Back to Basics: Deep Dive Part 3

What a CEO and CIO need to grasp about Software Analysis

Over time, the software analyst who goes deep understands the business so well that they become an invaluable resource to the business, providing valuable insights for decision makers to improve their business. All decision makers who lack practical experience in the software space struggle with understanding this.

So let me break down what usually happens, for example:

An insurance project is at a critical point, running from Spec to Spec, Sprint to Sprint. Cindy, a software analyst who was working on the insurance project for 3 years has resigned, and the specification she was busy with will not be completed before she leaves. Victor, a new software analyst with significant experience in the mining sector, is appointed and arrives 3 days before Cindy leaves for a quick handover of the specification. Victor is allowed 2 weeks of upskill time and is then expected to continue working at Cindy’s pace, completing the specification, etc.

You may think: So, what is wrong about this?

Well, I’d like to suggest the following will pan out:

Cindy has spent 3 years understanding the insurance industry and terms, the specific business, the existing process, users, problems, their systems, data and has a clear understanding of how this business must be moved from A to B with this project. Cindy spent only 3 days transferring this knowledge.
Victor comes in cold and must first understand the basics of insurance businesses and terms before starting. The expectation to deliver will cause Victor to either drift to a superficial specification or reach burnout trying to cope with delivery.

The fact is that people do resign, and the question that needs to be asked is "how can we handle it better?"

Let's see how it can be handled better:

1. Stop money from walking out the door

Gaining domain knowledge takes time and is costly to acquire. Cindy’s knowledge took 3 years, 36 months of her salary to build. It is an investment made in Cindy. Work hard to retain your good staff.

2. Manage your risk of losing your investement

Any person may stop working for you for various reasons, you could not have stopped. The following are measures that can be put into place to manage this risk:

Make the most of the month’s notice. Cindy can document, meet, and explain as thoroughly as possible. Many businesses do NOT take this seriously enough. Structure the handover sessions to ensure everything is captured. Having handover sessions in virtual meetings that can be recorded is a very good idea.
Appoint replacement people as soon as possible who already have experience in the same domain – in the example, if Victor has previously worked in the insurance industry, it would have really helped.
Structure the upskilling of new people to empower them as far as possible for success.
Make knowledge sharing a culture and always ensure there is more than one person who can handle a particular area. Ideally, when Cindy left, there should be an existing person who can pick up her work with little effort.
Keep procedures, client contact details, and project knowledge written down
Plan the impact: People moving need to be well thought about and planned (not necessarily delay the plan). What tasks can wait so that the correct people can pick up the critical path work?

For more information and insight you can download the whitepaper from https://jalia.co.za/services/

Author: Henk Maritz (jalia.co.za)

No part of this publication may be copied or used in any form without prior written permission from the author.