1. Practices for Involving Stakeholders
September 14, 2012
Intro: doing ongoing research on improving ISD productivity.
Introduce the clients – ask them to raise their hand. . .
Warn: the following team-projects should stay in OHE 122:
Team 1 – project 19
3-21, 5-7, 8-2, 9-18, 11-1, 12-5, 14-13, 15-4, 16-20, 17-22
These team-projects should go to GFS106:
2-9, 4-8, 6-17, 7-6, 10-15, 13-16, 18
PLEASE SIT IN TEAMS
Based on lecture from
Dr. Ann Majchrzak and Arlene W. Williams
Marshall School of Business

2. Mutual Learning Shared responsibility in mutual learning
Purpose
Mutual Learning
Shared responsibility in mutual learning
Define what “clients” and “developers” are.

3. How will we Do this? Mini Lecture #1 Mini Lecture #2 Practice
Exercise #1
PracticeExercise #2
Mini
Lecture #3

4. Mutual learning process
Do you have initial thought on how the final product would look like ?

5. Throwing over the wall syndrome

6. What do you expect to learn from this class/project?
Let’s think about it

7. Knowledge Transfer
Business Side
IT/IS/SE
Individual Learning

8. Collaborative learning
Business
Side
IT/IS/SE
Together learning new ways of structuring processes

9. Why Is this important? Business Innovation (New Services & Products)
Business Effectiveness
(Better)
Business Innovation (New Services & Products)
Business Efficiencies
(Faster, cheaper)
Lost opportunities in:

10. Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning
I. Creating Shared Responsibility II. Elaboration III. Optimize creative friction to achieve learning
Emphasize “between client and developers.” Three critical factors: coord norms, effective meeting management, and reconciling and managing differences

11. Shared Responsibility in mutual learning
A psychological attitude:
We’re all on the same team.
We’re in this together.
In treatment, go fast on these slides…

12. Practices for Encouraging Shared Responsibility:
When Managing
Stakeholder Relationships
Help to make ALL stakeholders part of development team:
Put on distribution list
Include in teleconferences
Frequent interactions, even if brief
Identify tasks that developer and client can work on together
Use “we” not “I” during discussions
Identify team-based rewards (such as lunches)
Define project success metric as system use, not just system development

13. Practices for Encouraging Shared Responsibility
when Project Starts
1) Identify a learning facilitator 2) Identify learning objectives for each stakeholder: - Client organization’s work process? - IS development process? - Technology developments? - Use of IS/IT/SE in business? 3) Identify & Assign development tasks related to each learning objective 4) End each meeting with assessment of learning

14. Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning
I. Creating Shared Responsibility II. Elaboration III. Optimize creative friction to achieve learning
Emphasize “between client and developers.” Three critical factors: coord norms, effective meeting management, and reconciling and managing differences

15. What kind of learning? Sharing idea, illustrate, show me examples
Clients – don’t just give some info – don’t just throw over the wall
Difference between
A client who learned
A client who is satisfied

16. Purpose of elaboration
Create a common body of knowledge shared by stakeholders about:
A vision of the IT-enabled to-be work process
Business & technical rationale for vision compared to alternatives
Execution Plan
Goals, preferences, and fallback options for each stakeholder
The most efficient ways for each stakeholders to learn

17. The Elaboration Process
Focus on Actual Work Processes
Not looking for hypothetical ideal, but actual tasks
(Don’t say: “users “USUALLY/would” do X”)
Let’s pick a user, do you have a name for this user?
What Joe Smith does in this case?
Immediately co-create prototype of how work done now or in future.
Observe how client WALKS THROUGH using prototype to make DECISIONS
Note client’s decisions, work around, process
Give client opportunity to explain actions

18. Elaboration Practices
Learning is not telling; self-explainers learn more than listeners
Thus, allow time for everyone to “self- explain”
How they might use it

19. Elaboration practices
Make abstract discussions concrete
Use examples related to client’s work
Diagram ideas
Build on the client’s methods for describing work, not your own techniques
Translate terms

20. Elaboration Practices
Customize learning techniques
Try different techniques
Keep creative ideas flowing
Hand-drawn prototype

21. Active Listening Ask about unstated reactions to idea Switch roles
Avoid talking too much
Restate what you heard
Build on the client’s examples & ideas

22. Exercise
Conduct a 10-minute design meeting and see how many elaboration techniques you used
Observe users roleplay with prototypes
Time to self-explain
Concrete examples
Translate terms
Are you learning what you wanted?
Role play alternatives
What would happen if …?
Ask about unstated reactions

23. Practices for Encouraging Collaborative Learning
I. Creating Shared Responsibility II. Elaboration III. Optimize creative friction to achieve learning
Emphasize “between client and developers.” Three critical factors: coord norms, effective meeting management, and reconciling and managing differences

24. III. Learning through Creative Friction
Don’t be afraid to disagree.
Talk through, rather than avoid differences of opinions

25. Problems with Many Teams
Participants’ creativity not engaged
Look for solution that creates quick consensus
Unwilling to confront others with different ideas
Politeness takes precedence
INSTEAD:
Sources: Facts (from miscommunication or from your backgrounds – users are not typically very technical and developers are not very well versed in business) – cure with deeper probing, clarification. Objectives (explicit and hidden) – sometimes true objectives are hidden, e.g. get an A for the course. Commitment (non-compliance) – some parties are just more committed than others. Because of differences in power (acquiesence, non-assertiveness, passive acceptance), differences hard to be surfaced. You can’t tell a boss you disagree too often: ain’t good for your health. But you have a difference. Culture – always blamed for breakdowns. Stereotypes like “Asians are shy” etc. Beliefs, which are often irreconcilable. Differences of opinion WILL occur. At least know there is a difference, and start from that point. Work around the difference.
An example difference is: clients might be more concerned with getting a simple prototype that can easily be implemented into a final system while developers might be interested in creating a technically elegant solution.
Elicit from the class on how differences might be manifest.
Then…the presentation forks from the placebo in the “recognize they exist” point.
Recognizing that differences of opinions exist; understanding why the differences relate back to goals (is it the goals were not as well-understood). This is harder than you might think. You'll need Cognitive Elaboration tools to explore this.
Differences of opinion WILL occur.
An example difference is: clients might be more concerned with getting a simple prototype that can easily be implemented into a final system while developers might be interested in creating a technically elegant solution. If you are lucky, differences will emerge as disagreements, If you are not so lucky, they may appear in the guise of miscommunication, conflict over some other issue, failure to comply with agreements, silent treatment, sarcasm, acquiescence. Once differences are identified, we need to understand them (using the techniques already identified in the previous section) Some differences can be managed just with better communication techniques. Other differences are more fundamental. If the communication techniques already identified don't eliminate client/developer differences, then it is necessary to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution.
Let's give an example of a possible area of disagreement: Every time Dvlprs talk about the interface between the database and the prototype application being designed, client shows a lack of interest (but doesn't say anything) and then asks them about alternative user interfaces. Dvlprs feel the UI is simple and irrelevant to the key problem, which they believe to be the DB design. So, this shows a disagreement over where to spend limited time: Team feels need to resolve how to make the DB interface work; Client wants to see more alternatives for user interface. So what do you do? First, you acknowledge that there is a disagreement: "every time we talk about DB design, you show a lack of interest; are you more interested in the UI design?" If based on this public acknowledgement, client confirms that there is a disagreement, move to next step (which is to figure out how to resolve it)
Don’t assume that an initial no-diff between client-dvlpr will hold. Search for underlying or less apparent diffs.
Innovation
Creative Friction

26. Example: Difference in Practices
INDIVIDUAL
Use prototypes for single solution
Enforce single representation of knowledge (“ERD”)
Explain own knowledge
Talk
Stay in role
COLLABORATIVE
Use prototypes to explore different concepts
Represent knowledge
in different ways
Have others explain your knowledge
Draw, listen, ask
questions
Reverse roles

27. Checklist during meetings
Did you?
Use prototypes to explore concepts?
Let clients develop prototypes?
Create “test-drivable” prototypes?
Make sure client asked as many questions as you did?
Stimulate creativity through questioning?
Restate dialogue to improve understanding?
Use examples from more than one work context?
Avoid using IS/CS/SE-language?

28. Checklist during meetings (Cont)
Did you:
Use visual examples to explain concepts?
Reverse roles?
Try more than one way to represent how work is done?
Elaborate on client’s idea?
Ground ideas in client’s physical world with a role play by sharing stories of how work is done?
Ask about client’s unstated reactions to an idea?
Show any software that client might want to emulate?

29. A Whole new world to explore

30. Summary
Every client-developer encounter is an opportunity for learning
Every client and developer learns differently
Controlling the learning process is better than leaving it uncontrolled
Control it by:
Building and maintaining a sense of shared responsibility for outcomes
Managing conflict for learning
Using elaboration techniques
by “surfacing” assumed (implicit but often misunderstood) norms, agendas (hidden or otherwise), and differences (ranging from pure misconceptions/misinformation to true irreconcilable differences), we set a positive tone for problem-solving and moving forward.
In addition to surfacing, clients and developers must share some responsibility and make an effort to learn from each other. Such sharing and mutual learning helps generate creative alternatives, which in turn leads to successful outcomes.

31. Thank you!