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It never ceases to amaze me how much military talk and metaphor are used in the high-tech industry. Having a military background has really helped me to fully understand the complexity of what's at hand. But I wonder how much others really understand what other people are talking about when they use military lingo. I thought I'd share with you some insight and first-hand knowledge by expanding on some of the military concepts we often use.

1. SOP.

Many people use this acronym thinking that it stands for "Standard Operating Procedures." This, in fact, is what most people think it means, including Army folks! And some may intentionally want it to mean exactly that. But in the Army, SOP stands for "Standing Operating Procedures." The difference is monumental.

The Army firmly believes that situations dictate and that leaders must overcome the situation using any means possible. The word standard implies that the operating procedures are regulated, limiting, rigid, and inadaptable. On the other hand, the word standing implies that the operating procedures must adapt to the situation, while maintaining its purpose and mission. The underlying assumption of SOP is this: This is how you "should" do it, given these conditions. However, if your situation changes, your operating procedure should also change."
Army's motto: Situation dictates; adapt and overcome!

2. D-Day.

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I hear this term being use all the time. In fact, Geoffrey Moore, in his latest book Crossing the Chasm, uses the D-Day analogy to present his management practice and theory. Deployment Day (D-Day) is used in the military to indicate the day that the commander has chosen to officially deploy his/her troops. The public has come to associate D-Day with WWII, but in the military, this term is used everyday to indicate the day of deployment of any mission (to include peace-keeping, war-time, and humanitarian missions).

What is often overlooked when using this analogy is that there are also D- and D+ days. For instance, D-180 is a term used to indicate 6 months prior to the deployment date. D-3 is three days before the D-Day, D+5 is five days after, D+180 is 6 months after, and so on. I bring this up because most of the time, military leaders are more concerned with D-180, D-90, D-30, than the actual D-Day. To place greater emphasis on D-Day is to lose sight of all the planning and strategizing that must occur prior to D-Day for a successful mission.

When we here the term D-Day being used, don't forget that the one of the most important aspect of this date-indicator is to aid in the process of careful planning and coordination.

3. Strategic and tactical planning.

This is also another term I hear used all the time. What I don't hear is Contingency planning. Granted, many leaders include contingency plans in their strategic and tactical planning. But many times, contingency planning is overlooked. Contingency planning forces us to think about what we would do if Plan A didn't work. What would we do if Plan B didn't work? While the idea is to plan for everything that could go wrong, the reality is that we will never know all that possibly could go wrong. Hence, contingency planning looks at the major possible pit falls and plans for it. This takes creative thinking, looking at the big picture, and seeing your mission from various perspectives.

I think it's great that we use military talks and analogies to help us think about our high-tech industry in a different light. At the same time, we are limited if we use military concepts in such a way that prevent us from being flexible and open minded. My experience in the Army Reserve has given me tremendous respect for the military. But at the same time, we all know that it tends be a bureaucratic, inflexible system. I hope that this article has brought some clarity to those who were in the dark about what D-Day and SOP's were all about. And for others, I hope that I've provided some insight to further your understanding about a few military concepts.

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