C. Dennis Allen
Abstract
Changing the attitudes and work habits of a large organization is daunting at best. The task is more challenging when the organization perceives itself as eminently successful, dominating the market in its category. During the past 5 years I've seen the evolution of the product design processes as I moved from user-interface (UI) designer, to manager of a large UI design group, to my current position as a product design strategist.
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Digital Library
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Index Terms
- Succeeding as a clandestine change agent
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Reviews
Andrew Robert Huber
Change is hard. Changing a successful organization is even harder. Here is an account that makes it look relatively easy. The author gives a personal, qualitative case history of successfully introducing an open, cross-functional team approach to requirements definition and product design at WordPerfect Corporation (now Novell). The challenge was to shift to customer-centered development methods. The approach was to promote change incrementally, from the bottom up. The tactics were instruction and collaboration—but clandestinely. Work the ideas into conversations, get people to review and help you without forming formal teams at first, talk up the results, be inclusive, and let people think the ideas are their own. The material is engagingly presented, in a “how I did it” style. Since organizations, environments, and individuals vary tremendously, generalizations from this single account cannot be made. There is some discussion of some of the difficulties encountered (such as evaporating resources due to halfhearted commitments), and some advice on how to solve them or prevent them. Even so, there is no analysis of the important factors in making change of this sort work. Readers interested in organizational change or soft ware process improvement will find this paper a motivating and personable existence proof for change, but not necessarily a blueprint they can follow.
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