Wednesday October 27, 2004

JDS Preview and change control

So, No jury duty. They didn't need me. I just made two phone calls and I am done with my civic duty for at least a year.

We had our JDS Preview Testing status review yesterday and came out with a list of action items. It turns out we need to get a couple more reviews and approvals for a change that impacts this many people so it looks like the change will not happen Monday. Maybe next Thursday or a week from Monday.. Ah well, I can't really fault following a proper change review process. Just a quick story about the need for change control.

Many, many, years ago I was managing the technical support organization at Digital Research, the micro computer pioneer, in Pacific Grove. We were supporting a product called CBasic Compiler and started getting calls from users who couldn't even get the compiler to load. We were stumped so the tech support guy called the product marketing manager. (Tom Byers who I think is now a professor at Stanford) Anyway it turned out that they had just made one small patch to the binary code on the master disk. No need to test such a small change or for that matter even mention the change to anybody. They had changed the company name to Digital Research. It was just one little change to some text.... But it wiped out an important register at the beginning of the file and rendered the compiler unusable. But it was just one little change. :-)

Tuesday October 26, 2004

iWork, Data and the Survey

The JDS Preview Testing status review meeting is this afternoon. Assuming that I don't have to report for jury duty this afternoon I'll be there when we make the go/no go decision.

On the iWork front, we have just kicked off the annual iWork survey. Of course iWork is Sun's internal program to provide a work environment that supports the way people work. This is the seventh year we have done the survey. It allows us to understand employee satisfaction with iWork and how we can improve it. Anyone at Sun can look at the results and we can identify what factors are working and what needs improvement. It also allows us to review satisfaction by site and by job classification and then select initiatives that address any problem areas.

An example of improvements that have come out of the survey is printing. For several years the survey has said that people were unsatisfied with the ability to print when they were not in their anchor location. As a result this year we developed a tool called LPSelect. It is a graphical user interface tool that assists users in editing their Solaris printer configuration file ($HOME/.printers). This tool allows you to add an existing LDAP printer to your printer configuration file, change your default printer (no log out/in required), or add a printer not currently in the LDAP database. We are anxiously awaiting this years results to see if our printing score goes up.

Last year overall results suggested that employees who feel that they can exercise their personal choice tend to be significantly more satisfied and employees who use other iWork locations over a threshold level (at least 10% of the time) also tend to be significantly more satisfied. As a result of these findings we continue to build more choice into the program while still addressing managers concerns.

Another advantage of the survey that might not be self evident is how important it is to have data to prove the value of a program like iWork. Over the years there have been lots of skeptics about the value of iWork. Instead of having heated discussions about people's opinions of whether iWork works for Sun we are able to point to data about the program and its impact on Sun and on employees. Data is valuable.

Monday October 25, 2004

Java Desktop System Preview is coming

As I said in an earlier post Java Desktop System (JDS) Preview is a version of Gnome designed to look like the Java Desktop System for Solaris. Today the JDS Preview conversion is being tested at a big site up in Oregon. Assuming all goes as planned it looks like starting next Monday, November 1 all current Gnome users will be converting to JDS Preview.

We've done lots of work preparing people for the change. of course there is always more that the change acceptance team can do. This will be a busy week. I'd like to think no one will be surprised by the change but we shall see. Stay tuned

Thursday October 21, 2004

iWork and Birthdays

Today is my youngest daughter's 20th birthday!! Happy Birthday Shan!! How time flies.

It was ten years ago that Sun's Workplace Resources organization began to develop our iWork program. The team recognized that rather than supporting the way people work, traditional workplace, management and technology offerings were ineffective for many employees. The nature of knowledge work, which relies on thought and information rather than muscle and machinery, allows for greater freedom for individuals to choose where and when to work, but only if the work infrastructure accommodates such a choice.

We've come a long way since the first flexible offices 10 years ago. Currently there are over 90 flexible office locations around the world and the flexibility that iWork provides is consistently listed as one of the reasons that employees like working at Sun.

We still have room to improve iWork though. We have to make sure that the technology to support iWork is easy to use and readily available. SunRay at home and JDS on laptops will do that. We just have to get them out there with absolutely awesome ease of use, quality and support. We have to expand the flexible infrastructure and continue to enhance and evolve it so it truly reflects the way everyone works, especially people who are doing the innovation, collaboration and creative work that is key to Sun's future. And we have to provide managers with the skills, tools and support required to excel at "remote management". We need to continue to build management acceptance of and support for iWork.

I really believe in this stuff. I don't know what I'll be doing in ten years when Shan turns 30 and iWork turns 20 but I am very confident that iWork will be thriving. We are creating the future of Work!

Thanks to David Rush for allowing me to plagiarize a great white paper he recently wrote on iWork

Monday October 18, 2004

The View from outside of Headquarters

My youngest daughter is studying and living in Paris right now as a part of the Sweet Briar Junior Year in France Program. Living in France has been a great experience for her. Her French is getting much better and I really believe that getting a perspective on the U.S. from outside the U.S. is very important.

No matter how hard I try to not have a California-centric view of the world I always do. It can't be helped. I have to remind myself that getting input from outside of headquarters is so important. It always improves the quality of my work. I know it. I've seen it again and again but it is so easy to think you already know the answer.

I've been calling VPs to tell them about JDS preview and JDS on their laptops. Just today I learned that our European staff get their laptops in a different way than we in the U.S.do and I got a totally different slant on our vision statement from a service guy in Canada. Thanks!

Friday October 15, 2004

JDS - Change Acceptance Review

We had our third Change Acceptance Review (CAR) meeting for JDS @ Sun this afternoon. There are several things that are cool about these meetings.

The first cool thing is that these meeting are not the kind of review / tollgate that you dread like you dread an exam you have to pass. One of the key tenets of the Sun Change Acceptance Process is Focused Leadership. So the CAR meeting allows us to bring the two VP's who are our sponsors up to date but more important it allows us to ask them for help and guidance with a couple of the issues we are facing. The CAR allows the focused leadership to remind the team of their support and it allows us to use them to help get things done. (Thanks Eric and Linda!!)

The second cool thing is that the CAR allows us to get out of the trenches for a bit and focus on the big picture. Even though we still have an enormous amount of work in front of us we actually have made a lot of progress. Putting together the presentation made me feel really good about what we have accomplished.

The third cool thing is that it reminds me what a great team I have and how much a focused team can accomplish. Thanks Team!

That's the latest chapter in the continuing story of our drive to have everyone at Sun running JDS everywhere. It represents Sun's Future! Stay tuned :-)

Wednesday October 13, 2004

JDS Change Acceptance

The Java Desktop System (JDS) Change Acceptance Team is working on two big changes.

The first change is the change to running JDS on our desktops. JDS for Solaris doesn't ship until next year but in the meantime we want everyone to become familiar with what JDS on the desktop will look like. So, we are releasing a version of Gnome that we call JDS Preview because it looks like the JDS Desktop. The conversion to JDS Preview is being tested right now. I mentioned that we were starting testing last week. We found a couple of problems in our conversion scripts but I think we are on track to release JDS Preview world wide very soon. The CAP team and the communication team are working hard to make sure people know it is coming and have opportunities to learn about it and ask questions about it. Most people I talk to are eager to start using it although I have had a couple of people ask what JDS stands for! I guess that just proves we are talking to the right people.

The second JDS related change is the change to JDS on laptops. We make available an iWork Client toolkit that includes all the software I need to use a laptop to do Sun work. The toolkit includes everything from StarOffice and Mozilla to a VPN client and Teledesk software that allows me to manage my phone calls. In the next few weeks we will be releasing the JDS iWork Client Toolkit. Finally everyone at Sun will be able to use JDS whether they are on a SunRay or a laptop. It really is great to use the same environment everywhere.

The JDSiWork Client is about ready to ship. The only issue we are still working out is how support will work. We have found out through experience that a lack of good support is a significant barrier to people's ability to work remotely and the abiltiy to be effective remotely is something people really want. It is one of the reasons that iWork is so successful. I believe we not only have to have top quality support for the JDS iWork toolkit components but we also have a service that will load people's machine with the software for them. The support has to be as great as the product itself. We want everyone to be very successful using JDS!

Thursday October 07, 2004

JDS Change Acceptance Lessons Learned - Part 2

In an earlier Blog entry I started to talk about the lessons I have learned from the project I am leading to build acceptance across Sun for the Java Desktop System. Tonight IT Operations will begin to install the JDS Preview on our SunRay servers. We are testing a few sites this week and next and then the following week we are planning to install it on SunRay servers world wide. That's thousands of desktops. CDE users will be impacted by the change when we change the default desktop to JDS Preview a few weeks after that.

Building acceptance for this change is a big project but we are making progress. Here are a few more of the things I have learned as we go through his process. The first 5 are described in my blog entry.

1. It is hard work
2. It is about the conversation
3. Don't assume that people understand the product and the details of the change
4. Segment the user base
5. Regular Change Acceptance Reviews are imperative.
6. The work of change isn't about the tools. Just as using the tools in Norm Abram's workshop isn't the same as building a piece of furniture so using the powerful set of tools provided as a part of our Sun Change Acceptance Process isn't the same as doing the change work necessary to move people from resisters to active supporters. The kind of work we have been doing includes things like getting JDS Preview running in our Global Resolution Center, Meeting with Sys admins to understand their concerns about the change, and calling executives to make sure they know what is happening and are talking to their people about it.
7. Understand the behavior you want. We are asking our users what category they consider themselves in. An active supporter is running JDS on their laptop and JDS preview on their SunRay, they are urging others to convert. A passive supporter agrees with JDS in principal but is skeptical about whether it will work for them. The neutral and negative categories are fairly self evident. It helped our team a lot to understand exactly what we were trying to achieve - We are trying to move people to active supporters . It also helps with getting people to change when we can tell them what we want them to do and ask them why they are not an active supporter.

   That is enough for today – More another day

   (2004-10-07 17:27:11.0) Permalink
   Wednesday October 06, 2004

   This is Fun

   I'm such a Geek!
   I just found a link in another blog to one of my earlier blog entries about iWork! I almost went out into the hall and yelled "YES!" :-) The only problem is that most of my team isn't working here today and I didn't have anyone to share my excitement with!! So I am writing here instead. I'm new to blogs but I am thoroughly enjoying the learning experience. When I tell a lot of people I've started a blog they are too polite to say it but I can just see them thinking ...... "Why would she want to do that?" Finding that link to my blog today was like the high I felt when I compiled my first Fortran program in my first Computer Science class back in 1971, or it was like the fun I had in 1976 converting the prediction module of an air traffic control program from 360 assembly language to a high level language that I can't even remember the name of now or it was like when I used my first Apple 2c or when I first used Netscape to access Amazon.com. I just love it!

   So I've shared by big smile with all of you. I guess I had better get back to JDS Change Acceptance. I just talked to the head of our Global Resolution Center about how he can help and now I had better get some emails out about the JDS Preview Beta test that starts this week. We are having question and answer con calls with the Beta test system admins around the world today. One at 8am and one at 5pm California time. This CAP stuff really is kind of is fun too.

   (2004-10-06 10:45:18.0) Permalink
   Tuesday October 05, 2004

   Between a Rock and a Hard place at Book Shop Santa Cruz

   My oldest daughter and I went to Book Shop Santa Cruz last night to hear Aron Ralston talk. He spent about an hour telling his story. Not only is the story amazing but the way he told it was funny and sad and compelling and inspiring. If you ever get a chance to hear him I highly recommend it. His book is Between A Rock and A Hard Place I bought it but since there were so many people there I didn't stay to have it signed.

   (2004-10-05 09:58:18.0) Permalink
   Monday October 04, 2004

   Change Acceptance Lessons Learned

   As my JDS CAP (Java Desktop System Change Acceptance Process) team takes Sun through the change to Everyone Running JDS Everywhere I am trying to keep a list of lessons learned. Sun has a lot of expertise in Change Acceptance and I would like to be able to help our customers who are changing to JDS by apply what I am learning in our JDS CAP effort. I am still struggling some with how to effectively do this but the lessons learned is a first step. If people have other ideas I would love to hear them.

   CAP Lessons Learned
   
   1. " It is Hard work ". On the surface it seems easy. But building real acceptance requires a lot of the hard work of change acceptance i.e. talking to people., listening, addressing areas of resistance, and continually going back over what you have already done. You can't just send out an email and then check off that you have built a shared understanding of the vision or the roadmap for getting there. And you have to address the issues that people bring up you can't just make a list of them.

   2. It is about the conversation Change acceptance is about two way conversations it is about listening to what people are concerned about. It is about asking for input. Change acceptance work can't be done by sending out emails. You have to talk to people and a lot of people are very hesitant to talk to people they don't know.

   3. Don't assume that people understand the product and the details of the change. Our JDS CAP team spent a lot of time asking questions and going over what exactly was changing. I'm still learning and people's questions have helped a lot. The team members were very unwilling to go out and seek input until they had a concrete understanding of what is happening and in fact they required a presentation they could use in the discussions. (With their help I created one.)

   4. Segment the user base When your goal is build acceptance of a change that impacts several thousand people you have to be able to figure out a place to start. We decided to focus on groups that are key influencers within the company. (System administrators, Sales engineers, Resolution Center staff, IT and Executives and their Administrators.) the change acceptance work for each of these groups is different.
   5. Regular Change Acceptance Reviews are imperative. Not only do they allow us to keep our sponsors informed but they also help the team to experience the focused leadership. One other advantage of Change Acceptance reviews is that they impose discipline. When we know that our progress in moving our key stakeholder groups to active acceptance will be reviewed it helps build a sense of urgency.

      I have several more but that is enough for now

      (2004-10-04 13:17:22.0) Permalink Comments [2]

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