Archive - April 2011

APR

Role of IT and the Business in Service Improvement

20 APR 2011 | Posted in business strategy, business value, CMS, CRM, membership organisation, NFP, self service, service | Author Alex McLachlan

There are some aspects of service (and more general customer relationship management) that can be assisted by IT and some that are more within the ambit of the business. The business is responsible for the staff and their skills for example, whereas IT is responsible for the systems that facilitate delivery of the services.

APR

Best Service applied to Membership Organisations

18 APR 2011 | Posted in business strategy, business value, membership organisation, NFP, self service, service | Author Alex McLachlan

Part of a commitment to managing customer/contact relations is the commitment to ensure that a person’s experience of the service they get from the organisation is the best it can be. Bill Price and David Jaffe's work on best service has a number of applications to Membership Organisations, particularly those where relationship management and development is important.

APR

Systems Thinking for Service in Membership Organisations

13 APR 2011 | Posted in business strategy, business value, membership organisation, NFP, self service, service | Author Alex McLachlan |

1 Comment

In my previous post, I introduced the potential benefits that membership organisations can obtain from looking at best practice service. The ‘Systems Thinking’ work carried out by John Seddon is one of the key contributions to moving organisations towards service excellence.

APR

What is (and what isn't) Agile?

12 APR 2011 | Posted in agile CMMI measurement | Author Rob Smith |

1 Comment

Following my Blog post last week (Agile v Waterfall) I’ve again found myself in the company of software suppliers that promote themselves as Agile, but clearly are nothing of the sort. This is increasingly becoming a problem and threatens to tarnish the name of Agile and cause the uninformed customer no end of problems.

APR

Best Service in Membership Organisations

11 APR 2011 | Posted in business strategy, business value, membership organisation, NFP, self service, service | Author Alex McLachlan

Customer service is most often thought about in the context of large corporate call centres many of whom provide excellent service (Amazon and first direct are often held up as prime examples), but equally with some well known cases who provide appalling service to their customers with long waiting queues, tortuous telephone menus and dreadful operatives (it’s probably best not to name the guilty here). Significant research and practical experience have gone into understanding best practice for customer service.

Providing Best Service in Membership Organisations

10 APR 2011 | Posted in business strategy, business value, CMS, CRM, John Seddon, membership organisation, NFP, self service, service | Author Alex McLachlan

Membership organisations are, by their very nature, organisations that provide services for their members (and potentially other customers). Providing the best possible service experience is something that is not often considered, but is of great importance to help to ensure that members renew their membership and that the services can be provided cost effectively.

APR

Agile v Waterfall?

05 APR 2011 | Posted in agile methodology, waterfall | Author Rob Smith |

4 Comments

In the same meeting as the proclamation of the “Agile expert” Scrum Master, we were also told that you can’t have a hybrid of Waterfall and Agile, “this simply leaves you with a Waterfall project”. Leaving aside the fact that the supplier was proposing an “Agile” process in which the requirements would be fully documented up-front, this statement betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of Agile.

APR

Not so Masterful

05 APR 2011 | Posted in agile methodology, certification, qualification, scrum | Author Rob Smith

In a presentation yesterday, I was stunned to find a potential supplier suggesting that their project manager was an expert in Agile because, “he’s a fully qualified Scrum Master”. While it certainly sounded good to those in the room unfamiliar with the label, attendance at a basic 1 day training course does not make anyone master of anything, let alone Agile management. This, I believe is a real problem for the Agile community.

APR

Black Swan

01 APR 2011 | Posted in agile approach, disaster recovery, risk reduction, Taleb | Author Jason Smith

The idea of the black swan is a fascinating one. I am not, in this case, referring to the film of the same name about a slightly dippy ballerina who wishes to improve her dancing through copious quantities of drugs, sex and fantasy, although it might make for a more entertaining post. I am referring to the concept first defined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable .