All Members of The Open Group are members of either the Customer Council or
the Supplier Council. In our All Members' meetings, the Customer Council and Supplier Council
join together to involve all members of The Open Group in sharing issues and concerns that are of common interest - across all Forums and
Working Groups.
Following up from the proposed Councils activities described in our All
Members' Lunch at the previous conference (Austin, July 2007),
this repeat All Members' Lunch meeting in Budapest aims to give members a brief
update covering:
- Our progress since Austin (July 2007)
- How we look forward to your support to your Forum and Working Group
representatives in creating roadmaps for your activities
- Our plans to present completed roadmaps at our next conference (san
Francisco, January
2008).
Ben Calloni
(Chair of the Customer Council) reminded members that the aim of the
Customer and Supplier Councils in encouraging delivery of a roadmap from
each Forum and Working Group is to provide all members, across all Forums and
Working Groups,
with easy-to-find summary information on what each Forum and Working
Group is
working on, so they have a readily available source where they can find
out what activities/projects are ongoing in The Open Group. This will
add value to all members - enabling them to quickly find out what work
is being done where, so they can:
- Decide how best they can get involved and use their time, and how
to involve other colleagues in their organization to best effect
- Recognize overlaps in work ongoing in other Forums/Working Groups and avoid
duplication by bringing these together
- Identify gaps in key work areas, which they can then fill by
starting new work items
The Councils have provided a roadmap spreadsheet template for
inserting this summary information, to ensure we present the information
on each Forum/Working Group in a common, easy-to-read style. These roadmaps
will:
- Provide oversight for all members on visibility of what is
happening in each Forum/Working Group
- Identify where and how the work in each Forum/Working Group aligns with The
Open Group's strategic direction
- Identify where work in two or more Forums/Working Groups has synergy so will
benefit from joint-Forum/Working Group working to leverage shared experience
and expertise across the membership
Ben used a partially completed roadmap from the UDEF Working Group to illustrate
the usefulness of the information to members who have interest in
specific work items and how it will help them to plan their involvement
and participation so they get the most out of it.
Our objective between this Budapest conference and the next
conference (San Francisco, January 2008) is to collect completed
roadmaps from each Forum and Working Group, and assemble them in one
readily-accessible location on our web site.
In San Francisco, we will ask for members' feedback on how we can
improve the usability of these roadmaps, including perhaps creating a
roadmaps database which members can search in order to obtain the
specific information they are interested in finding.
All this aligns with the reasons that the Customer and Supplier
Councils exist - to amplify and multiply the benefits of Open Group active
participation to and for member organizations. You can't benefit from something if
you don't know about it. This roadmap activity will make it much easier
for members to know what is happening not only "horizontally" across Forums and
Working Groups, but also "vertically" between the
Forums/Working Groups and the
Governing Board, as well as with The Open Group staff who attend
conferences to facilitate membership activities and business
development.
Between this Budapest conference and the next conference (San
Francisco, January 2008), to collect completed roadmaps from each
Forum and Working Group, and assemble them in one readily-accessible location on
our web site.
In San Francisco, to ask for members' feedback on how we can improve
the usability of these roadmaps, including perhaps creating a roadmaps
database which members can search in order to obtain the specific
information they are interested in finding.
