Buying Tech Development Capabilities in an Agile Way
Author: Melanie Humphries
CEO
BUYING TECH DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITIES FROM PARTNERS
Procurement of software and other development capabilities from a partner sounds easy right?... WRONG!
MOST IMPORTANT FIRST STEP IN PROCURING DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITIES
Desired Outcomes
Establishing your business and technology Desired Outcomes helps to create a 'north star' to assess if suppliers and their approach to tech development will support your goals which are commonly faster or cheaper or skills capability - or typically all three!
Delivery
The development capability market is saturated with suppliers and options, deciding on your requirements and narrowing the market accordingly is a key first step. It's no longer as simple as a question off offshore / nearshore / onshore, technical capability, availability of resources, approach to delivery, macro-political and environmental issues all need consideration.
Relationship
Identifying the key stakeholders and ensuring their involvement in selection is vital to successful development capability partnerships, in particular the support of the Product Owners is key.
HOW CAN AGILE SOURCING HELP IN PROCURING DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITIES?
Speed
Using agile sourcing methodologies such as Horizon Sevens S-FAST® means moving fast while meeting high standards or procurement. Rapid short listing narrows the market quickly based on Desired Outcomes.
Collaboration
Moving away from arms-length to collaborative face-to-face processes enables you to really test the abilities of the actual people doing the delivery, and, the suppliers style and approach rather than relying on written 'sales' responses.
Capabilities
Agile sourcing provides a real opportunity to test capabilities in real time, rather than relying n written, arm-length responses. Can the potential suppliers really do that they say? Do they have the people available? Do you rate those people.
TOP TIPS FOR DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITY PROCUREMENT
Robust Understanding
Robust understanding of your Desired Outcomes which includes input from all key stakeholders including Product Owners is critical, use these to narrow the market and choose your supplier.
Supplier Relationship Management
Supplier Relationship Management is vital to extracting the best from your suppliers, the end of the procurement is only the beginning...
S-FAST® Agile Sourcing
Agile sourcing is used to accelerate pace while driving high standards for procurement. Horizon Seven's trademarked methodology, delivers a tried and tested process that has been developed by experienced practitioners and refined since it's inception over 7 years ago.
