We can all learn from our mistakes, right? In life, in identical conditions and without the necessary experience, we are all probably going to make the same mistakes, but hopefully we will learn from them. However, if we can create an environment where we can share those experiences, some of us might be able to avoid the pitfalls before they happen. Similarly, when things go well, we tend to repeat the same practices again and again, and when such circumstances are shared, others can gain the benefit too. So, it follows that as time goes by, this knowledge can be refined further to a point where improvements to practices and processes are as close to perfection as possible.
So how do we learn? There are many techniques available for capturing lessons learned from projects and what to do with them. Usually, these involve the Project Manager creating a list built up from observations, either from colleagues or from incidents over the duration of the engagement. Sometimes surveys are used, with a mandatory number of items to be discussed – but this can lead to input just for the sake of it and so devalues the exercise. Although important, much of the information will be recorded and forgotten, or else stored in the memory of a few people for a short period of time. Similarly, the review of these lessons often comes at the end of a project, often too late for good quality recall, as most people are already more concerned with the next project that they are working on. This is only to be expected, as although we know that there is a potential benefit to be had for future projects, we tend not to see these issues as a priority right now.
What makes T-Systems different? T-Systems has a policy of recording lessons learned – both positive and negative lessons – as well as having a culture of continually looking for improvements. Like most people running projects, we also have discussions surrounding these, and invite input from all involved. However, because our model is designed to be a repeatable process we also peer review and implement these lessons into our code. Each of our migrations is built up from developed tasks in our code base into pipelines of tasks to reach the desired result. With every new project, the lessons and refinements fine tune the tasks for greater efficiencies and benefits. Years of migrations have resulted in years of experience being channelled into our migration tool and processes.
At Vamosa T-Systems, we pride ourselves on being able to migrate from any platform to any platform. How do we know? Quite simply, there’s a very good chance that we’ve already achieved this several times before!
