Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
That was good to hear. The Director was telling me he wasn't doing this only
to say he was CMMI level 3, although he did know that was important for his
future. I had heard before interviewing him that the Director at NANO was a
control-oriented leader many people refused to work with. I found him to be
different from expected. He clearly understood his customers' needs having
spent much of his career as one of them, and I quickly began to understand
why this organization had been as successful as it was and the issues it faced.
The Director was in the middle of every decision—and I mean every one of
them. He had the big picture. He did the risk assessments and made the risk
mitigation decisions. Any question about work scope went through him. He sat
on the configuration control board. He even approved bug fixes in the software!
When there were only 25 people in the organization this worked fairly well.
Now the organization had over 80 employees with almost 50 of them doing
software. While they were still successful, it was now clear to me why the
Director knew that the way they were operating was not sustainable.
While doing my gap analysis I heard from some that the organization was
understaffed. I found some people were very busy—mostly those directly
reporting to the Director. However, others often found themselves with noth-
ing to do while they waited for someone else to make a decision. I also heard
when interviewing one of the people who reported directly to the Director:
I wish just once I could come to work and not have my priorities change
between 9 AM and 11 AM.
6.4 The Positive Side of NANO's Agility
The picture was becoming clear. The Director was extremely sensitive and
responsive to his customers' needs and requests and was keeping his imme-
diate staff focused on the top-priority issues of the day (or hour) to keep
customers happy.
6.5 Where NANO's Agile Approach Broke Down
This model had worked well when the organization was small. Now—at
least partly due to the growth in their organization—they were experienc-
ing a number of negative side effects. From the gap analysis, I learned how
