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Ask your team.

As the leader of Atlantic Dominion Solutions, I am responsible for determining strategy for the company. There are many strategic areas inside every business (marketing, sales, operations, etc.), and as we are a small business, I am responsible for formulating all of them. However, decisions made in a vacuum do not good decisions make. Savvy?

Jack Welch is a big proponent of asking the front line folks for their input when making decisions that directly affect them. It is the people doing the work that best understand how process changes can impact production, whether you are creating widgets or custom web-based applications.

Our development methodology has changed over time, I believe for the better. As we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, we have adapted our processes. When I was considering implementing scrum, I did the following:

• Researched scrum, including purchasing and reading books on the subject
• Reviewed our current approach to development
• Analyzed the differences between our current approach and that of scrum
• Discussed the use of scrum with others who were already using it
• Determined impacts to other areas of the business including sales and billing
• Discussed the proposed change with the team to gain their feedback and buy-in
• Implemented scrum

By including our team in the process, there was a greater probability of success in implementing the new methodology. The results speak for themselves:

• Our team feels that they were included in the decision making process rather than having decisions forced on them from the top
• The transition was smooth; everyone knew what to expect going into the change
• Those working on in-progress projects where scrum was not used from the beginning started to use scrum as much as possible
• Happy developers = productive developers = happy customers = happy Rob
• This helped to create an environment where everyone knew that their contribution and ideas mattered, would be listened to, and would be discussed in an open forum.

Bottom Line

Involving those doing the work in the decisions that directly impact them is not a novel concept. The fastest way to disenfranchise those working with you is to force decisions on them without allowing for question or comment. So, you want to know where to take your business? Ask those on the front lines. They are interacting with customers on a daily basis and know their needs better than any. Ask them what the company is NOT doing to serve your customers, and you may find areas in which you can improve, and grow.

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