RES: [gnso-wpm-dt] WPM Summary & Action Items-Step 6 (In Progress)

["Jaime B Wagner" <j@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stéphane and Adrian,

 

Adrian?s example of its own company simply states that ?authority defines
priority?. Well, in a more political or less structured environment,
authority does not stem only from vote or capital, but depends on other
things such as knowledge and moral behavior. Indeed I think that, for
authority to be effective, this should be the case even in private
companies. Authority should not be confused with the sheer will of the
powerful. So the chair as well as the whole council should base its
decisions on some principles accepted by all.

 

The discussions of such principles, basic as they are, is not
straightforward and can be distressful. To avoid the whole council to go
through this process, that could result simply in abandoning any effort, is
the reason why this group was formed.

 

I think we made considerable progress, much to be credited to Ken?s work,
and that your proposal of a new ground zero just shows that kind of
impatience that would impede any progress should this attempt be undertaken
by the whole council.

 

Excuse my sheer frankness but I think they go along the same pace of your
observations and that both are made with sincerity and with the best
intention of coming to a good conclusion.

 

Jaime Wagner
j@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

cel: +55(51)8126-0916

 

De: owner-gnso-wpm-dt@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-wpm-dt@xxxxxxxxx] Em nome
de Stéphane Van Gelder
Enviada em: domingo, 14 de fevereiro de 2010 20:00
Para: Olga Cavalli
Cc: Adrian Kinderis; Ken Bour; gnso-wpm-dt@xxxxxxxxx
Assunto: Re: [gnso-wpm-dt] WPM Summary & Action Items-Step 6 (In Progress)

 

Adrian has joined us. He volunteered to red team the work.

 

His latest comments make a lot of sense to me. The effort that's been put
into this work by this group has been immense. But it's not because someone
is working as hard as he can that he's working in the right direction.

 

I've lately dropped back from the work being done on this group simply
because it has become, to me, unmanageable. The reason for that being the
extremely high level of complexity of some of the emails on this list and of
the proposed models. While we shouldn't shy away from complexity in our
search for the best solution, I think Adrian's point about how
prioritization works in an SME and about the length of time it is taking
this group to propose a method for prioritization should ring alarm bells
with us. When we started on this work in Seoul, did we really expect it
would take up to half a year to complete. I know I certainly didn't.

 

We asked Adrian to red team. Part of doing that is putting his finger on the
things that we may not be seeing simply because we've got our noses pressed
against the problem all day while he is able to take a more distant look.

 

I think we would do well to heed his alarm bells.

 

Stéphane

Le 14 févr. 2010 à 16:18, Olga Cavalli a écrit :





Thanks Adrian.
We have been working as a group and trying to see all different points of
views and ideas.
You are welcome to join us an perhaps bring another perspective.
Regards
Olga

2010/2/14 Adrian Kinderis <adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Team,

 

Just watching from afar...

 

I am very concerned that we are not making progress here. As a CEO of a
medium size company we are prioritising work all the time. New tasks/
projects come in all the time and changes are make dynamically. Nothing is
set nor perfect. My Executive Management team provide input and the CEO
makes the final decision. To me, that is why we have a GNSO Chair; to be the
CEO.

 

It has now been 4 months since Seoul and we have not seen any outward
progress. I really think you have aimed for perfection and this has caused
delay. Inexact prioritisation will not result in business lost, nor staff
becoming unemployed. We may have small delays but the consequences are not
critical.

 

Let?s pick a process and roll forward, understanding and accepting its
flaws.

 

I know I haven?t been heavily involved and perhaps my comments aren?t
helpful but I am seeing this process become more and more ICANN like...
something I thought we were trying to avoid.

 

Thanks.

 

Adrian Kinderis

 

From: owner-gnso-wpm-dt@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-wpm-dt@xxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Ken Bour
Sent: Saturday, 13 February 2010 9:54 AM
To: gnso-wpm-dt@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gnso-wpm-dt] WPM Summary & Action Items-Step 6 (In Progress)

 

WPM Team Members:

 

Following is a summary of the WPM teleconference held on 9 February 2010
(1700 UTC):  

 

Team Decisions: 

 

1)      Urgency:  Jamie and Ken reported on their email exchanges between
sessions and, after additional consideration during this teleconference, the
team agreed that, although ?urgency? represented an intriguing potential
modeling concept, to make use of it properly would require an objective
measurement which does not appear feasible.  The team agreed that
urgency/criticality should become a natural part of the Value/Benefit
assessment and the definition will be enhanced to include that concept (see
Action Items below).  

 

2)      Resources Needed:  Ken recommended dropping this dimension as well
as the 4-quadrant model for reasons provided in his earlier email (8 Feb
2010).  After discussing the pros/cons, the team agreed to simplify its
model to a one-dimensional rating of Value/Benefit.  There was also
consensus that, rather than discard Resources Needed entirely, it could
serve as a potential tie-breaker if a decision had to be made between two
projects that were otherwise tied on Value/Benefit.  The process would be as
follows:  

Step 1:  Rate all projects using the 1-7 scale on Value/Benefit 

Step 2:  If needed as a tie breaker, rank any tied projects using Resources
Needed 

 

[Note:  Jamie suggested that the team reconsider the terminology/title of
?Resources Needed? preferring a return to the original concept of perceived
?Difficulty.?  Ken will include this question in a separate email
transmitting revised definitions for team review.]  

 

Once these decisions were concluded, the team took up another important Step
6 question, ?How will the Council actually utilize a prioritization?  

 

As framework for this discussion, Ken posited that a work prioritization
exercise presupposes that there is some limitation of a scarce commodity
(e.g. resource capacity).  If there is an abundance of time and resources
and no real constraints, there would be no obvious need for a project
ranking.  The underlying assumption is that, due to immovable constraints
(in the short run), all project work cannot be undertaken simultaneously.  A
prioritization, then, presumes that hard decisions are expected based on
competing interests for scarce resources, e.g. perform A instead of B or
move staffing from one project to another.  If it turned out that, after
developing a prioritization, no project ever slowed down, stopped, or had
its resources altered, a reasonable question might be:  what was the purpose
or value in generating the prioritization?  

 

Chuck acknowledged that we cannot assume that projects can be eliminated or
postponed simply because they have a low position on relative priority.
Looking at the bottom projects test-ranked by the WPM team (e.g. GEO, TRAV),
he was able to articulate convincing reasons why they probably can and
should be continued even though they occupy the lowest positions on the
ranking list.  

 

This discussion led to a hypothesis that, perhaps, the model may not be as
useful in making stop/pause decisions about existing work, but may be more
useful in deciding what to do with new projects that are introduced after
the initial prioritization is performed (e.g. Vertical Integration).  

 

The first question considered was:  how should a new project be
rated/evaluated and placed into the prioritization mix?  The team reached
agreement on an approach to placing a new project into the ranking.
Assuming that the Council will complete a full prioritization at least
quarterly (TBD), it would never be more than 3 months between rating
sessions.  Presuming that Councilors could readily recall what they did the
last time, if a new project surfaces in the interim and cannot wait until a
new quarterly reprioritization, the Council would employ the same technique
that generated the most recent list.  For example, 4-5 small groups of
Councilors would meet and collectively vote/decide on a rating from 1-7
considering the same ?average project? that was used at the last rating
session.  Once a median rating is computed from the group consensus scores,
the new project would take its appropriate slot in the ranking.  [Note:  Ken
will flesh out this procedure when we get to the point of preparing Council
instructions.]  

 

Once a new project is placed into the prioritized list, Chuck suggested that
there might be a sequence of questions that should be asked/answered by the
Council in deciding what to do with it.  Perhaps the team could create a map
or process that the Council would use in evaluating a new project vis a vis
the existing workload.  

 

In addition to assessing a new project, Jamie ventured that there might be a
political value in performing the prioritization even if there is not a
clear decision-making role related to stopping or postponing existing work.
He commented that a project prioritization can establish for the entire
organization (top to bottom) an understanding as to how all work relates to
the GNSO?s primary mission and goals.  

 

In thinking about this political implication, Ken wondered if there might be
a potential drawback to publishing a project ranking.  Taking the worst
possible scenario, hypothetically, might certain teams working on the lowest
ranked projects perceive that their time/effort is not worth continuing?
The WPM team should think carefully through possible morale implications to
be certain that a new problem isn?t created, unintentionally, that wasn?t
there before this exercise began.  In response to this question, Olga
thought that it would be possible to underscore that projects ranked at the
bottom do not necessarily imply a fundamental lack of worth.  On the other
hand, following Jaime?s concept of political prioritization, a project
ranking does communicate overall importance.  The Council may not want to
suggest, subtly or overtly, that volunteers should know or even think about
any project?s relative value in deciding which team(s) to join ? only their
interest and expertise concerning the work itself.  

 

Action Items:

 

In addition to the above summary, Ken agreed to complete the following tasks
between now and the next meeting (16 February, 1700 UTC).  

 

1)      Suggest draft changes to both Y and X definitions for team
discussion and approval at the next WPM meeting.  

 

2)      Identify additional Step 6 questions (e.g. group/individual
methodology) that the team needs to consider. 

 

3)      Continue discussion, as challenged by Jaime:  What is/are the real
outcome(s) of the prioritization?  Can the team provide concrete and
persuasive answers to this question that would satisfy others who have not
been deeply involved with the process (e.g. ?Red Team?)?  

 

4)      Ken proposed that the team also consider making a recommendation
related to the implementation of desperately needed project management tools
for both Staff & Community to assist with the Council?s new ?managerial?
role in the policy development process.  

 

Since this summary is already long, the above topics will be included in one
or more separate emails so that the team can focus on the topics more
efficiently and effectively.  

 

Prepared by: 

 

Ken Bour