Challenge:

I work as an Information Technology solution architect and work closely with my organization’s clients.  One of organization’s clients has reached to us with an infrastructure technology problem and asked us  to share a solution response in a power point presentation. This problem’s solution involves different  technology towers (close to 10 different technologies) and it is very rare to find a person who has a  complete knowledge on the end to end solution. I, as a solution architect, have an understanding of  basic end to end solution but it requires bringing together experts from respective technology towers to  complete the solution response. The challenge here is that none of the respective technology experts  will have the required understanding of other technologies and it is impossible to arrive at the solution  without the right integration

Selection:

I have selected the visualization tool(Strawman chart) as I have a basic understanding of the end to end  solution. Representing this in visual charts will help in prompting the technology experts in the right  direction.

Application:

I have prepared an initial chart on the entire process flow using the work flow concept model i.e how the  different technology towers are connected, what are the inputs to each technology tower, how does the  handover happens between each technology tower and what are the skills of the people required at  each technology tower. I have created this initial chart with my basic understanding of the solution,  referring to internal knowledge portals and the client landscape (as I work very close with the clients)  and kept this chart very simple so that the respective technology tower experts can understand what is  happening in other technology towers. I have created this chart on a power point template using icons  and symbols. As the team is scattered across the world and it is not possible to bring them together into  one room, I have shared the PowerPoint template with the team and invited them to an online meeting.  For the meeting, I have invited two technology experts from each technology

Before joining the meeting, I have asked the respective technology experts to go through the initial chart  created and list down on a text box a) What changes and improvements they will make in the process  flow graphic to make the solution more feasible and applicable to the client landscape. b) What insights  and concerns do they have about other technology towers? During the meeting, the text box notes from  each expert has been shared with the entire team and discussed till conclusion. Post the meeting, I have  again asked technology experts to list down on a text box for any improvements and changes to the  graphic. Of this list from various technology experts, I have picked up the commonalities between  different technology experts based on the agreement of the team and the feasibility of the solution. I  have then created a revised chart with a complete end to end solution of the entire process flow.

Insights:

From this approach I have observed few things: A)Creating an initial basic graphic on the entire process  and sharing with the experts has helped them in understanding the entire process and different aspects  of the process and thus helped in setting the right direction of thinking for the team. The graphic has  prompted them in quickly realizing where they stand in process and what is missing from their end.   Creating a simple graphic also helped them in understanding other technology processes and thus can  maneuver their suggestions accordingly B) Asking the technology experts to list down their concerns,  changes to the graphic and sharing them with the entire team helped in getting a plethora of ideas  around how to tune the other technology towers to accommodate for this concern from this technology  tower. C) Asking the technology experts to suggest improvements post the meeting will give apt  suggestions as now the experts have been in a meeting with other technology towers and have a fair  understanding of the process.

Approach:

While I see that the core of challenge in this situation is that the no technology expert has an  understanding of other technology and process to develop the apt solution, visualization helps in  providing a quick and required understanding of the process. I will suggest using the same under such  scenarios. One improvement which I want to adopt henceforth – Physical workshops are always more  effective than online discussions and will henceforth prefer usage of physical workshops over online  discussions

Sample initial graphic

