Tuesday February 22, 2005

The hamburger of rational process

One of the many enjoyable things about the troubleshooting method job I have with Sun at the moment is talking to our customers about the use of a rational process in handling their issues.

The challenge is to get the decision makers in companies to understand that it's the installation of a capability, not just a training course. With a training course you go, learn the new stuff and use it straight away, and for technical training on a product you've been assigned to support you have “no choice”, the reinforcement of the training is built into the job.

With a thought process an attendee has two choices, either to stay the same or use the new process, and if rational process installation is considered to be training the attendees stay the same. A long time ago I drew this hamburger to illustrate to management in Sun that while the training may be considered the meat in this offering, without the lettuce, tomato, mushroom and bun it's all a pile of greasy sausage.