Bas de Baar discusses Project Management in a global, mobile, virtual and multi-cultural world. 
A New Mission For SoftwareProjects.org
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The last couple of weeks I had the pleasure of traveling through South India. It is an experience for all your senses: bright colors, continuous noise and smell (level of enjoyment varies), 35 degrees Celsius with high humidity, fabulous food and the loveliest people you can imagine. Of course this subcontinent also has its share of problems: pollution and other environmental issues, urbanization with extremely high population density and lack of financial means in general.
But there is no denying that they are pushing hard to move forward. I was amazed by the amount of "Training Centers" and official educational institutions aimed at high valued labor for our global market, like IT and health care research. It would be over the top to claim that there is an institution on every street corner… although I am not quite sure if it would be an overstatement.
A Call Center In A Rural Area
During this journey I read Thomas Friedman's most recent book "Hot, Flat and Crowded". In it, among thousand of other things, he describes a company operating in India, that changed the way I look at how what we do as Project Managers can contribute to global problems. Friedman describes a call center in India that handles telephone inquiries for US corporations. But instead of being located in one of the large cities like Mumbai or Madras, this company is located in rural villages.
The original inhabitants of the village who got an education in the city are now able to return to their village because there are good jobs. The employees are extremely loyal to the company, income of the villagers is going up and the level of eduction is rising. If you have nothing to eat, do you think you care about environmental issues? But having an income, education, a job you love, living in the town you love surrounded by your family you start caring about the future.
That is how you create a sustainable future!
Translate this to IT: we have the jobs (currently a little less than we used to), we have the technology to perform this partly location independent. Wouldn't it be awesome if we can make it work? And this isn't just about India.
It is about reducing urbanization and its heavy toll on the environment (no commute is no pollute).
It is about a more healthy (sustainable) distribution of wealth.
It is about improving education in general.
It is about The Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
But this is also about getting rid of certain things. We cannot afford having unmotivated people, extensive corporate politics or bloated organization with an enormous amount of overhead. The hot, fat and crowded world has showed us that we are out of time. The current recession has showed us we are also out of money.
No time. No money.
Lets go to work.
"The mission of SoftwareProjects.org is to make global, virtual and multi cultural software projects work. By this we don't only mean delivering the proper end result within agreed constraints, but also by running the projects in such a way that they provide a genuine contribution towards a sustainable global society. SoftwareProjects.org will accomplish this by seeking to understand the underlying problems and opportunities and distribute the acquired knowledge."
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Hi Bas. I feel your inspiration and share your vision. At http://www.RequirementOne.com we try to contribute by offering our comprehensive requirement management software platform completely free. People, projects and companies with no or low income also need to manage their projects and their requirements in an effective way. We would love to work with SoftwareProjects.org to do our part in helping "provide a genuine contribution towards a sustainable global society".
hi bas.i fell your inspiration and share your vision.we try to contribute by offering our comprehensive requirement management software platform completely free. people,projects and companies with no or low income also need to manage their projects and their requirements in an effective way. we would love to work with softwareprojects.org to do out part in helping "provide a genuine contribution towards a sustainable global society".
Hello Bas. Its a good idea. Is a gr8 mission.. I will definitely support you in fulfillment of this generous vision. Atleast we could serve our society……
Hi Bas, its a very interesting idea… The concept is somewhat similar to what was practiced in Japan during the automobile boom… the companies encouraged workers and the sub contractors to be located near the factory inorder to avoid delays in transportation and reduce cost…
In Bangalore, we spend around 2 ~ 3 hours in just commuting to our office!!! Who wouldn't prefer to find an alternative… that too in one's own home town… that too with an soci-economic improvement
How do you plan to proceed?
Hi Bas,
For a moment, I thought you are into charity work after looking at the picture you posted for this article. Good one though!
I am glad you visited India. Yes, it is a great country with lot of emphasis on educational system. In a way Education is survival for living for most of the middle class and poor families to improve their living standard besides acquiring knowledge through education. This is the best wish of the parents for their children to live better than them and be more knowledbgeable. This is the biggest sacrifice parents do for their children in India. Indian Parents work hard, go through lot of pain, spend energy and time to support childrens education.
By the way, I do not clearly understand what exactly you wanted to do? Please do elaborate it and explain what you are planning to do.
Thanks.
@Krishna: thank you for your response. Stay tuned to this blog for "the plan" (have to create one first :))
@Kondal:
nah, no charity, but the information is free… Currently software projects are not constructed in the way I described. True virtual/global teaming is still rare and have less them moderate success … (of course with some exceptions). On this site we will dig into the problems and come up with knowledge and solutions. And we share that information. That is basically what I think we should do… but of course, this might change.
@Kondal: and to add: it is mostly about the notion that the way we do software projects matters. It even matters on a grande scale… on the scale of society… Doesn't that make it worth the extra effort
Bas,
Curious as to why you were in South India. Research on BPOs?
My colleagues tell me there is a lack of project management in software development in countries like India. Is this true? How do things get done there?
@Lars: thanks for your offer with RequirementsOne… I will drop you a mail soon. Much appreciated.
Greetings Bas,
For the managers of projects we can verify that with this market opening is necessary to possess an excellent control of the situation because every day we have countries looking for the excellence in the activities to reach the global market.
very good,
Célio
[...] We can reduce urbanization and its heavy toll on the environment. We can create a more healthy (sustainable) distribution of wealth. We can improve education in general. [...]
[...] "The mission of SoftwareProjects.org is to make global, virtual and multi cultural software projects work. By this we don't only mean delivering the proper end result within agreed constraints, but also by running the projects in such a way that they provide a genuine contribution towards a sustainable global society. SoftwareProjects.org will accomplish this by seeking to understand the underlying problems and opportunities and distribute the acquired knowledge." more [...]