THE PLM STATE

The PLM State: Tortoise vs. Hare - Winning the PPM Implementation Race


Overview

With the abundance of lapine symbolism accompanying the Easter holiday, it seems a fitting time to examine one of life’s eternal questions: when implementing Agile PPM, which approach yields better results, slow and steady or quick and speedy out of the gate? Allegorical case in point, Aesop’s rival racers, the tortoise and the hare. Can we excuse the hare’s momentary indulgence, knowing that he would have come in first if he had just stayed on track and avoided distractions? Do we root for the tortoise, who won the race by plodding along toward the finish line, passing by his long-eared opponent while he snoozed? The moral ambiguity of the fable translates into real life, as we’ll see.

On your marks…

Sizing up the two contenders before the race, it may be difficult to predict the winner. On the one hand, we have the tortoise, who has a detailed plan and a proven methodology for implementing PPM, ensuring that every ‘t’ will be crossed, and every ‘i’ dotted. The hare, meanwhile, is rearing to go with so much energy and enthusiasm that no one could stand in his way. From start to finish, the tortoise will stay on his even-keeled course, coming in exactly on-time and on-budget, while we just don’t know about the hare. He’s hopping all over the place, running in circles, expending energy with his antics. The tortoise may seem oblivious to his opponent’s physical advantages, but the hare never stops boasting about his speed and prowess. Perhaps it’s this difference in attitude that activates our cultural preference for the underdog, leading us to assume that the hare’s arrogance will ultimately lead to his downfall.

What will be the actual outcome though? Will the slow and steady approach beat out the alternative? To answer that question, we need to better understand the race itself, not just the players. That is equally true back here in reality, where a successful PPM implementation is the goal. For companies that are already using Agile PLM for managing product data, adding Product Portfolio Management can dramatically improve the way in which engineering projects are managed and executed. Often replacing a hodgepodge of home-grown systems, PPM allows organizations to take control of their NPI processes (or any other type of project, really), enabling an optimal mix of consistency and flexibility, visibility across the enterprise, and operational alignment of resources.

Get set…

For a variety of reasons, PPM is very well suited for rapid implementation and deployment. In contrast to the other Agile modules, PPM is far less dependent on the establishment of a rigid data model, lifecycles, and workflows. Instead, core PPM processes are configured as project templates, which can be easily adapted over time, generally without any involvement from IT. Thus, a quick pilot project can be very effective. Getting the software in the hands of project teams early on will often reveal the right path through the wilderness. Rather than having endless theoretical discussions around requirements and use cases, we can learn a great deal by simply letting folks run with it, and watching closely. Of course, there are some aspects of the solution that should be set up initially, including the ability to collect KPIs that will be used to measure the success or failure of the effort. Like a runner’s stopwatch, metrics are key to staying on track.

So, back to our mammalian and reptilian protagonists, which is better suited to prevail knowing that the racetrack is not a simple oval, but one with numerous pitfalls, shortcuts, and hairpin turns? One that is changing over time, often in unpredictable ways? Can the tortoise plan ahead for these, charting a well-reasoned path, avoiding all the hazards, and still compete with the hare’s blazing speed? Will the hare use his agility to jump and scramble past those unknowns that threaten to waylay him? In the PPM implementation realm, the answer lies more in the definition of success than anything else. Is this a sprint or a marathon? What are our short-term and long-term goals, what are their relative priorities, and how can we best ensure that these objectives will be met? Will we be rewarded for our persistence or for our precipitancy?

Go…

The simple answer is that there is no simple answer. Our intuition has been honed on insights that are elevated to the level of proverb, but there’s no single moral to the story. Take your pick, there are as many interpretations to the fable as there are vested interests, or methods for realizing your PPM vision. One thing is certain, though: if we take our eyes off the prize, we will falter and fail, whether we take the quick route or the slow one. If we embark on the long road with only our ambition to guide us, we will burn out or get lost before we get to our destination. Likewise, a quick sprint to an intermediate goal may get us nowhere if we’re headed in the wrong direction. The tortoise and the hare could clearly learn from each other. Perhaps more to the point, both animals would be beaten by a third creature who had figured out how to combine their talents, while avoiding their weaknesses.

Applying this to our quandary of how best to approach a PPM implementation — or just about anything worth doing both well and quickly — we may want to borrow some tactics from agile methodology. With the right level of up-front planning, a series of sprints can provide more consistent benefits than the most elegantly orchestrated waterfall. The addition of well-defined success criteria helps to seal the deal, along with constant feedback from users and the sense of ownership that they get from guiding the ongoing solution development. Does this take the form of a pilot, with a small group of initial users, gradually expanding to the entire enterprise, or a multi-phase roll-out, where the scope starts small and increases over time? Regardless, how do we address the consistency of data, the applicability of metrics, and the various new use cases that crop up along the way? These are questions that need to be answered separately for each engagement, but never assume that the tortoise has it right. Before you know it, you’ll be cursing the best laid plans of mice and men

[Edit: Repost from 2015]

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