Symytry™

Process Background & Description

Blue Diamond Consulting Consortium, LLC

A Company of DE & Associates, LLC

Process Description

Background

There’s a new world out there that is addressing the way products, software, services, business analysis, project management, etc. are being delivered.  A few of the challenges include:

1. Pressure to deliver business value faster.  Competition is simply too fierce!
2. We impose way, way too much rigor!  Checklists, templates, forms, etc.  Can’t react fast enough, because we need too many things and too much stuff to be included in our projects and the way it’s delivered and to support delivery.
3. Despite best efforts, projects are still falling behind or failing!!
4. There has to be a better approach for business analysts, product engineers, project managers, program managers, etc.
5. We insist on using tools that don’t work the way we work and thus loss of opportunities.
6. Don’t manage scope creep
7. Don’t deal with change management and business transformation.
8. Continue to make our clients question where the value is.
9. Focus way too much on formal, rigorous, all encompassing template driven approaches.
10. Have copious amounts of documentation to review
11. All trying to reach the end goal… a formal sign off yet still trying to get client satisfaction.

Our Solution… Symytry™

General Description

Provide the ability to choose, develop and define how a project or series of tasks and activities (project plan, business services, product design and delivery, testing, etc.) will be approached, organized and managed by creating and / or striking a balance between a variety of readily available tools.  This combination of products has been selected to save time and costs by:

• Enabling construction and use of “mind maps” so that users can visualize business and technical concepts and workflows to conceptualize, brainstorm and arrive at new ideas and techniques
  • The combination of tools is unique, because it consists of a mind map / visualization driven user interface, collaboration tools and intelligent archiving and storage
  • There have been over 600 mind maps created
• Uniquely allow for a large selection of tools, templates and forms categorized by industry type and role within that industry segment
  • The large numbers of tools, templates and forms are somewhat unique as most competitors have about a hundred or so.  I’m talking about 2,000+ and growing the list on a massive scale.
• Ability to choose the lifecycle methodology approach to manage the project in the way the manager and / or project leader sees fit
  • Waterfall
  • Spiral
  • Agile
  • Others
• Generate collaboration sessions on demand and arrive at crucial decisions with project team members, the client and stakeholders, giving involved members the ability to edit documents in real time and gain consensus and sign off on key deliverables
  • No matter where a person or team is located on the planet
  • Reduces project risk
  • Reduces number of logged issues
  • Improves communication when teams are globally dispersed
• Archive projects along with associated documentation
  • Discover relationships between projects to make comparisons to save time by re-using techniques from past projects
• Allow firms to create, brand and productize their methods, techniques and workflows to re-use in other engagements
• Arrangement by industry vertical and role within the vertical is unique; consulting firms, think tanks, engineering design firms, product design firms, architectural design firms, legal firms, etc.
  • Firms that dispense information for any purposes for profit that need to create and define reusable and repeatable methods by capturing them by using visualization tools.

This is but a small sampling.  There’s much more, but hopefully this will make you want to see more content, features, functions and benefits!

Thanks & regards,

David Esko

David Esko

636-458-4444

deassoc@sbcglobal.net

1.  Salesman’s ‘Sales Cycle Control Central’ mind map

2a.  SAP products and services research mind map (if you click on the blue topic in Figure 1, “SAP Solutions & Products,” it opens these maps)

2b.  Doing research is a breeze, because it can be done on demand right where you are.  You can also save summaries and build PowerPoint presentations right on the spot.

3.  Scoping & analysis template & mind map (if you click on the yellow topic in Figure 1, “Scope & Analysis,” it opens this map)

4.  Statement of work template and mind map (if you click on the green topic in Figure 1, “Signed Statement of Work,” it opens this map)

Once the Statement of Work has been signed off, the project methodology will appear for the project manager, as on the right side of Figure 1.  Up to that point, it was all a sales and pre-sales effort.  If the project manager doesn’t want all the complexity and rigor of a formal waterfall method, the project manager can click on the “Build My Own Tool Box” topic.  Then, the PM can pick and choose only the tools he or she wants to use on the project as can be seen below.

5.  Project Managers Tool Box – Either use the SAP ASAP methodology tools, or… build your own tool box for the project.  The SAP ASAP methodology lights up on the right side of the Sales Cycle Control Central map in Figure 1.  Otherwise, picking and choosing the tools you’d like to use for your project and dropping them into the tool box is simply a matter of clicking on the tool!

6.  Build A Business Case – Symytry has several templates available for developing a business case.

7.  Feasibility Study – Perform a feasibility study and assess whether or not the project can stand up to scrutiny.

Collaboration

Communication on any business or technical engagement is obviously crucial.  Access to every team member is critical.  This includes the client side and the consulting partner.  Access to people must be instant and no boundaries can exist, so it has to be anywhere on the planet.  All objects including; knowledge maps, any documentation in almost any format can be displayed to everyone in the session and anyone can be given access to specific documents to open, look at, edit, etc.  Security plays a very major role!

Symytry offers a couple of different ways to collaborate; SharePoint 2007 or other means that are specific to the knowledge maps.  Either way, collaboration is a major component in Symytry.

Backend Component – Information Management

Most companies have to do something with their project documentation.  The days of using a shared drive as a documentation storage area is being replaced by newer techniques.  On some projects, such as global implementations or global rollouts, the documentation requirements can be quite voluminous and there must be a management system in place to make it work for you instead of you working for it.

8.  3D Knowledge Management – In fact, any object can go inside these pyramids.

Our backend process component stores all documentation in the pyramid structures you see above.  Each one is like a separate library building where you can store thousands of different types of objects.  You can expand in any direction you choose.  Parents can have children and you can go as deep as you want, but there are certain practical limits that you need to have as it relates to taxonomy.

If you prefer a flat approach, a 2D view instead of a 3D view, you can visualize as shown below.

9.  2D Knowledge Management – Some people prefer this less fancy visual representation.

10a.  Here’s an example of some workshop documentation from an actual project.

10b.  View from the front.  You have the capability of flying through and around the structures.

10c.  Fully populated 3D topic landscape.  Notice we’re going to focus on business scenarios.

10d.  Procure to Pay – Each pyramid may contain supporting documentation.

10e.  These are the transactions that would make up the procure to pay scenario process for this specific industry vertical.  There may be many variants of this as well.

It’s important to note that anything you’re working on in the front end, is moved to this back end knowledge engine.

There are tools inside of it that permit associations and occurrences and the ability to look at relationships between documents in the current project and documents in any other project.  You can “tunnel” between these associations and discover things you did or solutions and / or approaches other people did on other projects.

The front end processes are linear and the back end processes are conceptually and contextually viewed.

Specialized Processes

Some processes can be used standalone.  That is, whole areas of focus can be in one map and used in a specialized process.

The Project Manager’s Hotline is one example of this.

8.  Project Manager’s Hotline

The project manager’s hotline is a tool used by PMs who may need help on their project, or find themselves in untenable situations on their project and need to ask advice of other project managers.  It uses the Collaboration Roundtable tool and is done in real time, no matter where people are located.

Figure 9.  Project Audit & Forensics Map

The Project Audit & Forensics process is another example of a standalone process that can be either coupled or decoupled from other process or knowledge maps and is used to conduct formal project audits.

It is useful when projects don’t go as intended, or to snapshot the health of a project.  This map, as with the other maps, have a wealth of information within them.  When the project auditor has completed the audit of the blueprint phase of the project shown above, with a couple of clicks, a formal Word document can be produced as a deliverable.  For example, the one below is empty of any actual content, but the templates are filled in as the auditor interviews people, directly inside the map.  Contact us for demonstration of the capabilities and content.  We’re sure you’ll feel confident that our Project Audit & Forensics process map with all of it’s tools and templates will be exactly what you’re looking for, especially as it relates to SAP project engagements.  Your legal counsel will also appreciate it’s usefulness.

For more information, contact:

David Esko

636-458-4444 (to leave a message, press 4)

314-532-0460 cell

E-mail:

deassoc@sbcglobal.net or

d.esko@erp-blue-diamond.com

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