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BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING
Solution Delivery Transformation | Project Management Services

Guide Ring Consulting - Where your Solution Delivery Capabilities and Culture Meet

Our Mission is to elevate your ability to Deliver Business and Technology Strategy

By synchronizing the 3 Pillars of your Enterprise Solution Delivery Network (ESDN)

Internal Partnerships | Processes | Tools

We're able to unleash the full potential of your organization to create a culture centered around Customer and Stakeholder technology delivery requirements and capable of flexing beyond existing limitations or internal preferences

Whether you're an Executive looking to strengthen your Organization's Strategic Delivery Capabilities or a Business Stakeholder, with a mandate to deliver a large-scale Project Initiative; Guide Ring Consulting is the Partner You Need

TECHNOLOGY DELIVERY FOR THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

An Exceptional Customer Experience isn't limited to just working technology, it includes the timing, cadence, scope and quality of your implementation as well as the impact to their internal processes, alignment with innovation cycles, training requirements and contract | compliance obligations

Your Business & Technology Delivery Approach should position your Customers to compete in their vertical market - and also serve as a differentiator for your organization

Method Malpractice

Don't Commit Methodology Malpractice!

What Criteria Makes a Project Suitable for Waterfall or Agile?

If you're not asking this question you're probably delivering some of your tech strategy using the wrong methodology

Agile is the Flavor!

An Ed Tech software company with clients all over the US provides a class room product that teachers and students use everyday. All have a firm grasp of the functionality and also the defects that impact their work

Once a year, the software company fixes about 20 to 30 percent of their defect backlog through a large remediation release

The users are happy with the fixes but struggle to consume them all at once and are somewhat frustrated that no new bugs will be fixed until the following year - this is a clear example where Agile is the better approach

WATERFALL IS THE WAY!

An Insurance company in the Pacific Northwest is required, by their state, to send communication with very specific language to each of its customers - failing to comply with this mandate could jeopardize their license to operate

Each year the state changes that language in the spring and requires the provider to begin communicating it in early fall - the company initiates a project each spring to update their content management system accordingly

This project has very specific timelines and a definitive scope which cannot be negotiated - the work represents all of the classic characteristics of a Waterfall project; yet the organization, in an attempt to transition to Agile, decides one year to manage the work incrementally which jeopardizes their ability to deliver a mandated scope within a mandated timeframe and ultimately their operating license

One Methodology to Rule Them All?

When asked about their approach to delivering technology backed strategy - Many Leaders state that their organization employs either Waterfall or Agile, but Rarely Both

Often, the decision to pick one or the other is not based on a business case, or review of the initiatives in their portfolio, but rather on what they believe aligns with the conventional wisdom of the day or 'fits their culture'

Since there are almost no strategic portfolios comprised of All Agile or All Waterfall projects, choosing one or the other is not a good approach for delivering project initiatives

Enterprise Solution Delivery Connects You to Your Customers!

Solution Delivery vs Software Development Methodology

At Guide Ring, we make a distinction between Software Development Methodologies, such as Agile or Waterfall, and Solution Delivery - they're often conflated, but it helps to think of Methodologies as just one component of your Solution Delivery Approach

In some Organizations, Methodologies have become the driving force behind the connection between your products and your customers... this process unfortunately turns that critical relationship into an engineering framework and can sideline critical voices in your organization such as Marketing & Sales, Financial | Legal | Risk Management, Operations and representatives for the Voice of the Customer

The Solution Delivery Process is a whole-of-organization approach that leverages the key partnerships in your organization to determine the best approach for delivering each initiative in your strategic portfolio

It recognizes that each initiative is unique and seeks to evaluate specific business objectives, elasticity of scope, timelines and implementation considerations like training requirements and and specific market drivers. Solution Delivery is agnostic toward any specific software development methodology - only seeking best fit and customization where appropriate

Software Development Methodologies are engineering frameworks designed to guide the process of creating, testing and deploying software. Traditionally, like many other engineering disciplines; scope, timing and implementation details were driven by end users or those who represented them.

In recent years, with the advent of Agile, the purview of the technology teams has expanded beyond engineering activities, seeking to guide the scope and delivery cadence of the products they produce for customers. It can be beneficial for engineers to control the pace of their work, the question remains - Is it beneficial for your customers?

Big Tech's Influence on the Customer Experience

When You Don't Pay for the Products - The Relationship Changes

When it comes to functionality, release cadence, security measures, user agreements, etc.; Products and Services are delivered on Provider terms... Not yours, as long as the product remains compelling enough for you to continue to use it

In some cases, this customer paradigm has spread beyond social media and permeates the culture of many corporate technology landscapes

You can argue whether or not this paradigm suits you personally, i.e. social media - which it does for most of us; but what about your Corporate HR Systems, CRM cloud application, proprietary custom support products - would this relationship model work?

If you're Passionate about Your Customers, and willing to Challenge Conventional Wisdom on their behalf...

Whether a Mission Critical Project, that must succeed; or you've committed to leveling up your long term Delivery Capabilities, Guide Ring can help you

To Create a Culture that empowers the people you've hired to represent your Strategy, your Market Presence and The Voice of Your Customer
Formulate Strong Business Stakeholder and Technology Partnerships to work on behalf of your Customers
Broaden your Solution Delivery Capabilities to meet the needs of your Customers and Stakeholders
Develop a reusable framework to ensure you employ the Right Methodology for all of your strategy
DELIVER YOUR BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY

Come Partner with Us!

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING Solution Delivery Transformation | Project Management Services

Don't Commit Methodology Malpractice!

Solution Delivery vs Software Development Methodology

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING
Solution Delivery Transformation | Project Management Services