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Jill met with Jim Terrell in his office to learn about her team's next major assignment.

"What do you mean, Jim? You're saying that you know who the next project is for. But you don't know what we are going to do for them?

"That's right, Jill. I've spoken with Karla Wilkins, the Manager of the Supply Department. Karla has had several bad experiences with IT over the years, and she wanted my assurance that the next IT project would be a success."

"Does she know what she basically wants from IT?" Jill asked. Jill was worried that this next project would not go well. She knew that top management had to clearly know its goals for a project. Otherwise, the project could get cancelled at any time due to lack of focus.

Jim spoke in a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, we are not sending you off on a wild goose chase. Karla's department faces a dilemma. She knows her basic business goals. She wants to get away from paper, and she wants to find some way to handle orders without increasing staff."

"Why does she want to eliminate paper?" Jill hoped she wasn't asking too many questions. She did not want to seem as though she was not willing to take on the project.

"Hmm," thought Jim, "that's not a bad question. I know that 'going paperless' used to be a mantra in this department, until the CEO pushed back. Sylvia didn't think getting rid of paper was good enough as a goal, especially if doing so created double work with employees still using the old forms.

"To answer your question -- Karla thinks the supply ordering process should get away from paper so that her department can handle more orders without bringing on more people. She liked what the IT department did recently with the new supply-ordering software we implemented for the manufacturing shop floor. But that's only one department, and I agree with Karla that the needs of the manufacturing area probably don't translate well for the company in general.

"Karla doesn't mince words. She reminded me of the problems with the Accounting Integration project. She does not want her department to presume the needs of everyone as the Accounting department did with that project.

Jill said, "The Accounting Integration project? You're talking about that huge system where you 'steamrolled' the screen design on everyone?"

"That's right," Jim answered. "The one where anyone at Worldwide was supposed to use the same screens. But only the people from Accounting ended up using it. The other departments ended up with more work. Most people went back to their old paper forms, and each department added a new 'specialist' trained to use the Accounting Integration system.

"To get back to the Supply Order project, I think Sylvia's business goals are clear enough."

"Let me see if I can paraphrase," Jill said with less uncertainty than before. "Sylvia is looking for technology opportunities that will allow her department to handle more supply orders with the same number of people. And she includes anyone in the company that orders supplies in the scope of this work. The biggest problem is finding something that everyone in the company can use and will want to use."

"That's the gist of it," Jim said with a smile. "Karla is directly stating that she wants us to figure out what the best technology for these business goals. She is giving us a blank slate, though, of course, there is always a tight budget for any projects here at Worldwide."

"Of course. Well, you and I both have been on projects at our old job where we did some scope and analysis work. I guess we should start by interviewing Karla's people and then a few people across the various departments."

"Actually, Jill, this project gives us the perfect chance to introduce a new technique into No Surprises Technology. I call it 'Step-by-Step'. The Step-by-Step sessions will help us learn how information really flows in our business. We will talk to people to learn about their work, but we won't interview them in a conference room. Basically, we directly watch them take each step of a real example of their work."

"Has Worldwide used this technique before?"

Jim responded, "No, we haven't used it yet. That's why I'm asking for you to stay personally involved in the project. I want you to learn how to do this technique, use it on the new Supply Ordering project, and then incorporate it into our overall No Surprises Technology."

Jill asked, "So what's the first action item?"

"A consultant named Wanna Hanberry will be here on Tuesday of next week. She'll be training you and two other members of your team on how to do Step-by-Step observation of people at work. And she will teach you how to use this information to identify technology opportunities. By the way, if you want to read some background on this method of observation, you'll find it referred elsewhere as 'Contextual Inquiry.'"

"How long will the training last?"

"Two full days," replied Jim.

* * * * * * * * * * *

On Tuesday, Jill and two members of her IT team, Ross and Tim, began their training with Wanna Hanberry. Wanna started the training with an overview of why Step-by-Step observation matters, and with the importance of putting technology in its proper place.

"Most technology projects," Wanna said to the group, "Jump to technology design. Everyone, business managers included, feels compelled to immediately talk about what the technology is going to look like. A lot of people, especially techies, will start talking about databases, the internet, software platforms, hardware platforms, way too soon."

Tim interjected a question, "But aren't there some cases where you know right away if you are going to use a certain technology. For example, if we were a dot.com, we would at least know that we were going to use the Internet."

"The problem with that thinking," Wanna said, "is that you get yourself into a dangerous box right away. For example, too many retail companies launched web sites that had nothing to do with the existing retail locations. For example, many web sites for retail companies did not allow customers to return merchandise they had bought on the web to their traditional store locations."

Wanna continued, "The question for businesses that jumped into the Internet should not have been, 'How do we make our new web site a big success?' The first questions should have been, 'what do our customers do now? How can we make the shopping experience better for our customers and more profitable for us?' Where the Internet is part of that answer, fine. Where it is not, do something else."

Wanna then drew a circle with the words 'Tech Design' on the whiteboard. "So rather than rushing to this Tech Design, a project first needs a solid foundation of understanding the current business practice. This is done through the Step-by-Step sessions. Step-by-Step means directly going to customers and to workers. You will be directly observing real examples of what they do, and how information and transaction flows in their work.

"We will also learn a great deal about the roles and responsibilities that people have. We will also learn that some people have too many or conflicting responsibilities. This creates a strain on their performance, slowdowns in their work, and results in mistakes. You don't typically learn these things in traditional interviews, especially when a supervisor is present."

Wanna stopped for a second looking at the whiteboard, then continued.

"Let's back up a step. Every good project must start with a solid set of goals. For businesses, that would be something about profitability, revenue, costs, efficiency, quality, and so on. Jill, what are the goals again for your Supply Ordering project?"

Jill answered, "To handle increases in supply orders without increasing staff. That implies, of course, improved efficiency. The Supply Manager also wants to make sure that this is a system anyone across the company will find easy to use."

"And why is that?" asked Wanna.

Jill was a bit taken aback that Wanna seemed to imply ease of use was not worthy as a business goal. "Because," she slowly replied, "if employees don't want to use it, and won't use it, the Supply department will still get the old paper forms sent to them. Besides, don't you always want something to be as usable as possible? I assumed that was one of the key motivations in your field of expertise."

Wanna smiled, and quickly replied, "Usability in itself always matters to me. But to most CEOs, even if they bother to think about usability, it's just a nice-to-have. Hopefully that will change some day, but we're getting off-topic.

"At the beginning of a project - especially at the beginning -- it has to be clear to all top decision-makers what success will mean in business terms. I'm sure there are people over Karla's head that need to easily understand why her project should be funded. So, let's see if we can restate the Supply Manager's concern that anyone in the company should be able to use any new technology easily."

"OK," Jill said. "The Supply Department has the goal of handling higher numbers of supply orders efficiently enough to maintain its current staff level for the next five years. And the project has the goal of allowing everyone in the company to order their supplies at least as efficiently as they have before. Does that cover it?"

"Pretty well." Wanna said, nodding pleasantly. She went back to her whiteboard. "So after a project team knows its goals in business terms, it then does the Step-by-Step in order to study and understand the existing business practice. Next, the team needs to come up with its vision of an improved business practice."

Tim asked, "We still are not into the Tech Design?"

"No, we are not," said Wanna. "The vision of the improved business practice should still defer most discussion about technology. When you get to this point with the Supply Ordering project, you want to be able to express any opportunities to improve the work without worrying yet about most technology details.

"Who knows? You might find that there are some places where the Supplies Department doesn't need to get away from paper, but needs paper forms instead. -- Or maybe something else, something other than a computer screen. -- Maybe not. In any case, I'm trying to open your minds about what are business opportunities and what are the technology solutions. A paper form might be part of a legitimate technology solution. Who knows?"

Ross, who had been quiet thus far, asked, "But don't we already know the business opportunities?"

"No. There are going to be opportunities to improve the supply ordering work practice that you simply won't know about it until you do your Step-by-Step sessions directly observing people. And after you do the Step-by-Step sessions, you are going to analyze more data together as a team than you ever have before.

"I can't tell you know what you are going to see. And I can't tell you now what the best coherent vision will look like for ordering supplies in the future. But you will be able to.

"Finally, our last step in the initial phase of a project should be the Tech Vision. Only after knowing your goals in business terms, only after directly understanding the current work, and only after reaching a consensus on the future vision of the work, only in this context should you talk start talking about technology."

Wanna concluded her topic by asking, "Any questions? OK, let's take a five minute break."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

By the end of the training, Wanna had instructed the team how to conduct the Step-by-Step sessions, and given them a chance to practice their technique on each other. After she left town, Wanna and Jill exchanged emails on how to find the right people for the Step-by-Step sessions, and how to adequately prepare.

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