mastering current global software development challenges

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Michael HeissGlobal Vice President for Knowledge, Innovation & TechnologySiemens IT Solutions and Services

© Siemens AG Austria 2009. All rights reserved.

Mastering Current GSD Challenges

Top 3 challenges for GSD in our business

Increasing cost pressure

Increasing complexity of projects

Increasing volatility of organizations

Some of our experiences in coping with these challenges

Project communication using „old“ and „new“ media

Knowledge networking within and outside the company

Management of complexity

Agenda


Cost pressure – the main driver for GSD

During the last years the cost pressure for offering IT services and software development has been increasing steadily

This holds true for many other businesses, too, if the work is easily transportable

Software business ispeople intensive

The reduction of hourly rates is the key argument for CFOs

This is often seen like a natural law of globalization









Agenda


A pragmatic definition of complexity

We call a technical system complex

(in contrast to complicated), if it is impossible to predict the behaviour of the whole system,

even if you know exactly how each of the system components

behave and interact.


Just a simple example for complexity

System 1

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Takt

Au

sgan

swer

t

x(t=0..4) = 0,8

x(t > 4) = 0,1 System 3

0

1

2

3

4

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Takt

Au

sg

an

sw

ert

System 2

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Takt

Au

sg

an

sw

ert

Delayone step

y = x - x²

y = 3,8x

3 very simple elements

3 simple behaviors

“perfectly predictable”

x y

x y

x y


y1

x = y1 y3

x = y3

y2 x = y2

Just a simple example

y = x - x² y = 3,8x

Complexity is generatedby interaction

Delayone step


Just a simple example … ???

00,10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,9

1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Takt

Aus

gang

swer

t

y1 volle Genauigkeity1 auf drei Kommastellen

Complexity is generatedby interaction.The result is…

Even the best supercomputer of the world cannot predict more than 300 steps

full precisionlimited precision

Time steps


A typical real-life software example: the high number of interactions leads to high complexity

In a real world software system the number of elements, interactions and dependencies is far larger than in the simple “toy” examples, e.g.: integration in legacy systems, interoperability with additional IT systems

Example: Intelligent Networks service platform for telecom systems (more than 100 customers worldwide)









Agenda


Organizations are changing rapidly: new ways of global cooperation are opened

“The only constant is change”

Mergers and acquisitions,

Reorganization of companies

High turnover rates in many low-cost countries

Interesting new perspectives such as

“Project companies”

Open innovation

Crowd sourcing


The challenge of „project companies“: working with the unknown

Survival of the fittestEvolutionary approach:mutation, recombination, selection

company 1 company 2project

company

small company


1) Chesbrough, H. (2003), "Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology“, Harvard Business School Press

Paradigm shift of Open Innovation1)

Open Innovation:Suggestion for a change in cooperation models

• We should control our innovation process, so that our competitors don't profit from our ideas.

• If we create the most and the best ideas in the industry, we will win.

• To profit from research and development (R&D), we must discover it, develop it and ship it ourselves.

• The smart people in our field work for us.

Closed innovation Principles

• We should profit from others' use of our innovation process, and we should buy others' intellectual property (IP)

• If we make the best use of internal and external ideas, we will win.

• External R&D can create significant value; internal R&D is needed to claim some portion of that value.

• Not all the smart people work for us. We need to work with smart people inside and outside our company.

Open innovation Principles

The lab is our world

The world is our labStrategic opening of innovation









Agenda


The GSD-dilemma for high-cost countries

Increasingcost pressure

Increasingcomplexity

Increasingvolatility

customer needs,integration in existing systems

GSD

global competition

cooperating with unknown

global competition

only the best

Higher complexity leads to higher costs









Agenda


How to reduce the offshoring cost barrier:Invest in communication and collaboration!

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Collaboration Model

Cost

100% Cop, HC

100% Cop, LC

Offshoring Cost Barrier

Cdistr =Collaboration Maturity

Cdistr,mature

Ctotal = Cop + Cdistr

Cop

Cdistr

Cdistr,mature

Source: S. Lasser, M. Heiss, Proc. of IEEE IPCC, 2005

low collaboration maturity high distribution cost high offshoring cost barrier

The higher the communication maturity the lower the distribution costs

Source: Proceedings of the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC 2005); ISBN: 0-7803-9028-8 Limerick, Ireland, 10-13 July 2005, Thread: Engineering Management, pp. 718-728.

Communication Challenges

inverse offshoring modelnew tendency


Communication: proven “old” practice

Kickoff meetings are worth the investment (also in times of travel restrictions) – team members should meet at least once personally.

You have to deal with emotions on both sides:

“Am I supposed to help outsource my own work?”

“Why do we get only the boring stuff and little information?”

To achieve a high collaboration maturity for distributed teams requires trust and months / years of working together

The main drivers for collaboration maturity: Processes, communication and tools.


As trust increases the productivity of GSD,staffing of GSD teams needs human intelligence

Where can I find the available people with the right skills at the right time for a low hourly rate?

Up-to-date company-wide data bases with skills profiles are desired (in middle Europe opposed by workers´ councils)

Such data-based people search seems to work already well for consultants (individual experts working loosely together)

In our experience the data-based approach does not work well for staffing of GSD teams (continuity, skills level, soft factors,...)

Challenges: Management of teams, locations, multi project management


Communication: new media help a lot to overcome barriers – our research project with Daniela Damian

Scenario: distributed collaboration in development project with 17 team members at 3 sites (Project Management, Integration and Development in Vienna, Bratislava, Cluj)New communication media (Microsoft OCS) encouraged people to change the communication processes so that the desired increase of productivity was reached.

Changes: OCS incl. Video, number of meetings, organizational change (meeting culture),more conscious choice of synchronous or asynchronous media (task/media fit: ambiguity vs. uncertainty)

Improvements: Reduction of response time Reduction of solution time (due to „Presence Service“ and “Instant Messaging”

more awareness about the work of other team members) Increase of productivity of the team members Information Sharing Transparency about the process improvement

More details in the presentation by Daniela Damian and others this afternoon!


Robust communication in natural language is a key factor – “English as a lingua franca”

In GSD projects people with different mother tongues and different cultural backgrounds are working together

In our projects almost nobody speaks English as a mother tongue, but everybody has to communicate in English

This topic is in our experience underestimated in the scientific discourse about GSD

Most prominent challenges for the robustness of communication: Requirements engineering Project management, meetings and meeting minutes Inquiry culture in daily work

More details in the presentation of Benedikt Lutz this afternoon









Agenda


Knowledge Networking across the organization is not just a vision: it already works today

Example: Social Network AnalysisSiemens IT Solutions and Services,System Design and Engineering

„Who has helped you in your professional work during the last 12 months“


Technoweb – company wide knowledge networking identify implicit knowledge via the activity stream of the appropriate expert

Brain

Face 2 Face

Voice

pers. E-mails

pers. Desktop

Proj. E-mails

Blogs, Microblogs, Wikis, CRM, CM, Intranet

Internet, publications

DIG

ITIZ

ED

NO

N D

IGIT

IZE

D

activity stream

visible

limited access

data privacy

not visible

low

er a

cces

sibi

lity

hig

her

acce

ssib

ility

hig

her

busi

ness

val

ue

low

er b

usin

ess

valu

e

identifiable


Knowledge networking has a business impact on the project performance and the speed of new technology adoption

10 years of experience with TechnoWeb

Facts of TechnoWeb 534 knowledge networks 8072 members 634 technologies 3366 network services 38 countries

Examples for knowledge networks within TechnoWeb: RFID, Green IT, Car-2-X, Security, DEMS, Architecture, Remote Service, Modeling, Semantic Systems

Networks related to technology Focus on networks of experts Open for all employees Very low cost of operation

Key aspects of SIS TechnoWeb

Trend setting: 31.6 % of TW members are already in SIS top priority trends (analysis FY08)

Early/fast identification: Significant Improvement regarding availability/visibility of new technologies

Innovation: TechnoWeb members have a 7 times higher probability of a successful innovation idea.

Business impact

start small and evolve continuously (business demand driven) Hold barriers low for participation Balanced bottom up / top down approach


The Siemens Technology Network Dashboard

TechnoWeb

2.0

Members

Network services/references

Abs

tract

Info

rmat

ion

Partn

erTo

ols

App

licat

ion

Eval

uatio

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Coa

chin

gC

onsu

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Wor

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psLi

tera

ture

Hel

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kTr

aini

ngs

Pro

ject

sBe

st P

ract

.M

isce

llan.

Abst

ract

Abst

ract

Abs

tract

Abs

tract

Abs

tract

Abs

tract

Abst

ract

Abs

tract

rating +

Rating of network activity

Short description of technology/topic

Membercommunication

Services and experiences provided by

the network

Links & references to related content

Partner Networks

automatically emerging structure

Topics that are related to network

Incorporated Fast Technology Search

network members / experts. Links to personal

page

TechnoWeb 2.0 provides a globally integrated “Dashboard" for technology workers

Communities with related topics


Microblogging: the simulated open-plan office

Microblogging...

• is a dynamic social bookmarking tool (at least one typical use caseof professional users)

• helps to separate the business stream (mailbox) from the knowledge stream (twitter): the business stream needs 100% to be read, elements of knowledge stream: only if the subject looks interesting / you have time

• increases the communication frequency compared to full blogs barrier much lower (less time required)

• supports the private/collaboration/social aspect (important for globally distributed teams)

• generates a digital activity stream which helps to identify implicit knowledge of experts

http://twitter.com/heisss


Microblogging: lower barrier, higher frequency, and social relationship

following interesting persons

retweeting interesting messages

non-public replies

continuous search on “Enterprise

2.0“

continuous search on

“Open Innovation”

publishing 140 letters messages incl. link

0

5

10

15

20

25

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Reihe1

Number of Enterprise 2.0 tweetson June 11, 2009

25201510

50

00:00 04:00 08:00 12:00 16:00 20:00 24:00

Cappuccino law:80% coffee and

20% foam









Agenda


Be an expert in managing complexity

Detecting complexity in the problem space vs. reducing it in the solution space

Usability Engineering: Prototyping, Standardization

Patterns in SW Architecture Architectural tactics Organizational patterns Metrics as useful indicators Responsibilities Agile development practices Safety nets: robust systems,

self healing systems Test driven development Impact analyses

Source: M. Heiss, St. Huber, B. Lutz, M. Arnhof: „Management of Complexity“, presented at the MIT-Europe conference on March 25, 2009

Topics of our recent study:

http://www.slideshare.net/heisss/management-of-complexity-in-system-design-of-large-it-solutions-1539704













Conclusion

Agenda


Conculsion: measures to cope with the GSD-dilemma

Increasingcost pressure

Increasingcomplexity

Increasingvolatility

customer needs,integration in existing systems

GSD

global competition

cooperating with unknown

global competition

only the best

higher complexity leads to higher costs

Increase the communication maturity (incl. new technologies) Increase the knowledge networking maturity Increase the maturity in managing complexity


Assoc. Prof. Dr. Michael Heiss Global Vice President for Knowledge, Innovation and Technology

Siemens AG ÖsterreichSiemens IT Solutions and ServicesGudrunstraße 11 1100 Vienna AustriaPhone +43-5-1707-46560 Fax +43-5-1707-56591 Mobile +43-664-8855 1526 mailto:[email protected]

Blog: http://twitter.com/heisss

Fotos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/visualization/

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/heisss

Thank you for your attention!

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mailto:[email protected]

http://twitter.com/heisss

http://www.flickr.com/groups/visualization/



http://www.slideshare.net/heisss

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Conclusion

Appendix

Appendix


The Agile Software Development paradigmHeavy team – light methodology, high productivity

Less documentation – personal communication is getting more important (difficult for dislocated teams)

Product owner: direct customer involvement (the biggest challengefor dislocated teams)

Beware of “daily SCRUM” phone conferences at midnight!

Our experience for success:local customer proxy, stablestructures of teams, knowingthe partners personally

Source: Siemens IT Solutions and Services SDE System Engineering Method SEM


Balance between local and global responsibilities

In our experience, a balanced approach of global and local responsibilities on project and organization level is the key for success

Organizationalpatterns of best practiceare a good guide

Many patterns are grounded in“soft topics”

see e.g. our “Project Insights” or the recent “Adrenalin Junkies” of the Atlantic Systems Guild


Cross project communication: Knowledge networking

Internal consultancy centers (“Support Centers”) – the first three hours of effort for free!

Learning Network – internal training for own technology and methodology topics: Standard -> customized -> consultancy -> work in project

TechnoWeb: A knowledge networking tool (“Know-who database” instead of Know-how databases), urgent request mechanism


Example: discovering the blog post of Prof. McAfee (Harvard University) in less than 2 hours after he published it

25201510

50

00:00 04:00 08:00 12:00 16:00 20:00 24:00

2.0: Technology is used to broadcast information publicly to people both known and unknown

1.0: Technology is used to transmit information privately to known people

Example from McAfee‘s blog athttp://andrewmcafee.org/blog/?p=871

June 10, 2009:18:13 McAfee, Boston18:19 RT New Jersey18:29 RT Canada18:46 RT Singapore19:01 RT San Francisco19:10 RT Stuttgart19:30 RT Washington20:08 RT Vienna20:25 RT HawaiiRT…retweet

http://andrewmcafee.org/blog/?p=871



mastering current global software development challenges

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system components

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new mediaknowledge networking

simple example

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