CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
SDS Advantages
Diligence Aided by SDS Work Quickly Boosts Span of Attention
Demand
New Way Thinking Working Good Management Used Consistently Add Intellig

0706 -
0706 -    ..
0707 - Summary/Objective
0708 -
070801 - Follow up ref SDS 8 0000.
070802 -
070803 - Rod and I have had several discussions abut the Trade Secrets of SDS
070804 - 030709, ref SDS 6 0001 and how much of SDS is "hidden in plain sight"
070805 - ref SDS 6 OO4K.
070807 -  ..
070808 - I have insisted that the benefits of SDS arise partly from using a set
070809 - of good managment practices, which SDS supports, ref SDS 6 FX5X, but
070810 - our most recent phone call indicates that I haven't yet succeeded in
070811 - making this clear.
070812 -
070814 -  ..
0709 -
0710 -
0711 - Further Analysis
0712 -
071201 - Any computer program that provides support for doing a task carries
071202 - with it a series of processes and ways of "doing business" that are
071203 - essential to the successful use of the program.
071205 -  ..
071206 - Let's take Quicken as an example. If you are going to use Quicken at
071207 - all, it is necessary to enter information on financial transactions
071208 - into the program. If you are not willing to do this, then Quicken
071209 - cannot help you.
071211 -  ..
071212 - Quicken has tools to assist in reconciling its records to the bank.
071213 - If you don't care whether your records and the bank's records agree,
071214 - you don't have to reconcile with the bank. If you don't reconcile
071215 - with the bank, however, you are failing to perform a function that
071216 - can be extremely valuable to you.
071218 -  ..
071219 - If you choose to reconcile with the bank, then Quicken can help you,
071220 - but you have to go about the process in the way that Quicken
071221 - supports, or, again, Quicken cannot help you.
071222 -
071223 -
071225 -  ..
071226 - Why / When people buy
071227 - People buy benefits, not features
071228 - People buy value *to them*
071229 - People decide emotionally and rationalize
071230 -
071231 - Getting someone to buy Quicken requires bringing him to the
071232 - understanding that:
071233 -
071234 -    •  There is an area of his life, managing checking accounts, that
071235 -       is in need of improvement.
071237 -        ..
071238 -    •  Improvement in that area *is* possible.
071240 -        ..
071241 -    •  Quicken can support efforts to bring about that improvement.
071243 -        ..
071244 -    •  It will be necessary to do something differently than he is
071245 -       currently in order for matters to change.
071247 -        ..
071248 -    •  The value of the improvement exceeds the "cost" of:
071249 -
071250 -       •  The software program.
071251 -
071252 -       •  Additions to the computer system that might be needed.
071253 -
071254 -       •  The effort to install the program
071256 -           ..
071257 -       •  The effort to learn to use the program
071259 -           ..
071260 -       •  The energy required to change how checks are handled.
071262 -           ..
071263 -       •  The ongoing effort and discipline to do what is necessary to
071264 -          keep Quicken up to date.
071266 -  ..
071267 - Once he accepts that the benefits outweigh the costs, he still has to
071268 - be willing to commit to *using* the program as designed, and doing
071269 - the work required to make the program useful.
071271 -  ..
071272 - Without that commitment, the box will sit on a shelf untouched, and
071273 - be of no use to him, even if he does buy it.
071275 -  ..
071276 - Now, it doesn't matter to the discussion whether he already does all
071277 - of the actions that Quicken supports by hand (he already works the
071278 - way Quicken does), or whether he undertakes to learn a new way of
071279 - working in order to reap the benefits he is convinced that Quicken
071280 - has to offer. If he isn't willing to use the program as designed, and
071281 - to make the changes in his life that are required in order to reap
071282 - the benefits of the program, the program is of no value to him, no
071283 - matter how *potentially* valuable it could be.
071285 -  ..
071286 - Many, if not most, people perform this cost / benefit analysis
071287 - emotionally. They decide to buy or not based on an emotional
071288 - response, and all the "reasons" that they cite for buying are really
071289 - rationalizations. This is one of the resons that those of us who work
071290 - from logic have trouble selling -- logic is not the primary reason
071291 - that most people buy something.
071292 -
071293 -
071295 -  ..
071296 - Every program must be used as designed to be effective
071297 - SDS must be used as designed to be effective
071298 -
071299 - The same is true of *every* program that augments or supports some
071300 - area of human activity, and it is true of SDS.
071302 -  ..
071303 - There is a difference of magnitude in adjusting to SDS because there
071304 - is so much that it supports -- when you use it as designed.
071306 -  ..
071307 - If SDS is going to deliver anywhere near its potential value, it,
071308 - too, must be used as designed.
071310 -  ..
071311 - However an individual is brought to understanding, he *must*
071312 - recognize that SDS *can* provide value, and that it can do so *only*
071313 - as part of a set of practices that amount to "good management".
071315 -  ..
071316 - If an individual already employs some of the practices (as in the
071317 - case of a Quicken prospect who already balances his checkbook), then
071318 - convincing him of the value of (at least some features of) SDS will
071319 - be easier than if he employs none of the proactices that SDS
071320 - supports.
071322 -  ..
071323 - In this sense, it will be easier to convince people who already
071324 - work, at least in part, the way SDS works, than it will be to
071325 - convince people who do not, in any way, work in a manner that SDS can
071326 - help improve.
071327 -
071328 -
071330 -  ..
071331 - Identifying target markets
071332 -
071333 - So, people who work in ways similar to Rod Welch are *one* segment of
071334 - the market for SDS.
071336 -  ..
071337 - How do we find other segments? The same way it is done for any other
071338 - product.
071339 -
071340 -    •  Identify product features and the benefit that those features
071341 -       provide to the user.
071342 -
071343 -    •  Attempt to find ways of reaching a target audience that has
071344 -       reason to consider that the benefit the program provides is of
071345 -       value to them.
071347 -        ..
071348 -    •  Convince them that the "total cost of ownership" in terms of
071349 -       time, effort, energy, and money, is far outweighed by the value
071350 -       of the received benefit *to them*.
071352 -  ..
071353 - This is so completely obvious to me that I can't see where any
071354 - argument arises.
071355 -
071356 -
071358 -  ..
071359 - Only reality matters
071360 - That they *should* want it is irrelevant
071361 -
071362 - Also note that it matters not a whit whether the benefit *should be*
071363 - of value to the individual, only that it *is* of value (or can be
071364 - made to be of value through education -- called "salesmanship").
071366 -  ..
071367 - Thus all the arguments that Boeing is under all sorts of contractual
071368 - obligations to do things for which SDS is eminently suited (the
071369 - *should* find SDS valuable) is insufficient to get anyone in the
071370 - organization to perceive sufficient value in SDS (or anything like
071371 - it) to undertake the effort to incoprporate it and the management
071372 - practices that it supports into their operations.
071374 -  ..
071375 - Now, having said that, the fact that there *are* commitments, and
071376 - that there *are* practices they are obligated to undertake, provides
071377 - a groundwork (similar to the argument that Quicken supports preparing
071378 - taxes) for pointing out ways in which SDS could be valuable to them.
071380 -  ..
071381 - This is why I keep trying to separate several aspects of SDS and the
071382 - experience using it.
071383 -
071384 -    •  The features of the program
071385 -
071386 -       •  Essential features
071388 -           ..
071389 -       •  Incidental features
071391 -        ..
071392 -    •  The philosophy of why the program operates the way it does.
071394 -        ..
071395 -    •  The set of management practices that SDS facilitates
071396 -
071397 -       •  Those that are essential if SDS is to be of value, such as
071398 -          aligning information to history and objectives, and using
071399 -          history to guide current planning and execution.
071400 -
071401 -       •  Those whose absence reduce the value of SDS, such as using
071402 -          control segments and doing a thorough jobe of building a
071403 -          Subject Index.
071405 -  ..
071406 - The set of essential management practices are intended to confer
071407 - benefit on the organization that uses them. Now we are back to the
071408 - earlier list of what is necessary to convice anyone to buy and use any
071409 - program, ref SDS 0 T940. The sales job is no different in broad
071410 - terms, but it *is* larger in scope for SDS than for many other
071411 - programs.
071412 -
071413 -
071415 -  ..
071416 - Managers want others to change, not themselves
071417 - SDS requires managers to change
071418 -
071419 - Part of the reason that the sales job is harder, is that we are
071420 - trying to convince managers to exert effort to change their own
071421 - behaviors and the way they manage, rather than just to spend money
071422 - and leave the problems to workers. When a manager buys Microsoft
071423 - Office, he passes all of the problems and most of the necessary
071424 - changes in behavior on to the workers. Oh, he can now require Word
071425 - documents rather than typed reports, spreadsheets can automates
071426 - trivial computations, and PowerPoint presentations must be pretty,
071427 - but the changes required in *his* behavior or in that of the
071428 - *organization* are relatively small.
071430 -  ..
071431 - With SDS, we have gone to the idea of a Com Manager and a 3-level
071432 - architecture to minimize the adverse impact of using SDS on an
071433 - organization, but we still have a job to convince a manager to take
071434 - the risks involved in introducing any unknown quantity into the
071435 - operation of his organization.
071436 -
071437 -
071439 -  ..
071440 - Mandates reduce managerial risk
071441 - Customer pays for mandated practices
071442 - Manager takes risks with new approaches
071443 -
071444 - Here is were mandates *can* work. When the government mandates a
071445 - progress tracking system such as Earned Value or planning tools of a
071446 - given sort, then the money is in the contract to spend the money for
071447 - the tools and their deployment, put the effort into training, and
071448 - support employees spending time working with the programs. Even if
071449 - all of this work is wasted, it doesn't matter, because the customer
071450 - is paying for all the expenses, *and* the associated risks.
071452 -  ..
071453 - If he introduces some new tool or set of procedures, he has to pay
071454 - for them, and *all the risks are his*.
071456 -  ..
071457 - If a decision maker at the appropriate level can be convinced that
071458 - the risk of *not* doing the job(s) that SDS supports is greater than
071459 - the risks of using SDS, whe can get some leverage.
071461 -  ..
071462 - I don't know exactly what that takes, but I know that it involves
071463 - some understanding of what management is obligated to do, and what
071464 - they might be willing to do if it were easy enough, and the risk low
071465 - enough.
071466 -
071467 -
071469 -  ..
071470 - Technical superiority doesn't insure acceptance
071471 -
071472 - I can safely assert that the fact that SDS (or anything else) is a
071473 - technically superior solution is nearly irrelevant to the issue of
071474 - getting it accepted.
071476 -  ..
071477 - Technical superiority is *never* enough *by itself* to sell anything.
071478 - There are simply too many counter examples for the idea to be
071479 - believable.
071480 -
071481 -
071482 -
071483 -
071484 -
071485 -
071486 -