This coming Monday, we will be launching new service desk software at my company. The launch represents about 18 months and literally thousands of hours of effort by the IT department that I am a member of. I can honestly say that it is the single largest project I have every been directly involved in. I almost cannot count all of the things I learned about enterprise software, planning, proposals, evaluations, consulting, support, project management, and on, and on. It has been a long and rough road that was longer and rougher than anyone imagined at the beginning.
The problem is that I want it to be perfect and for everyone to be thoroughly pleased with it. We thought long and hard about what would make a good system. We interviewed our users, we tested, we tweaked, we debated, and, in some cases, outright argued, but, most of all, we really tried to work towards what we felt was best for our users and our business. At some point, however, you have to “ship it.” Perfect is the enemy of good enough. Some would argue that if it isn’t perfect, it isn’t done. The reality is that rarely do you have the resources (usually time and money) to achieve that ideal. We will be launching with our best effort 1.0 and fully plan to continue to improve the service in the weeks and months ahead and to listen to the feedback from the users.
The part that really concerns me is the “double jeopardy” my team is in. If it isn’t well received, that will reflect poorly on our larger IT organization (which includes us). If it performs poorly, that reflects badly on my team specifically as we are responsible for the system itself (the servers). As anyone in the software/IT business knows, the variables are plenty when it comes to performance and you don’t always have control over all of them. Some performance problems are inherent in the software and we can’t change them. Our users don’t know and don’t care about that. Is that a pride problem that’s making me worry? I don’t think so but it still nags at me.
Change is tough and most everyone deals with it less-than-perfectly. No matter what happens on Monday, I know that there will be a number of people that will complain if for no other reason than because it’s “different.” I have a thick enough skin to take that. I’m a people pleaser and since I see the imperfections, I worry that others won’t be able to look past them.
Sorry for the rambling and the disjointed thoughts, but it’s my blog and my prerogative. G’night.

A week ago today, I landed at Heathrow airport in London, U.K. for a series of meetings with our European and Japanese counterparts. The meetings went quite well and I was looking forward to going back home on Friday. Unfortunately, events conspired against me. On Thursday, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland erupted and sent plumes of ash into the air which drifted SE over UK airspace (and beyond). As the ash poses a safety issues for the airliners, they have been grounded.

My original Friday flight was canceled and while I was able to extend my hotel and move my flight to Monday (tomorrow) that has just been canceled. Currently, I’m on hold with my company’s travel agent to determine what options exist. One possibility may be to take a train to mainland Europe (Chunnel to Paris, probably) and then a train to Spain or elsewhere that still have operating airports.

I had fun yesterday visiting the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. I enjoyed it as I was just going to be here for a few days more. With no significant change in the conditions of the volcano or the airflow, there’s a chance airports could remain closed for an additional week or more. What was a inconvenience is now becoming a real problem.

I’ll try to keep my Twitter feed (public WiFi access permitting) updated with major developments.

I’ve been a manager now for little more than a year. It has been the most interesting and challenging experiences of my career. However, I often worry about whether I’m doing the right thing or not for my employees, my manager, and my company. I know that some things I do well, and other things I do poorly but what really concerns me if the things I do well are the unimportant ones (and vice versa).

I’ve said it before, but I’ll state it again for the record; I have the best team I could hope for. They are truly skilled, professional, and are ultimately focused on providing the best solutions for our customers. Staying out of their way is probably one of the best things I can do.