Even when people are highly motivated, change can be stressful and scary. As we age and move into the over 50, senior citizen ranks, it is more difficult to change. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak or inflexible. People issues have crippled project of all kinds project – whether technology or process, or organizational structure or management. Stress and post implementation distress must be expected and accommodated.

Bottom line: To make an organizational change successful, it has to be well planned, with simple steps that are well communicated.

See the July Newsletter for details about Michael Nearman of AGSI who addressed the June 2008 Atlanta SPIN (Software & Systems Process Improvement Network) meeting.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

I attended the Atlanta AFCEA (Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association) February 2008 meeting. The speaker, Mr. Joe Capps talked about the subject of moving to enterprise level systems and procurement processes. Instead of haphazardly developing technology in an “after the fact” manner, he advocated a more proactive approach – as in developing a strategy to move toward enterprise infrastructure, enterprise business applications and enterprise technology in general.

Additionally, a key imperative of the Department of Defense (DoD) is to change and accelerate the requirement to solution process. What’s known as Moore’s Law (based on Gordon Moore’s predictions about semiconductors), says that technology is rapidly changing. Probably about every 18 months. Where there is a need for the latest technology, Moore’s Law has financial, logistical and feasibility implications. The government and the DoD are known for red tape and cumbersome processes. But our country’s ability to respond to immediate threats requires current, accurate information delivered to those needing it in a timely fashion. He suggested the criticality of providing our war fighters with decision making data on how to even respond to five guys running down a street in Iraq. Wow!

Moore’s Law has implications in the private sector as well. Large scale technology projects often take 18 months or more to implement. That time is in addition to the time required to budget for, select and procure the software, hardware, and implementation partners. While ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) and the like, may not be obsolete, there are sure to be upgrades, patches (corrections and fixes to software problems) and new feature by the time the system is finally rolled out.

So, what can be done? Knowledgeable consultants with system expertise can help companies and public sector entities develop a strategy and select the right software in the first place. Then, the right implementation partners can accelerate and provide Independent Verification and Validations (IV&V), project management and governance throughout the implementation process. If none of these things were in place or addressed during the course of the technology project, then you’ll probably need the cure for the “Post Implementation Distress” that is sure to occur.

You’re spending millions of dollars for enterprise initiatives. Wouldn’t it be worth spending a small percentage on ensuring that you get what you paid for? Perhaps you need a technical advocate to help you navigate through the planning and implementation process.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

In Juergen’s talk, there was much mention of process improvement, although Six Sigma was not mentioned by name. The goal of Lean is to eliminate waste and non-value added activities. And the byproduct of waste elimination is lower costs resulting in higher profits. The eight types of waste are: over production, waiting, transportation, over-processing, inventory, motion, defects, rework. Parallels were given between manufacturing waste and administrative waste.

And, how to attack the waste? You Define, Measure, Analyze and Improve the process – key steps in the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. Often the implementation of the Six Sigma methodology or its use in projects is considered costly and time consuming. But the principles can be simplified. After all over-processing is a waste. The goal is a Lean Six Sigma.

Bottom line, improving and streamlining processes reduces defects, eliminates waste, decreases costs, improves efficiency, increases profits and provides competitive advantages.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

But, my first interpretation of her remark was “no more weight in 2008”. I like many other people need to shed some excess pounds. For many, the race is on to fix the body. Every January, there’s a big surge in the number of people at the gyms. Some turn to over-the-counter weight loss remedies and others head to the commercial weight center such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem and the like. The more enlightened might turn to Overeaters Anonymous (OA). It’s based on the same principles as Alcoholic Anonymous. So, OA has a 3 pronged approach, which treats overeating as a threefold disease – physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual.

Most would agree that lasting success with the battle against the bulge requires at least a mind and body cure. There are bi-modal techniques which focus on the healing mental / emotional triggers as a means to healing or slimming the body. Examples are psychoanalysis, acupressure, acupuncture, hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

I actually attended a NLP workshop a number of years ago. NLP encompasses multiple techniques which are used to accomplish quick changes in behavior. There was a lady in the NLP class who was claustrophobic. In 5 minutes the lady was able to go into a closet and close the door and be happy about it. I saw that with my own eyes.

With NLP, the mind/body connection is studied, documented and utilized to make changes. One example is eye movements. Eyes moving up tends to means you are visualizing or accessing an image. Moving eyes to either side indicates you accessing sound data. Down to the right can mean you’re accessing a feeling. NLP uses eye movements and other physical cues as an indication of how people learn best – hearing, seeing or doing. And our language often reveals our preferences. For instance I worked for a boss who often used the phrase “I hear you”. What do think his preferred learning style was?

Knowing the NLP principles, allows me to notice when these techniques are used in other arenas. NLP is now being incorporated into sales training workshops. Kendall SummerHawk, a marketing and branding guru / coach, indicated that she is certified in NLP. Kendall uses NLP in her workshop to quickly help participants get over writers block.

I’m always working on generating more profitable business. People buy from those they know, like and trust. To the extent that I can get in sync with their body language the more comfortable they feel with me. It’s not manipulation, it’s about caring enough to pay attention, to observe and to adjust. This improves the experience of the prospect, friends or family member.

I have many years of experience as a business analyst. My company, Noble & Associates Consulting, Inc, specializes in business analysis. And what does a business analyst do:

1. We listen,
2. We interpret or analyst the situation, data or system,
3. We compile and document.

Good business analysts, and for that matter good managers, sales people, business people, people in general already listen. If we want to add value to our relationships and effectiveness, we need to add the NLP techniques of conscious seeing and feeling to our repertoire.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Noble & Associates Consulting and its consultants have years of experience with software and technology implementations. The whole point of any new system is to change or improve some process, capability or results. Since there is always change and people are stressed by change, then change management should always be a consideration in project funding, planning and management.

So what’s the cheese?

• For an individual, it might have been owning a home. The current mortgage crisis may be moving that cheese.
• For others, it might be life long employment with a company paid pension. The economy and corporate mergers, acquisitions and downsizing may have changed that cheese.
• For production managers the cheese may be efficient operations and on-time deliveries. Disruptions in the supply chain, broken processes and quality problems may be crumbling that cheese.
• The corporate executive may have thought that the latest and greatest system or technology was the cheese. However, cost overruns, unrealized functionality and out of sync processes could be slicing away at that cheese.
• For the average employee, the cheese may be to feel like they are competent and even expert at doing the job. The introduction of a new system or technology, and the need to learn new ways of doing things, could be the last straw.

In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter what caused your cheese to change. Change happens. Stress happens. Deal with it.

Consider implementing stress management and change management programs.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

In software and technology implementation projects, there needs to be something called “Change Control”. And why is this needed? No matter how thorough the business analysis job or how complete the project plan, there’s always something that needs to be changed or added after the fact. Users and potential users of the system or technology change their minds. Or think of something that they absolutely cannot live without. Then from the technical side, the developers, programmers and implementers discover things that are incorrect or just won’t work. Programmers or testers find things called “bugs” – which is techie talk for errors or system glitches. After all, that’s what quality, quality control and testing is supposed to do – Find things that will cause less than desired results.

Testing and quality is key. And it needs to start at the beginning. Once the technology requirements are finalized, you have the basis for test scripts that can be used throughout the implementation process. There will be change. So, there needs to be an orderly process for incorporating changes and corrections / fixes.

One reason is that it helps insure that everyone on the project is in sync. It avoids duplication of effort. And, it’s less disruptive when there are multiple environments (development / test versus live / production) or multiple release versions. It’s an essential piece of the communications plan. Change control is a recipe for success. And, back to the Serenity Prayer: the introduction of new systems, features or functionality is something that can be controlled. And the smart project manager has the courage to mandate a change control process.

What we cannot change is people and how they react to change. Change, even positive change, creates stress – another thing we can’t change. What we can control is the implementation and use of programs and techniques that ease the pain and stress of change. And that’s called Change Management.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Barack Obama is campaigning on the theme of being the candidate for change. That’s a message which is resonating with many. And then there is Mike Huckabee who is promoting the fair Tax (not the flat tax). That’s one concrete measure, which if implemented, would cause a dramatic change in the United States. It would eliminate the IRS and more importantly put an end to tax code manipulation by Congress. One drawback to the fair tax is that the transition would be painful.

Although people may say they want change, its human nature to resist it. We’re creatures of habit. We like ease and comfort. Many people stay in jobs they hate because of fear of the unknown and fear of change. How many do not stop smoking or shed excess pounds because the process of getting to the goal is uncomfortable, painful, or downright scary.

My good friend, Rev. Angela Harrington Rice, just announced “Life Designs 2008″ which facilitates change and self actualization on a personal level. Angela’s announcements included the statement “Change is good and inevitable”. I think all would agree with the inevitable part, but there may be some debate about how good it is. And, most would agree that there are many things that other people, our country, and the world should change. I love the saying by Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see”. It puts the onus back on us.

Companies putting in new technology, software or systems would do well to incorporate change management programs. People like to feel like they’re an expert in their jobs. A change in new systems and technology will inevitably require employees to learn new skills or to do things in a different way. So, another consideration when implementing software is business process re-engineering / improvement / management. New systems may have great potential benefits. But if it is not used, circumvented or resisted, companies have wasted time and money to implement. My announcement about the cure for “Post Implementation Distress” service, highlights these issues.

Noble & Associates Consulting, Inc’s cure for “Post Implementation Distress” is an assessment, diagnosis, and remediation service. Key parts of the cure and healing process are change management, process improvement, documentation and training.

If you had good project management and governance (Independent Verification and Validation -IV&V) on the front end, you probably avoid “Post Implementation Distress”. And if you budgeted for resolving people issues at the beginning of the project, there may be some stress, but no “Post Implementation Distress”. However, if you’ve already implemented and things have gone awry, wouldn’t it be prudent for your organization to get the cure for “Post Implementation Distress”? Or, at least incorporate a change management program?

Call Noble & Associates Consulting to the rescue!

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

I mean I do have an information technology (IT) consulting company, Noble & Associates Consulting. However, I like to say I am a non-techie techie. My company does business analysis, project management, documentation, training, change management, and process improvement / re-engineering. And, we’re the cure for “Post Implementation Distress”. So we deal with business issues related to technology.

Noble & Associates Consulting also provides ERP (enterprise resource planning) and other enterprise wide software system implementation services from a functional perspective. We bring business background and knowledge, and we can write technical specifications. In order to do that, we must have the ability to understand and coalesce both business speak and computer programmer / developer speak.

I heard one of the gurus of social networking, Sherry Heyl, speak on Web 2.0 at a Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) event. Had I not already been investigating the subject, I really would have been lost. But I accepted her invitation to connect on Linkedin anyway.

Then I attended SoCono8, this past weekend. It was organized by Sherry Heyl, CEO and Idealist of What a Concept! Community, Jeff Haynie, co-founder /CEO of Appcelerator, and Leonard Witt, Kennesaw State University’s Fowler Distinguished Chair. I did finally get clarity on what an “RSS feed” was and what a “tag” was. Then there is something called a “tag cloud”, which I would probably never use. To the uninformed, it looks very unprofessional and looks like garbage.

My take away from that was that social networking was just another method for connecting, developing relations and finding out the interests of prospect and with people in general. There were people of all ages at the SoCon08 un-conference. The twenty-somethings were definitely represented, but there also a good number of grey hairs. The were lots of people with business –to-business (B2B) companies. And back to Judy Mod: She did say one of the ways in which folks are using community is for pre-credentialing their company prior to RFP release for public sector projects. So that relates to business-to-government (B2G). I found I knew some of the SoCon08 attendees from other business / technology networking groups and events. I even met a lady looking for someone to do a SAP (ERP) interface!

OK, so I’m beginning to like this community.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

Once again I made an attempt to actually use the networks. My initial experience with DirectMatches was horrendous. I got all these emails saying “I’m just introducing myself” and by the way, they had an eBook to sell. This network also has a network marketing flavor to it. I was told by my “upline” that there were people out there with real businesses. I’m interested in business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) business prospects. Preferably with annual gross revenues of at least $200k. Don’t have time for DirectMatches training on how to use the network.

The assumption is that the network is composed of like minded people. Many are consulting their social networks for advice and recommendations. I was hoping that joining network would somehow save me time and/or facilitate marketing and closing deals. Am I misguided?

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

After one person’s rave reviews about the usefulness of Linkedin, I did try to actually do targeted searches. So, I decided to reach out to business people from my college – Albright College in Reading, PA. I questioned why a couple of my colleagues even on Linkedin. I told them about my ideal clients for both my IT consulting business and for my receivables financing business. It did not occur to them to provide reciprocal information on their own companies until I asked. Anyway, since there was a limit to the free queries, that’s the end of that. Since then, Albright has established their own social network. I believe it’s for alumni. At some point I may investigate that

I notice that the Linkedin “invitation to connect” e-mails has gotten shorter. It used to be a couple of paragraphs. Now it’s just: I’d like to add you to my connection. I guess, as online social networking and connecting becomes more commonplace, it requires less explanation.

I have accepted numerous invitations to connect. Just cleaned up a couple of unanswered connection requests which dated back to 2004. Obviously, I’m not on top of things.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC