Active Synchronisation

If we are working the Evo way, somewhere around us is the bad world, where people are not yet accustomed to knowing what they can promise and how to live up to their promises. If I ask software developers whether they ever get the needed hardware on time to test their software, most of them tell that the hardware is always late. If I ask hardware developers whether they get their testing software at the time agreed, they usually claim that the software is always late. If I ask the factory whether they always can start producing on time, they usually claim that they expect the developers to be late. Without Evo it often is that way. With Evo, we are going to deliver Quality On Time. Period.

But how do we make sure that any 'unreliable' suppliers prohibit us being On Time? After all, if our delivery time has come and we don't deliver, we fail. We agreed to deliver and we didn’t. Any excuse it too late. In Evo projects Failure is not an Option.

If we are waiting for a result outside our span of control, there are three possible cases:

1. We are sure that the supplier will deliver On Time (= at the time agreed)
   In this case we agree on a delivery date and we simply wait until we get things delivered On Time
2. We are not sure
3. We are sure that the supplier will not deliver On Time, because they hardly ever did
   There may be reasons why we still work with this supplier, like all similar suppliers exhibit the same behaviour, or the supplier has a very special capability so that we're stuck with them

Note:

• An Evo project behaves like case 1
• From other Evo projects we can expect case 1
• If we are not sure (case 2), we’d better first assume case 3

In cases 2 and 3 we don’t wait until we get stuck not receiving the agreed result on time. We know we won’t if we don’t Actively Synchronize, so: Do something! Go there!

Going there has three advantages:

• Regularly showing up increases our priority.
• Often a delay is caused by details that are not exactly clear to the supplier. They want to ask a clarification, but they're so busy that they keep postponing until it’s too late. They use this as an excuse even to convince themselves that the delay was unavoidable, but inside they know better. If we show up regularly, they can ask for clarification and still be On Time.
• In those cases that they really won’t make it, we'll know much earlier, giving us more time to take the necessary measures, escalating the issue to make them reprioritize, reprioritizing our own plans, or, if really unavoidable, tell our customer. The earlier we tell our customer, the less problem we cause.