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Virtual office for real collaborative and high-performance IT delivery

Albert Tort
May 25, 2020

IT delivery implies the co-creation of value. Therefore, collaboration is essential and the pillar of the CALMS (Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, and Sharing) strategy for DevOps and high-performance delivery models. Without Sharing there is no possibility to measure, to make processes Lean, to Automate activities, and to change the Culture.

In these times, we experiment with the necessity to create decentralized and multi-location places to work, without a step down from the main ingredients for real collaborative teams: communication, sharing, automation… It also includes fun and happiness at work, without the necessity to rely only on physical workplaces. In this context, virtual workplaces will also play an essential role in order to continue (before, now and after current times) pushing and enhancing such collaboration environments. The network of offices and headquarters are now complemented by the offices/homes of each collaborator in a company. An African proverb stays that “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. This proverb summarizes two key points: the first one is that we need to go fast (so we need to be efficient), but at the same time we need to go far (so we need to be collaborative). Consequently, the necessary fuel to push for DevOps transformation needs to be based in effective, creative, efficient and multilocation collaboration environments.

At Sogeti, we promote our Value in the Making. Now, in Sogeti Spain, we created the culture of working also from a Sogeti Spain Virtual Office in order to promote Value in the Making from everywhere. We are all working from this virtual space, regardless where we are, but preserving the culture, the languages, the expertise and the essential capacity to put all them together, with a virtual connection point that acts like a meeting point (for employees, customers, new professionals,…) and like a super window with visibility of our whole team capacities. Because what matters is our real individuals, together with our real collaboration capacity from everywhere and the continuous collaboration to be stronger together. Through the virtual office we meet together, we deliver together, we think together… We also welcome new members, and we even make fun together through social company events. And although this is a virtual meeting place, our interactions are real and, consequently, the delivered value is also real.

We are Mediterranean professionals, and we strongly believe that projects go better with people’s interaction. We need such real interaction, and we need both physical and virtual and modern workspaces to exercise it efficiently and effectively. Platforms like Microsoft Teams, enhanced with new apps and creative virtual office team culture are the base to promote enriched collaboration, but also to make the most of shared value, cocreation, measurement and transparency.

Every organization needs to provide value, and people collaboration is the key to achieve this objective. It’s time to think that this requires the implementation of creative solutions to promote team environments that make it possible. The offices of the current present will definitely combine physical and virtual environments, and both of them will be the new and necessary reality.

About the author

CTO | Sogeti Spain
Albert Tort is CTO of Sogeti Spain. He is a software engineering and testing & quality assurance specialist. He was a researcher and teacher at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia-Barcelona Tech where he specialised in requirements engineering, conceptual modelling, quality of information systems and testing. His thesis specialised in “Testing and Test-Driven Development of Conceptual Schemas”

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