Managing the implementation of enterprise software is an often daunting, humbling, and formidable task.  As I detailed in The PLM Trail, perhaps too much so, though it’s not limited to just Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).  Managing the technology, the organizational change management, the politics, the angry dinosaurs, it’s enough to generate the same fear that would take the heart of me.  The path forward is often obscure, replete with difficult decisions and imminent peril.   And so it is that many appointed with such a task, lacking a functioning palantír or other assorted prophetic magical crap, resort to a much more practical tactic.  Yes, the tried and true technique of when in doubt, ask your neighbor; otherwise known in business terms as customer references.  Such interactions are sure to provide a wealth of so-called best practice, and while some of it might be a little perplexing, at least all the kids at school are doing it!

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In the past few weeks as I wandered Chile’s ruggedly stunning Patagonian wilderness, traversed seemingly infinite salt flats, and explored vast alpine plateaus of the Atacama desert, I admittedly wasn’t thinking much about engineering or enterprise software.  Well, except for my brief and distant glimpse of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory – which unfortunately was not admitting wandering visitors.  Aside from that one distraction, I was in another world.  This fact no doubt magnified my puzzlement as my wife challenged me to relate something in our Chile expedition to engineering and enterprise software.  And the answer would be realized in the same context for which many great answers throughout history have come forth into the world:  lunch.

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