Comments on: 4 Simple Steps For Tailoring Your Methodology

By: Methodolo-what?? « Management Straight Talk

Methodolo-what?? « Management Straight Talk — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:50:45 +0000

[...] Fewell, essentially titled “Methodology doesn’t matter.” You can read the gist of it here. The article itself didn’t quite go as far as the title, which was a little [...]

By: Jesse Fewell

Jesse Fewell — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:13:29 +0000

Ahhh. Nice distinction. My intent was to go after “tailoring”, rather than “adapting”. I guess I need to elaborate with some concrete examples.

By: PM Hut

PM Hut — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:11:35 +0000

Jesse, I see tailoring as changing the methodology to align with the organization culture, adapting, on the other hand, is changing the organization culture to be fit with the methodology.

By: Jesse Fewell

Jesse Fewell — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:24:42 +0000

PM Hut, I wonder what the difference is between tailoring and adapting. Aren’t they the same thing? Namely, taking a methodololgy and adhering to the core essense, while customizing the parts that need to be fit to the current project’s unique context.

By: Jesse Fewell

Jesse Fewell — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:27:07 +0000

This is another part of the methodology paradox: the value of a packaged product morphs into a marketing obsession. Just as organizations miss the improvement for the CMMi label, so pracitioners miss the effective management for the PMP or CSM label.

By: PM Hut

PM Hut — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:14:14 +0000

I don't see much "tailoring" in this article as much as I see "adapting". PS: I did publish a few years back a series on creating your own methodology, the series is quite generic, but can be easily applied in the context of Project Management.

By: mdrk60

mdrk60 — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:22:34 +0000

Thanks to all.
When deploying SW-CMM level 2 in a big company, I had issues with some people (e.g. sw quality assurance leader) who were so obsessed by CMM practices instead of real common sens practices.
CMM is sometimes for the marketing image of the company.

By: Jesse Fewell

Jesse Fewell — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:05:26 +0000

TV, I totally agree with your point about the intent and results of CMMI. Perhaps this is a common tragedy with most of these methodologies: what was intended to be an institutionalization of getting better, simply became institutionalization. It’s a paradox I have yet to figure out.

By: Tathagat Varma

Tathagat Varma — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:26:08 +0000

Jesse, and it is very heartening to see an eventual (inevitable ?) and definitive shift from being prescritive (whether Waterfall, CMM, PMI or Agile) to being pragmatic about how one should not go by the glossy marketing brochures of various snake-oil brands, but really go about tailoring the right solution from an quintessentially canned solution. You hit the nail on its head when you talk about tailoring. Incidentally, CMM was all about tailoring (especially at Level 3 and above) but sadly, people ignored that and only take home the perception that CMM is all about blind compliance to non-negotiable processes and documentation overkill. Similarly, Agile methods are built on the premise of ‘inspect and adapt’ but sadly, that doesn’t seem to apply to the very methods themselves! I find it not only strange, but tragic. A firm believer in ‘horses for courses’, I think it’s about time we woke up to the real world and understood that customers couldn’t care less what methodology we love, and any methodology is only as good as its results, not its pedigree.

~TV

By: Jesse Fewell

Jesse Fewell — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:01:00 +0000

I appreciate the affirmation.

Hmm…How do you choose what to tailor? Well, in Step 2, choosing what to tailor should be driven first and foremost by a commitment to deliver. Many will immediately begin to shed a process document because it’s just annoying, rather than asking what the impact would be to getting something approved and out the door. If your organization tells you that annoying document is needed for regulatory compliance, then in Step 3, you respond to that feedback by generating the thing.

Yes, there is a huge sub-class of people that want to do color-by-numbers management. It can be argued that following all the rules all the time, alleviates the need to waste mental energy on the process, and focus on project delivery. However, when the process you started with (Step 1) starts to get in the way of delivery (Step 2), then you need to tailor away those obstacles to become more effective (Step 3). But, I guess I’m starting to delve into another post about specifics.