Post on 14-Jan-2017
Decision Support for Weather Sensitive Operations
3 steps to successfully set up and work in distributed teams
Hussam Ahmad hahm@stormgeo.com
Who is StormGeo?
Managing RiskOne of the world’s leading suppliers of Decision Support for Weather sensitive operations. .
SolutionsTransforming know-how into cutting edge products together with our customers.
Core CompetenceMeteorology OceanographyInformation Technology Naval ArchitectureStatistics
Who am I?• 10 years from social care and education sector• >20 years from IT industry
– System Architect, Developer– Project manager, Product owner– CTO– CEO
• Coaching – Lean & Agile Implementation– Waste management– Communication & Motivation– Goal setting & Achievement– Personal development
Where can distributed teams help?
• The ultimate goal for a business/project is to create profit by exchanging value for money
• Prerequisites for success:– Clear mission– Manpower – Time– Technology– Materials
Ingredients of excellence• Motivation
– A reason for acting or behaving in a particular way• Communication
– The exchanging of information using some medium
Step 1: Know where you are
• Analyze your current situation– Decide on where you are today
• Capacity, quality, availability, cost– Decide on Target/goal
• Capacity, quality, availability, cost
• Remember: Motivation and communication
Goals
Current situation Current results
What to change?
What to change
to?
Step 2: Make a plan
• Create a stepwise plan for how to reach the target– Plan should only details the closest steps
• Remember: Motivation and communication
Goals
? ?
Next step ?
Current situation Current results
What to change?
What to change
to?
Step 3: Start going the way!
• Go the way step by step, evaluate and adjust!
• Remember: Motivation and communication
Goals
? ?
Next step ?
Current situation Current results
What to change?
What to change
to?
How to cause the change?
Remember!
• Motivation:– Goal setting. Focus on End goals– Goal achievement. Focus on Means goals
• Communication.– Focus on End goals. This is the big WHY
• Aim on creating great teams– Communication is easiest when working in cross
functional teams
Product owner
Potentially shippable productCustomer specific function
ArchitectTester
Developer
Developer
Business analyst
Great teams comply to• Same goals, same agenda• Team members are passionate• They trust each other and do not have to guard each
word in their discussions• They are willing to sacrifice for the success of the team• They do whatever it takes to prevent letting their peers
down• They do not seek credit for their own contributions
Main challangesChallenge SolutionThey vs. we - Cross boarder teams
- Team is accountableCheaper vs. better - Can also be combined
- Good and bad skilled people are everywhere
Cultural differences - Team building & visits- Respect people
Time zone - Distribute the burden Belonging
Most valuable tools• Cross boarders cross functional teams• Have a dedicated “Build master” who understands
interhuman relations, but also technology• Reviews:
– Daily standups (audio & video)– Product owner review– Backlog grooming
• Available business domain knowledge and access to it. Preferably inside the team
• Process retrospectives: Evaluate & Adjust periodically
StormGeo does it overall the globe.
Decision Support for Weather Sensitive Operations
Gains for StormGeo• Accountability to the organization• Quality increased• Issue blowback reduced• Ability to determine project risks quickly
– Red flags raised earlier– Identification of blocking issues, bottlenecks,
dependencies etc.• Software production predictability and reproducibility