10.12 PREPARE A MARKETING PLAN

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We have already discussed the importance of publicity but, as you move rapidly towards implementation of the program, this becomes increasingly vital.

You have to consider two things. First you need to launch the implementation phase of the program. How will you do this in such a way as to achieve the necessary visibility and impetus? One possibility is to go "on the road." Perhaps a road-show approach will work in your organization. You may consider a senior management presentation, both to seek approval to proceed but also to act as the launch platform. The in-house magazines could be used especially if you have been using them as a vehicle for publicity during the metrics program development stages. Exactly how you launch the program will depend on the culture of your organization but please try to make it an event. Get people to notice it!

Second, you will need to consider ongoing publicity for the program targeted at both the organization in general and the participants. It is very easy to ignore this aspect of the program believing that you can sort it out at the time or that people "should" be aware of what you are doing. Think about it: do you know what is going on everywhere in the organization? I certainly have never managed that feat. Planning how you will publicize the program pays dividends in that you can plan the work involved and this is important if you are to keep control of the program. You can use all the vehicles we have talked about already but I would thoroughly recommend the use of a short, periodic news-sheet for participating teams which should also be circulated to senior managers. After all, you want them to get involved as well!

Interest and awareness needs to be turned into commitment and involvement. If you are taking a phased approach to implementation you will need to get teams to sign up to the program because, even with senior management commitment, you will not be able to force adoption of the initiative. As they say, a volunteer is worth ten pressed men.

There are, generally, four ways of getting groups to do what you want them to do. These four approaches are telling, selling, participating and delegating. Which approach you use depends upon the maturity of the group with which you have to interact. It would be nice to think that you could delegate the implementation of Software Metrics to the organization in general but this is unlikely to be effective. Most organizations and groups within them operate best in a selling or participating mode but you will often find that you first have to sell the initiative before you can be sure of participation.

So, how will you sell them on the idea of measurement? By this I do not mean the technicalities of the sales pitch but the approach you will use. I have found that the best way to deal with this is in three stages.

First you identify a potential client. This can be done through the Metrics Coordination Group. After all, you have been working with these people for a while now and you should be aware of who are the champions, the individuals who are more keen than others. Why not target their teams first? You may also have been involved with specific teams during pilots. Do they want to carry on their involvement?

Having identified the potential clients you need to use someone on the inside to get you in. Wherever possible, I use the manager who is keen to set up a meeting where I, as an external to the group (whether I am an internal or external consultant as far as the organization is concerned), come along and make a sales pitch to the management group of the team. To do this I would use a presentation that first explains what Software Metrics are and that provides examples of benefits realized by other organizations. As the program develops you can replace external examples with home-grown cases which carry much more weight.

Very often the management group will have questions and you need to be light on your feet to deal with these. It is very easy to get drawn into some of the office games people play in this situation. I tend to stress the fact that the program should be tailored to their own specific needs while still maintaining an overall conformity to the high-level requirements of the organization.

For example, I tend to go in with about twelve management metrics that the team could adopt but I only ever expect them to pick up four or five of these initially. Which four or five depends on them. Nor do I go through all of the metrics at this point. Usually, you find that about fifty percent of the audience is supportive, thirty percent ambivalent and about twenty percent are dismissive. On a bad day that twenty percent could be vocally hostile. Make sure you have an idea who are the likely champions and who are the stickers. I reckon that such a presentation has been successful if I can get the group to agree to a second, much less formal session a week or so later. If they agree to sign up right away then fine, but do not expect that to happen too often.

I tend to let them drive the second session, which is the final stage of sales pitch. I concentrate on answering questions in a way that makes them realize their ability to influence the program and I try not to dodge important issues or questions that I do not have answers for. Being honest pays dividends provided you also come across in a positive manner. At some point during this session I ask them if they want to sign up. Assuming the answer is yes I try to get them to appoint a local customer authority and, if things have gone well, a local facilitator with effort allocated at some ball park level. If things have gone really well we have changed the mode of operation from a sales pitch by me to joint participation in the program. Of course, each client is different but the use of a standardized approach means that you can concentrate on catering for those differences effectively.

All of this implies that you plan how you will sell your metrics initiative to your clients. This plan, together with plans covering ongoing publicity to the organization and feedback to participants, forms the marketing plan. Remember, if you fail to market you will fail to sell and you will need to sell unless you tell. Telling takes power and never really works for metrics programs anyway!

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