Offshoring? Don't forget to check out Vietnam

The 2009 Black Book of Outsourcing has recently been published and the Top 10 lists of the safest and riskiest places for outsourcing (and given the geographical spread of the cities being mentioned that means offshoring too) are doing the rounds.

Books of this nature can be extremely helpful, however, given my own experiences, it reaffirmed that you always need to go beyond the circulating headlines. In particular, I am referring to Vietnam which features in neither of the lists mentioned above.

I worked with the Harvey Nash Offshore Software Development team from 2006 through to 2008. During that time I travelled to Vietnam frequently, visiting both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It is hard to summarise the qualities of the Vietnamese people, but I found them to be (in no particular order): courteous, professional, talented, enthusiastic, hard-working, open-minded, quick to learn and good fun. At all times I felt safe, welcome and at ease. The investment that is being made to develop a new source of IT talent is impressive and it feels very much that Vietnam is an up and coming nation.

Picking the right supplier for outsourcing & offshoring is critical to your success and I would encourage you to consider Vietnam as a good place to look.

Software Transformation - who needs it?

When people ask me what I do for a living, I've started replying that I'm a software transformation specialist. Clearly at this point most people run for the exits, but occasionally the odd brave soul will ask the inevitable follow-up, "Really? What's one of those?". I checked on Wikipedia and there is no recognised definition for software transformation, so it looks like it's down to me to come up with one. So here goes...

Software Transformation
Software Transformation enables businesses to succeed by resetting people's expectations about what can be achieved with well-orchestrated software. It delivers basic productivity gains, empowers knowledge workers to be more innovative, brings distributed teams closer together and turns software into a competitive advantage.

Hmm, not bad as definitions go.

I have seen countless examples where software transformation can have a huge positive impact on a business and the people who work there. I have also been lucky enough to lead some of those change initiatives. If you're not getting the most from your software, then transformation is probably what you need.

Delivering More for Less

How many times have you been asked to 'deliver more for less'? Plenty, I would guess. For many of us, given the current economic conditions, we are being asked to do this yet again.

Reviewing and optimising the cost base continues to make good sense, but is that enough? Are we sure that is what we're really being asked for?

In my experience, one of the key areas where IT can demonstrably make a difference is on project delivery. Completing a project late, over budget and with reduced scope can be the norm for some organisations. Even failing on only one of these factors can result in IT being given a black mark. The better we are at producing the right solution, at the right time, for the right cost, then the more likely we are to be deemed successful and, compared to our previous track record, seen to be delivering more for less.

Some areas where hidden costs can start to occur include:

• Having bottlenecks in the development process
• Working around architectural constraints
• Misunderstanding requirements and/or their business value
• Delivering a poor quality solution into test
• Adding too many 'bells & whistles'

Tackling these issues, perhaps as part of a broader transformation programme, will ultimately improve your delivery capability, your track record and your contribution to the bottom line.

The Change Agent

The Change Agent is an essential ingredient on any successful transformation programme. Armed with a mixture of skills, the role revolves around people and the ability to get them wholly engaged with the change agenda. Passionate and energetic, the Change Agent needs to keep focused on the strategic goal and inspire others to follow.

The Change Agent is often new to the organisation and has no attachment to "the way things are done around here" mindset. Working closely with key stakeholders, the Change Agent is there to deliver results, embed lasting transformation and enable businesses to succeed.

The Change Agent can represent both threat and opportunity, both friend and foe. Understanding people and how to achieve a win-win outcome for all parties is crucial. 

Remember, change is constant so get used to it.

Why Agile?

As a software evangelist who has experienced the evolution of software development methodologies, it is easy to see and understand the benefits of the Agile movement. However, our business colleagues are typically less interested in iterations, increments, pair-programming, TDD, etc. So, how do you go about explaining why your IT team is going through a massive change and what the upside will be? Well, here are some ways that I've found effective in the past:

• Delivering Exactly What You Need - working closely with business users throughout the project, refining requirements and deploying the most useful features first
  
• Reducing Time To Market - delivering effective solutions early, building additional features in stages and stopping when it's good enough
• Building Higher Quality Solutions - minimising live issues through collaborative teamwork and solid engineering principles

And if that's not enough, we would of course expect to see:

• An increase in customer satisfaction
• Better resource utilisation
• A reduction in software maintenance costs 
  

Agile is not a silver bullet, but it does tick all of the right boxes.

Hole-in-the-Wall

I wanted to briefly talk about a fantastic project that I was introduced to on my last trip to India, the Hole-in-the-Wall. No, this is not an ATM, but an educational revolution that has had amazing results since the idea first came about in 1999. Dr. Sugata Mitra, Chief Scientist at NIIT, is credited with the discovery of Hole-in-the-Wall and has subsequently developed the concept of Minimally Invasive Education. Hole-in-the-wall Learning Stations seek to create a new paradigm in the learning process by providing unrestricted computer access to groups of children in an open playground setting. The results have been impressive and show a significant positive impact on the children involved. This is a great example of how technology can be used to revolutionise our environment and should be considered as a case study for School 2.0.

Distributed Collaborative Working

Distributed working has become the norm for most organisations over the last decade. During that time, technology has evolved through a number of iterations in order to better support geographically-dispersed teams and the latest variant, Google Wave, is on the horizon. Having the right technology in place is an important enabler, but the mindset of the individuals involved - team members and management alike - is the critical success factor in making successful distributed collaborative working a reality. For Generation Y, distributed collaboration is a very natural approach, but for the rest of us, it can be fraught with constant frustration.

Distributed collaborative working is here to stay. So, it is time to embrace it fully, adapt if necessary and harness the benefits that it truly offers.