Wir schreiben jetzt das Jahr 2024. Ich hoffe, Sie sind gut hinein gestartet? Das freut mich. Nichts vergeht schneller, als die Zeit. Und während die immer weniger wird, steigt die Zahl der Herausforderungen stetig an.
This is a quintessence not just since last year, it is our constant companion. And still far away: the sustainable value chain.
When I look back on the conversations and training sessions of the last year, I always come across the same highlights that arise in the (product) value chain.
Number one on the list: Complexity
Due to ever new requirements, dependencies in product engineering and beyond have been increasing for years. New stakeholders, regulations, integrations and ever shorter innovation cycles. In some sectors, products are sold with life cycles of 10 years, but the customer replaces them after just 5 years. More and more project participants, suppliers and complicated logistics chains are influencing day-to-day business.
Shorter innovation cycles also mean more product variants to maintain. And the great desire for re-use and more modularity to reduce costs and increase flexibility. Not to mention the desire to integrate into third-party systems that have completely different life cycles.
Number two: Collaboration, mindset and motivation
At the same time, in many conversations, lectures and training courses, I also experience how little awareness there is about the influence the first steps of the product development chain have on solving these challenges, and how a sustainable value chain can have a very positive impact.
Because it also represents the basis for communication and collaboration. Which then quickly leads to the topic of documentation and commitment.
Efficient cooperation is an important component.
What I experience on the other hand in practice: A lot of time is spent clarifying open questions in large groups, and no commitment arises because relevant things are either taken for granted and not recorded, levels of abstraction are mixed, and there is little clear structure is available. However, clarity is essential. Not to mention the omnipresent redundancies (of course in different versions). Keyword copy/paste.
And the classic idea of favoring projects over a stringent product strategy is still omnipresent.
Particularly in the first-class disciplines of stakeholder management and requirements engineering , where an incredible amount of foundations for structure and efficiency can be laid, the motivation for clean work decreases.
After all, as engineers, we all know how to build products. We often just don’t know how to build them sustainably.
The desire for a consistent and sustainable value chain that contains clarity, commitment, completeness and traceability is only logical.
From clean stakeholder management and requirements engineering to system engineering , there are many topics that contain a lot of optimization potential and are rarely used rigorously.
As said, a result of my experience from many trainings and discussions.
In 2024 we will do better
Feature Based Requirements Engineering is the basis of sustainable product development
The need to work more efficiently, reduce complexity and act sustainably remains a constant issue.
With the right methodology, complexity is significantly and demonstrably reduced, the workflow is improved and the foundation for efficiency and structure is laid at an early phase of the product life cycle. And at the same time for clean variant management, re-use and modularity in the important first phases of product development before the transition to actual systems engineering.
Completely independent of the approach – waterfall, agile or V-model.
(Wussten Sie übrigens, dass auch V-Modelle agil sein können? Vor einiger Zeit habe ich dies in meinem ehemaligen thematisiert).
Feature Based Requirements Engineering ist genau die Methodik, die im Product Engineering den sauberen Übergang vom Need und Pain zum Systems Engineering schafft und dabei die Grundlage legt für Organisation und Struktur, Commitment, effizientem Workflow, Re-Use und Modulariät, und vielem mehr.
Through clear abstraction and structuring, a universal level is created that eliminates complex dependencies and also ensures long-term maintainability of the solutions. And makes the basis for sensible variant management possible.
And it forms the basis for drastically reducing the annoying effort involved in reporting through automated documentation.
If you want to read more about it, I recommend this blog post.
2024 – Open Season. The trainings begin
The year 2024 could be the year in which sustainable value chains achieve a breakthrough. Feature Based Requirements Engineering is a cornerstone of this. Independent of any existing toolchain.
For this and all other highlights of a consistent product & service value chain, training & coaching on the important topics will start again in 2024:
- Stakeholder Management & Feature Based Requirements Engineering
- Practical Estimates
- Sustainable Leadership
- Systems Engineering und Modeling
Training alone is no guarantee of success
Training creates a basis for acquiring knowledge. That wants to be implemented. Here, too, an almost traditional result of my training is the two-stage reaction:
From “ That’s exactly what we need, that’s the solution ” to “ And how do we implement that here ?”
Various training participants
There is an answer: All training courses are also offered in combination with a training-on-the-job package in order to put the topics into practice in your environment in a sustainable manner. On a living object, on a real problem. Theory is one thing, real practice is another.
Knowledge becomes competence, which then eventually leads to experience.
The training and coaching are an integral part of the initiative for sustainable corporate management.
The new year has success in its belly
As far as I am concerned, I would like to make 2024 the year in which the efficiency of product life cycle chains increases and will be transformed into a sustainable value chain. You too?
Would you like to help me with this? Then get in touch and we will talk about your needs and pains without obligation in order to come to a common solution that best meets your needs.
I wish you and your family a successful 2024 and would be happy to support you with my experience from more than 25 years in the industry.
Your Oliver Fels