This phrase takes me back nearly 25 years to my first butt kicking by a businessman with 40 years experience on me.Nathan Fouch (father of one of SEP’s founders, Mike Fouch) was very blunt in saying that I needed to take better care of myself. It was great advice. Guess what I said? “I don’t have time.” He […]
Spec Driven Versus Client Satisfaction in Outsourcing
Chris Shinkle introduced us to the Kano model of customer satisfaction while internally presenting his Stop Doing Kanban, Start Learning lecture that he delivered at this year’s LSSC. The Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction: As an outsourcing partner, this model has direct implications for SEP. The Performance axis represents our client’s needs in a solution. […]
Discussions with client representatives about hourly rates can be frustrating at times. The belief that an hour of any person’s (or supplier’s) time is exactly the same as any other is like comparing software engineering services to purchasing a case of creamed corn. We could be relatively happy if the focus could just be changed […]
SEP has had ISO-9001 Certification for nearly a decade. These credentials help support our work in FDA and FAA for clients. We’ve struggled with the notion of a quality system since the beginning. SEP enjoys a very strong advancement culture that continuously strives to organically improve most of its practice areas. The worry is that a […]
How to Create & Support a Learning Focus as an Organization
In a previous article, I discussed learning as a core “Make or Break” (MOB) for SEP. By taking up this follow-up topic I must acknowledge the huge body of work around “learning organizations” that already exists in books, seminars, best practices, etc. My thoughts that follow are by no means scholarly. Previously I pointed out […]
Why Perform Discovery (Envision) On the Front End of a Development Process?
The rapid evolution of technologies, users and markets has increased the pressure on the software industry to respond to industry criticisms. Some of these criticisms were well deserved and these three top the list: Why does it cost so much? Why does it take so long? Why can’t we get what we asked for? […]
SEP’s Vision is: to be the preferred partner for software product development and a recognized industry leader in the application of software engineering practices. I like to say it this way: *We want to be THE partner to hire and THE place to work. * The connection between “THE place to work” and industry leader […]
A couple months ago, my Vistage CEO group hosted “Make or Break Execution – the Core to Success,” a presentation from Dan Barnett (Primavera). The “Make or Break” (MOB) of an organization is “the one thing that must be done extraordinarily well to achieve your vision”. At the heart of Barnett’s presentation is discovering and […]
Back on the “trend” of applying Agile/Lean practices SEP learned from software development to “management” I submit another example. SEP is working on significant updates to its risk management, project management and status reporting. These areas deal a lot with communication and like everything else…people. It really impressed me to find out our managers were […]
