Interview with a DBO

The scene is a conference room in a large corporation which was the only space available to me to interview my subject.  We sat at the end of a long conference table with a large window overlooking a courtyard in the middle of a campus-like setting.  Having gotten the initial introductions over with and with the prerequisite coffee mugs in place the interview began.  I am a researcher lucky enough to have a contact inside the Print Inc Company where, for reasons yet unknown to me, they have conquered “Change”.  I am here to find out how they accomplished this. Me:  "John, good morning." John:  "Good morning." Me:  "I have been lucky enough to be able to sit here and interview you and to find out more about how your company has managed to tackle and control change.  Please, just relax, we have all the time we need and let me start off by asking how ... " John:  " Simple, DBOs." Me:  "DBOs?" John:  "Yes, DBOs also known as Dynamic Business Objects." Me:  "Please explain!" John:  "Sure, DBOs brought about the necessary modification to our internal structure so as to allow us to become flexible enough to ride each of the changes which came our way.  We basically became DBOs in order to do so." Me:  "When did you realize that you had become a DBO?" John:  "Well it doesn't just happen overnight.  After a period of continuous incremental changes and being briefed on where we were headed, I looked up and realized that I had become a DBO.  Actually a part of a DBO or member if you will." Me:  "Just how does that feel?" John:  "Well, it's gradual so you begin to see the changes taking place.  As the days pass you develop a new sense of direction is taking place and the entire supporting infrastructure falls into place and it just happens.  Of course that's an oversimplification.  We were allowed to question and our initial hesitancy was tolerated but we managed a funeral over the old ways once we realized that it was time." Me:  "Well from what I remember of your old structure, you had evolved from the functional organizational mode and started taking on a matrix look as a means to set up a horizontally oriented company." John:  "Yes that's right.  We headed in that direction and to a certain extent it was an improvement over the old vertical silo way of doing things because now we became members of teams and communications increased where they were minimal before." Me:  "Certainly this was an improvement but from the way you said it I guess I'm hearing that there were some reservations about the matrix construct." John:  "Yes, you're right.  While we felt like members of a team and were working together, we were still bound to the vertical organizations." Me:  "Oh, in what way?" John:  "Well, as short as I can say it, we still received our reviews from our functional heads of the departments and not the program manager who was our team leader.  This made it tough when we had to decide to buck the trend and do what was perhaps politically incorrect and perhaps suffer job wise for it." Me:  "That certainly is a speed bump when it comes to job performance.  How did things evolve from there?" John:  "That's the amazing part.  You know in the past, upper management would throw programs at us reflecting the current fads creeping through the management ranks.  As always we would ride these out because they tend to have a very short shelf life.  Then an unusual thing happened and I have to give some credit to the consultants that the brass hired.  They seemed to have their collective acts together and were the ones setting off this program.  Well, upper management came out and continued the support of the program and this was all that was needed to complete the transformation." Me:  "Please go on." John:  "Well management walked the talk.  All of a sudden the VP heads of the departments were reassigned other duties and the middle management level became shirt sleeve leaders instead of paper pushers and finally the crowning moment.  The program managers were given ownership of the horizontal processes assigned them.  This of course meant that the program managers, the ones familiar with our work, became our reviewers so that we basically went back to having a single point of focus." Me:  "This kind of simplifies life doesn't it?" John:  "Yep" Me:  "Well, that certainly makes for an interesting story but I'm sure there's a lot more to it than what you have just mentioned.  Please let us in on some of the certainly fascinating aspects of this amazing transformation." John:  "Sure.  I guess one of the important differences was that the communications even became better after the old functional managers went away.  Now we were taking the formal contracts and breaking them down into pieces just like we would do for Work Breakdown Structures." Me:  "Hmmm.  I know something about those.  They help you to understand the different parts of a task that have to be performed so that you can more accurately gauge the time it will take to do a project.  Right?" John:  "Yes.  That's basically what it is all about.  This way the program manager can negotiate with each of the DBOs that work for him as though they are contractors and he is the subcontractor working for a higher authority.  It also helps them understand whether or not they will need additional resources beyond those currently available to them so that they can adequately prepare the action plans." Me:  "You mentioned the other DBOs.  How many are there?" John:  "It's not so much a matter of how many there are, but more that there is basically a different DBO where there were different functional groups in the past.  For example, there's an Engineering DBO, Manufacturing DBO, etc." Me:  "But if this is true, what happens when the project is done?  Where do you go next?" John:  "Good question.  I haven't had to worry about that reality just yet.  It has always appeared that there is always another project to be done.  If a company stops development it would go out of business.  If we find ourselves temporarily out of a project, we are encouraged to get training in other areas and skills which the company has an ongoing need for.  This happens through the training department.  I would imagine that if no other projects appear then we might be facing a decrease in staffing as you might expect would happen in a traditional company." Me:  "Doesn't that make you feel uncomfortable?" John:  "After the past few years?  No.  It has become a reality of life.  I will tell you however that I feel much more comfortable in this environment than in any other because it makes good sense and we are able to turn on a dime." Me:  "I know that we could spend more time on this subject but what I would like to do is to go away and come back at a later time to follow up with you on other issues with regards to DBOs.  I would really look forward to that." John:  "Anytime you want. 2009-02-20T21:23:13Z

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interview-with-a-dbo

2009-02-22T18:57:44Z

To survive in todays marketplace corporations must become more adaptable. This is where DBOs shine.

Interview with a DBO

2009-02-24T09:49:31Z