Symptom: It's hard to know whether an acquired product complies with standards.
When designers propose to sell a product, they must identify the variances and ensure that their customers are aware of them and accept the consequences. Variances may mean paying more for integration and support, and the inability to use the product in conjunction with other products.
The obligation to inform customers of variances is true whether designers acquire a product or make it themselves. It's easy enough to identify your own variances, since each is the result of a design decision you make. But identifying variances gets tougher when you are building on a product acquired from an outside vendor.
The Standards Coordinator should offer the service of assembling compliance reviews on demand. While the actual analysis of a product must be done by a variety of technology experts, the Standards Coordinator can coordinate the study and assemble the results.
If this service is not offered, the Standards Coordinator may be unaware of the responsibility to offer it. In this case, the answer is to extend the charter of the Standards Coordinator function.
Root cause:Structure, work flows (product definitions) copyright 2024 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc. All rights reserved.
