Introduction.
[Note: This was essentially written in August 2016 and has been patiently waiting the right time to publish! ]
In 2016, I ran into a situation that I don't recall covering in any Project Management course. A little more on that later.
A Brief History (The Opportunity)
In 2014, Cary Andrews had been fielding many queries from his team on APM Product Compatibility. He came to a realization that while the existing compatibility guide was adequate, a real-time database was needed that would be fast, scalable, and mobile-friendly. Joerg Mertin quickly built a web-based prototype. (The first one was created in 2013.) and multiple teams were formed to plan for a more acceptable and robust public-facing solution. These teams covered user interface, data modeling, and many more topics. A good deal of useful research was done and a comprehensive set of requirements gathered.
Let's return to 2016, Due to reorgs and other factors, this effort lost its sponsor and key team members. Most of the team left and went on with their lives. The project was effectively shut down.
The Unusual Situation
Except it wasn’t. Four determined people would not say quit. And that is when this story starts.
So what was done, knowing there was is no official project and you want to make progress?
1) Keep the dream alive. The team” never saw the project as dead, only in hiatus. We knew it would come back to live at a later date
2) Keep the focus on the end-user. We all believed in the tremendous value that would offer to customers, CA Technologies staff, and partners.
3) Never stop seeing yourself as a team. We kept meeting periodically. In turn, this allowed us to continue evangelizing the need for this requirement, keep communicating to potential stakeholders/users, and make incremental changes to the prototype,
4) We knew just because the project ended, the requirement was still there and growing. So it needed to be addressed in a proactive fashion and soon.
5) We kept working to overcome any circumstance. Perseverance and Persistence!
Accomplishment!
The result of the effort of Cary Andrews (original project founder/leader), Joerg Mertin (developer and technical interface), Phil Mullis (interface to Product Management and giver of good advice), Carey Feldstein (Quality documentation and keeping us honest) and myself (a little project management, evangelizing, etc.) is http://pcm.ca.com -- the first on-line APM/ADA/AXA product compatibility database!
Please freely use this link.Feel free to drop a line to Team - Ops - PCM <Team-Ops-PCM@ca.com> with your PCM comments and concerns. We want this to be a useful tool addressing your APM/AXA/ASM/ADA compatibility concerns.