Upgrades - Moving too fast or too slow
Do you need to be moving faster
or moving slower or are you just right? There are times
when you need to be doing any one of these or maybe all three.
Sometimes progress is moving too slowly and you need to speed
things up. Other times things are going too fast and you
need to slow them down. What we hope for is that we are
moving at exactly the right pace.
Users and Management will
either follow your lead or derail things. They either are
on board of they are pushing too fast or dragging their heals.
Here are some
tips to this "moving" question.
When things are moving too
slow...
-
Start
thinking about the needs of tomorrow and start talking about
them with your coworkers. This will start them
thinking about changing things and generate a desire to move
faster.
-
Get signed
up for Beta programs with the software you use. Get
others involved in seeing what the next release will look
like
- Have your reseller come in
and do some demos
- Gather a list of features
that you can instantly embrace. List also those that
"fix" your problems and those that will increase your
productivity.
- Try to put a number (cost)
on the lost productivity that happens when using old tools.
If something takes 10 clicks now and only takes 4 clicks in
the new software, that's a 60% increase in productivity.
When people want you upgrade
too fast...
- Define the cost of
upgrading. Include software cost, training, lose of
productivity and more. It is not cheap!
- Find out who else has
moved to the new software and see how they are doing.
Bring the data, both good and bad, to management to review.
- Get in the habit of
planning your upgrades. Plan out the whole process and
then work the plan. Most people will respect your
timeline if there are no other outside influences for
upgrading, like client demands.
- Make sure you have and
answer for the "when" questions. If you do not have
one, then people will force one on you.
- Most people I talk to are
skipping a release. So if they upgraded to 2006, they
will be waiting until 2008 comes out to upgrade.
Trying to upgrade every 12 months is tough.