- Chapter Return on Investment
- Taking the Plunge
- Why RUP and Rational Solutions?
- The Key Principles and Your Environment
- Common Problems RUP and IBM Rational Solutions Solve
- Selling Your Executive Management/Decision Makers
- Techniques to Create Awareness and Excitement
- Summary
Selling Your Executive Management/Decision Makers
The concept of bringing in RUP and the IBM Rational solutions is going to take some selling. Larger organizations that implement RUP and IBM Rational solutions will spend a significant amount of funding on them. Total implementation costs at these larger organizations are typically millions of dollars over the course of two to three years. So what does that mean to you? Well, you are going to need to seek out an executive champion and win them over with the business drivers of such an initiative. You will need to find and create supporters, basing your proposal on both emotional and financial factors that will motivate your executive leadership and decision makers to provide the funding for the next step, building the business case for change (see Chapter 3, “Assessing Your Organization and Building Your Business Case for Organizational Change”).
As you build the business case for change, among other activities, you will assess your organization, analyze where RUP and Rational tools can add value that is specific to your company’s current state, and then perform financial calculations and write an ROI assessment. Some of the key elements7 in your selling should be the following:
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Simplicity. All jargon and technobabble must be eliminated.
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Metaphor, analogy, and example. A verbal picture is worth a thousand words.
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Multiple communication forms. Elevator speeches, hallway conversations, lunch discussions, short emails, any way you can effectively spread the word.
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Repetition. Ideas sink in deeply only after they have been heard many times.
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Explanation of seeming inconsistencies. Unaddressed inconsistencies undermine the credibility of all your selling.
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Give-and-take. Two-way communication while selling your ideas will always be more powerful than one-way communication.