Comments on: Team spirit and responsibility http://blog.xebia.com/2007/07/06/team-spirit-and-responsibility/ Software development done right! Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:41:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mary http://blog.xebia.com/2007/07/06/team-spirit-and-responsibility/#comment-10783 Mary Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:37:56 +0000 http://blog.xebia.com/2007/07/06/team-spirit-and-responsibility/#comment-10783 Gerard, Reading this post i get the idea that you wrote a plead to all (?, i come to that later*) to trust and respect external consultants. They bring experience and expertise, fill up gaps, give a fresh perspective on things and bring new knowledge. May i state that your story and the feeling you expres in it, is a very personal one? I like to comment on your blog and will do this ‘point by point’. 1.You filed it under ‘java’. I am pretty sure that the experience, expertise, gaps perspectives and knowledge you write about in your view isn’t limited to ‘java’ 2.There are different types of consultants: technical, management, financial, marketing etc and they are hired for what they professionally are going to bring and are paid for (what stated on their businesscards) 3.Consultant have different, sometimes political,** roles and they know (or ought to know) what role they have to play: a.The legimator of change (pol) – working for the manager, doesn’t bring knowledge; just being there legitimises the change..... b.The facilitator of change (pol) – takes an active role in an political situation (sometimes battle) between managers or other stakeholders c.The expert in change (pol) – structuring and improving plans and ideas of the managers and making these plan of higher value d.Skilled proffesionals (non-pol) – bringing knowledge and experience in specific areas aa.Technical like testers, programmers, hardware, architects (digital and fysical) bb.Management like interim managent, project management cc.Etc. 4. Consultants should begin to identify the stakeholders in their environment. Analysing this helps them to know what is expected from them, what role they have to play (if that wasn’t already obvious), who is their opponent, who is the problem owner and who are their friends. 5. (Actually this is first) Not only in consultanty is it important to have trust and respect. This is very important in every relationship. To restrict this to the ‘surroundings’ you are writing about: When there is no trust between projectmembers (‘productowners’, users, developers, softwaresuppliers, projectmanagers, architects and so on) there will certainly be no trust towards consultants, wether they are external or internal. As for respect: it’s the same thing. 6. People who are actively promoting that consultants are not part of the team, who are sitting there for many years, who are proud of their precious little jobs, have no pashion and drive for the goals of the project are not reading your post because it doesn’t interests them anyhow. I don’t think this is restricted or applies only to lead architects* Do you have someone specifc in mind? 7. Consultants do have other experiences than what you have experienced (recently?). Your story is a very pessimistic one and is not helpfull for those who would like to be a consultant in the future (or are one now). Of course we have to confront ourselves with the brutal facts. I do think it is better to give (future) consultants perspective by not only telling them how life is in projects but show of tell them how they could act, what to look for and warn them for things they should never do. Share your knowledge and share examples of situations that did work well. And please tell them that they can gain friends for live. I would be very pleased to have you and other consultants to my heterogenious team...wether internal or external.......when you can give us added value and earn the fee we pay.(:-) Mary **M.Alvesson, 1993, organizations as rhetorics: knowledge intensive firms and the struggle with ambiquity / R. Fincham, 1999. The client-consultant relationship: critical perspectives on the management of organizational change, etc, etc Gerard,
Reading this post i get the idea that you wrote a plead to all (?, i come to that later*) to trust and respect external consultants. They bring experience and expertise, fill up gaps, give a fresh perspective on things and bring new knowledge.
May i state that your story and the feeling you expres in it, is a very personal one? I like to comment on your blog and will do this ‘point by point’.
1.You filed it under ‘java’. I am pretty sure that the experience, expertise, gaps perspectives and knowledge you write about in your view isn’t limited to ‘java’
2.There are different types of consultants: technical, management, financial, marketing etc and they are hired for what they professionally are going to bring and are paid for (what stated on their businesscards)
3.Consultant have different, sometimes political,** roles and they know (or ought to know) what role they have to play:
a.The legimator of change (pol) – working for the manager, doesn’t bring knowledge; just being there legitimises the change…..
b.The facilitator of change (pol) – takes an active role in an political situation (sometimes battle) between managers or other stakeholders
c.The expert in change (pol) – structuring and improving plans and ideas of the managers and making these plan of higher value
d.Skilled proffesionals (non-pol) – bringing knowledge and experience in specific areas
aa.Technical like testers, programmers, hardware, architects (digital and fysical)
bb.Management like interim managent, project management
cc.Etc.
4. Consultants should begin to identify the stakeholders in their environment. Analysing this helps them to know what is expected from them, what role they have to play (if that wasn’t already obvious), who is their opponent, who is the problem owner and who are their friends.
5. (Actually this is first) Not only in consultanty is it important to have trust and respect. This is very important in every relationship. To restrict this to the ‘surroundings’ you are writing about: When there is no trust between projectmembers (‘productowners’, users, developers, softwaresuppliers, projectmanagers, architects and so on) there will certainly be no trust towards consultants, wether they are external or internal. As for respect: it’s the same thing.
6. People who are actively promoting that consultants are not part of the team, who are sitting there for many years, who are proud of their precious little jobs, have no pashion and drive for the goals of the project are not reading your post because it doesn’t interests them anyhow. I don’t think this is restricted or applies only to lead architects* Do you have someone specifc in mind?
7. Consultants do have other experiences than what you have experienced (recently?). Your story is a very pessimistic one and is not helpfull for those who would like to be a consultant in the future (or are one now). Of course we have to confront ourselves with the brutal facts. I do think it is better to give (future) consultants perspective by not only telling them how life is in projects but show of tell them how they could act, what to look for and warn them for things they should never do. Share your knowledge and share examples of situations that did work well. And please tell them that they can gain friends for live.

I would be very pleased to have you and other consultants to my heterogenious team…wether internal or external…….when you can give us added value and earn the fee we pay.(:-)

Mary
**M.Alvesson, 1993, organizations as rhetorics: knowledge intensive firms and the struggle with ambiquity / R. Fincham, 1999. The client-consultant relationship: critical perspectives on the management of organizational change, etc, etc

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