2. Account manager responsible for managing the fulfilment of the commercial agreement - potentially masking internal problems before the client hence increasing risk in the client-consultancy relationship
  3. Client (or client representative) - might feel the need to micro-manage the contract / commercial agreement

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TU811 - Activity P1.4 - Metaphors in my situation and entailments

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Context

Task

Continuing with the metaphors you identified in activities P1.2 and P1.3, consider the entailments of the metaphor and make notes on: 
a.aspects of the situation that the metaphor highlights
b.aspects of the situation that the metaphor possibly hides or makes less open to discussion.
A. Aspects of the situation that the metaphor highlights

By spinning up a cell or team there is the implication of something mechanical which is inert and awaiting a command to (get ready for) action. It does not consider human aspects like willingness and motivation. Additionally, it does not take into account latency as it assumes that resources (i.e. people in this case) are sitting, maybe assembled or coordinated for action, and awaiting to be called into play. A metaphor for this metaphor could be players sitting on the bench during a match, already warmed up and waiting to be called into participation or play.

B. Aspects of the situation that the metaphor possibly hides or makes less open to discussion

There are two aspects in this metaphor. The perspective which is internal to the consultancy and the second aspect is the external or perspective as seeing from the client's viewpoint.

Perhaps the most pivotal in this case is the client's perspective as it might lead to false and unfulfilled expectations. For example, by continuing to use the metaphor of "spinning up a team" we leave open to interpretation the collective experience of the team. We are explicitly saying that gathering the IT Consultant does not guarantee their ability to immediately gel and effectively work together as a team. They might have never worked together until that point and this lack of collective experience will increase the time needed to have a team performing successfully. In other words, this metaphor leaves client interpretation open for assuming that the (outsourced) team is using the client's money and time to learn how to work together. 


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TU811 - Activity P1.3 - Using metaphors in my situation of interest

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Take one or two of the metaphors that you identified in Activity P1.2 and make notes on 
how the metaphor might help people to think about the situation.

Situation of Interest (SoI) - How IT Consultants manage work-life balance when allocated to client sites

Metaphors

From the three metaphors identified in Activity P1.2, I will use "spin up a delivery cell" since this metaphor relates more widely to different types of commercial agreements and delivery engagements.

The metaphor of spinning up a delivery cell invokes thoughts of resources sitting on shelves waiting to be picked. Rather than building an argument here to destroy that metaphor, I will suggest ways in which this metaphor can be extended and expanded to implicitly include a wider number of variables.  The metaphor of spinning up still brings mechanical connotations to the mental imagery that it depicts thus failing to recognise the humans involved in the solution. The metaphor that I will use to start the research for my EMA will include the human element and have an implicit reference to people's willingness to participate in the delivery of the software project. Examples:

  1. Gather participation for delivery.
  2. Invoke a cell.
  3. Crowdsource a team.

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TU811 - Activity P1.2 - Metaphors in your situation of interest

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Consider situations of interest associated with your chosen area of practice. 
Identify and list some of the metaphors that are in regular use.

Situation of Interest (SoI) - How IT Consultants manage work-life balance when allocated to client sites

Metaphors

Since my situation of interest relates to IT Consultants and the problematic behind managing work-life to achieve a healthy and sustainable balance, I have chosen phrases used to describe commercial agreements (leading to IT Consultants being allocated) that represent metaphors where the human aspect as either abstracted or altogether disregarded.

  • "Spin up a delivery cell" - suggests machinery, human resources available as parts that can be assembled when required
  • "Resource augmentation" - de-humanises by shifting considerations, from human to resource
  • "Fixed Time and Materials (type of contract)" - when used in the context of software delivery, this term again de-humanises by not including people and their efforts
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TU811 - Activity P1.1 - Metaphor and war

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TU811 - Activity 2.2 - Unexpected effects

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 11:58
Call to mind an event where you or someone you know took a course of action, 
perhaps with the best of intentions, which had an unexpected effect, 
making the situation worse. Draw a diagram that shows, to the best of your understanding, what happened.

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TU811 - Activity 2.1 - System Dynamics

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TU811 - TMA01 - Initial approach for System Dynamics (SD)

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 10:00


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TU811 - Activity 1.10 - Three dimensions to your chosen AoP

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 09:46

Area of Practice -> Resourcing Teams for Agile Delivery

Situation of Interest -> The challenges of maintaining a healthy balance between work and life for people allocated to projects away from home - ‘The need to work less is a matter of life and death’


Interrelationships and potential conflicts
Actor Wants Needs Will
Client
  • Solution with minimum overhead
  • cost effective
  • Project delivered by staff based on site
  • Achieve business goal
  • Work within agreed framework
Consultancy
  • Increase potential for new business
  • Deliver solutions for clients
  • Maintain reputation
  • Motivated and committed staff
  • Maintain healthy revenue
  • Manage client relationship
  • Manage staff
  • Engaged staff
  • Work within agreed framework
IT Consultant (permanent staff)
  • Job stability
  • Professional development
  • Maintain health work-life balance
  • Work within agreed framework
IT Consultant (contractor)
  • Increase potential for new business
  • Maintain reputation
  • Maintain healthy revenue
  • Manage client relationship
  • Work within agreed framework

Interrelationships

AoP Interrelationships and Potential Conflicts

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TU811 - Activity 1.9 - Sharing ideas for an area of practice

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 09:47

(see forum post)


Area, situation and systems
Summary
Area of practice Resourcing project teams for Agile software delivery
Situation of interest The challenges of maintaining a healthy balance between work and life for people allocated to projects away from home
System of interest system compose of work environment (client site), people (client and peer consultants) and the logistics of commuting - how to maintain motivation, energy levels, health, participation and attitude needed to deliver the project successfully


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TU811 - Activity 1.8 - Five approaches for strategy making

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 09:48

Five approaches for strategy making

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TU811 - Activity 1.7 - Systems thinking in practice in other skill sets

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 09:53

(see forum post)



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TU811 - Activity 1.6 - Four perspectives on systems thinking

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 09:53

Read the section 'Perspectives on systems thinking' of Chapter 1 in the Systems Approaches reader. Draw up a table contrasting each of the four perspectives on systems thinking. For each perspective note the relative emphasis given to the:

Perspectives on systems thinking
Perspective Situation of use Practitioner or user of particular systems approaches
1. Hard / Soft / Critical Process / mechanical / structured Anyone needing an epistemological construct to understand a problem (i.e. a framework) - example in Engineering
2. Systems thinking for situations multi-dimensional complex situations - there might a mix of structured and/or organic systems. Examples from UX and human-computer interactions Example in user researcher (UX) finding accessibility requirements or ways to improve user experience
3. Influences around systems approaches  Situations spanning across multiple domains  Practitioners interested in delivering a all-encompassing solution - for example, planning care for victims of physical and emotional trauma and their relatives - healthcare involving prosthetics (mechanics, physio, management, psychology, etc. interacting together to re-enable an individual and their family unit after a traumatic incident)
 4. Groupings of systems thinkers  When context is an important aspect to consider  Practitioners dealing with complex situations and changing contexts - for example, analysing an ambulance service in a heavily congested city vs same service operating in a remote and rural area


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TU811 - Activity 1.5 - Situations and systems

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Edited by Alejandro Arnes Poggi, Sunday, 3 Jun 2018, 09:54

Using this definition: a system is a collection of entities that are seen by someone as interacting together to do something.


Is it a system?
Health centre Yes It can be seen as a system if we think of all the components that need to come together in order to produce an outcome - in this case, to deliver healthcare or if seen from the perspective of the patient, to cure or provide care.
Poverty No It is a definition - too open a concept in order to be considered as a system. If anything, it could be seen as an outcome of an economic system.
Garbage bin No Again, it is not a system by its own right / it cannot be seen as a system if considered as a single component.
Washing dishes Yes If considered as a activity involving a series of tasks that come together under a process in order to deliver clean dishes.
Local council No It is an entity - might be considered a system in the context of an outcome - for example, to provide affordable housing.


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