Listen to the latest articles and insights from our experts.
Listen to the latest articles and insights from our experts.
- The most successful software product developers employ a consultative approach at every stage of their work, but when companies see product developers as mere rank-and-file team members, they exclude them from this process. This runs counter to the core values of Agile methodology.
- For software development to achieve business goals effectively, every member of the software development team should take part in the consultative process, so they can collaboratively define the scope and contribute their expertise.
- By prioritizing business skills like communication, business acumen, and leadership, engineers can work more effectively and directly with clients.
- Tricon Infotech has pioneered this approach over the past twenty-seven years through its Service Select program, which has helped it deliver more successful and efficient results, retain happy clients, and nurture a pipeline of skilled employees.
In today’s rapidly changing technology world, clients increasingly rely on their software partners to do more than simply deliver products to their specifications, but to study their requirements and offer solutions that are aligned with business goals. The most successful software product developers therefore employ a consultative approach at every stage of their work.
In practice, though, this consultative approach ends with the most senior leader of the software development teams. This role is the only one to communicate directly with clients, present all the team’s work, and receive feedback and directives. With the other team members left to interpret this information second-hand, they are reduced to mere order-takers. It also means that in an organization with teams of 6 to 12 developers, 80 to 90 percent of the engineers are completely excluded from the consultative process.
Moreover, by emphasizing processes rather than individuals’ expertise, interactions with clients, and collaboration within the team, this common approach runs counter to the Agile Software Development method that so many software development companies profess to practice.
For software development to be properly aligned with a client’s business goals, every member of the software development team should be part of the consultative process. This means giving engineers the complete and proper context for their work, the opportunity to communicate directly with clients and stakeholders, and the responsibility to deliver successful solutions.
Tricon Infotech has experienced this firsthand, through Service Select, a new way of building and deploying teams. This model recognizes and develops business acumen and communication skills among engineers, making them well-suited to communicate directly with clients. This in turn allows them to better understand client requirements and propose more effective solutions.
In other words, instead of simply asking engineers to take orders, we ask them to take ownership.
Many organizations might resist this because they believe engineers know how to code, not how to communicate.
At Tricon Infotech, we’ve found that the most successful engineers can do much more than just write code. In addition to helping them expand their technical knowledge, we prioritize business skills like communication, initiative, leadership, and personal confidence. By evaluating, developing, and tracking these skills, we can assemble teams in which every member is perfectly capable of communicating with, presenting to, and working with clients.
We expect every member of a new team, from the Leader to the Engineers to the junior Associate, to possess and deploy these skills, regardless of age, experience, or title. After each two week-sprint, each team member presents their work to the client, including giving a demonstration of what they have built and receiving direct feedback. This allows them to better understand the clients’ needs, propose more appropriate solutions based on their expertise, and reduce miscommunications.
In the twenty years that we have been refining this model, the Service Select approach has proven to be successful for all stakeholders.
Clients benefit from faster, more accurate releases that solve their business challenges, introduce new efficiencies, and deliver faster returns. The efficiencies gained by the clear, two-way communication reduce mistakes and expense. Also, knowing the developers personally gives clients greater confidence in the process and progress alike.
The engineers discover new challenges and growth opportunities and realize professional success through developing more effective products. Even new Associates get the chance to learn under more experienced professionals and develop their client-facing communication skills.
Lastly, Tricon Infotech benefits through improved retention of both clients and employees, and through an effective pipeline of skilled talent moving up through its ranks. As client engagements grow and it becomes necessary to create additional teams, the members are well-positioned to move up and run teams of their own without interruption
Tricon Infotech’s Service Select consultative approach has allowed every employee to help guide our clients as the software industry has evolved from local to cloud-based systems and now to AI. Given the rapid pace of technological change and the interconnectedness of solutions, software companies across industry verticals would be wise to adopt a similar solution.
All it requires is empowering engineers to understand the complete picture and work directly with clients, and then trusting them to take ownership and deliver results. In doing so, companies can fully practice the Agile values that they seek to implement.
