SOMD Overview

To get yourself into the course material, we recommend you give the syllabus a read while listening to some tunes you enjoy. (Or in quiet. Whatever works best for you.)

What this first course covers

This course will cover four dimensions of the Health Tracker, one for each primary indicator.

Outcomes-orientation

The first indicator has to do with a project’s outcomes-orientation. By orientation, we mean “which way is it pointing?” Having a “map” of sorts, and knowing how to keep an agile project pointed in the right direction is a challenge unto itself.

State capacity

The second indicator has to do with state capacity to manage the project on an ongoing basis. We’ll focus on understanding the roles people play, and how those roles can (and cannot) contribute to project success.

Procurement flexibility

Procurement flexibility is critical. It is where the money meets the work and how the vendors play into it. In this course, we’re going to focus in on questions about progress tracking. How are deadlines chosen? Who chooses them? Why? What stories are told when deadlines are hit, and what stories are told when deadlines are missed?

Iterative development

The final primary indicator we will talk about in this course has to do with iterative development. In a nutshell, this means building and delivering software bit-by-bit, in small pieces instead of all at once. We’ll say this all again. Point being: demos not memos.