Selected titles from the YOURDON PRESS COMPUTING SERIES
Ed Yourdon, Advisor
BLOCK The Politics of Projects
BODDIE Crunch Mode: Building Effective Systems on a Tight Schedule
BOULDIN Agents of Change: Managing the Introduction of Automated Tools
BRILL Building Controls Into Structured Systems
BRILL Techniques of EDP Project Management: A Book of Readings
CONSTANTINE AND YOURDON Structured Design: Fundamentals of a Discipline of Computer Program and Systems Design
DEMARCO Concise Notes on Software Engineering
DEMARCO Controlling Software Projects: Management, Measurement, and Estimates
DEMARCO Structured Analysis and System Specification
DICKINSON Developing Structured Systems: A Methodology Using Structured Techniques
FLAVIN Fundamental Concepts in Information Modeling
FRANTZEN AND MCEVOY A Game Plan for Systems Development: Strategy and Steps for Designing Your Own System
INMON Information Engineering for the Practitioner: Putting Theory into Practice
KELLER Expert Systems Technology: Development and Application
KELLER The Practice of Structured Analysis: Exploding Myths
KING Creating Effective Software: Computer Program Design Using the Jackson Method
KING Current Practices in Software Development: A Guide to Successful Systems
MAC DONALD Intuition to Implementation: Communicating About Systems Towards a Language of Structure in Data Processing System Development
MCMENAMIN AND PALMER Essential System Analysis
ORR Structured Systems Development
PAGE-JONES Practical Guide to Structured Systems Design, 2/E
PETERS Software Design: Methods and Techniques
RUHL The Programmer’s Survival Guide: Career Strategies for Computer Professionals
SHLAER AND MELLOR Object-Oriented Systems Analysis: Modeling the World in Data
THOMSETT People and Project Management
TOIGO Disaster Recovery Planning: Managing Risk and Catastrophe in Information Systems
VESELY Strategic Data Management: The Key to Corporate Competitiveness
WARD Systems Development Without Pain: A User’s Guide to Modeling Organizational Patterns
WARD AND MELLOR Structured Development for Real-Time Systems, Volumes I, II, and III
WEAVER Using the Structured Techniques: A Case Study
WEINBERG Structured Analysis
YOURDON Classics in Software Engineering
YOURDON Managing Structured Techniques, 3/E
YOURDON Managing the System Life Cycle, 2/E
YOURDON Modern Structured Analysis
YOURDON Structured Walkthroughs, 4/E
YOURDON Techniques of Program Structure and Design
YOURDON Writing of the Revolution: Selected Readings on Software Engineering
ZAHN C Notes: A Guide to C Programming
Agents of Change
Managing the Introduction of Automated Tools
YOURDON PRESS
A Pearson Education Company
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
BOULDIN, BARBARA M.
Agents of change.
Bibliography: p. 188
Includes index.
1. Management—Data processing. 2. Technological
innovations—Management. 3. Organizational change.
I. Title.
HD30.2.B68 1989 658.05 88-31635
ISBN 0-13-018508-6
Editorial/production supervision
and interior design: Rob DeGeorge
Cover design: Ben Santora
Manufacturing buyer: Mary Ann Gloriande
©1989 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
A Pearson Education Company
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in bulk quantities. For more information, write:
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Prentice-Hall, Inc.
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A Pearson Education Company
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN 0-13-018508-6
Prentice-Hall International (UK) Limited, London
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This book is dedicated
to Dorr, Adam,
and Karen.
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VI
NORTON UTILITIES (ADVANCED)
SPQR/20
Contents
Mechanization of the Mechanizers
Difficulty of a Technology Transfer
The Life Cycle of Implementing Change
Select a Target Area for Improvement
Quantify the Projected Benefits
2 Selecting the Candidate Products
The Right Product for the Right Organization
Product Procurement and Training
4 Presenting the Product to Upper Management
The Importance of Management Commitment
5 Presenting The Product to Your Users
Demonstrations in Their Own Terms
Presentations—The Complex Skill of Speaking
Sincerity and Creativity—The Marketing Cornerstones
Sustain What Is Already Productive
Working within the Organizational Structure
Strategic and Tactical Planning—An Example
Detailed Plans—How to Develop Them
9 Standards and Naming Conventions
Classification Facilitates Analysis
Negative Attitudes toward Standards
Provide Opportunities, Not Edicts
Never Set a Standard before Its Time
Meet Each User on His Own Ground
11 Finishing The Implementation: Following Up
Preparing Auxiliary User Documentation
12 Finishing The Implementation: Averting Disasters
The Reorganization: A Slice of Reality
Dealing with Your New Management
Modularity and Continuity of Approach
13 Finishing The Implementation: Measuring The Benefit
Problems Associated with Measuring
Utilizing Tools to Measure Quality
14 Finishing The Implementation: Handling Success
Interacting with Corporate Groups
Foreword
For the past ten years, the data processing profession has been slowly learning that technology transfer is one of its biggest problems—if not the biggest problem. We have lived through a bewildering array of new hardware and software technologies, most of which are supposed to increase the productivity of the average programmer and systems analyst by a factor of ten or more; yet these technologies are not even being used in many DIP organizations and have achieved only modest results in many others.
Does this mean that fourth generation languages, Computer-Aided Software Engineering, structured analysis, and dozens of other technologies don’t work. No, it just means that it’s difficult to get people—even programmers and analysts, who work with leading-edge hardware technology every day—to make major changes in the way they do their work. We should not be surprised by this; the same technology transfer problem has occurred in other fields, too. It took the military 75 years to go from the technology of muskets to the technology of rifles, so we should not be too discouraged to learn that it takes 14–15 years (according to a report presented in a recent software engineering conference) for new software technologies to be accepted.
Why does it take so long? Because 80% of the staff is working on maintenance projects and has no opportunity to use new technologies of any kind. Because the rest of the staff is working on a “crunch mode” project and they’re too far behind schedule to take the time to learn a new method of developing systems. Because the person who introduced the new technology has little or no polictical clout and even less communication skills. Because nobody has presented senior management with any convincing evidence about the economics of the new technology.
Now that everyone is beginning to appreciate the magnitude of the technology transfer problem, an obvious question is being raised: “How do we solve the technology transfer problem? How can we actually implement a new technology in our organization?” For a consultant in the DP field, such a question is an open invitation for an extended consulting assignment; but for a long time, there was little or nothing written about the subject of technology transfer.
And that’s where Barbara Bouldin’s book, Agents of Change, comes in. Ms. Bouldin has not only talked about successfully implementing technology transfer, she’s done it. And she’s done it not just for a trivial piece of technology in a small company where all of the programmers could fit in one conference room. She has done it with CASE tools and data modeling methodologies in the largest company in the country, AT&T. This is a woman who knows what she is talking about; if you’re trying to implement structured analysis, or JAD, or some new prototyping approach in your company, you had better read what she has to say.
You’ll find, as you read through this book, that Ms. Bouldin deals almost exclusively with “people issues.” She explains how to deal with personalities: the personalities of your bosses, and their bosses; the personalities of your peers; the personalities of the “users” to whom you are introducing this new technology; and the personalities of the other members of your team. (There is an implicit assumption that it takes more than one person to implement a new technology in a large organization and the author assumes that you, the reader, are the manager of a team of people charged with the responsibility of implementing a new technology.)
Much of what Ms. Bouldin has to say in Agents of Change may seem like common sense; but it isn’t really common sense until after you have read it. If you are at all honest, you will have to admit to yourself as you read through each chapter, “Well, that’s obvious… but I wonder if I would have thought of it on my own in time to deal with the situation?” Here’s an example: Ms. Bouldin points out that you should be prepared, in the midst of installing your new technology, for a major management reorganization. The reorganization will probably not have anything to do with the work you are doing (indeed, it probably won’t be attributable to anything; reorganizations are just a random but necessary occurrence in.large organizations). However, it means that you will have a new boss to deal with, as well as the possibility of several new faces at your level and at your boss’s level. All of those people whom you had carefully “sold” on the benefits of your new technology and your plan for implementing it, may need to be sold again.
Perhaps the best evidence of the author’s practical experience in this field is her emphasis—four chapters of material—on “finishing up” the implementation of a new technology. These chapters not only deal with the possibilities of disasters but also advise the reader on how to handle success. What do you do after you have successfully implemented a new technology in your DP organization? It’s a question that most technical people haven’t even considered. Ms. Bouldin has not only thought about it but has lived through it.
People resist change. Even data processing people resist change. Ironically, sometimes they resist change even more than the end-users to whom they constantly introduce new systems. If you are going to introduce major changes in your DP organization, you’re going to need a lot of help and advice. I can’t think of a better way to begin than by reading Barbara Bouldin’s Agents of Change.
Ed Yourdon
Preface
The data processing industry is about to undergo a significant transformation. Consider the fact that a steadily increasing share of the corporate budget is dedicated to data processing and the major portion of that money is directed to production and maintenance. Many top executives, in small as well as large corporations, have begun clamoring for their DP managers to improve productivity. For survival in a field that will soon be unrecognizable, it is essential for professionals to be able to introduce new technologies to their organizations.
This is not a book about heroics or superstars with advanced degrees in computer science who are on a glamorous development project; it is about large IS organizations enhancing and maintaining systems that have been in production for many years. It is about real people who are trying to survive the pressures that accompany such an environment. They are managers, project leaders, systems analysts, and programmers who are no longer willing to suffer through the cost of the successes, not to mention the horrors of the failures. As the industry comes to maturity, so do the professionals that comprise it, and they have begun to search for solutions.
During previous decades, leaders in the industry developed techniques (such as structured systems analysis) that would enable us to produce quality software. It was, however, very difficult to apply these techniques successfully under the time constraints of typical systems development. But during the last several years we have witnessed the development of tools like CASE that mechanize these techniques. What has occurred with the advent of these tools is that it is now possible for us to utilize the techniques that produce quality software.
However, although techniques and technology are now available, the limiting factor is people themselves; there is a natural tendency on the part of all humans to resist change. This book describes a multitude of forms this resistance can assume and offers practical advice on overcoming the resistance painlessly. Moreover, there is a notable lack of practical and immediately applicable information available on the subject of introducing new technology. Theories abound in copious volumes which no person currently active in the field of data processing has the time or energy to read.
This book offers one-stop-shopping for managing the entire process of implementing automated tools. A wide variety of topics is covered in a manner that is conversational and fun! The intent is that Agents of Change will supply the required information in an enjoyable manner. Then overworked people may actually find time and energy to read and learn about techniques they can apply the next day on the job.
Barbara Bouldin
Acknowledgments
To my husband, Dorr Bouldin, who believed in me always. He freely gave his support during the writing of Agents of Change as well as unstinting assistance during its production.
To my children, Karen and Adam Butler, and my stepson, Matthew Bouldin, for gracefully surviving my distraction while I wrote this book.
To my parents, Alma and Herbert Kaufman, who indisputably had the greatest influence on my development into an agent of change.
To my beloved grandmother, Till Kaufman, a self-made business woman, who inspired me with her spirit and courage to set seemingly impossible goals.
To Ed Yourdon, who not only provided considerable advice but also faith that I could undertake the writing of a book.
To Tom Cooper, who was not only my boss and mentor but will undoubtedly recognize many of the ideas and insights.
To Dale Smith, who when he was my boss transformed me from an analyst to a manager.
To Malcolm Marks, who showed me the true way that people learn and change.
To Peter Brennan, who provided opportunities and the confidence to take them.
To all the people who offered support in a variety of ways—from providing software to encouragement; but especially to: Gertrude Scott, Brenda Rogers, Tom Finneran, Loraine and Warner Bouldin, Berniece Alexander, Carol and Tom Mussel, Chris Murray, Carol Czuko, Chris Grejtak, and Jesse Solodar.
To all the people who provided input and commentary as this book evolved; but especially to Mary Craven, Karen Way, Jack Kearns, Jerry Grochow, Bill Bruyn, Sylvia Kirkland, Fran Collier, and George Dorer.
To all the people at Prentice-Hall who helped me take a series of word processor files and produce a book; but especially to Ed Moura, Rob DeGeorge, Jeannine Ciliotta, and Charles Decker.
To all my friends at AT&T and Bell Laboratories, with whom I have worked through the years; but especially to Mary Silver, who supported me throughout the writing of this book and was also my first fellow change agent.