Project vs Transject

Summary

• The "project" approach alone cannot cover certain areas
• We have created a new approach called "transject"
  • Projects move "pro-," or forward
  • Transjects move "trans-," or across boundaries

Background

The Era of Projects

Needless to say, we are in a project economy where work ≈ projects. We engineers are no exception, and we almost always join some kind of project.

Projects Cannot Transverse Boundaries

There are limitations to the project approach. First, you cannot operate transversally. You can only work on matters concerning the project you belong to, making it naturally difficult to assist outside of the project. Sometimes, projects become stronger silos than hierarchical organizations.

Projects Have High Human Resource Costs

Another issue is that projects select people, leading to high human resource costs. Specifically:

• You need to keep matching until you find someone who fits as a member.
• If there's a "bad person"—like a brilliant jerk—among the core members, retention becomes difficult.
• Because of close interactions, "human compatibility" is often required more than pure skill.
• In the case of a failing project, the "mythical man-month" causes an attempt to pour in more resources.
• Projects fundamentally require management, thus requiring management personnel who can manage processes and meetings, which demands considerable time.

A New Approach is Needed

As seen above, projects are not omnipotent. A new approach is needed.

Transjects

Transjects are an alternative approach to projects.

Projects, as suggested by "Pro-," focus on management and concentration to move forward, but transjects are different. Transjects, as indicated by the prefix "Trans-," are based on crossing boundaries. They do not join specific projects and instead provide support across the entire organization.

While there has been a growing commitment to treating internal developers as customers in DevEx and DevRel efforts, think of transjects as a generalized version of this mindset. Currently, DevEx and DevRel might also be project-based, and while projects are indeed necessary, they are not sufficient. The project-centric, restrictive approach is fundamentally flawed.

Projects vs. Transjects

Let's compare the differences.

• 1: Permanence

Projects have an end. Transjects do not end. Transject members independently consider and act on what they can do, or should do, in response to requests.

• 2: Planning

Projects are essentially waterfall, creating plans and acting accordingly, often with unmissable deadlines. However, transjects have no absolute plans or deadlines. Of course, rough frameworks may be created as a compass or for accountability, but they are not absolute.

• 3: Assurance

Projects usually assure specific deliverables. This is defined by contract, and breaking it can cause significant damage to the organization. Hence, they may endure even a death march. Conversely, transjects do not assure deliverables.

• 4: Variability

Variability refers to resources. In projects, budgets, personnel, and timelines do not vary. Once resources are allocated, they are used up. Adding or cutting resources later is an exception, akin to a waterfall model.

Conversely, transject resources do vary. Transjects allocate minimum resources (minimally acceptable costs) and allow autonomous operation during that period. More resources are added as needed, similar to pay-as-you-go API models or credit recharges.

Transjects are Truly Agile

To put it simply, transjects are agile.

Many projects adopt agile methods, but the truth is, projects themselves are fundamentally waterfall and thus do not become truly agile. To make something truly agile, you need to change the project framework itself.

That's what transjects do. As compared in the previous vs. section, you probably realized how waterfall-like projects are and, conversely, how agile transjects are structured. This shows the necessity of this change.

Shifting from Work and Busy to Play and Slack

Projects demand relentless work, hence Work and Busy. Because projects mean progressing forward, which is considered righteous.

Transjects deviate from this logic. They endorse Play and Slack, allowing for relaxed engagement.

Transjects Support Projects

Project members only need to focus on moving forward. Everything else is handled by transject members.

Projects are necessary. Being a business, the dedication to progressing forward is essential, and someone must bear this demanding work.

However, that's not enough. We also need to support project members, train, entertain, enlighten them, and engage in medium to long-term initiatives for the organization's benefit. There are also people not suited for project roles, and excluding such individuals only leads to higher human resource costs. Therefore, we need transjects.

Transjects provide broad support from the back, while projects focus narrowly on the frontline. It's about role distribution.

Examples of Transjects

Define specific roles for transjects flexibly as needed. They need not be as fixed as project roles. You don't even need to name the roles (names will eventually emerge).

Here are some examples.

1: Internal Evangelist

Internal Evangelist is the role focused on communication and enlightenment within the organization. The theme varies by evangelist. In my case, it might be soft skills, or more narrowly, it could involve "task management," "creative thinking," or "asynchronous work."

The activities involve three aspects:

• 1: Continuously communicating to all employees, like through internal blogs
• 2: Responding to queries on demand
• 3: Engaging in office hours, training sessions, consultations, and other individual meeting requests

As evangelists, they don't take on specific jobs. Their role is to communicate.

2: Glue Work Engineer

Glue Work Engineer is an engineer dedicated to glue work, moving in and out of various projects as a transject member.

While it may seem simple, it requires technical understanding, domain knowledge, and the ability to communicate within projects. This is difficult yet rewarding work, one that often divides those who are suitable and those who aren't.

Keep in mind that, as a transject, they do not bear specific responsibilities. Even if a Glue Work Engineer fails to accomplish something, it's not their fault. Remember this principle. As a transject member, a Glue Work Engineer can operate with flexibility, so restricting them like a project defeats the purpose.

3: Soft Skills Engineer

This role that I've mentioned before allows for boundary-crossing operations in soft skills.

The activities involve two core aspects:

• 1: Internal Evangelist-like activities focusing on soft skills.
• 2: Responding to organizational or project-related requests.

Regarding 2:, this might include designing mechanisms for "non-tokenistic knowledge management" or developing easy-to-implement 1-on-1 methods for building deeper relationships with members. It involves presenting or developing optimal soft skills or concepts.

4: Transtester

Transtester denotes a boundary-crossing tester. It is a role dedicated to responding to testing-related requests, such as "please test this." They respond more casually than Q&A Engineers or Debuggers, without deeply immersing themselves in projects.

From the perspective of project members, they are valuable when they need someone to test something or they want an outsider's opinion. They also act as a resource for those involved in survey or interview-related tasks.

Imagine there being a pool of Transtesters within the organization; when a request is made to this pool, the Transtesters within respond. Of course, directly asking individual Transtesters is fine as well.

Though it may seem like a secondary role, Transtesters are surprisingly in high demand, so it's often advisable to assign them as dedicated roles, or at least as a main duty.

Benefits and Drawbacks

⭕Benefits

In short, what falls through the cracks in projects can be captured.

Examples include:

• Capturing glue work.
• Facilitating medium to long-term discussions and evaluations.
• Fostering innovation by enabling work to be approached casually.
• Enhancing "difficult-to-communicate yet important improvements" such as soft skills and mechanisms.
• Activating information sharing within the organization, improving employee experience.
  • Thanks to transject members, the content will overflow within the organization, like the internet.

❌Drawbacks

• 1: Transject members do not directly contribute to revenue

Therefore, they cannot be expanded limitlessly. As a rule of thumb, the criterion should be having some strength (and preferably passion) for working as a transject.

Also, many triggers are likely to be "not fitting as a project member" or "needing an alternative role." Traditionally, people in such situations would have been either rotated to another project or, at worst, let go, but reading this article adds one more option: consider transject members!

• 2: It is harder than it appears

As you can see, transjects deal with all employees. Routinely updating blog articles read by all employees or preparing for inquiries from all employees must be done effortlessly. This is much harder than it seems.

Furthermore, as mentioned in the vs. section, with neither plans nor management, transjects must operate autonomously and continually deliver outputs to demonstrate productivity. So suitability plays a role here as well.