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Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market

Leading SaaS product managers align pricing strategy to company financial goals and refresh the customer price/value equation to avoid leaving revenues uncaptured.

Table of Contents

Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market

Leading SaaS product managers align pricing strategy to company financial goals and refresh the customer price/value equation to avoid leaving revenues uncaptured.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Optimized Pricing Strategy

Product managers without well-documented and repeatable pricing management processes often experience pressure from “Agile” management to make gut-feel pricing decisions, resulting in poor product revenue results. When combined with a lack of customer, competitor, and internal cost understanding, these process and timing limitations drive most product managers into suboptimal software pricing decisions. And, adding insult to injury, the poor financial results from bad pricing decisions aren’t fully measured for months, which further compounds the negative effects of poor decision making.

A successful product pricing strategy aligns finance, marketing, product management, and sales to optimize pricing using a solid understanding of the customer perception of price/value, competitive pricing, and software production costs.

Success for many SaaS product managers requires a reorganization and modernization of pricing tools, techniques, and data. Leaders will develop the science of tailored price changes versus across-the-board price actions and account for inflation exposure and the customers’ willingness to pay.

This blueprint will build your skills on how to price new products or adjust pricing for existing products. The discipline you build using our pricing strategy methodology will strengthen your team’s ability to develop repeatable pricing and will build credibility with senior management and colleagues in marketing and sales.

Joanne Morin Correia Principal Research Director SoftwareReviews

Executive Summary

SoftwareReviews Insight

Product leaders will price products based on a deep understanding of the buyer price/value equation and alignment with financial and competitive pricing strategies, and they will make ongoing adjustments based on an ability to monitor buyers, competitors, and product cost changes.

What is an optimized price strategy?

SoftwareReviews Insight

An optimized pricing strategy establishes the “best” price for a product or service that maximizes profits and shareholder value while considering customer business value vs. the cost to purchase and implement – the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Challenging environment

Pricing skills are declining

Key considerations for more effective pricing decisions

New product price approach

Is Your Pricing Strategy Optimized? With the right pricing strategy, you can invest more money into your product, service, or growth. A 1% price increase will improv revenues by: Price monetization will almost double the revenue increases over customer acquisition and retention. (Pricing Strategies, Growth Ramp, March 2022)	DIAGNOSE PRICE CHALLENGES Prices of today's cloud-based services/products are often misaligned against competition and customers' perceived value, leaving more revenues on the table. Do you struggle to price new products with confidence? Do you really know your SaaS product's costs? Have you lost pricing power to stronger competitors? Has cost focus eclipsed customer value focus? If so, you are likely skipping steps and missing key outputs in your pricing strategy.
OPTIMIZE THESE STEPS ALIGNMENT Assign Team Responsibilities Set Timing for Project Deliverables Clarify Financial Expectations Collect Customer Contacts Determine Competitors BEFORE RESEARCH, HAVE YOU Documented your executive's financial expectations? If "No," return. RESEARCH & VALIDATE Research Competitors Interview Customers Test Pricing vs. Financials Create Pricing Presentation BEFORE PRESENTING, HAVE YOU: Clarified your customer and competitive positioning to validate pricing? If "No," return. BUY-IN Executive Pricing Presentation Post-Mortem of Presentation Document New Processes Monitor the Pricing Changes BEFORE RESEARCH, HAVE YOU: Documented your executive's financial expectations? If "No," return.
DELIVER KEY OUTPUTS Sponsoring executive(s) signs-offs require a well-articulated pricing plan and business case for investment that includes: Competitive features and pricing financial templates Customer validation of price value Optimized price presentation Repeatable pricing processes to monitor changes REAP THE REWARDS Product pricing is better aligned to achieve financial goals Improved pricing skills or professional development Stronger team reputation for reliable price management

Key Insights

1. Gain a competitive edge by using market and customer information to optimize product financials, refine pricing, and speed up decisions.
2. Product leaders will best set software product price based on a deep understanding of buyer/price value equation, alignment with financial strategy, and an ongoing ability to monitor buyer, competitor, and product costs.

SoftwareReviews’ methodology for optimizing your pricing strategy

Insight summary

Modernize your price planning

Blueprint deliverables

Guided Implementation

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with a SoftwareReviews analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is 4 to 8 calls over the course of 2 to 4 months.

What does a typical GI on optimizing software pricing look like?

SoftwareReviews Offers Various Levels of Support to Meet Your Needs

Desire a Guided Implementation?

• A GI is where your SoftwareReviews engagement manager and executive advisor/counselor will work with SoftwareReviews research team members to craft with you a Custom Key Initiative Plan (CKIP).
• A CKIP guides your team through each of the major steps, outlines responsibilities between members of your team and SoftwareReviews, describes expected outcomes, and captures actual value delivered.
• A CKIP also provides you and your team with analyst/advisor/counselor feedback on project outputs, helps you communicate key principles and concepts to your team, and helps you stay on project timelines.
• If Guided Implementation assistance is desired, contact your engagement manager.

1.0 Assign team responsibilities

Input: Steering committee roles and responsibilities, Steering committee interest and role

Output: List of new pricing strategy steering committee and workstream members, roles, and timelines, Updated Software Pricing Strategy presentation

Materials: Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

Participants: CFO, sponsoring executive, Functional leads – development, product marketing, product management, marketing, sales, customer success/support

1. The product manager/member running this pricing/repricing program should review the entire Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market blueprint and each blueprint attachment.
2. The product manager should also refer to slide 19 of the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market blueprint and decide if help via a Guided Implementation (GI) is of value. If desired, alert your SoftwareReviews engagement manager.

3. The product manager should meet with the chief product officer/CPO and functional leaders, and set the meeting agenda to:
   1. Nominate steering committee members.
   2. Nominate work-stream leads.
   3. Establish key pricing project milestones.
   4. Schedule both the steering committee (suggest monthly) and workstream lead meetings (suggest weekly) through the duration of the project.
   5. Ask the CPO to craft, outside this meeting, his/her version of the "Message from the chief product officer.”
   6. If a Guided Implementation is selected, inform the meeting attendees that a SoftwareReviews analyst will join the next meeting to share his/her Executive Brief on Pricing Strategy.
4. Record all above findings in the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template.

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

Pricing steering committees are needed to steer overall product, pricing, and packaging decisions. Some companies include the CEO and CFO on this committee and designate it as a permanent body that meets monthly to give go/no-go decisions to “all things product and pricing related” across all products and business units.

2.0 Educate the team

Input: Typically, a joint recognition that pricing strategies need upgrading and have not been fully documented, Steering committee and working team members

Output: Communication of team members involved and the makeup of the steering committee and working team, Alignment of team members on a shared vision of “why a new price strategy is critical” and what key attributes define both the need and impact on business

Materials: Optimize Your Software Strategy Executive Brief PowerPoint presentation

Participants: Initiative manager – individual leading the new pricing strategy, CFO/sponsoring executive, Working team – typically representatives in product marketing, product management, and sales, SoftwareReviews marketing analyst (optional)

1. Walk the team through the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Executive Brief PowerPoint presentation.
2. Optional – Have the SoftwareReviews Advisory (SRA) analyst walk the team through the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Executive Brief PowerPoint presentation as part of your session. Contact your engagement manager to schedule.
3. Walk the team through the current version of the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template outlining project goals, steering committee and workstream make-up and responsibilities, project timeline and key milestones, and approach to arriving at new product pricing.
4. Set expectations among team members of their specific roles and responsibilities for this project, review the frequency of steering committee and workstream meetings to set expectations of key milestones and deliverable due dates.

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Executive Brief

3.0 Document portfolio and target products for pricing update

Input: List of entire product portfolio

Output: Prioritized list of product candidates that should be repriced

Materials: Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Executive Brief presentation, Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook

Participants: Initiative manager – individual leading the new pricing strategy, CFO/sponsoring executive, Working team – typically representatives in product marketing, product management, and sales

1. Walk the team through the current version of Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market workbook, tab 2: “Product Portfolio Organizer.” Modify sample attributes to match your product line where necessary.
2. As a group, record the product attributes for your entire portfolio.
3. Prioritize the product price optimization candidates for repricing with the understanding that it might change after meeting with finance.

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook

4.0 Clarify product target margins

2-3 sessions of 1 Hour each

Input: Finance partner/CFO knowledge of target product current and future margins, Finance partner/CFO who has information on underlying costs with details that illustrate supplier contributions

Output: Product finance markup target percentage margins and revenues

Materials: Finance data on the product family, Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

Participants: Initiative manager, Finance partner/CFO

1. Schedule a meeting with your finance partner/CFO to validate expectations for product margins. The goal is to understand the detail of underlying costs/margins and if the impacts of supplier costs affect the product family. The information will be placed into the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook on tab 2, Product Portfolio Organizer under the “Unit Margins” heading.
2. Arrive at a final “Cost-Plus New Price” based on underlying costs and target margins for each of the products. Record results in the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, tab 2, under the “Cost-Plus New Price” heading.
3. Record product target finance markup price under “Cost-Plus” in Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template, slide 9, and details in Appendix, “Cost-Plus Analysis,” slide 11.
4. Repeat this process for any other products to be repriced.

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

5.0 Establish customer price to value

1-4 weeks

Input: Identify segments within which you require price-to-value information, Understand your persona insight gaps, Review Sample Interview Guide using the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile, Competitive Market Workbook, Tab 4. Interview Guide.

Output: List of interviewees, Updated Interview Guide

Materials: Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

Participants: Initiative manager, Customer success to help identify interviewees, Customers, prospects

1. Identify a list of customers and prospects that best represent your target persona when interviewed. Choose interviewees who will inform key differences among key segments (geographies, company size, a mix of customers and prospects, etc.) and who are decision makers and can best inform insights on price/value and competitors.
2. Recruit interviewees and schedule 30-minute interviews.
3. Keep track of interviewees using the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, tab 3: “Interviewee Tracking.”
4. Review the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, tab 4: “Interview Guide,” and modify/update it where appropriate.
5. Record interviewee perspectives on the “price they are willing to pay for the value received” (price/value equation) using the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, tab 4: “Interview Guide.”
6. Summarize findings to result in an average “customer’s value price.” Record product target ”customer’s value price” in Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template, slide 9 and supporting details in Appendix, “Customer Pricing Analysis,” slide 12.

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

6.0 Identify competitive pricing

1-2 weeks

Input: Identify price candidate competitors, Your product pricing, contract type, and product attribute information to compare against, Knowledge of existing competitor information, websites, and technology research sites to guide questions

Output: Competitive product average pricing

Materials: Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

Participants: Initiative manager, Customers, prospects

1. Identify the top 3-5 competitors’ products that you most frequently compete against with your selected product.
2. Perform competitive intelligence research on deals won or lost that contain competitive pricing insights by speaking with your sales force.
3. Use the interviews with key customers to also inform competitive pricing insights. Include companies which you may have lost to a competitor in your customer interviewee list.
4. Modify and add key competitive pricing, contract, or product attributes in the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, tab 5: “Competitive Information.”
5. Place your product’s information into the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook, tab 5: “Competitive Information.”
6. Research your competitors’ summarized pricing and product attribute insights into the workbook.
7. Record research in the Summarize research on competitors to arrive at an average “Competitors Avg. Price”. Record in ”Customer’s Value Price” in Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template, slide 9, and details in Appendix, “Competitor Pricing Analysis,” slide 13.

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Workbook

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

7.0 Establish new price and gain buy-in

2-3 hours

Input: Findings from competitive, cost-plus, and customer price/value analysis

Output: Approvals for price change

Materials: Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

Participants: Initiative manager, Steering committee, Working team – typically representatives in product marketing, product management, sales

1. Using prior recorded findings of Customer’s Value Price, Competitors’ Avg. Price, and Finance Markup Price, arrive at a recommended “New Price” and record in Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template, slide 9 and the Appendix for Project Analysis Details.
2. Present findings to steering committee. Be prepared to show customer interviews and competitive analysis results to support your recommendation.
3. Plan internal and external communications and discuss the timing of when to “go live” with new pricing. Discuss issues related to migration to a new price, how to handle currently low-priced customers, and how to migrate them over time to the new pricing.
4. Identify if it makes sense to target a date to launch the new pricing in the future, so customers can be alerted in advance and therefore take advantage of “current pricing” to drive added revenues.
5. Confer with IT to assess times required to implement within CPQ systems and with product marketing for time to change sales proposals, slide decks, and any other affected assets and systems.

Download the Optimize Software Pricing in a Volatile Competitive Market Presentation Template

Bibliography

“Chapter 4 Reasons for Project Failure.” Kissflow's Guide to Project Management. Kissflow, n.d. Web.

Edie, Naomi. “Microsoft Is Raising SaaS Prices, and Other Vendors Will, Too.” CIO Dive, 8 December 2021. Web.

Gruman, Galen, Alan S. Morrison, and Terril A. Retter. “Software Pricing Trends.” PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2018. Web.

Hargrave, Marshall. “Example of Economic Exposure.” Investopedia, 12 April 2022. Web.

Heaslip, Emily. “7 Smart Pricing Strategies to Attract Customers.” CO—, 17 November 2021. Web.

Higgins, Sean. “How to Price a Product That Your Sales Team Can Sell.” HubSpot, 4 April 2022. Web.

“Pricing Strategies.” Growth Ramp, March 2022. Web.

“Product Management Skills Benchmark Report 2021.” 280 Group, 9 November 2021. Web.

Quey, Jason. “Price Increase: How to Do a SaaS Pricing Change in 8 Steps.” Growth Ramp, 22 March 2021. Web.

Steenburg, Thomas, and Jill Avery. “Marketing Analysis Toolkit: Pricing and Profitability Analysis.” Harvard Business School, 16 July 2010. Web.

“2021 State of Competitive Intelligence.” Crayon and SCIO, n.d. Web.

Valchev, Konstantin. “Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Business.” OpenView Venture Partners, OV Blog, 20 April 2020. Web.

“What Is Price Elasticity?” Market Business News, n.d. Web.

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Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy

Manage the dark side of growth.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

A successful service desk consolidation begins and ends with people.

"It’s tempting to focus strategic planning on the processes and technology that will underpin the consolidated service desk. Consistent processes and a reliable tool will cement the consolidation, but they are not what will hold you back.

The most common barrier to a successful consolidation is workforce resistance to change. Cultural difference, perceived risks, and organizational inertia can hinder data gathering, deter collaboration, and impede progress from the start.

Building a consolidated service desk is first and foremost an exercise in organizational change. Garner executive support for the project, enlist a team of volunteers to lead the change, and communicate with key stakeholders early and often. The key is to create a shared vision for the project and engage those who will be most affected."

Sandi Conrad

Senior Director, Infrastructure Practice

Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research is Designed For:

• CIOs who need to reduce support costs and improve customer service.
• IT leaders tasked with the merger of two or more IT organizations.
• Service managers implementing a shared service desk tool.
• Organizations rationalizing IT service management (ITSM) processes.

This Research Will Help You:

• Develop a shared vision for the consolidated service desk.
• Assess key metrics and report on existing service desk architecture.
• Design a target service desk architecture and assess how to meet the new requirements.
• Deploy a strategic roadmap to build the consolidated service desk architecture.

Executive summary

Situation

Every organization must grow to survive. Good growth makes an organization more agile, responsive, and competitive, which leads to further growth.

The proliferation of service desks is a hallmark of good growth when it empowers the service of diverse end users, geographies, or technologies.

Complication

Growth has its dark side. Bad growth within a business can hinder agility, responsiveness, and competitiveness, leading to stagnation.

Supporting a large number of service desks can be costly and inefficient, and produce poor or inconsistent customer service, especially when each service desk uses different ITSM processes and technologies.

Resolution

Manage the dark side of growth. Consolidating service desks can help standardize ITSM processes, improve customer service, improve service desk efficiency, and reduce total support costs. A consolidation is a highly visible and mission critical project, and one that will change the public face of IT. Organizations need to get it right.

Building a consolidated service desk is an exercise in organizational change. The success of the project will hinge on how well the organization engages those who will be most affected by the change. Build a guiding coalition for the project, create a shared vision, enlist a team of volunteers to lead the change, and communicate with key stakeholders early and often.

Use a structured approach to facilitate the development of a shared strategic vision, design a detailed consolidated architecture, and anticipate resistance to change to ensure the organization reaps project benefits.

Info-Tech Insight

1. Every step should put people first. It’s tempting to focus the strategy on designing processes and technologies for the target architecture. However, the most common barrier to success is workforce resistance to change.
2. A consolidated service desk is an investment, not a cost-reduction program. Focus on efficiency, customer service, and end-user satisfaction. Cost savings, and there will be many, should be seen as an indirect consequence of the pursuit of efficiency and customer service.

Focus the service desk consolidation project on improving customer service to overcome resistance to change

Emphasizing cost reduction as the most important motivation for the consolidation project is risky.

End-user satisfaction is a more reliable measure of a successful consolidation.

• Too many variables affect the impact of the consolidation on the operating costs of the service desk to predict the outcome reliably.
• Potential reductions in costs are unlikely to overcome organizational resistance to change.
• Successful service desk consolidations can increase ticket volume as agents capture tickets more consistently and increase customer service.

The project will generate many cost savings, but they will take time to manifest, and are best seen as an indirect consequence of the pursuit of customer service.

Info-Tech Insight

Business units facing a service desk consolidation are often concerned that the project will lead to a loss of access to IT resources. Focus on building a customer-focused consolidated service desk to assuage those fears and earn their support.

End users, IT leaders, and process owners recognize the importance of the service desk.

2nd out of 45

On average, IT leaders and process owners rank the service desk 2nd in terms of importance out of 45 core IT processes. Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Management and Governance Diagnostic (2015, n = 486)

42.1%

On average, end users who were satisfied with service desk effectiveness rated all other IT services 42.1% higher than dissatisfied end users. Source: Info-Tech Research Group, End-User Satisfaction Survey 2015, n = 133)

38.0%

On average, end users who were satisfied with service desk timeliness rated all other IT services 38.0% higher than dissatisfied end users. Source: Info-Tech Research Group, End-User Satisfaction Survey (2015, n = 133)

Overcome the perceived barriers from differing service unit cultures to pursue a consolidated service desk (CSD)

In most organizations, the greatest hurdles that consolidation projects face are related to people rather than process or technology.

In a survey of 168 service delivery organizations without a consolidated service desk, the Service Desk Institute found that the largest internal barrier to putting in place a consolidated service desk was organizational resistance to change.

Specifically, more than 56% of respondents reported that the different cultures of each service unit would hinder the level of collaboration such an initiative would require.

Service Desk Institute (n = 168, 2007)

Info-Tech Insight

Use a phased approach to overcome resistance to change. Focus on quick-win implementations that bring two or three service desks together in a short time frame and add additional service desks over time.

Avoid the costly proliferation of service desks that can come with organizational growth

Good and bad growth

Every organization must grow to survive, and relies heavily on its IT infrastructure to do that. Good growth makes an organization more agile, responsive, and competitive, and leads to further growth.

However, growth has its dark side. Bad growth hobbles agility, responsiveness, and competitiveness, and leads to stagnation.

As organizations grow organically and through mergers, their IT functions create multiple service desks across the enterprise to support:

• Large, diverse user constituencies.
• Rapidly increasing call volumes.
• Broader geographic coverage.
• A growing range of products and services.

A hallmark of bad growth is the proliferation of redundant and often incompatible ITSM services and processes.

Project triggers:

• Organizational mergers
• ITSM tool purchase
• Service quality or cost-reduction initiatives

Challenges arising from service desk proliferation:

Consolidate service desks to integrate the resources, processes, and technology of your support ecosystem

What project benefits can you anticipate?

• Consolidated Service Desk
  • End-user group #1
  • End-user group #2
  • End-user group #3
  • End-user group #4

A successful consolidation can significantly reduce cost per transaction, speed up service delivery, and improve the customer experience through:

• Single point of contact for end users.
• Integrated ITSM solution where it makes sense.
• Standardized processes.
• Staffing integration.

Standardized and consolidated service desks will optimize infrastructure, services, and resources benefits

• To set up a functioning service desk, the organization will need to invest resources to build and integrate tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 capabilities to manage incidents and requests.
• The typical service desk (Figure 1) can address a certain number of tickets from all three tiers. If your tickets in a given tier are less than that number, you are paying for 100% of service costs but consuming only a portion of it.
• The consolidated model (Figure 2) reduces the service cost by reducing unused capacity.
• Benefits of consolidation include a single service desk solution, a single point of contact for the business, data integration, process standardization, and consolidated administration, reporting, and management.

Info-Tech’s approach to service desk consolidation draws on key metrics to establish a baseline and a target state

The foundation of a successful service desk consolidation initiative is a robust current state assessment. Given the project’s complexity, however, determining the right level of detail to include in the evaluation of existing service desks can be challenging.

The Info-Tech approach to service desk consolidation includes:

• Envisioning exercises to set project scope and garner executive support.
• Surveys and interviews to identify the current state of people, processes, technologies, and service level agreements (SLAs) in each service desk, and to establish a baseline for the consolidated service desk.
• Service desk comparison tools to gather the results of the current state assessment for analysis and identify current best practices for migration to the consolidated service desk.
• Case studies to illustrate the full scope of the project and identify how different organizations deal with key challenges.

The project blueprint walks through a method that helps identify which processes and technologies from each service desk work best, and it draws on them to build a target state for the consolidated service desk.

Inspiring your target state from internal tools and best practices is much more efficient than developing new tools and processes from scratch.

Info-Tech Insight

The two key hurdles that a successful service desk consolidation must overcome are organizational complexity and resistance to change.

Effective planning during the current state assessment can overcome these challenges.

Identify existing best practices for migration to the consolidated service desk to foster agent engagement and get the consolidated service desk up quickly.

A consolidation project should include the following steps and may involve multiple transition phases to complete

Phase 1: Develop a Shared Vision

• Identify stakeholders
• Develop vision
• Measure baseline

Phase 2: Design the Consolidation

• Design target state
• Assess gaps to reach target
• Assess logistics and cost

Phase 3: Plan the Transition

• Develop project plan and roadmap
• Communicate changes
• Make the transition
  • Evaluate and prepare for next transition phase (if applicable)
  • Evaluate and stabilize
    • CSI

Whether or not your project requires multiple transition waves to complete the consolidation depends on the complexity of the environment.

For a more detailed breakdown of this project’s steps and deliverables, see the next section.

Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to develop a service desk consolidation strategy

Service desk consolidation is the first of several optimization projects focused on building essential best practices

Info-Tech’s Service Desk Methodology aligns with the ITIL framework

Extend

Facilitate the extension of service management best practices to other business functions to improve productivity and position IT as a strategic partner.

Standardize

Build essential incident, service request, and knowledge management processes to create a sustainable service desk that meets business needs.

Improve

Build a continual improvement plan for the service desk to review and evaluate key processes and services, and manage the progress of improvement initiatives.

Adopt Lean

Build essential incident, service request, and knowledge management processes to create a sustainable service desk that boosts business value.

Select and Implement

Review mid-market and enterprise service desk tools, select an ITSM solution, and build an implementation plan to ensure your investment meets your needs.

Consolidate

Build a strategic roadmap to consolidate service desks to reduce end-user support costs and sustain end-user satisfaction.

Our Approach to the Service Desk

Service desk optimization goes beyond the blind adoption of best practices.

Info-Tech’s approach focuses on controlling support costs and making the most of IT’s service management expertise to improve productivity.

Complete the projects sequentially or in any order.

Info-Tech draws on the COBIT framework, which focuses on consistent delivery of IT services across the organization

Oxford University IT Service Desk successfully undertook a consolidation project to merge five help desks into one

CASE STUDY

Industry: Higher Education

Source: Oxford University, IT Services

Background

Until 2011, three disparate information technology organizations offered IT services, while each college had local IT officers responsible for purchasing and IT management.

ITS Service Desk Consolidation Project

Oxford merged the administration of these three IT organizations into IT Services (ITS) in 2012, and began planning for the consolidation of five independent help desks into a single robust service desk.

Complication

The relative autonomy of the five service desks had led to the proliferation of different tools and processes, licensing headaches, and confusion from end users about where to acquire IT service.

Oxford University IT at a Glance

• One of the world’s oldest and most prestigious universities.
• 36 colleges with 100+ departments.
• Over 40,000 IT end users.
• Roughly 350 ITS staff in 40 teams.
• 300 more distributed IT staff.
• Offers more than 80 services.

Help Desks:

• Processes → Business Services & Projects
• Processes → Computing Services
• Processes → ICT Support Team

"IT Services are aiming to provide a consolidated service which provides a unified and coherent experience for users. The aim is to deliver a ‘joined-up’ customer experience when users are asking for any form of help from IT Services. It will be easier for users to obtain support for their IT – whatever the need, service or system." – Oxford University, IT Services

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Build a Service Desk Consolidation Strategy – project overview

Info-Tech delivers: Use our tools and templates to accelerate your project to completion

• Service Desk Assessment Tool (Excel)
• Executive Presentation (PowerPoint)
• Service Desk Scorecard Comparison Tool (Excel)
• Service Desk Efficiency Calculator (Excel)
• Service Desk Consolidation Roadmap (Excel)
• Service Desk Consolidation TCO Tool (Excel)
• Communications and Training Plan (Word)
• Consolidation News Bulletin & FAQ Template (PowerPoint)

Measured value for Guided Implementations (GIs)

Engaging in GIs doesn’t just offer valuable project advice, it also results in significant cost savings.

Workshop overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Insight breakdown

Phase 1 Insight

Don’t get bogged down in the details. A detailed current state assessment is a necessary first step for a consolidation project, but determining the right level of detail to include in the evaluation can be challenging. Gather enough data to establish a baseline and make an informed decision about how to consolidate, but don’t waste time collecting and evaluating unnecessary information that will only distract and slow down the project, losing management interest and buy-in.

How we can help

Leverage the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool to gather the data you need to evaluate your existing service desks.

Phase 2 Insight

Select the target state that is right for your organization. Don’t feel pressured to move to a complete consolidation with a single point of contact if it wouldn’t be compatible with your organization’s needs and abilities, or if it wouldn’t be adopted by your end users. Design an appropriate level of standardization and centralization for the service desk and reinforce and improve processes moving forward.

How we can help

Leverage the Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool to analyze the gap between your existing processes and your target state.

Phase 3 Insight

Getting people on board is key to the success of the consolidation, and a communication plan is essential to do so. Develop targeted messaging for each stakeholder group, keeping in mind that your end users are just as critical to success as your staff. Know your audience, communicate to them often and openly, and ensure that every communication has a purpose.

How we can help

Leverage the Communications Plan and Consolidation News Bulletin & FAQ Template to plan your communications.

Phase 1

Develop a Shared Vision

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Develop shared vision

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4-8

Step 1.1: Identify and engage key stakeholders

Discuss with an analyst:

• Build the project team and define their roles and responsibilities
• Identify key stakeholders and formulate an engagement plan

Then complete these activities…

• Assign project roles and responsibilities
• Identify key stakeholders
• Formalize an engagement plan and conduct interviews

With these tools & templates:

Stakeholder Engagement Workbook

Step 1.2: Develop a vision to give the project direction

Discuss with an analyst:

• Develop an executive visioning session plan to formulate and get buy-in for the goals and vision of the consolidation

Then complete these activities…

• Host an executive visioning exercise to define the scope and goals of the consolidation

With these tools & templates:

Consolidate Service Desk Executive Presentation

Step 1.3: Conduct a full assessment of each service desk

Discuss with an analyst:

• Use diagnostics results and the service desk assessment tool to evaluate the maturity and environment of each service desk
• Assess agent skills, satisfaction, roles and responsibilities

Then complete these activities…

• Analyze organizational structure
• Assess maturity and environment of each service desk
• Assess agent skills and satisfaction

With these tools & templates:

Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool

IT Skills Inventory and Gap Assessment Tool

Phase 1 Outcome:

• A common vision for the consolidation initiative, an analysis of existing service desk architectures, and an inventory of existing best practices.

Step 1.1: Get buy-in from key stakeholders

Phase 1

Develop a shared vision

1.1 Identify and engage key stakeholders

1.2 Develop a vision to give the project direction

1.3 Conduct a full assessment of each service desk

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• 1.1.1 Assign roles and responsibilities
• 1.1.2 Identify key stakeholders for the consolidation
• 1.1.3 Conduct stakeholder interviews to understand needs in more depth, if necessary

This step involves the following participants:

• Project Sponsor
• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)

Step Outcomes:

• A project team with clearly defined roles and responsibilities
• A list of key stakeholders and an engagement plan to identify needs and garner support for the change

Oxford consulted with people at all levels to ensure continuous improvement and new insights

CASE STUDY

Industry: Higher Education

Source: Oxford University, IT Services

Motivation

The merging of Oxford’s disparate IT organizations was motivated primarily to improve end-user service and efficiency.

Similarly, ITS positioned the SDCP as an “operational change,” not to save costs, but to provide better service to their customers.

"The University is quite unique in the current climate in that reduction in costs was not one of the key drivers behind the project. The goal was to deliver improved efficiencies and offer a single point of contact for their user base." – Peter Hubbard, ITSM Consultant Pink Elephant

Development

Oxford recognized early that they needed an open and collaborative environment to succeed.

Key IT and business personnel participated in a “vision workshop” to determine long- and short-term objectives, and to decide priorities for the consolidated service desk.

"Without key support at this stage many projects fail to deliver the expected outcomes. The workshop involved the key stakeholders of the project and was deemed a successful and positive exercise, delivering value to this stage of the project by clarifying the future desired state of the Service Desk." – John Ireland, Director of Customer Service & Project Sponsor

Deployment

IT Services introduced a Service Desk Consolidation Project Blog very early into the project, to keep everyone up-to-date and maintain key stakeholder buy-in.

Constant consultation with people at all levels led to continuous improvement and new insights.

"We also became aware that staff are facing different changes depending on the nature of their work and which toolset they use (i.e. RT, Altiris, ITSM). Everyone will have to change the way they do things at least a little – but the changes depend on where you are starting from!" – Jonathan Marks, Project Manager

Understand and validate the consolidation before embarking on the project

Define what consolidation would mean in the context of your organization to help validate and frame the scope of the project before proceeding.

What is service desk consolidation?

Service desk consolidation means combining multiple service desks into one centralized, single point of contact.

• Physical consolidation = personnel and assets are combined into a single location
• Virtual consolidation = service desks are combined electronically

Consolidation must include people, process, and technology:

1. Consolidation of some or all staff into one location
2. Consolidation of processes into a single set of standardized processes
3. One consolidated technology platform or ITSM tool

Consolidation can take the form of:

1. Merging multiple desks into one
2. Collapsing multiple desks into one
3. Connecting multiple desks into a virtual desk
4. Moving all desks to one connected platform

Service Desk 1 - Service Desk 2 - Service Desk 3

↓

Consolidated Service Desk

Info-Tech Insight

Consolidation isn’t for everyone.

Before you embark on the project, think about unique requirements for your organization that may necessitate more than one service desk, such as location-specific language. Ask yourself if consolidation makes sense for your organization and would achieve a benefit for the organization, before proceeding.

1.1 Organize and build the project team to launch the project

Solidify strong support for the consolidation and get the right individuals involved from the beginning to give the project the commitment and direction it requires.

Project Sponsor

• Has direct accountability to the executive team and provides leadership to the project team.
• Legitimatizes the consolidation and provides necessary resources to implement the project.
• Is credible, enthusiastic, and understands the organization’s culture and values.

Steering Committee

• Oversees the effort.
• Ensures there is proper support from the organization and provides resources where required.
• Resolves any conflicts.

Core Project Team

• Full-time employees drawn from roles that are critical to the service desk, and who would have a strong understanding of the consolidation goals and requirements.
• Ideal size: 6-10 full-time employees.
• May include roles defined in the next section.

Involve the right people to drive and facilitate the consolidation

Service desk consolidations require broad support and capabilities beyond only those affected in order to deal with unforeseen risks and barriers.

• Project manager: Has primary accountability for the success of the consolidation project.
• Senior executive project sponsor: Needed to “open doors” and signal organization’s commitment to the consolidation.
• Technology SMEs and architects: Responsible for determining and communicating requirements and risks of the technology being implemented or changed, especially the ITSM tool.
• Business unit leads: Responsible for identifying and communicating impact on business functions, approving changes, and helping champion change.
• Product/process owners: Responsible for identifying and communicating impact on business functions, approving changes, and helping champion change.
• HR specialists: Most valuable when roles and organizational design are affected, i.e. the consolidation requires staff redeployment or substantial training (not just using a new system or tool but acquiring new skills and responsibilities) or termination.
• Training specialists: If you have full-time training staff in the organization, you will eventually need them to develop training courses and material. Consulting them early will help with scoping, scheduling, and identifying the best resources and channels to deliver the training.
• Communications specialists (internal): Valuable in crafting communications plan, required if communications function owns internal communications.

Use a RACI table (e.g. in the following section) to clarify who is to be accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed.

Info-Tech Insight

The more transformational the change, the more it will affect the organizational chart – not just after the implementation but through the transition.

Take time early in the project to define the reporting structure for the project/transition team, as well as any teams and roles supporting the transition.

Assign roles and responsibilities

1.1.1 Use a RACI chart to assign overarching project responsibilities

Participants

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• Project Manager
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• RACI chart

RACI = Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed

The RACI chart will provide clarity for overarching roles and responsibilities during the consolidation.

1. Confirm and modify the columns to match the stakeholders in your organization.
2. Confirm and modify the roles listed as rows if there are obvious gaps or opportunities to consolidate rows.
3. Carefully analyze and document the roles as a group.

Identify key stakeholders to gather input from the business, get buy-in for the project, and plan communications

Identify the key stakeholders for the consolidation to identify the impact consolidation will have on them and ensure their concerns don’t get lost.

1. Use a stakeholder analysis to identify the people that can help ensure the success of your project.
2. Identify an Executive Sponsor
   • A senior-level project sponsor is someone who will champion the consolidation project and help sell the concept to other stakeholders. They can also ensure that necessary financial and human resources will be made available to help secure the success of the project. This leader should be someone who is credible, tactful, and accessible, and one who will not only confirm the project direction but also advocate for the project.

Why is a stakeholder analysis essential?

• Ignoring key stakeholders is an important cause of failed consolidations.
• You can use the opinions of the most influential stakeholders to shape the project at an early stage.
• Their support will secure resources for the project and improve the quality of the consolidation.
• Communicating with key stakeholders early and often will ensure they fully understand the benefits of your project.
• You can anticipate the reaction of key stakeholders to your project and plan steps to win their support.

Info-Tech Insight

Be diverse and aware. When identifying key stakeholders for the project, make sure to include a rich diversity of stakeholder expertise, geography, and tactics. Also, step back and add silent members to your list. The loudest voices and heaviest campaigners are not necessarily your key stakeholders.

Identify key stakeholders for the consolidation

1.1.2 Identify project stakeholders, particularly project champions

Participants

• CIO/IT Director
• Project Sponsor
• Project Manager
• IT Managers

What You’ll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers

Goal: Create a prioritized list of people who are affected or can affect your project so you can plan stakeholder engagement and communication.

• Use an influence/commitment matrix to determine where your stakeholders lie.
• High influence, high commitment individuals should be used in conjunction with your efforts to help bring others on board. Identify these individuals and engage with them immediately.
• Beware of the high influence, low commitment individuals. They should be the first priority for engagement.
• High commitment, low influence individuals can be used to help influence the low influence, low commitment individuals. Designate a few of these individuals as “champions” to help drive engagement on the front lines.

Outcome: A list of key stakeholders to include on your steering committee and your project team, and to communicate with throughout the project.

Overcome the value gap by gathering stakeholder concerns

Simply identifying and engaging your stakeholders is not enough. There needs to be feedback: talk to your end users to ensure their concerns are heard and determine the impact that consolidation will have on them. Otherwise, you risk leaving value on the table.

• Talk to the business end users who will be supported by the consolidated service desk.
• What are their concerns about consolidation?
• Which functions and services are most important to them? You need to make sure these won't get lost.
• Try to determine what impact consolidation will have on them.

According to the Project Management Institute, only 25% of individuals fully commit to change. The remaining 75% either resist or simply accept the change. Gathering stakeholder concerns is a powerful way to gain buy-in.

Collect relevant quantitative and qualitative data to assess key stakeholders’ perceptions of IT across the organization

Don’t base your consolidation on a hunch. Gather reliable data to assess the current state of IT.

Solicit direct feedback from the organization to gain critical insights into their perceptions of IT.

• CIO Business Vision: Understanding the needs of your stakeholders is the first and most important step in building a consolidation strategy. Use the results of this survey to assess the satisfaction and importance of different IT services.
• End-User Satisfaction: Solicit targeted department feedback on core IT service capabilities, IT communications, and business enablement. Use the results to assess the satisfaction of end users with each service broken down by department and seniority level.

We recommend completing at least the End-User Satisfaction survey as part of your service desk consolidation assessment and planning. An analyst will help you set up the diagnostic and walk through the report with you.

To book a diagnostic, or get a copy of our questions to inform your own survey, visit Info-Tech’s Benchmarking Tools, contact your account manager, or call toll-free 1-888-670-8889 (US) or 1-844-618-3192 (CAN).

Data-Driven Diagnostics:

End-User Satisfaction Survey

CIO Business Vision

Review the results of your diagnostics in step 1.3

Formalize an engagement plan to cultivate support for the change from key stakeholders

Use Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to formalize an engagement strategy

If a more formal engagement plan is required for this project, use Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to document an engagement strategy to ensure buy-in for the consolidation.

The engagement plan is a structured and documented approach for gathering requirements by eliciting input and validating plans for change and cultivating sponsorship and support from key stakeholders early in the project lifecycle.

The Stakeholder Engagement Workbook situates stakeholders on a grid that identifies which ones have the most interest in and influence on your project, to assist you in developing a tailored engagement strategy.

You can also use this analysis to help develop a communications plan for each type of stakeholder in step 3.2.

Conduct stakeholder interviews to understand needs in more depth, if necessary

1.1.3 Interview key stakeholders to identify needs

• If the consolidation will be a large and complex project and there is a need to understand requirements in more depth, conduct stakeholder interviews with “high-value targets” who can help generate requirements and promote communication around requirements at a later point.
• Choose the interview method that is most appropriate based on available resources.

Step 1.2: Develop a vision to give the project direction

Phase 1

Develop a shared vision

1.1 Get buy-in from key stakeholders

1.2 Develop a vision to give the project direction

1.3 Conduct a full assessment of each service desk

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• 1.2.1 Brainstorm desired attributes for the consolidated service desk to start formulating a vision
• 1.2.2 Develop a compelling vision and story of change
• 1.2.3 Create a vision for the consolidated service desk
• 1.2.4 Identify the purpose, goals, and guiding principles of the consolidation project
• 1.2.5 Identify anticipated benefits and associated KPIs
• 1.2.6 Conduct a SWOT analysis on the business

This step involves the following participants:

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
• Business Executives

Step outcomes

A shared vision for the consolidated service desk that:

• Defines the scope of the consolidation
• Encompasses the goals and guiding principles of the project
• Identifies key attributes of the consolidated service desk and anticipated benefits it will bring
• Is documented in an executive presentation

Hold an executive visioning session to kick off the project

A major change such as service desk consolidation requires a compelling vision to engage staff and motivate them to comprehend and support the change.

After identifying key stakeholders, gather them in a visioning session or workshop to establish a clear direction for the project.

An executive visioning session can take up to two days of focused effort and activities with the purpose of defining the short and long-term view, objectives, and priorities for the new consolidated service desk.

The session should include the following participants:

• Key stakeholders identified in step 1.1, including:
  • IT management and CIO
  • Project sponsor
  • Business executives interested in the project

The session should include the following tasks:

• Identify and prioritize the desired outcome for the project
• Detail the scope and definition of the consolidation
• Identify and assess key problems and opportunities
• Surface and challenge project assumptions
• Clarify the future desired state of the service desk
• Determine how processes, functions, and systems are to be included in a consolidation analysis
• Establish a degree of ownership by senior management

The activities throughout this step are designed to be included as part of the visioning session

Choose the attributes of your desired consolidated service desk

Understand what a model consolidated service desk should look like before envisioning your target consolidated service desk.

A consolidated service desk should include the following aspects:

• Handles all customer contacts – including internal and external users – across all locations and business units
• Provides a single point of contact for end users to submit requests for help
• Handles both incidents and service requests, as well as any additional relevant ITIL modules such as problem, change, or asset management
• Consistent, standardized processes and workflows
• Single ITSM tool with workflows for ticket handling, prioritization, and escalations
• Central data repository so that staff have access to all information needed to resolve issues quickly and deliver high-quality service, including:
  • IT infrastructure information (such as assets and support contracts)
  • End-user information (including central AD, assets and products owned, and prior interactions)
  • Knowledgebase containing known resolutions and workarounds

Consolidated Service Desk

• Service Desk 1
• Service Desk 2
• Service Desk 3
• Consolidated staff
• Consolidated ITSM tool
• Consolidated data repository

Brainstorm desired attributes for the consolidated service desk to start formulating a vision

1.2.1 Identify the type of consolidation and desired service desk attributes

Participants

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
• Other interested business executives

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers

Document

Document in the Consolidate Service Desk Executive Presentation, slide 6.

Brainstorm the model and attributes of the target consolidated service desk. You will use this to formulate a vision and define more specific requirements later on.

1. Identify the type of consolidation: virtual, physical, or hybrid (both)
2. Identify the level of consolidation: partial (some service desks consolidated) or complete (all service desks consolidated)

3. As a group, brainstorm and document a list of attributes that the consolidated service desk should have.

Examples:

• Single point of contact for all users
• One ITSM tool with consistent built-in automated workflows
• Well-developed knowledgebase
• Self-serve portal for end users with ability to submit and track tickets
• Service catalog

Develop a compelling vision and story of change

1.2.2 Use a vision table to begin crafting the consolidation vision

Participants

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)
• Other interested business executives

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers

Document

Document in the Consolidate Service Desk Executive Presentation, slide 7.

Build desire for change.

In addition to standard high-level scope elements, consolidation projects that require organizational change also need a compelling story or vision to influence groups of stakeholders.

Use the vision table below to begin developing a compelling vision and story of change.

Develop a vision to inspire and sustain leadership and commitment

Vision can be powerful but is difficult to craft. As a result, vision statements often end up being ineffective (but harmless) platitudes.

A service desk consolidation project requires a compelling vision to energize staff and stakeholders toward a unified goal over a sustained period of time.

Great visions:

• Tell a story. They describe a journey with a beginning (who we are and how we got here) and a destination (our goals and expected success in the future).
• Convey an intuitive sense of direction (or “spirit of change”) that helps people act appropriately without being explicitly told what to do.
• Appeal to both emotion and reason to make people want to be part of the change.
• Balance abstract ideas with concrete facts. Without concrete images and facts, the vision will be meaninglessly vague. Without abstract ideas and principles, the vision will lack power to unite people and inspire broad support.
• Are concise enough to be easy to communicate and remember in any situation.

Info-Tech Insight

Tell a story. Stories pack a lot of information into few words. They are easy to write, remember, and most importantly – share. It’s worth spending a little extra time to get the details right.

Create a vision for the consolidated service desk

1.2.3 Tell a story to describe the consolidated service desk vision

Participants

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers
• Document in the Executive Presentation, slide 8.

Craft a vision of the future state of the service desk.

Tell a story.

Stories serve to give the consolidation real-world context by describing what the future state will mean for both staff and users of the service desk. The story should sum up the core of the experience of using the consolidated service desk and reflect how the service desk will fit into the life of the user.

Stories should include:

• Action describing the way things happen.
• Contextual detail that helps readers relate to the person in the story.
• Challenging ideas that contradict common belief and may be disruptive, but help suggest new directions.

Example:

Imagine if…

… users could access one single online service that allows them to submit a ticket through a self-service portal and service catalog, view the status of their ticket, and receive updates about organization-wide outages and announcements. They never have to guess who to contact for help with a particular type of issue or how to contact them as there is only one point of contact for all types of incidents and service requests.

… all users receive consistent service delivery regardless of their location, and never try to circumvent the help desk or go straight to a particular technician for help as there is only one way to get help by submitting a ticket through a single service desk.

… tickets from any location could be easily tracked, prioritized, and escalated using standardized definitions and workflows to ensure consistent service delivery and allow for one set of SLAs to be defined and met across the organization.

Discuss the drivers of the consolidation to identify the goals the project must achieve

Identifying the reasons behind the consolidation will help formulate the vision for the consolidated service desk and the goals it should achieve.

Service Desk Institute (n = 20, 2007)

A survey of 233 service desks considering consolidation found that of the 20 organizations that were in the planning stages of consolidation, the biggest driver was to improve service delivery and/or increase productivity.

This is in line with the recommendation that improved service quality should be the main consolidation driver over reducing costs.

Service Desk Institute (n = 43, 2007)

The drivers were similar among the 43 organizations that had already implemented a consolidated service desk, with improved service delivery and increased productivity again the primary driver.

Aligning with best practice was the second most cited driver.

Identify the purpose, goals, and guiding principles of the consolidation project

1.2.4 Document goals of the project

Participants

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers
• Document in the Executive Presentation, slide 9.

Use the results of your stakeholder analysis and interviews to facilitate a discussion among recommended participants and document the purpose of the consolidation project, the goals the project aims to achieve, and the guiding principles that must be followed.

Use the following example to guide your discussion:

Identify the anticipated benefits of the consolidation to weigh them against risks and plan future communications

The primary driver for consolidation of service desks is improved service delivery and increased productivity. This should relate to the primary benefits delivered by the consolidation, most importantly, improved end-user satisfaction.

A survey of 43 organizations that have implemented a consolidated service desk identified the key benefits delivered by the consolidation (see chart at right).

Source: Service Desk Institute (n = 43, 2007)

Info-Tech Insight

Cost reduction may be an important benefit delivered by the consolidation effort, but it should not be the most valuable benefit delivered. Focus communications on anticipated benefits for improved service delivery and end-user satisfaction to gain buy-in for the project.

Identify anticipated outcomes and benefits of consolidation

1.2.5 Use a “stop, start, continue” exercise to identify KPIs

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers

Participants

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)

Document

Document in the Executive Presentation, slide 10

1. Divide the whiteboard into 3 columns: stop, start, and continue
2. Identify components of your service desk that:

• Are problematic and should be phased out (stop)
• Provide value but are not in place yet (start)
• Are effective and should be sustained, if not improved (continue)

Use a SWOT analysis to assess the service desk

• A SWOT analysis is a structured planning method that organizations can use to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or business venture.
• Use a SWOT analysis to identify the organization’s current IT capabilities and classify potential disruptive technologies as the first step toward preparing for them.

Review these questions...

…to help you conduct your SWOT analysis on the service desk.

Conduct a SWOT analysis on the business

1.2.6 Conduct SWOT analysis

Participants

• Project Sponsor
• IT Director, CIO
• IT Managers and Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers

Document

• Document in the Executive Presentation, slide 11

1. Break the group into two teams:

• Assign team A strengths and weaknesses.
• Assign team B opportunities and threats.

• Refer to the questions on the previous slide to help guide discussion

Frame your project in terms of people, process, technology

A framework should be used to guide the consolidation effort and provide a standardized basis of comparison between the current and target state.

Frame the project in terms of the change and impact it will have on:

• People
• Process
• Technology

Service desk consolidation will likely have a significant impact in all three categories by standardizing processes, implementing a single service management tool, and reallocating resources. Framing the project in this way will ensure that no aspect goes forgotten.

For each of the three categories, you will identify:

• Current state
• Target state
• Gap and actions required
• Impact, risks, and benefits
• Communication and training requirements
• How to measure progress/success

People

• Tier 1 support
• Tier 2 support
• Tier 3 support
• Vendors

Process

• Incident management
• Service request management
• SLAs

Technology

• ITSM tools
• Knowledgebase
• CMDB and other databases
• Technology supported

Complete the Consolidate Service Desk Executive Presentation

Complete an executive presentation using the decisions made throughout this step

Use the Consolidate Service Desk Executive Presentation to deliver the outputs of your project planning to the business and gain buy-in for the project.

1. Use the results of the activities throughout step 1.2 to produce the key takeaways for your executive presentation.
2. At the end of the presentation, include 1-2 slides summarizing any additional information specific to your organization.
3. Once complete, pitch the consolidation project to the project sponsor and executive stakeholders.
   • This presentation needs to cement buy-in for the project before any other progress is made.

Step 1.3: Conduct a full assessment of each service desk

Phase 1

Develop a shared vision

1.1 Get buy-in from key stakeholders

1.2 Develop a vision to give the project direction

1.3 Conduct a full assessment of each service desk

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• 1.3.1 Review the results of your diagnostic programs
• 1.3.2 Analyze the organizational structure of each service desk
• 1.3.3 Assess the overall maturity of each service desk
• 1.3.4 Map out roles and responsibilities of each service desk using organizational charts
• 1.3.5 Assess and document current information system environment

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Directors
• Service Desk Managers
• Service Desk Technicians

Step outcomes

• A robust current state assessment of each service desk, including overall maturity, processes, organizational structure, agent skills, roles and responsibilities, agent satisfaction, technology and ITSM tools.

Oxford saved time and effort by sticking with a tested process that works

CASE STUDY

Industry: Higher Education

Source: Oxford University, IT Services

Oxford ITS instigated the service desk consolidation project in the fall of 2012.

A new ITSM solution was formally acquired in the spring 2014, and amalgamated workflows designed.

Throughout this period, at least 3 detailed process analyses occurred in close consultation with the affected IT units.

Responsibility for understanding each existing process (incident, services, change management, etc.) were assigned to members of the project team.

They determined which of the existing processes were most effective, and these served as the baseline – saving time and effort in the long run by sticking with tested processes that work.

Reach out early and often.

Almost from day one, the Oxford consolidation team made sure to consult closely with each relevant ITS team about their processes and the tools they used to manage their workflows.

This was done both in structured interviews during the visioning stage and informally at periodic points throughout the project.

The result was the discovery of many underlying similarities. This information was then instrumental to determining a realistic baseline from which to design the new consolidated service desk.

"We may give our activities different names or use different tools to manage our work but in all cases common sense has prevailed and it’s perhaps not so surprising that we have common challenges that we choose to tackle in similar ways." – Andrew Goff, Change Management at Oxford ITS

Review the results of your diagnostic programs to inform your current state assessment

1.3.1 Understand satisfaction with the service desk

Participants

• CIO/IT Director
• IT Manager
• Service Manager(s)

Document

• Record end-user satisfaction in the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool, tab 4.

1. Set up an analyst call through your account manager to review the results of your diagnostic.

• Whatever survey you choose, ask the analyst to review the data and comments concerning:
  • Assessments of service desk timeliness/effectiveness
  • IT business enablement
  • IT innovation leadership

A robust current state assessment is the foundation of a successful consolidation

You can’t determine where you’re going without a clear idea of where you are now.

Before you begin planning for the consolidation, make sure you have a clear picture of the magnitude of what you plan on consolidating.

Evaluate the current state of each help desk being considered for consolidation. This should include an inventory of:

• Process:
  • Processes and workflows
  • Metrics and SLAs
• People:
  • Organizational structure
  • Agent workload and skills
  • Facility layout and design
• Technology:
  • Technologies and end users supported
  • Technologies and tools used by the service desk

Info-Tech Insight

A detailed current state assessment is a necessary first step for a consolidation project, but determining the right level of detail to include in the evaluation can be challenging. Gather enough data to establish a baseline and make an informed decision about how to consolidate, but don’t waste time collecting unnecessary information that will only distract and slow down the project.

Review ticket handling processes for each service desk to identify best practices

Use documentation, reports, and metrics to evaluate existing processes followed by each service desk before working toward standardized processes.

Analyze the organizational structure of each service desk

1.3.2 Discuss the structure of each service desk

Participants

• CIO
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You'll Need

• Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool

1. Facilitate a discussion among recommended participants to discuss the structure of each service desk. Decide which model best describes each service desk:

• The Gatekeeper Model: All calls are routed through a central call group whose sole responsibility is to link the customer to the right individual or group.
• The Call Sorting Model: All calls are sorted into categories using technology and forwarded to the right 2nd level specialist group.
• Tiered Structure (Specialist Model): All calls are sorted through a single specialist group, such as desktop support. Their job is to log the interaction, attempt resolution, and escalate when the problem is beyond their ability to resolve.
• Tiered Structure (Generalist Model): All calls are sorted through a single generalist group, whose responsibility is to log the interaction, attempt a first resolution, and escalate when the problem is beyond their ability to resolve.

2. Use a flip chart or whiteboard to draw the architecture of each service desk, using the example on the right as a guide.

Assess the current state of each service desk using the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool

Assess the current state of each service desk

The Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool will provide insight into the overall health of each existing service desk along two vectors:

1. Process Maturity (calculated on the basis of a comprehensive survey)
2. Metrics (calculated on the basis of entered ticket and demographic data)

Together these answers offer a snapshot of the health, efficiency, performance, and perceived value of each service desk under evaluation.

This tool will assist you through the current state assessment process, which should follow these steps:

1. Send a copy of this tool to the Service Desk Manager (or other designated party) of each service desk that may be considered as part of the consolidation effort.
   • This will collect key metrics and landscape data and assess process maturity
2. Analyze the data and discuss as a group
3. Ask follow-up questions
4. Use the information to compare the health of each service desk using the scorecard tool

These activities will be described in more detail throughout this step of the project.

Gather relevant data to assess the environment of each service desk

Assess each service desk’s environment using the assessment tool

Send a copy of the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool to the Service Desk Manager (or other designated party) of each service desk that will be considered as part of the consolidation.

Instruct them to complete tab 2 of the tool, the Environment Survey:

• Enter Profile, Demographic, Satisfaction, Technology, and Ticket data into the appropriate fields as accurately as possible. Satisfaction data should be entered as percentages.
• Notes can be entered next to each field to indicate the source of the data, to note missing or inaccurate data, or to explain odd or otherwise confusing data.

This assessment will provide an overview of key metrics to assess the performance of each service desk, including:

• Service desk staffing for each tier
• Average ticket volume and distribution per month
• # staff in IT
• # service desk staff
• # supported devices (PC, laptops, mobiles, etc.)
• # desktop images

Assess the overall maturity of each service desk

1.3.3 Use the assessment tool to measure the maturity of each service desk

Participants

• CIO
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You'll Need

• Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool

1. Assemble the relevant team for each service desk: process owners, functional managers, service desk manager, and relevant staff and technicians who work with the processes to be assessed. Each service desk team should meet to complete the maturity assessment together as a group.
2. Go to tab 3 (Service Desk Maturity Survey) of the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool and respond to the questions in the following categories:

• Prerequisites (general questions)
• People
• Process
• Technology
• SLAs

Evaluate resource utilization and satisfaction to allocate resources effectively

Include people as part of your current state assessment to evaluate whether your resources are appropriately allocated to maximize effectiveness and agent satisfaction.

Skills Inventory

Use the IT Skills Inventory and Gap Assessment Tool to assess agent skills and identify gaps or overlaps.

Agent Satisfaction

Measure employee satisfaction and engagement to identify strong teams.

Roles and Responsibilities

Gather a clear picture of each service desk’s organizational hierarchy, roles, and responsibilities.

Agent Utilization

Obtain a snapshot of service desk productivity by calculating the average amount of time an agent is handling calls, divided by the average amount of time an agent is at work.

Conduct a skills inventory for each service desk

Evaluate agent skills across service desks

After evaluating processes, evaluate the skill sets of the agents tasked with following these processes to identify gaps or overlap.

Send the Skills Coverage Tool tab to each Service Desk Manager, who will either send it to the individuals who make up their service desk with instructions to rate themselves, or complete the assessment together with individuals as part of one-on-one meetings for discussing development plans.

IT Skills Inventory and Gap Assessment Tool will enable you to:

• List skills required to support the organization.
• Document and rate the skills of the existing IT staffing contingent.
• Assess the gaps to help determine hiring or training needs, or even where to pare back.
• Build a strategy for knowledge sharing, transfer, and training through the consolidation project.

Map out roles and responsibilities of each service desk using organizational charts

1.3.4 Obtain or draw organizational charts for each location

Clearly document service desk roles and responsibilities to rationalize service desk architecture.

Participants

• CIO, IT Director
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Tier/Specialist Manager(s)

What You’ll Need

• Org. charts
• Flip chart or whiteboard and markers

1. Obtain or draw (on a whiteboard or flip chart) the organizational chart for each service desk to get a clear picture of the roles that fulfill each service desk. If there is any uncertainty or disagreement, discuss as a group to come to a resolution.
2. Discuss the roles and reporting relationships within the service desk and across the organization to establish if/where inefficiencies exist and how these might be addressed through consolidation.
3. If an up-to-date organizational chart is not in place, use this time to define the organizational structure as-is and consider future state.

Conduct an agent satisfaction survey to compare employee engagement across locations

Evaluate agent satisfaction

End-user satisfaction isn’t the only important satisfaction metric.

Agent satisfaction forms a key metric within the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool, and it can be evaluated in a variety of ways. Choose the approach that best suits your organization and time restraints for the project.

Determine agent satisfaction on the basis of a robust (and anonymous) survey of service desk agents. Like the end-user satisfaction score, this measure is ideally computed as a percentage.

There are several ways to measure agent satisfaction:

1. If your organization runs an employee engagement survey, use the most recent survey results, separating them by location and converting them to a percentage.
2. If your organization does not currently measure employee engagement or satisfaction, consider one of Info-Tech and McLean & Company’s two engagement diagnostics:
   • Full Engagement Diagnostic – 81 questions that provide a comprehensive view into your organization's engagement levels
   • McLean & Company’s Pulse Survey – 15 questions designed to give a high-level view of employee engagement
3. For smaller organizations, a survey may not be feasible or make sense. In this case, consider gathering informal engagement data through one-on-one meetings.
4. Be sure to discuss and document any reasons for dissatisfaction, including pain points with the current tools or processes.

Document

• Document on tab 2 of the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool

Assess the service management tools supporting your service desks

Identify the different tools being used to support each service desk in order to assess whether and how they can be consolidated into one service management tool.

Ideally, your service desks are already on the same ITSM platform, but if not, a comprehensive assessment of current tools is the first step toward a single, consolidated solution.

Include the following in your tools assessment:

• All automated ITSM solutions being used to log and track incidents and service requests
• Any manual or other methods of tracking tickets (e.g. Excel spreadsheets)
• Configurations and any customizations that have been made to the tools
• How configuration items are maintained and how mature the configuration management databases (CMDB) are
• Pricing and licensing agreements for tools
• Any unique functions or limitations of the tools

Info-Tech Insight

Document not only the service management tools that are used but also any of their unique and necessary functions and configurations that users may have come to rely upon, such as remote support, self-serve, or chat support, in order to inform requirements in the next phase.

Assess the IT environment your service desks support

Even if you don’t do any formal asset management, take this opportunity for discovery and inventory to gain a complete understanding of your IT environment and the range of devices your service desks support.

Inventory your IT environment, including:

User Devices

• Device counts by category Equipment/resources by user

Servers

• Server hardware, CPU, memory
• Applications residing on servers

Data centers

• Including location and setup

In addition to identifying the range of devices you currently support, assess:

• Any future devices, hardware, or software that the service desk will need to support (e.g. BYOD, mobile)
• How well each service desk is currently able to support these devices
• Any unique or location-specific technology or devices that could limit a consolidation

Info-Tech Insight

The capabilities and configuration of your existing infrastructure and applications could limit your consolidation plans. A comprehensive technology assessment of not only the service desk tools but also the range of devices and applications your service desks supports will help you to prepare for any potential limitations or obstacles a consolidated service desk may present.

Assess and document current information system environment

1.3.5 Identify specific technology and tool requirements

Participants

• CIO
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You'll Need

• Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool, tab 2.

Document

Document information on number of devices supported and number of desktop images associated with each service desk in the section on “Technology Data” of the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool.

1. Identify and document the service management tools that are used by each service desk.
2. For each tool, identify and document any of the following that apply:

• Integrations
• Configurations that were made during implementation
• Customizations that were made during implementation
• Version, licenses, cost

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

1.1.1 Assign roles and responsibilities

Use a RACI chart to assign overarching responsibilities for the consolidation project.

1.3.2 Analyze the organizational structure of each service desk

Map out the organizational structure and flow of each service desk and discuss the model that best describes each.

Phase 2

Design the Consolidated Service Desk

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 2: Design consolidated service desk

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2-4

Step 2.1: Model target consolidated service desk

Start with an analyst kick-off call:

• Define the target state of the consolidated service desk in detail
• Identify requirements for the consolidation, broken down by people, process, technology and by short- vs. long-term needs

Then complete these activities…

• Set project metrics to measure success of the consolidation
• Brainstorm people, process, technology requirements for the service desk
• Build requirements documents and RFP for a new tool
• Review results of the scorecard comparison tool

With these tools & templates:

Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool

Step 2.2: Assess logistics and cost of consolidation

Review findings with analyst:

• Plan the logistics of the consolidation for process, technology, and facilities
• Evaluate the cost and cost savings of consolidation using a TCO tool

Then complete these activities…

• Plan logistics for process, technology, facilities, and resource allocation
• Review the results of the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator to refine the business case for the consolidation project

With these tools & templates:

Service Desk Efficiency Calculator

Service Desk Consolidation TCO Comparison Tool

Phase 2 Results:

• Detailed requirements and vision for the consolidated service desk, gap analysis of current vs. target state, and an initial analysis of the logistical considerations to achieve target.

Step 2.1: Model target consolidated state

Phase 2

Design consolidation

2.1 Design target consolidated service desk

2.2 Assess logistics and cost of consolidation

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• 2.1.1 Determine metrics to measure the value of the project
• 2.1.2 Set targets for each metric to measure progress and success of the consolidation
• 2.1.3 Brainstorm process requirements for consolidated service desk
• 2.1.4 Brainstorm people requirements for consolidated service desk
• 2.1.5 Brainstorm technology requirements for consolidated service desk
• 2.1.6 Build a requirements document for the service desk tool
• 2.1.7 Evaluate alternative tools, build a shortlist for RFPs, and arrange web demonstrations or evaluation copies
• 2.1.8 Set targets for key metrics to identify high performing service desks
• 2.1.9 Review the results of the scorecard to identify best practices

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Director
• Service Desk Managers
• Service Desk Technicians

Step Outcomes

• A list of people, process, and technology requirements for the new consolidated service desk
• A clear vision of the target state
• An analysis of the gaps between existing and target service desks

Ensure the right people and methods are in place to anticipate implementation hurdles

CASE STUDY

Industry: Higher Education

Source: Oxford University, IT Services

"Since our last update, a review and re-planning exercise has reassessed the project approach, milestones, and time scales. This has highlighted some significant hurdles to transition which needed to be addressed, resulting primarily from the size of the project and the importance to the department of a smooth and well-planned transition to the new processes and toolset." – John Ireland, Director of Customer Service & Project Sponsor

Initial hurdles led to a partial reorganization of the project in Fall 2014

Despite careful planning and its ultimate success, Oxford’s consolidation effort still encountered some significant hurdles along the way – deadlines were sometimes missed and important processes overlooked.

These bumps can be mitigated by building flexibility into your plan:

• Adopt an Agile methodology – review and revise groups of tasks as the project progresses, rather than waiting until near the end of the project to get approval for the complete implementation.
• Your Tiger Team or Project Steering Group must include the right people – the project team should not just include senior or high-level management; members of each affected IT group should be consulted, and junior-level employees can provide valuable insight into existing and potential processes and workflows.

Info-Tech Insight

Ensure that the project lead is someone conversant in ITSM, so that they are equipped to understand and react to the unique challenges and expectations of a consolidation and can easily communicate with process owners.

Use the consolidation vision to define the target service desk in more detail

Use your baseline assessment and your consolidation vision as a guide to figure out exactly where you’re going before planning how to get there.

With approval for the project established and a clear idea of the current state of each service desk, narrow down the vision for the consolidated service desk into a specific picture of the target state.

The target state should provide answers to the following types of questions:

Process:

• Will there be one set of SLAs across the organization?
• What are the target SLAs?
• How will ticket categories be defined?
• How will users submit and track their tickets?
• How will tickets be prioritized and escalated?
• Will a knowledgebase be maintained and accessible by both service desk and end users?

People:

• How will staff be reorganized?
• What will the roles and responsibilities look like?
• How will tiers be structured?
• What will the career path look like within the service desk?

Technology:

• Will there be one single ITSM tool to support the service desk?
• Will an existing tool be used or will a new tool be selected?
• If a new tool is needed, what are the requirements?

Info-Tech Insight

Select the target state that is right for your organization. Don’t feel pressured to select the highest target state or a complete consolidation. Instead select the target state that is most compatible with your organization’s current needs and capabilities.

Determine metrics to measure the value of the project

2.1.1 Identify KPIs to measure the success of the consolidation

Participants

• CIO
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You’ll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers

Identify three primary categories where the consolidation project is expected to yield benefits to the business. Use the example on the right to guide your discussion.

Efficiency and effectiveness are standard benefits for this project, but the third category may depend on your organization.

• Examples include: improved resourcing, security, asset management, strategic alignment, end-user experience, employee experience

Identify 1-3 key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with each benefit category, which will be used to measure the success of the consolidation project. Ensure that each has a baseline measure that can be reassessed after the consolidation.

Efficiency

Streamlined processes to reduce duplication of efforts

• Reduced IT spend and cost of delivery
• One ITSM tool Improved reliability of service
• Improved response time

Resourcing

Improved allocation of human and financial resources

• Improved resource sharing
• Improved organizational structure of service desk

Effectiveness

Service delivery will be more accessible and standardized

• Improved responsive-ness to incidents and service requests
• Improved resolution time
• Single point of contact for end users
• Improved reporting

Set targets for each metric to measure progress and success of the consolidation

2.1.2 Identify specific metrics for each KPI and targets for each

Participants

• IT Director
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You’ll Need

• KPIs from previous step
• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers

1. Select one core KPI for each critical success factor, which will be used to measure progress and success of the consolidation effort down the road.
2. For each KPI, document the average baseline metric the organization is achieving (averaged across all service desks).
3. Discuss and document a target metric that the project will aim to reach through the single consolidated service desk.
4. Set a short and long-term target for each metric to encourage continuous improvement. Examples:

If poor processes were in place, take the opportunity to start fresh with the consolidation

If each service desk’s existing processes were subpar, it may be easier to build a new service desk from the basics rather than trying to adapt existing processes.

You should have these service management essentials in place:

Service Requests:

• Standardize process to verify, approve, and fulfill service requests.
• Assign priority according to business criticality and service agreements.
• Think about ways to manage service requests to better serve the business long term.

Incident Management:

• Set standards to define and record incidents.
• Define incident response actions and communications.

Knowledgebase:

• Define standards for knowledgebase.
• Introduce creation of knowledgebase articles.
• Create a knowledge-sharing and cross-training culture.

Reporting:

• Select appropriate metrics.
• Generate relevant insights that shed light on the value that IT creates for the organization.

Evaluate how your processes compare with the best practices defined here. If you need further guidance on how to standardize these processes after planning the consolidation, follow Info-Tech’s blueprint, Standardize the Service Desk.

Even optimized processes will need to be redefined for the target consolidated state

Your target state doesn’t have to be perfect. Model a short-term, achievable target state that can demonstrate immediate value.

Consider the following elements when designing service desk processes:

• Ticket input (i.e. how can tickets be submitted?)
• Ticket classification (i.e. how will tickets be categorized?)
• Ticket prioritization (i.e. how will critical incidents be defined?)
• Ticket escalation (i.e. how and at what point will tickets be assigned to a more specialized resource?)
• Ticket resolution (i.e. how will resolution be defined and how will users be notified?)
• Communication with end users (i.e. how and how often will users be notified about the status of their ticket or of other incidents and outages?)

Consider the following unique process considerations for consolidation:

• How will knowledge sharing be enabled in order for all technicians to quickly access known errors and resolve problems?
• How can first contact resolution levels be maintained through the transition?
• How will procedures be clearly documented so that tickets are escalated properly?
• Will ticket classification and prioritization schemes need to change?
• Will new services such as self-serve be introduced to end users and how will this be communicated?

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t do it all at once. Consolidation will lead to some level of standardization. It will be reinforced and improved later through ongoing reengineering and process improvement efforts (continual improvement management).

Brainstorm process requirements for consolidated service desk

2.1.3 Identify process-related requirements for short and long term

Participants

• CIO
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard, sticky notes, markers
• Vision and goals for the consolidation from step 1.2

Document

• Document internally, or leave on a whiteboard for workshop participants to return to when documenting tasks in the roadmap tool.

1. Review the questions in the previous section to frame a discussion on process considerations and best practices for the target consolidated service desk.
2. Use your responses to the questions to brainstorm a list of process requirements or desired characteristics for the target state, particularly around incident management and service request management.
3. Write each requirement onto a sticky note and categorize it as one of the following:
   1. Immediate requirement for consolidated service desk
   2. Implement within 6 months
   3. Implement within 1 year

Example:

Whiteboard:

• Immediate
  • Clearly defined ticket prioritization scheme
  • Critical incident process workflow
• 6 months
  • Clearly defined SOP, policies, and procedures
  • Transactional end-user satisfaction surveys
• 1 year
  • Change mgmt.
  • Problem mgmt.

Define the target resource distribution and utilization for the consolidated service desk

Consolidation can sound scary to staff wondering if there will be layoffs. Reduce that by repurposing local staff and maximizing resource utilization in your organizational design.

Consider the following people-related elements when designing your target state:

• How will roles and responsibilities be defined for service desk staff?
• How many agents will be required to deal with ticket demand?
• What is the target agent utilization rate?
• How will staff be distributed among tiers?
• What will responsibilities be at each tier?
• Will performance goals and rewards be established or standardized?

Consider the following unique people considerations for consolidation:

• Will staffing levels change?
• Will job titles or roles change for certain individuals?
• How will staff be reorganized?
• Will staff need to be relocated to one location?
• Will reporting relationships change?
• How will this be managed?
• How will performance measurements be consolidated across teams and departments to focus on the business goals?
• Will there be a change to career paths?
• What will consolidation do to morale, job interest, job opportunities?

Info-Tech Insight

Identify SMEs and individuals who are knowledgeable about a particular location, end-user base, technology, or service offering. They may be able to take on a different, greater role due to the reorganization that would make better use of their skills and capabilities and improve morale.

Brainstorm people requirements for consolidated service desk

2.1.4 Identify people-related requirements for short and long term

Participants

• CIO
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard, sticky notes, markers
• Vision and goals for the consolidation from step 1.2

Document

Document internally, or leave on a whiteboard for workshop participants to return to when documenting tasks in the roadmap tool.

1. Review the questions in the previous section to frame a discussion on people considerations and best practices for the target consolidated service desk.
2. Use your responses to the questions to brainstorm a list of requirements for the allocation and distribution of resources, including roles, responsibilities, and organizational structure.
3. When thinking about people, consider requirements for both your staff and your end users.
4. Write each requirement onto a sticky note and categorize it as one of the following:
   1. Immediate requirement for consolidated service desk
   2. Implement within 6 months
   3. Implement within 1 year

Example:

Whiteboard:

• Immediate
  • Three tier structure with SMEs at Tier 2 and 3
  • All staff working together in one visible location
• 6 months
  • Roles and responsibilities well defined and documented
  • Appropriate training and certifications available to staff
• 1 year
  • Agent satisfaction above 80%
  • End-user satisfaction above 75%

Identify the tools that will support the service desk and those the service desk will support

One of the biggest technology-related decisions you need to make is whether you need a new ITSM tool. Consider how it will be used by a single service desk to support the entire organization.

Consider the following technology elements when designing your target state:

• What tool will be used to support the service desk?
• What processes or ITIL modules can the tool support?
• How will reports be produced? What types of reports will be needed for particular audiences?
• Will a self-service tool be in place for end users to allow for password resets or searches for solutions?
• Will the tool integrate with tools for change, configuration, problem, and asset management?
• Will the majority of manual processes be automated?

Consider the following unique technology considerations for consolidation:

• Is an existing service management tool extensible?
• If so, can it integrate with essential non-IT systems?
• Can the tool support a wider user base?
• Can the tool support all areas, departments, and technologies it will need to after consolidation?
• How will data from existing tools be migrated to the new tool?
• What implementation or configuration needs and costs must be considered?
• What training will be required for the tool?
• What other new tools and technologies will be required to support the consolidated service desk?

Info-Tech Insight

Talk to staff at each service desk to ask about their tool needs and requirements to support their work. Invite them to demonstrate how they use their tools to learn about customization, configuration, and functionality in place and to help inform requirements. Engaging staff in the process will ensure that the new consolidated tool will be supported and adopted by staff.

Brainstorm technology requirements for consolidated service desk

2.1.5 Identify technology-related requirements for short and long term

Participants

• CIO
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You’ll Need

• Whiteboard, sticky notes, markers
• Vision and goals for the consolidation from step 1.2

Document

Document internally, or leave on a whiteboard for workshop participants to return to when documenting tasks in the roadmap tool.

1. Review the questions in the previous section to frame a discussion on technology considerations and best practices for the target consolidated service desk.
2. Use your responses to the questions to brainstorm a list of requirements for the tools to support the consolidated service desk, along with any other technology requirements for the target state.
3. Write each requirement onto a sticky note and categorize it as one of the following:
   1. Immediate requirement for consolidated service desk
   2. Implement within 6 months
   3. Implement within 1 year

Example:

Whiteboard:

• Immediate
  • Single ITSM tool
  • Remote desktop support
• 6 months
  • Self-service portal
  • Regular reports are produced accurately
• 1 year
  • Mobile portal
  • Chat integration

Identify specific requirements for a tool if you will be selecting a new ITSM solution

Service desk software needs to address both business and technological needs. Assess these needs to identify core capabilities required from the solution.

Build a requirements document for the service desk tool

2.1.6 Create a requirements list and demo script for an ITSM tool (optional)

Participants

• CIO/IT Director
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Technicians

What You'll Need

• Flip charts and markers
• Templates:
  • IT Service Management Demo Script Template
  • Service Desk Software and RFP Evaluation Tool

Create a requirements list for the service desk tool.

1. Break the group into smaller functional groups.
2. Brainstorm features that would be important to improving efficiencies, services to users, and visibility to data.
3. Document on flip chart paper, labelling each page with the functional group name.
4. Prioritize into must-have and nice-to-have items.
5. Reconvene and discuss each list with the group.
6. Info-Tech’s Service Desk Software and RFP Evaluation Tool can also be used to document requirements for an RFI.

Create a demo script:

Using information from the requirements list, determine which features will be important for the team to see during a demo. Focus on areas where usability is a concern, for example:

• End-user experience
• Workflow creation and modification
• Creating templates
• Creating service catalog items
• Knowledgebase

Evaluate alternative tools, build a shortlist for RFPs, and arrange web demonstrations or evaluation copies

2.1.7 Identify an alternative tool and build an RFP (optional)

Participants

• CIO (optional)
• Service Desk Manager
• Service Desk Technician(s)
• Service Desk Tool Administrator

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers
• Service Desk RFP Template

Evaluate current tool:

• Investigate to determine if these features are present and just not in use.
• Contact the vendor if necessary.
• If enough features are present, determine if additional training is required.
• If tool is proven to be inadequate, investigate options.

Consider alternatives:

• Fill in RFP template with features list.
• Create demo script to identify features your team wishes to see.
• Review the Info-Tech Vendor Landscapes to find the most appropriate vendors for your organization:
  • Vendor Landscape: Mid-Market Service Desk Software
  • Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Service Desk Software

Use Info-Tech’s blueprints for further guidance on selecting and implementing an ITSM tool

1. Select a tool

Info-Tech regularly evaluates ITSM solution providers and ranks each in terms of functionality and affordability. The results are published in the Enterprise and Mid-Market Service Desk Software Vendor Landscapes.

2. Implement the tool

After selecting a solution, follow the Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan project to develop an implementation plan to ensure the tool is appropriately designed, installed, and tested and that technicians are sufficiently trained to ensure successful deployment and adoption of the tool.

Compare your existing service desks with the Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool

Complete the scorecard tool along with the activities of the next step

The Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool will allow you to compare metrics and maturity results across your service desks to identify weak and poor performers and processes.

The purpose of this tool is to organize the data from up to six service desks that are part of a service desk consolidation initiative. Displaying this data in an organized fashion, while offering a robust comparative analysis, should facilitate the process of establishing a new baseline for the consolidated service desk.

Use the results on tab 4 of the Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool. Enter the data from each service desk into tab “2. InfoCards” of the Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool.

Data from up to six service desks (up to six copies of the assessment tool) can be entered into this tool for comparison.

Set targets for key metrics to identify high performing service desks

2.1.8 Use the scorecard tool to set target metrics against which to compare service desks

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You’ll Need

• Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool

1. Review the explanations of the six core metrics identified from the service desk assessment tool. These are detailed on tab 3 of the Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool.
   1. End-user satisfaction
   2. Agent satisfaction
   3. Cost per ticket
   4. Agent utilization rate
   5. First contact resolution rate
   6. First tier resolution rate
2. For each metric (except agent utilization), define a “worst” and “best” target number. These numbers should be realistic and determined only after some consideration.

• Service desks scoring at or above the “best” threshold for a particular metric will receive 100% on that metric; while service desks scoring at or below the “worst” threshold for a particular metric will receive 0% on that metric.
• For agent utilization, only a “best” target number is entered. Service desks hitting this target number exactly will receive 100%, with scores decreasing as a service desk’s agent utilization gets further away from this target.

The values entered on this tab will be used in calculating the overall metric score for each service desk, allowing you to compare the performance of existing service desks against each other and against your target state.

Review the results of the scorecard to identify best practices

2.1.9 Discuss the results of the scorecard tool

Participants

• CIO or IT Director (optional)
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool

1. Facilitate a discussion on the results of the scorecard tool on tabs 4 (Overall Results), 5 (Maturity Results), and 6 (Metrics Results).
2. Identify the top performing service desks(s) (SD Champions) as identified by the average of their metric and maturity scores.
3. Identify the top performing service desk by maturity level (tab 5; Level 3 – Integrated or Optimized), paying particular attention to high scorers on process maturity and maturity in incident & service request management.
4. Identify the top performing service desk by metric score (tab 6), paying particular attention to the metrics that tie into your KPIs.
5. For those service desks, review their processes and identify what they are doing well to glean best practices.
   1. Incorporate best practices from existing high performing service desks into your target state.
   2. If one service desk is already performing well in all areas, you may choose to model your consolidated service desk after it.

Document processes and procedures in an SOP

Define the standard operating procedures for the consolidated service desk

Develop one set of standard operating procedures to ensure consistent service delivery across locations.

One set of standard operating procedures for the new service desk is essential for a successful consolidation.

Info-Tech’s Consolidated Service Desk SOP Template provides a detailed example of documenting procedures for service delivery, roles and responsibilities, escalation and prioritization rules, workflows for incidents and service requests, and resolution targets to help ensure consistent service expectations across locations.

Use this template as a guide to develop or refine your SOP and define the processes for the consolidated service desk.

Step 2.2: Assess logistics and cost of consolidation

Phase 2

Design consolidation

2.1 Design target consolidated state

2.2 Assess logistics and cost

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• 2.2.1 Plan logistics for process, technology, and facilities
• 2.2.2 Plan logistics around resource allocation
• 2.2.3 Review the results of the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator to refine the business case for the consolidation project

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)

Step outcomes

• An understanding and list of tasks to accomplish to ensure all logistical considerations for the consolidation are accounted for
• An analysis of the impact on staffing and service levels using the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator
• An assessment of the cost of consolidation and the cost savings of a consolidated service desk using a TCO tool

The United States Coast Guard’s consolidation saved $20 million in infrastructure and support costs

CASE STUDY

Industry: US Coast Guard

Source: CIO Rear Adm. Robert E. Day, Jr. (retired)

Challenges

The US Coast Guard was providing internal IT support for 42,000 members on active duty from 11 distinct regional IT service centers around the US.

Pain Points

1. Maintaining 11 disparate IT architectures was costly and time consuming.
2. Staffing inefficiencies limited the USCG’s global IT service operations to providing IT support from 8am to 4pm.
3. Individual sites were unable to offload peak volume during heavier call loads to other facilities.
4. Enforcing adherence to standard delivery processes, procedures, and methods was nearly impossible.
5. Personnel didn’t have a single point of contact for IT support.
6. Leadership has limited access to consolidated analytics.

Outcomes

• Significant reduction in infrastructure, maintenance, and support costs.
• Reduced risk through comprehensive disaster recovery.
• Streamlined processes and procedures improved speed of incident resolution.
• Increased staffing efficiencies.
• Deeper analytical insight into service desk performance.

Admiral Day was the CIO from 2009 to 2014. In 2011, he lead an initiative to consolidate USCG service desks.

Selecting a new location communicated the national mandate of the consolidated service desk

Site Selection - Decision Procedures

• Determine location criteria, including:
  • Access to airports, trains, and highways
  • Workforce availability and education
  • Cost of land, real estate, taxes
  • Building availability Financial incentives
• Review space requirements (i.e. amount and type of space).
• Identify potential locations and analyze with defined criteria.
• Develop cost models for various alternatives.
• Narrow selection to 2-3 sites. Analyze for fit and costs.
• Conduct site visits to evaluate each option.
• Make a choice and arrange for securing the site.
• Remember to compare the cost to retrofit existing space with the cost of creating a space for the consolidated service desk.

Key Decision

Relocating to a new location involved potentially higher implementation costs, which was a significant disadvantage.

Ultimately, the relocation reinforced the national mandate of the consolidated service desk. The new organization would act as a single point of contact for the support of all 42,000 members of the US Coast Guard.

"Before our regional desks tended to take on different flavors and processes. Today, users get the same experience whether they’re in Alaska or Maryland by calling one number: (855) CG-FIX IT." – Rear Adm. Robert E. Day, Jr. (retired)

Plan the logistics of the consolidation to inform the project roadmap and cost assessment

Before proceeding, validate that the target state is achievable by evaluating the logistics of the consolidation itself.

A detailed project roadmap will help break down the project into manageable tasks to reach the target state, but there is no value to this if the target state is not achievable or realistic.

Don’t forget to assess the logistics of the consolidation that can be overlooked during the planning phase:

• Service desk size
• Location of the service desk
• Proximity to company management and facilities
• Unique applications, platforms, or configurations in each location/region
• Distribution of end-user population and varying end-user needs
• Load balancing
• Call routing across locations
• Special ergonomic or accessibility requirements by location
• Language requirements

Info-Tech Insight

Language barriers can form significant hurdles or even roadblocks for the consolidation project. Don’t overlook the importance of unique language requirements and ensure the consolidated service desk will be able to support end-user needs.

Plan logistics for process, technology, and facilities

2.2.1 Assess logistical and cost considerations around processes, technology, and facilities

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers
• Consolidate roadmap

Document

Identify tasks that should form part of the roadmap and document in the roadmap tool.

Identify costs that should be included in the TCO assessment and document in the TCO tool.

Discuss and identify any logistic and cost considerations that will need to form part of the consolidation plan and roadmap. Examples are highlighted below.

Logistic considerations

• Impact of ticket intake process changes on end users
• Process change impact on SLAs and productivity standards
• Call routing changes and improvements
• Workstations and workspace – is there enough and what will it look like for each agent?
• Physical access to the service desk – will walk-ups be permitted? Is it accessible?
• Security or authorization requirements for specific agents that may be impacted by relocation
• Layout and design of new location, if applicable
• Hardware, platform, network, and server implications
• Licensing and contract limitations of the service desk tool

Cost considerations

• Cost savings from ITSM tool consolidation
• Cost of new ITSM tool purchase, if applicable
• Efficiencies gained from process simplification
• New hardware or software purchases
• Cost per square foot of new physical location, if applicable

Develop a staffing plan that leverages the strengths you currently have and supplement where your needs require

Your staff are your greatest assets; be sensitive to their concerns as you plan the consolidation.

Keep in mind that if your target state involves reorganization of resources and the creation of resources, there will be additional staffing tasks that should form part of the consolidation plan. These include:

• Develop job descriptions and reporting relationships
• Evaluate current competencies Identify training and hiring needs
• Develop migration strategy (including severance and migration packages)

If new positions will be created, follow these steps to mitigate risks:

1. Conduct skills assessments (a skills inventory should have been completed in phase 1)
2. Re-interview existing staff for open positions before considering hiring outside staff
3. Hire staff from outside if necessary

For more guidance on hiring help desk staff, see Info-Tech’s blueprint, Manage Help Desk Staffing.

Be sensitive to employee concerns.

Develop guiding principles for the consolidation to ensure that employee satisfaction remains a priority throughout the consolidation.

Examples include:

1. Reconcile existing silos and avoid creating new silos
2. Keep current systems where it makes sense to avoid staff having to learn multiple new systems to do their jobs and to reduce costs
3. Repurpose staff and allocate according to their knowledge and expertise as much as possible
4. Remain open and transparent about all changes and communicate change regularly

Info-Tech Insight

The most talented employees can be lost in the migration to a consolidated service desk, resulting in organizational loss of core knowledge. Mitigate this risk using measurement strategies, competency modeling, and knowledge sharing to reduce ambiguity and discomfort of affected employees.

Plan logistics around resource allocation

2.2.2 Assess logistical and cost considerations around people

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You’ll Need

• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers
• Consolidate roadmap

Document

Identify tasks that should form part of the roadmap and document in the roadmap tool.

Identify costs that should be included in the TCO assessment and document in the TCO tool.

Discuss and identify any logistic and cost considerations surrounding resources and staffing that will need to form part of the consolidation plan and roadmap. Examples are highlighted below.

Logistic considerations

• Specialized training requirements for staff moving to new roles
• Enablement of knowledge sharing across agents
• Potential attrition of staff who do not wish to relocate or be reallocated
• Relocation of staff – will staff have to move and will there be incentives for moving?
• Skills requirements, recruitment needs, job descriptions, and postings for hiring

Cost considerations

• Existing and future salaries for employees
• Potential attrition of employees
• Retention costs and salary increases to keep employees
• Hiring costs
• Training needs and costs

Assess impact on staffing with the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator

How do organizations calculate the staffing implications of a service desk consolidation?

The Service Desk Efficiency Calculator uses the ITIL Gross Staffing Model to think through the impact of consolidating service desk processes.

To estimate the impact of the consolidation on staffing levels, estimate what will happen to three variables:

• Ticket volume
• Average call resolution
• Spare capacity

All things being equal, a reduction in ticket volume (through outsourcing or the implementation of self-serve options, for example), will reduce your staffing requirements (all things being equal). The same goes for a reduction in the average call resolution rate.

Constraints:

Spare capacity: Many organizations are motivated to consolidate service desks by potential reductions in staffing costs. However, this is only true if your service desk agents have spare capacity to take on the consolidated ticket volume. If they don’t, you will still need the same number of agents to do the work at the consolidated service desk.

Agent capabilities: If your agents have specialised skills that you need to maintain the same level of service, you won’t be able to reduce staffing until agents are cross-trained.

Review the results of the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator to refine the business case for the consolidation project

2.2.3 Discuss the results of the efficiency calculator in the context of consolidation

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You’ll Need

• Completed Service Desk Efficiency Calculator

The third tab of the Service Desk Efficiency Calculator will quantify:

• Service Desk Staffing: The impact of different ticket distribution on service desk staffing levels.
• Service Desk Ticket Resolution Cost: The impact of different ticket distributions on ticket resolution costs.
• Service Management Efficiency: The business impact of service management initiatives, specifically, the time lost or captured in service management processes relative to an average full-time employee equivalent.

Facilitate a discussion around the results.

Evaluate where you are now and where you hope to be. Focus on the efficiency gains expected from the outsourcing project. Review the expected gains in average resolution time, the expected impact on service desk ticket volume, and the associated productivity gains.

Use this information to refine the business case and project plan for the consolidation, if needed.

Assess consolidation costs and cost savings to refine the business case

While cost savings should not be the primary driver of consolidation, they should be a key outcome of the project in order to deliver value.

Typical cost savings for a service desk consolidation are highlighted below:

People 10-20% savings (through resource pooling and reallocation)

Process 5-10% savings (through process simplification and efficiencies gained)

Technology 10-15% savings (through improved call routing and ITSM tool consolidation)

Facilities 5-10% savings (through site selection and redesign)

Cost savings should be balanced against the costs of the consolidation itself (including hiring for consolidation project managers or consultants, moving expenses, legal fees, etc.)

Evaluate consolidation costs using the TCO Comparison Tool described in the next section.

Analyze resourcing and budgeting to create a realistic TCO and evaluate the benefits of consolidation

Use the TCO tool to assess the cost and cost savings of consolidation

• The tool compares the cost of operating two service desks vs. one consolidated service desk, along with the cost of consolidation.
• If your consolidation effort involves more than two facilities, then use multiple copies of the tool.
  • E.g. If you are consolidating four service desks (A, B, C, and D) into one service desk (X), then use two copies of the tool. We encourage you to book an analyst call to help you get the most out of this tool and process.

Service Desk Consolidation TCO Comparison Tool

Refine the business case and update the executive presentation

Check in with executives and project sponsor before moving forward with the transition

Since completing the executive visioning session in step 1.2, you should have completed the following activities:

• Current state assessment
• Detailed target state and metrics
• Gap analysis between current and target state
• Assessment of logistics and cost of consolidation

The next step will be to develop a project roadmap to achieve the consolidation vision.

Before doing this, check back in with the project sponsor and business executives to refine the business case, obtain necessary approvals, and secure buy-in.

If necessary, add to the executive presentation you completed in step 1.2, copying results of the deliverables you have completed since:

• Consolidate Service Desk Assessment Tool (current state assessment)
• Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool
• Service Desk Consolidation TCO Comparison Tool

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

2.1.3 Brainstorm process requirements for consolidated service desk

Identify process requirements and desired characteristics for the target consolidated service desk.

2.1.9 Review the results of the scorecard to identify best practices

Review the results of the Consolidate Service Desk Scorecard Tool to identify top performing service desks and glean best practices.

Phase 3

Plan the Transition

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 3: Plan the transition

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2-4

Step 3.1: Build project roadmap

Discuss with an analyst:

• Identify specific initiatives for the consolidation project and evaluate the risks and dependencies for each
• Plot initiatives on a detailed project roadmap with assigned responsibilities

Then complete these activities…

• Break the consolidation project down into specific initiatives
• Identify and document risks and dependencies
• Plot your initiatives onto a detailed project roadmap
• Select transition date for consolidation

With these tools & templates:

Service Desk Consolidation Roadmap

Step 3.2: Communicate the change

Discuss with an analyst:

• Identify the goals of communication, then develop a communications plan with targeted messaging for each stakeholder group to achieve those goals
• Brainstorm potential objections and questions as well as responses to each

Then complete these activities…

• Build the communications delivery plan
• Brainstorm potential objections and questions and prepare responses
• Complete the news bulletin to distribute to your end users

With these tools & templates:

Service Desk Consolidation Communications and Training Plan Template

Service Desk Consolidation News Bulletin & FAQ Template

Phase 3 Results:

• A detailed project roadmap toward consolidation and a communications plan to ensure stakeholders are on board

Step 3.1: Build the project roadmap

Phase 3

Plan the consolidation

3.1 Build the project roadmap

3.2 Communicate the change

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• 3.1.1 Break the consolidation project down into a series of specific initiatives
• 3.1.2 Identify and document risks and dependencies
• 3.1.3 Plot your initiatives onto a detailed project roadmap
• 3.1.4 Select transition date based on business cycles

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Directors
• Service Desk Managers
• Consolidation Project Manager
• Service Desk Technicians

Step outcomes

A detailed roadmap to migrate to a single, consolidated service desk, including:

• A breakdown of specific tasks groups by people, process, and technology
• Identified risks and dependencies for each task
• A timeline for completion of each task and the overall consolidation
• Assigned responsibility for task completion

Failure to engage stakeholders led to the failure of a large healthcare organization’s consolidation

CASE STUDY

Industry: Healthcare

Source: Organizational insider

A large US healthcare facilities organization implemented a service desk consolidation initiative in early 2013. Only 18 months later, they reluctantly decided to return to their previous service desk model.

Why did this consolidation effort fail?

1. Management failed to communicate the changes to service-level staff, leading to agent confusion and pushback. Initially, each desk became part of the other’s overflow queue with no mention of the consolidation effort. Next, the independent desks began to share a basic request queue. Finally, there was a complete virtual consolidation – which came as a shock to service agents.
2. The processes and workflows of the original service desks were not integrated, requiring service agents to consult different processes and use different workflows when engaging with end users from different facilities, even though all calls were part of the same queue.
3. Staff at the different service centers did not have a consistent level of expertise or technical ability, even though they all became part of the same queue. This led to a perceived drop in end-user satisfaction – end users were used to getting a certain level of service and were suddenly confronted with less experienced agents.

Before Consolidation

Two disparate service desks:

• With distinct geographic locations.
• Servicing several healthcare facilities in their respective regions.
• With distinct staff, end users, processes, and workflows.

After Consolidation

One virtually-consolidated service desk servicing many facilities spread geographically over two distinct locations.

The main feature of the new virtual service desk was a single, pooled ticket queue drawn from all the end users and facilities in the new geographic regions.

Break the consolidation project down into a series of specific initiatives

3.1.1 Create a list of specific tasks that will form the consolidation project

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You’ll Need

• Whiteboard and markers
• List of prioritized target state requirements
• Consolidation roadmap

Document

Document the list of initiatives in the Service Desk Consolidation Roadmap.

In order to translate your newly made decisions regarding the target state and logistical considerations into a successful consolidation strategy, create an exhaustive list of all the steps and sub-steps that will lead you from your current state to your target state.

Use the next few steps to finish brainstorming the initiative list, identify risks and dependencies, and construct a detailed timeline populated with specific project steps.

Instructions

Start with the list you have been curating throughout the current and future state assessments. If you are completing this project as a workshop, add to the initiative list you have been developing on the whiteboard.

Try to organize your initiatives into groups of related tasks. Begin arranging your initiatives into people, process, technology, or other categories.

Evaluate the impact of potential risks and develop a backup plan for high risk initiatives

A service desk consolidation has a high potential for risks. Have a backup plan prepared for when events don’t go as planned.

• A consolidation project requires careful planning as it is high risk and not performed often.
• Apply the same due diligence to the consolidation plan as you do in preparing your disaster recovery plan. Establish predetermined resolutions to realistic risks so that the team can think of solutions quickly during the consolidation.

Potential Sources of Risk

• Service desk tool or phone line downtime prevents ability to submit tickets
• Unable to meet SLAs through the transition
• Equipment failure or damage through the physical move
• Lost data through tool migration
• Lost knowledge from employee attrition

Service desk consolidations fit in category A

Identify risks for people, processes, tools, or data to ensure the project plan will include appropriate mitigations

Each element of the consolidation has an inherent risk associated with it as the daily service flow is interrupted. Prepare in advance by anticipating these risks.

The project manager, service desk managers, and subject matter experts (SMEs) of different areas, departments, or locations should identify risks for each of the processes, tools, resource groups (people), and any data exchanges and moves that will be part of the project or impacted by the project.

Process - For each process, validate that workflows can remain intact throughout the consolidation project. If any gaps may occur in the process flows, develop a plan to be implemented in parallel with the consolidation to ensure service isn’t interrupted.

Technology - For a tool consolidation, upgrade, or replacement, verify that there is a plan in place to ensure continuation of service delivery processes throughout the change.

Make a plan for if and how data from the old tool(s) will be migrated to the new tool, and how the new tool will be installed and configured.

People - For movement of staff, particularly with termination, identify any risks that may occur and involve your HR and legal departments to ensure all movement is compliant with larger processes within the organization.

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t overlook the little things. Sometimes the most minor-seeming components of the consolidation can cause the greatest difficulty. For example, don’t assume that the service desk phone number can simply roll over to a new location and support the call load of a combined service desk. Verify it.

Identify and document risks and dependencies

3.1.2 Risks, challenges, and dependencies exercise - Estimated Time: 60 minutes

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• SMEs

What You'll Need

• Whiteboard and markers
• List of initiatives identified in previous activities
• Consolidation roadmap

Document

Use the outcome of this activity to complete your consolidation roadmap.

Instructions

• Document risks and challenges, as well as dependencies associated with the initiatives identified earlier, using a different color sticky note from your initiatives.
• See example below.

Combine Related Initiatives

• Look for initiatives that are highly similar, dependent on each other, or occurring at the same time. Consolidate these initiatives into a single initiative with several sub-steps in order to better organize your roadmap and reduce redundancy.
• Create hierarchies for dependent initiatives that could affect the scheduling of initiatives on a roadmap, and reorganize the whiteboard where necessary.

Optional:

• Use a scoring method to categorize risks. E.g.:
  • High: will stop or delay operations, radically increase cost, or significantly reduce consolidation benefits
  • Medium: would cause some delay, cost increase, or performance shortfall, but would not threaten project viability
  • Low: could impact the project to a limited extent, causing minor delays or cost increases
• Develop contingency plans for high risks or adjust to avoid the problem entirely

Implement new ISTM tool:

• Need to transition from existing tools
• Users must be trained
• Data and open tickets must be migrated

Plot your initiatives onto a detailed project roadmap

3.1.3 Estimated Time: 45 minutes

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)

Document

Document your initiatives on tab 2 of the Service Desk Consolidation Roadmap or map it out on a whiteboard.

Determine the sequence of initiatives, identify milestones, and assign dates.

• The purpose of this exercise is to define a timeline and commit to initiatives to reach your goals.
• Determine the order in which previously identified consolidation initiatives will be implemented, document previously identified risks and dependencies, assign ownership for each task, and assign dates for pilots and launch.

Select transition date based on business cycles

3.1.4

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• Consolidation roadmap

Document

Adjust initiatives in the consolidation roadmap if necessary.

The transition date will be used in communications in the next step.

1. Review the initiatives in the roadmap and the resulting sunshine diagram on tab 3.
2. Verify that the initiatives will be possible within the determined time frame and adjust if necessary.
3. Based on the results of the roadmap, select a target transition date for the consolidation by determining:
   1. Whether there are dates when a major effort of this kind should not be scheduled.
   2. Whether there are merger and acquisition requirements that dictate a specific date for the service desk merger.
4. Select multiple measurable checkpoints to alert the team that something is awry and mitigate risks.
5. Verify that stakeholders are aware of the risks and the proposed steps necessary to mitigate them, and assign the necessary resources to them.
6. Document or adjust the target transition date in the roadmap.

Info-Tech Insight

Consolidating service desks doesn’t have to be done in one shot, replacing all your help desks, tools, and moving staff all at the same time. You can take a phased approach to consolidating, moving one location, department, or tool at a time to ease the transition.

Step 3.2: Communicate the change

Phase 3

Design consolidation

3.1 Build the project roadmap

3.2 Communicate the change

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• 3.2.1 Build the communications delivery plan
• 3.2.2 Brainstorm potential objections and questions and prepare responses

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Agents

Step outcomes

• A detailed communications plan with key messages, delivery timeline, and spokesperson responsibility for each key stakeholder audience
• A set of agreed-upon responses to anticipated objections and questions to ensure consistent message delivery
• A news bulletin and list of FAQs to distribute to end users to prepare them for the change

Create your communication plan with everyone in mind, from the CIO to end users

CASE STUDY

Industry: Higher Education

Source: Oxford University, IT Services

Oxford implemented extremely innovative initiatives as part of its robust communications plan.

ITS ran a one-day ITSM “business simulation” for the CIO and direct reports, increasing executive buy-in.

“ The business simulation was incredibly effective as a way of getting management buy-in – it really showed what we are driving at. It’s a way of making it real, bringing people on board. ” – John Ireland, Director of Customer Service

Detailed use cases were envisioned referencing particular ITIL processes as the backbone of the process framework.

“ The use cases were very helpful, they were used […] in getting a broad engagement from teams across our department and getting buy-in from the distributed IT staff who we work with across the wider University. ” – John Ireland, Director of Customer Service

The Oxford ITS SDCP blog was accessible to everyone.

• Oxford’s SDCP blog acted as a project touchstone not only to communicate updates quickly, but also to collect feedback, enable collaboration, and set a project tone.
• An informal tone and accessible format facilitated the difficult cultural shifts required of the consolidation effort.

“ We in the project team would love to hear your view on this project and service management in general, so please feel free to comment on this blog post, contact us using the project email address […] or, for further information visit the project SharePoint site […] ” – Oxford ITS SDCP blog post

Plan for targeted and timely communications to all stakeholders

Develop a plan to keep all affected stakeholders informed about the changes consolidation will bring, and more importantly, how they will affect them.

All stakeholders must be kept informed of the project plan and status as the consolidation progresses.

• Management requires frequent communication with the core project group to evaluate the success of the project in meeting its goals.
• End users should be informed about changes that are happening and how these changes will affect them.

A communications plan should address three elements:

1. The audience and their communication needs
2. The most effective means of communicating with this audience
3. Who should deliver the message

Goals of communication:

1. Create awareness and understanding of the consolidation and what it means for each role, department, or user group
2. Gain commitment to the change from all stakeholders
3. Reduce and address any concerns about the consolidation and be transparent in responding to any questions
4. Communicate potential risks and mitigation plan
5. Set expectations for service levels throughout and after the consolidation

Plan the method of delivery for your communications carefully

Plan the message, test it with a small audience, then deliver to your employees and stakeholders in person to avoid message avoidance or confusion.

Message Format

Email and Newsletters

Email and newsletters are convenient and can be transmitted to large audiences easily, but most users are inundated with email already and may not notice or read the message.

• Use email to make large announcements or invite people to meetings but not as the sole medium of communication.

Face-to-Face Communication

Face-to-face communication helps to ensure that users are receiving and understanding a clear message, and allows them to voice their concerns and clarify any confusion or questions.

• Use one-on-ones for key stakeholders and team meetings for groups.

Internal Website/Drive

Internal sites help sustain change by making knowledge available after the consolidation, but won’t be retained beforehand.

• Use for storing policies, how-to-guides, and SOPs.

Message Delivery

1. Plan your message
   1. Emphasize what the audience really needs to know, that is, how the change will impact them.
2. Test your message
   1. Run focus groups or test your communications with a small audience (2-3 people) first to get feedback and adjust messages before delivering them more broadly.
3. Deliver and repeat your message
   1. “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
4. Gather feedback and evaluate communications
   1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the communications (through surveys, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, or metrics) to ensure the message was delivered and received successfully and communication goals were met.

Address the specific concerns of the business vs. employees

Focus on alleviating concerns from both sides of the communication equation: the business units and employees.

Business units:

Be attentive to the concerns of business unit management about loss of power. Appease worries about the potential risk of reduced service quality and support responsiveness that may have been experienced in prior corporate consolidation efforts.

Make the value of the consolidation clear, and involve business unit management in the organizational change process.

Focus on producing a customer-focused consolidated service desk. It will assuage fears over the loss of control and influence. Business units may be relinquishing control of their service desk, but they should retain the same level of influence.

Employees:

Employees are often fearful of the impact of a consolidation on their jobs. These fears should be addressed and alleviated as soon as possible.

Design a communication plan outlining the changes and the reasons motivating it.

Put support programs in place for displaced and surviving employees.

Motivate employees during the transition and increase employee involvement in the change.

Educate and train employees who make the transition to the new structure and new job demands.

Info-Tech Insight

Know your audience. Be wary of using technical jargon or acronyms that may seem like common knowledge within your department but would not be part of the vocabulary of non-technical audiences. Ensure your communications are suitable for the audience. If you need to use jargon or acronyms, explain what you mean.

Build the communications delivery plan

3.2.1 Develop a plan to deliver targeted messages to key stakeholder groups

Participants

• CIO or IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)

What You'll Need

• Communications plan template
• Whiteboard and markers

Document

Document your decisions in the communications plan template

1. Define the goals of the communications in section 1 of the Service Desk Consolidation Communications and Training Plan Template.
2. Determine when communication milestones/activities need to be delivered by completing the Communications Schedule in section 2.
3. Determine the key stakeholder groups or audiences to whom you will need to deliver communications.
4. Identify the content of the key messages that need to be delivered and select the most appropriate delivery method for each (i.e. email, team meeting, individual meetings). Designate who will be responsible for delivering the messages.
5. Document a plan for gathering feedback and evaluating the effectiveness of the communications in section 5 (i.e. stakeholder interviews and surveys).

Section 4 of the communications plan on objections and question handling will be completed in activity 3.2.2.

Optional Activity

If you completed the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook in step 1.1, you may also complete the Communications tab in that workbook to further develop your plan to engage stakeholders.

Effectively manage the consolidation by implementing change management processes

Implement change management processes to ensure that the consolidation runs smoothly with limited impact on IT infrastructure.

Communicate and track changes: Identify and communicate changes to all stakeholders affected by the change to ensure they are aware of any downtime and can plan their own activities accordingly.

Isolate testing: Test changes within a safe non-production environment to eliminate the risk of system outages that result from defects discovered during testing.

Document back-out plans: Documented back-out/backup plans enable quick recovery in the event that the change fails.

Organizations that have more mature and defined change management processes experience less unplanned downtime when implementing change across the organization.

Sustain changes by adapting people, processes, and technologies to accept the transition

Verify that people, process, and technologies are prepared for the consolidation before going live with the transition.

Info-Tech Insight

Organizational change management (OCM) is widely recognized as a key component of project success, yet many organizations struggle to get adoption for new tools, policies, and procedures. Use Info-Tech’s blueprint on driving organizational change to develop a strategy and toolkit to achieve project success.

Manage people by addressing their specific concerns based on their attitude toward change

Avoid high turnover and resistance to change by engaging both the enthusiasts and the skeptics with targeted messaging.

• Clearly articulate and strongly champion the changes that will result from the consolidation for those willing to adapt to the change.
• Make change management practices integral to the entire project.
• Provide training workshops on new processes, new goals or metrics, new technologies and tools, and teamwork as early as possible after consolidation.

1. Enthusiasts - Empower them to stay motivated and promote the change
2. Fence-Sitters/Indifferent - Continually motivate them by example but give them time to adapt to the change
3. Skeptics - Engage them early and address their concerns and doubts to convert them to enthusiasts
4. Saboteurs - Prevent them from spreading dissent and rumors, thus undermining the project, by counteracting negative claims early

Leverage the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook from step 1.1 as well as Info-Tech’s blueprint on driving organizational change for more tactics on change management, particularly managing and engaging various personas.

Prepare ahead of time for questions that various stakeholder groups may have

Anticipate questions that will arise about the consolidation so you can prepare and distribute responses to frequently asked questions. Sample questions from various stakeholders are provided below.

General

1. Why is the organization moving to a consolidated service desk?
2. Where is the consolidated service desk going to be located?
3. Are all or only some service desks consolidating?
4. When is the consolidation happening?
5. What are the anticipated benefits of consolidation?

Business

1. What is the budget for the project?
2. What are the anticipated cost savings and return on investment?
3. When will the proposed savings be realized?
4. Will there be job losses from the consolidation and when will these occur?
5. Will the organization subsidize moving costs?

Employees

1. Will my job function be changing?
2. Will my job location be changing?
3. What will happen if I can’t relocate?
4. Will my pay and benefits be the same?
5. Will reporting relationships change?
6. Will performance expectations and metrics change?

End Users

1. How do I get help with IT issues?
2. How do I submit a ticket?
3. How will I be notified of ticket status, outages?
4. Where will the physical service desk be located?
5. Will I be able to get help in my language?
6. Will there be changes for levels of service?

Brainstorm likely objections/questions to prepare responses

3.2.2 Prepare responses to likely questions to ensure consistent messaging

Participants

• IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager(s)
• Service Desk Agents

Document

Document your questions and responses in section 4 of the communications plan template. This should be continually updated.

1. Brainstorm anticipated objections and questions you may hear from various stakeholder groups: service desk employees, end users, and management or executives.
2. For each objection or question, prepare a response that will be delivered to ensure consistent messaging. Use a table like the example below.

Keep the following in mind when formulating your responses:

• Lead with the benefits
• Be transparent and honest
• Avoid acronyms, jargon, and technical terms
• Appeal to both emotion and reason
• Be concise and straightforward
• Don’t be afraid to be repetitive; people need repetition to remember the message
• Use concrete facts and images wherever possible

Complete the Service Desk Consolidation News Bulletin & FAQ Template to distribute to your end users

Customize the template or use as a guide to develop your own

The Service Desk Consolidation News Bulletin & FAQ Template is intended to be an example that you can follow or modify for your own organization. It provides a summary of how the consolidation project will change how end users interact with the service desk.

1. What the change means to end users
2. When they should contact the service desk (examples)
3. How to contact the service desk (include all means of contact and ticket submission)
4. Answers to questions they may have
5. Links to more information

The bulletin is targeted for mass distribution to end users. A similar letter may be developed for service desk staff, though face-to-face communication is recommended.

Instructions:

1. Use the template as a guide to develop your own FAQ news bulletin and adjust any sections or wording as you see fit.
2. You may wish to develop separate letters for each location, referring more specifically to their location and where the new service desk will be located.
3. Save the file as a PDF for print or email distribution at the time determined in your communications plan.

Keeping people a priority throughout the project ensured success

CASE STUDY

Industry: Higher Education

Source: Oxford University, IT Services

Oxford’s new consolidated service desk went live April 20, 2015.

They moved from 3 distinct tools and 5 disparate help desks to a single service desk with one robust ITSM solution, all grounded by a unified set of processes and an integrated workflow.

The success of this project hinged upon:

• A bold vision, formulated early and in collaboration with all stakeholders.
• Willingness to take time to understand the unique perspective of each role and help desk, then carefully studying existing processes and workflows to build upon what works.
• Constant collaboration, communication, and the desire to listen to feedback from all interested parties.

"We have had a few teething issues to deal with, but overall this has been a very smooth transition given the scale of it." – ICTF Trinity Term 2015 IT Services Report

Beyond the initial consolidation.

• Over the summer of 2015, ITS moved to full 24/7 support coverage.
• Oxford’s ongoing proposition with regard to support services is to extend the new consolidated service desk beyond its current IT role:
  • Academic Admissions
  • Case Management
  • IT Purchasing
• To gradually integrate those IT departments/colleges/faculties that remain independent at the present time.
• Info-Tech can facilitate these goals in your organization with our research blueprint, Extend the Service Desk to Enterprise.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

3.1.1 Break the consolidation project down into a series of specific initiatives

Create a list of specific tasks that will form the consolidation project on sticky notes and organize into people, process, technology, and other categories to inform the roadmap.

3.2.2 Brainstorm likely objections/questions to prepare responses

Brainstorm anticipated questions and objections that will arise from various stakeholder groups and prepare consistent responses to each.

Related Info-Tech research

Standardize the Service Desk - Provide timely and effective responses to user requests and resolutions of all incidents.

Extend the Service Desk to the Enterprise - Position IT as an innovator.

Build a Continual Improvement Plan for the Service Desk - Teach your old service desk new tricks.

Adopt Lean IT to Streamline the Service Desk - Turn your service desk into a Lean, keen, value-creating machine.

Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Service Desk Software - Move past tickets to proactive, integrated service.

Vendor Landscape: Mid-Market Service Desk Software - Ensure the productivity of the help desk with the right platform.

Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan - Nail your ITSM tool implementation from the outset.

Drive Organizational Change from the PMO - Don’t let bad change happen to good projects.

Research contributors and experts

Stacey Keener - IT Manager for the Human Health and Performance Directorate, Johnson Space Center, NASA

Umar Reed - Director of IT Support Services US Denton US LLP

Maurice Pryce - IT Manager City of Roswell, Georgia

Ian Goodhart - Senior Business Analyst Allegis Group

Gerry Veugelaers - Service Delivery Manager New Zealand Defence Force

Alisa Salley Rogers - Senior Service Desk Analyst HCA IT&S Central/West Texas Division

Eddie Vidal - IS Service Desk Managers University of Miami

John Conklin - Chief Information Officer Helen of Troy LP

Russ Coles - Senior Manager, Computer Applications York Region District Schoolboard

John Seddon - Principal Vanguard Consulting

Ryan van Biljon - Director, Technical Services Samanage

Rear Admiral Robert E. Day Jr. (ret.) - Chief Information Officer United States Coast Guard

George Bartha - Manager of Information Technology Unifrax

Peter Hubbard - IT Service Management Consultant Pink Elephant

Andre Gaudreau - Manager of School Technology Operations York Region District School Board

Craig Nekola - Manager, Information Technology Anoka County

Bibliography and Further Reading

Hoen, Jim. “The Single Point of Contact: Driving Support Process Improvements with a Consolidated IT Help-Desk Approach.” TechTeam Global Inc. September 2005.

Hubbard, Peter. “Leading University embarks on IT transformation programme to deliver improved levels of service excellence.” Pink Elephant. http://pinkelephant.co.uk/about/case-studies/service-management-case-study/

IBM Global Services. “Service Desk: Consolidation, Relocation, Status Quo.” IBM. June 2005.

Keener, Stacey. “Help Desks: a Problem of Astronomical Proportions.” Government CIO Magazine. 1 February 2015.

McKaughan, Jeff. “Efficiency Driver.” U.S. Coast Guard Forum Jul. 2013. Web. http://www.intergraphgovsolutions.com/documents/CoastGuardForumJuly2013.pdf

Numara Footprints. “The Top 10 Reasons for Implementing a Consolidated Service Desk.” Numara Software.

Roy, Gerry, and Frederieke Winkler Prins. “How to Improve Service Quality through Service Desk Consolidation.” BMC Software.

Smith, Andrew. “The Consolidated Service Desk – An Achievable Goal?” The Service Desk Institute.

Wolfe, Brandon. “Is it Time for IT Service Desk Consolidation?” Samanage. 4 August 2015.

Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment

Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors

Analyst's Perspective

The temptation when moving to Agile is to deemphasize good requirements practices in favor of perceived speed. If you're not delivering on the needs of the business then you have failed, regardless of how fast you've gone.

Delivery in Agile doesn't mean you stop needing solid business analysis. In fact, it's even more critical, to ensure your products and projects are adding value. With the rise of Agile, the role of the business analyst has been misunderstood.

As a result, we often throw out the analysis with the bathwater, thinking we'll be just fine without analysis, documentation, and deliberate action, as the speed and dexterity of Agile is enough.

Consequently, what we get is wasted time, money, and effort, with solutions that fail to deliver value, or need to be re-worked to get it right.

The best organizations find balance between these two forces, to align, and gain the benefits of both Agile and business analysis, working in tandem to manage requirements that bring solutions that are "just right".

Vincent Mirabelli
Principal Research Director, Applications Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

The process of navigating from waterfall to Agile can be incredibly challenging. And even more problematic; how do you operate your requirements management practices once there? Since there traditionally isn't a role for a business analyst; the traditional keeper of requirements. it isn't like switching on a light.

You likely find yourself struggling to deliver high quality solutions and requirements in Agile. This is a challenge for many organizations, regardless of how long they've leveraged Agile.

But you aren't here for assurances. You're here for answers and help.

Common Obstacles

many organizations and teams face is that there are so busy doing Agile that they fail to be Agile.

Agile was supposed to be the saving grace of project delivery but is misguided in taking the short-term view of "going quickly" at the expense of important elements, such as team formation and interaction, stakeholder engagement and communication, the timing and sequencing of analysis work, decision-making, documentation, and dealing with change.

The idea that good requirements just happen because you have user stories is wrong. So, requirements remain superficial, as you "can iterate later"…but sometimes later never comes, or doesn't come fast enough.

Organizations need to be very deliberate when aligning their Agile and requirements management practices. The work is the same. How the work is done is what changes.

Info-Tech's Approach

Infotech's advice? Why choose? Why have to pick between traditional waterfall and Agile delivery? If Agile without analysis is a recipe for disaster, Agile with analysis is the solution. And how can you leverage the Info-Tech approach to align your Agile and requirements management efforts into a powerful combination?

Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment is your guide.

Use the contents and exercises of this blueprint to gain a shared understanding of the two disciplines, to find your balance in your approach, to define your thresholds, and ultimately, to prepare for new ways of working.

Info-Tech Insight

Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.

The temptation when moving to Agile is to deemphasize good requirements practices in favor of perceived speed. If you're not delivering on the needs of the business, then you have failed, regardless of how fast you've gone.

Insight summary

Overarching insight

Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.

The temptation when moving to Agile is to deemphasize good requirements practices in favor of perceived speed. If you're not delivering on the needs of the business, then you have failed, regardless of how fast you've gone

Phase 1 insight

• The purpose of requirements in waterfall is for approval. The purpose in Agile is for knowledge management, as Agile has no memory.
• When it comes to the Agile manifesto, "over" does not mean "instead of".
• In Agile, the what of business analysis does doesn't change. What does change is the how and when that work happens.

Phase 2 insight

• Understand your uncertainties; it's a great way to decide what level of Agile (if any) is needed.
• Finding your "Goldilocks" zone will take time. Be patient.

Phase 3 insight

• Right-size your governance, based on team dynamics and project complexity. A good referee knows when to step in, and when to let the game flow.
• Agile creates a social contract amongst the team, and with their leaders and organization.
• Documentation needs to be valuable. Do what is acceptable and necessary to move work to future steps. Not documenting also comes with a cost, but one you pay in the future. And that bill will come due, with interest (aka, technical debt, operational inefficiencies, etc.).
• A lack of acceptable documentation makes it more difficult to have agility. You're constantly revalidating your current state (processes, practices and structure) and re-arguing decisions already made. This slows you down more than maintaining documentation ever would.

Phase 4 insight

• Making Agile predictable is hard, because people are not predictable; people are prone to chaos.

There have been many challenges with waterfall delivery

It turns out waterfall is not that great at reducing risk and ensuring value delivery after all

• Lack of flexibility
• Difficulty in measuring progress
• Difficulties with scope creep
• Limited stakeholder involvement
• Long feedback loops

48%
Had project deadlines more than double

85%
Exceeded their original budget by at least 20%

25%
At least doubled their original budget

Source: PPM Express.

Agile was meant to address the shortcomings of waterfall

The wait for solutions was too long for our business partners. The idea of investing significant time, money, and resources upfront, building an exhaustive and complete vision of the desired state, and then waiting months or even years to get that solution, became unpalatable for them. And rightfully so. Once we cast a light on the pains, it became difficult to stay with the status quo. Given that organizations evolve at a rapid pace, what was a pain at the beginning of an initiative may not be so even 6 months later.

Agile became the answer.

Since its' first appearance nearly 20 years ago, Agile has become the methodology of choice for a many of organizations. According to the 15th Annual State of Agile report, Agile adoption within software development teams increased from 37% in 2020 to 86% in 2021.

Adopting Agile led to challenges with requirements

Requirements analysis, design maturity, and management are critical for a successful Agile transformation.

"One of the largest sources of failure we have seen on large projects is an immature Agile implementation in the context of poorly defined requirements."
– "Large Scale IT Projects – From Nightmare to Value Creation"

"Requirements maturity is more important to project outcomes than methodology."
– "Business Analysis Benchmark: Full Report"

"Mature Agile practices spend 28% of their time on analysis and design."
– "Quantitative Analysis of Agile Methods Study (2017): Twelve Major Findings"

"There exists a Requirements Premium… organizations using poor practices spent 62% more on similarly sized projects than organizations using the best requirements practices."
– "The Business Case for Agile Business Analysis" - Requirements Engineering Magazine

Strong stakeholder satisfaction with requirements results in higher satisfaction in other areas

N= 324 small organizations from Info-Tech Research Group's CIO Business Vision diagnostic.

Note: High satisfaction was classified as organizations with a score greater or equal to eight and low satisfaction was every organization that scored below eight on the same questions.

Info-Tech's Agile requirements framework

Agile requirements are a balancing act

Collaboration

Many subject matter experts are necessary to create accurate requirements, but their time is limited too.

Communication

Stakeholders should be kept informed throughout the requirements gathering process, but you need to get the right information to the right people.

Documentation

Recording, organizing, and presenting requirements are essential, but excessive documentation will slow time to delivery.

Control

Establishing control points in your requirements gathering process can help confirm, verify, and approve requirements accurately, but stage gates limit delivery.

What changes for the business analyst?

In Agile, the what of business analysis does not change.

What does change is the how and when that work happens.

Business analysts need to focus on six key elements when managing requirements in Agile.

• Team formation and interaction
• Stakeholder engagement and communication
• The timing and sequencing of their work
• Decision-making
• Documentation
• Dealing with change

Where does the business analysis function fit on an Agile team?

Team formation is key, as Agile is a team sport

A business analyst in an Agile team typically interacts with several different roles, including:

• The product owner,
• The Sponsor or Executive
• The development team,
• Other stakeholders such as customers, end-users, and subject matter experts
• The Design team,
• Security,
• Testing,
• Deployment.

How we do our requirements work will change

• Team formation and interaction
• Stakeholder engagement and communication
• The timing and sequencing of their work
• Decision-making
• Documentation
• Dealing with change

As a result, you'll need to focus on;

• Emphasizing flexibility
• Enabling continuous delivery
• Enhancing collaboration and communication
• Developing a user-centered approach

Get stakeholders on board with Agile requirements

1. Stakeholder feedback and management support are key components of a successful Agile Requirements.
2. Stakeholders can see a project's progression and provide critical feedback about its success at critical milestones.
3. Management helps teams succeed by trusting them to complete projects with business value at top of mind and by removing impediments that are inhibiting their productivity.
4. Agile will bring a new mindset and significant numbers of people, process, and technology changes that stakeholders and management may not be accustomed to. Working through these issues in requirements management enables a smoother rollout.
5. Management will play a key role in ensuring long-term Agile requirements success and ultimately rolling it out to the rest of the organization.
6. The value of leadership involvement has not changed even though responsibilities will. The day-to-day involvement in projects will change but continual feedback will ultimately dictate the success or failure of a project.

Measuring your success

Tracking metrics and measuring your progress

As you implement the actions from this Blueprint, you should see measurable improvements in;

• Team and stakeholder satisfaction
• Requirements quality
• Documentation cost

Without sacrificing time to delivery

Info-Tech's methodology for Agile requirements

Blueprint tools and templates

Key deliverable:

Agile Requirements Playbook

A practical playbook for aligning your teams and articulating the guidelines for managing your requirements in Agile

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Documentation Calculator

A tool to help you answer the question: What is the right level of Agile requirements documentation for my organization?

Agile Requirements Assessment

Establishes your current maturity level, defines your target state, and supports planning to get there.

Agile Requirements Workbook

Supporting tools and templates in advancing your Agile requirements practice, to be used with the Agile Requirements Blueprint and Playbook.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

"Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful."

Guided Implementation

"Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."

Workshop

"We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place."

Consulting

"Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

Guided Implementation

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is 10 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Framing Agile and Business Analysis

Phase 1

Framing Agile and Business Analysis

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• EXERCISE: What do Agile and requirements mean in your organization?
• ASSESSMENT: Agile requirements assessment
• KEY DELIVERABLE: Agile Requirements Playbook

This phase involves the following participants:

• Business analyst and project team
• Stakeholders
• Sponsor/Executive

Managing Requirements in an Agile Environment

Step 1.1

Understand the benefits and limitations of Agile and business analysis

Activities

1.1.1 Define what Agile and business analysis mean in your organization

This step involves the following participants:

• Business analyst and project team
• Sponsor/Executive

Outcomes of this step

• Recognize the benefits and detriments of both Agile and business analysis

Framing Agile and Business Analysis

There have been many challenges with waterfall delivery

It turns out waterfall is not that great at reducing risk and ensuring value delivery after all

• Lack of flexibility
• Difficulty in measuring progress
• Difficulties with scope creep
• Limited stakeholder involvement
• Long feedback loops

48%
Had project deadlines more than double

85%
Exceeded their original budget by at least 20%

25%
At least doubled their original budget

Source: PPM Express.

Business analysis had a clear home in waterfall

Business analysts had historically been aligned to specific lines of business, in support of their partners in their respective domains. Somewhere along the way, the function was moved to IT. Conceptually this made sense, in that it allowed BAs to provide technical solutions to complex business problems. This had the unintended result of lost domain knowledge, and connection to the business.

It all starts with the business. IT enables business goals. The closer you can get to the business, the better.

Business analysts were the main drivers of helping to define the business requirements, or needs, and then decompose those into solution requirements, to develop the best option to solve those problems, or address those needs. And the case for good analysis was clear. The later a poor requirement was caught, the more expensive it was to fix. And if requirements were poor, there was no way to know until much later in the project lifecycle, when the cost to correct them was exponentially higher, to the tune of 10-100x the initial cost.

Adapted from PPM Express. "Why Projects Fail: Business Analysis is the Key".

Agile was meant to address the shortcomings of waterfall

The wait for solutions was too long for our business partners. The idea of investing significant time, money, and resources upfront, building an exhaustive and complete vision of the desired state, and then waiting months or even years to get that solution became unpalatable for them. And rightfully so. Once we cast a light on the pains, it became difficult to stand pat in the current state. And besides, organizations evolve at a rapid pace. What was a pain at the beginning of an initiative may not be so even six months later.

Agile became the answer.

Since its first appearance nearly 20 years ago, Agile has become the methodology of choice for a huge swathe of organizations. According to the 15th Annual State of Agile report, Agile adoption within software development teams increased from 37% in 2020 to 86% in 2021.

To say that's significant is an understatement.

The four core values of Agile helped shift focus

According to the Agile manifesto, "We value. . ."

"…while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."

Source: Agilemanifesto, 2001

Agile has made significant inroads in IT and beyond

94% of respondents report using Agile practices in their organization

according to Digital.AI's "The 15th State of Agile Report"

That same report notes a steady expansion of Agile outside of IT, as other areas of the organization seek to benefit from increased agility and responsiveness, including Human Resources, Finance and Marketing.

While it addressed some problems…

"Agile projects are 37% faster to market than [the] industry average"

(Requirements Engineering Magazine, 2017)

• Business requirements documents are massive and unreadable
• Waterfall erects barriers and bottlenecks between the business and the development team
• It's hard to define the solution at the outset of a project
• There's a long turnaround between requirements work and solution delivery
• Locking in requirements dictates an often-inflexible solution. And the costs to make changes tend to add up.

…Implementing Agile led to other challenges

Adopting Agile led to challenges with requirements

Requirements analysis, design maturity, and management are critical for a successful Agile transformation.

"One of the largest sources of failure we have seen on large projects is an immature Agile implementation in the context of poorly defined requirements."
– BCG, 2015

"Requirements maturity is more important to project outcomes than methodology."
– IAG Consulting, 2009.

"Mature Agile practices spend 28% of their time on analysis and design."
– InfoQ, 2017."

"There exists a Requirements Premium… organizations using poor practices spent 62% more on similarly sized projects than organizations using the best requirements practices."
– Requirements Engineering Magazine, 2017

Strong stakeholder satisfaction with requirements results in higher satisfaction in other areas

N= 324 small organizations from Info-Tech Research Group's CIO Business Vision diagnostic.

Note: High satisfaction was classified as organizations with a score greater or equal to eight and low satisfaction was every organization that scored below eight on the same questions.

Agile is being misinterpreted as an opportunity to bypass planning and analysis activities

Agile is a highly effective tool.

This isn't about discarding Agile. It is being used for things completely outside of what was originally intended. When developing products or code, it is in its element. However, outside of that realm, its being used to bypass business analysis activities, which help define the true customer and business need.

Business analysts were forced to adapt and shift focus. Overnight they morphed into product owners, or no longer had a place on the team. Requirements and analysis took a backseat.

The result?

Increased rework, decreased stakeholder satisfaction, and a lot of wasted money and effort.

"Too often, the process of two-week sprints becomes the thing, and the team never gets the time and space to step back and obsess over what is truly needed to delight customers."
Harvard Business Review, 9 April 2021.

Info-Tech Insight

Requirements in Agile are the same, but the purpose of requirements changes.

• The purpose of requirements in waterfall is for stakeholder approval.
• The purpose of requirements in Agile is knowledge management; to maintain a record of the current state.

Many have misinterpreted the spirit of Agile and waterfall

The stated principles of waterfall say nothing of how work is to be linear.

Source: Royce, Dr. Winston W., 1970.

For more on Agile methodology, check out Info-Tech's Agile Research Centre

How did the pendulum swing so far?

Shorter cycles of work made requirements management more difficult. But the answer isn't to stop doing it.

Organizations went from engaging business stakeholders up front, and then not until solution delivery, to forcing those partners to give up their resources to the project. From taking years to deliver a massive solution (which may or may not even still fit the need) to delivering in rapid cycles called sprints.

This tug-of-war is costing organizations significant time, money, and effort.

Your approach to requirements management needs to be centered. We can start to make that shift by better aligning our Agile and business analysis practices. Outside of the product space, Agile needs to be combined with other disciplines (Harvard Business Review, 2021) to be effective.

Agility is important. Though it is not a replacement for approach or strategy (RCG Global Services, 2022). In Agile, team constraints are leveraged because of time. There is a failure to develop new capabilities to address the business needs Harvard Business Review, 2021).

Agility needs analysis.

Agile requirements are a balancing act

Collaboration

Many subject matter experts are necessary to create accurate requirements, but their time is limited too.

Communication

Stakeholders should be kept informed throughout the requirements gathering process, but you need to get the right information to the right people.

Documentation

Recording, organizing, and presenting requirements are essential, but excessive documentation will slow time to delivery.

Control

Establishing control points in your requirements gathering process can help confirm, verify, and approve requirements accurately, but stage gates limit delivery.

Start by defining what the terms mean in your organization

We do this because there isn't even agreement by the experts on what the terms "Agile" and "business analysis" mean, so let's establish a definition within the context of your organization.

1.1.1 What do Agile and business analysis mean in your organization?

Estimated time: 30 Minutes

1. Explore the motivations behind the need for aligning Agile with business analysis. Are there any current challenges related to outputs, outcomes, quality? How can the team and organization align the two more effectively for the purposes of requirements management?
2. Gather the appropriate stakeholders to discuss their definition of the terms "Agile" and "business analysis" It can be related to their experience, practice, or things they've read or heard.
3. Brainstorm and document all shared thoughts and perspectives.
4. Synthesize those thoughts and perspectives into a shared definition of each term, of a sentence or two.
5. Revisit this definition as needed, and as your Agile requirements efforts evolve.

Input

• Challenges and experiences/perspectives related to Agile and business requirements

Output

• A shared definition of Agile and business analysis, to help guide alignment on Agile requirements management

Materials

• Agile Requirements Workbook

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Build your Agile Requirements Playbook

Keep the outcomes of this blueprint in a single document

Share at the beginning of a new project, as part of team member onboarding, and revisit as your practice matures.

Your Agile Requirements Playbook will include

• Your shared definition of Agile and business analysis for your organization
• The Agile Requirements Maturity Assessment
• A Methodology Selection Matrix
• Agile requirements RACI
• A defined Agile requirements process
• Documentation Calculator
• Your Requirements Repository Information
• Capability Gap List (from current to target state)
• Target State Improvement Roadmap and Action Plan

Step 1.2

Align Agile and Business Analysis Within Your Organization

Activities

1.2.1 Assess your Agile requirements maturity

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst and Project Team
• Stakeholders
• Sponsor/Executive

Outcomes of this step

• Complete the Agile Requirements Maturity Assessment to establish your current and target states

Framing Agile and Business Analysis

Consider the question: "Why Agile?"

What is the driving force behind that decision?

There are many reasons to leverage the power of Agile within your organization, and specifically as part of your requirements management efforts. And it shouldn't just be to improve productivity. That's only one aspect.
Begin by asking, "Why Agile?" Are you looking to improve:

• Time to market
• Team engagement
• Product quality
• Customer satisfaction
• Stakeholder engagement
• Employee satisfaction
• Consistency in delivery of value
• Predictably of your releases

Or a combination of the above?

Info-Tech Insight

Project delivery methodologies aren't either/or. You don't have to be 100% waterfall or 100% Agile. Select the right approach for your project, product, or service.

In the end, your business partners don't want projects delivered faster, they want value faster!

For more on understanding Agile, check out the Implement Agile Practices That Work Blueprint

Responses to a 2019 KPMG survey:

13% said that their top management fully supports Agile transformation.

76% of organizations did not agree that their organization supports Agile culture.

62% of top management believe Agile has no implications for them.

What changes for the business analyst?

Business analysts need to focus on six key elements when managing requirements in Agile.

• Team formation and interaction
• Stakeholder engagement and communication
• The timing and sequencing of their work
• Decision-making
• Documentation
• Dealing with change

In Agile, the what of business analysis does not change.

What does change is the how and when that work happens.

1.2.1 Assess your Agile requirements maturity

1.2.1 Assess your Agile requirements maturity

Estimated time: 30 Minutes

1. Using the Agile Requirements Maturity Assessment, gather all appropriate stakeholders, and discuss and score the current state of your practice. Scoring can be done by:
1. Consensus: Generally better with a smaller group, where the group agrees the score and documents the result
2. Average: Have everyone score individually, and aggregate the results into an average, which is then entered.
3. Weighted Average: As above, but weight the individual scores by individual or line of business to get a weighted average.
2. When current state is complete, revisit to establish target state (or hold as a separate session) using the same scoring approach as in current state.
1. Recognize that there is a cost to maturity, so don't default to the highest score by default.
2. Resist the urge at this early stage to generate ideas to navigate from current to target state. We will re-visit this exercise in Phase 4, once we've defined other pieces of our process and practice.

Input

• Participant knowledge and experience

Output

• A current and target state assessment of your Agile requirements practice

Materials

• Agile Requirements Maturity Assessment

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Tailoring Your Approach

Phase 2

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Selecting the appropriate delivery methodology
• Managing your requirements backlog
• Tracing from business need to user story

This phase involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Managing Requirements in an Agile Environment

Step 2.1

Confirm the Best-fit Approach for Delivery

Activities

2.1.1 Confirm your methodology

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• A review of potential delivery methodologies to select the appropriate, best-fit approach to your projects

Confirming you're using the best approach doesn't have be tricky

Selecting the right approach (or confirming you're on the right track) is easier when you assess two key inputs to your project; your level of certainty about the solution, and the level of complexity among the different variables and inputs to your project, such as team experience and training, the number of impacted stakeholders or context. lines of business, and the organizational

Solution certainty refers to the level of understanding of the problem and the solution at the start of the project. In projects with high solution certainty, the requirements and solutions are well defined, and the project scope is clear. In contrast, projects with low solution certainty have vague or changing requirements, and the solutions are not well understood.

Project complexity refers to the level of complexity of the project, including the number of stakeholders, the number of deliverables, and the level of technical complexity. In projects with high complexity, there are many stakeholders with different priorities, many deliverables, and high technical complexity. In contrast, projects with low complexity have fewer stakeholders, fewer deliverables, and lower technical complexity.

"Agile is a fantastic approach when you have no clue how you're going to solve a problem"

• Ryan Folster, Consulting Services Manager, Business Analysis, Dimension Data

Use Info-Tech's methodology selection matrix

Waterfall methodology is best suited for projects with high solution certainty and high complexity. This is because the waterfall model follows a linear and sequential approach, where each phase of the project is completed before moving on to the next. This makes it ideal for projects where the requirements and solutions are well-defined, and the project scope is clear.

On the other hand, Agile methodology is best suited for projects with low solution certainty. Agile follows an iterative and incremental approach, where the requirements and solutions are detailed and refined throughout the project. This makes it ideal for projects where the requirements and solutions are vague or changing.

Note that there are other models that exist for determining which path to take, should this approach not fit within your organization.

Use info-tech's-methodology-selection-matrix

Adapted from The Chaos Report, 2015 (The Standish Group)

Download the Agile Requirements Workbook

2.1.1 Confirm your methodology

Estimated time: 30 Minutes

1. Using the Agile Requirements Workbook, find the tab labelled "Methodology Assessment" and answer the questions to establish your complexity and certainty scores, where;

1 = Strongly disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Neutral
4 = Agree
5 = Strongly agree.

2. In the same workbook, plot the results in the grid on the tab labelled "Methodology Matrix".
3. Projects falling into Green are good fits for Agile. Yellow are viable. And Red may not be a great fit for Agile.
4. Note: Ultimately, the choice of methodology is yours. Recognize there may be additional challenges when a project is too complex, or uncertainty is high.

Input

• Current project complexity and solution certainty

Output

• A clear choice of delivery methodology

Materials

• Agile Requirements Workbook

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Step 2.2

Manage Your Requirements Backlog

Activities

2.2.1 Create your user stories

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• Understand how to convert requirements into user stories, which populate the Requirements Backlog.

Tailoring Your Approach

There is a hierarchy to requirements

	Higher-level statements of the goals, objectives, or needs of the enterprise. Business requirements focus on the needs of the organization, and not the stakeholders within it.	Defines
		Intended benefits and outcomes
	Statements of the needs of a particular stakeholder or class of stakeholders, and how that stakeholder will interact with a solution.	Why it is needed, and by who
	Describes the characteristics of a solution that meets business requirements and stakeholder requirements. Functional describes the behavior and information that the solution will manage. They describe capabilities the system will be able to perform in terms of behaviors or operations. Non-functional represents constraints on the ultimate solution and tends to be less negotiable.	What is needed, and how its going to be achieved

Connect the dots with a traceability matrix

Business requirements describe what a company needs in order to achieve its goals and objectives. Solution requirements describe how those needs will be met. User stories are a way to express the functionality that a solution will provide from the perspective of an end user.

A traceability matrix helps clearly connect and maintain your requirements.

To connect business requirements to solution requirements, you can start by identifying the specific needs that the business has and then determining how those needs can be met through technology or other solutions; or what the solution needs to do to meet the business need. So, if the business requirement is to increase online sales, a solution requirement might include implementing a shopping cart feature on your company website.

Once you have identified the solution requirements, you can then use those to create user stories. A user story describes a specific piece of functionality that the solution will provide from the perspective of a user.

For example, "As a customer, I want to be able to add items to my shopping cart so that I can purchase them." This user story is directly tied to the solution requirement of implementing a shopping cart feature.

Tracing from User Story back up to Business Requirement is essential in ensuring your solutions support your organization's strategic vison and objectives.

Download the Info-Tech Requirements Traceability Matrix

Improve the quality of your solution requirements

A solution requirement is a statement that clearly outlines the functional capability that the business needs from a system or application.

For more on developing high quality requirements, check out the Improve Requirements Gathering Blueprint

Prioritize your requirements

When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

Prioritization is the process of ranking each requirement based on its importance to project success. Each requirement should be assigned a priority level. The delivery team will use these priority levels to ensure efforts are targeted toward the proper requirements as well as to plan features available on each release. Use the MoSCoW Model of Prioritization to effectively order your requirements.

The MoSCoW Model of Prioritization

The MoSCoW model was introduced by Dai Clegg of Oracle UK in 1994

(Source: ProductPlan).

Base your prioritization on the right set of criteria

Info-Tech Insight

It is easier to prioritize requirements if they have already been collapsed, resolved, and rewritten. There is no point in prioritizing every requirement that is elicited up front when some of them will eventually be eliminated.

Manage solution requirements in a Product backlog

What is a backlog?

Agile teams are familiar with the use of a Sprint Backlog, but in Requirements Management, a Product Backlog is a more appropriate choice.

A product backlog and a Sprint backlog are similar in that they are both lists of items that need to be completed in order to deliver a product or project, but there are some key differences between the two.

A product backlog is a list of all the features, user stories, and requirements that are needed for a product or project. It is typically created and maintained by the business analyst or product owner and is used to prioritize and guide the development of the product.

A Sprint backlog, on the other hand, is a list of items specifically for an upcoming sprint, which is an iteration of work in Scrum. The Sprint backlog is created by the development team and is used to plan and guide the work that will be done during the sprint. The items in the Sprint backlog are typically taken from the product backlog and are prioritized based on their importance and readiness.

For more on building effective product backlogs, visit Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

A backlog stores and organizes requirements at various stages

Your backlog must give you a holistic understanding of demand for change in the product.

A well-formed backlog can be thought of as a DEEP backlog

Detailed appropriately: Requirements are broken down and refined as necessary

Emergent: The backlog grows and evolves over time as requirements are added and removed.

Estimated: The effort to deliver a requirement is estimated at each tier.

Prioritized: A requirement's value and priority are determined at each tier.

Adapted from Essential Scrum

Ensure requests and requirements are ready for development

Clearly define what it means for a requirement, change, or maintenance request to be ready for development.

This will help ensure the value and scope of each functionality and change are clear and well understood by both developers and stakeholders before the start of the sprint. The definition of ready should be two-fold: ready for the backlog, and ready for coding.

1. Create a checklist that indicates when a requirement or request is ready for the development backlog. Consider the following questions:
1. Is the requirement or request in the correct format?
2. Does the desired functionality or change have significant business value?
3. Can the requirement or request be reasonably completed within defined release timelines under the current context?
4. Does the development team agree with the budget and points estimates?
5. Is there an understanding of what the requirement or request means from the stakeholder or user perspective?
2. Create a checklist that indicates when a requirement or request is ready for development. Consider the following questions:
1. Have the requirements and requests been prioritized in the backlog?
2. Has the team sufficiently collaborated on how the desired functionality or change can be completed?
3. Do the tasks in each requirement or request contain sufficient detail and direction to begin development?
4. Can the requirement or request be broken down into smaller pieces?

Converting solution requirements into user stories

Define the user

Who will be interacting with the product or feature being developed? This will help to focus the user story on the user's needs and goals.

Create the story

Create the user story using the following template: "As a [user], I want [feature] so that [benefit]."
This helps articulate the user's need and the value that the requirement will provide.

Decompose

User stories are typically too large to be implemented in a single sprint, so they should be broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks.

Prioritize

User stories are typically too large to be implemented in a single sprint, so they should be broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks.

2.2.1 Create your user stories

Estimated time: 60 Minutes

1. Gather the project team and relevant stakeholders. Have access to your current list of solution requirements.
2. Leverage the approach on previous slide "Converting Solution Requirements into User Stories" to generate a collection of user stories.

NOTE: There is not a 1:1 relationship between requirements and user stories.
It is possible that a single requirement will have multiple user stories, and similarly, that a single user story will apply to multiple solution requirements.

Input

• Requirements
• Use Case Template

Output

• A collection of user stories

Materials

• Current Requirements

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Relevant Stakeholders

Use the INVEST model to create good user stories

At this point your requirements should be high-level stories. The goal is to refine your backlog items, so they are . . .

Independent: Ideally your user stories can be built in any order (i.e. independent from each other). This allows you to prioritize based on value and not get caught up in sequencing and prerequisites. Negotiable: As per the Agile principle, collaboration over contracts. Your user stories are meant to facilitate collaboration between the developer and the business. Therefore, they should be built to allow negotiation between all parties. Valuable: A user story needs to state the value so it can be effectively prioritized, but also so developers know what they are building. Estimable: As opposed to higher-level approximation given to epics, user stories need more accuracy in their estimates in order to, again, be effectively prioritized, but also so teams can know what can fit into a sprint or release plans. Small: User stories should be small enough for a number of them to fit into a sprint. However, team size and velocity will impact how many can be completed. A general guideline is that your teams should be able to deliver multiple stories in a sprint. Testable: Your stories need to be testable, which means they must have defined acceptance criteria and any related test cases as defined in your product quality standards. Source: Agile For All

Defining Your Requirements Thresholds

Phase 3

Defining Your Requirements Thresholds

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Assigning roles and responsibilities optional (Tool: RACI)
• Define your Agile requirements process
• Calculate the cost of your documentation (Tool: Documentation Calculator)
• Define your backlog refinement plan

This phase involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Managing Requirements in an Agile Environment

Step 3.1

Define Project Roles and Responsibilities

Activities

3.1.1 Define your Agile requirements RACI (optional)

3.1.2 Define your Agile requirements process

Defining Your Requirements Thresholds

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• A defined register of roles and responsibilities, along with a defined process for how Agile requirements work is to be done.

Defining Your Requirements Thresholds

Where does the BA function fit on an Agile team?

Team formation is key, as Agile is a team sport

A business analyst in an Agile team typically interacts with several different roles, including the product owner, development team, and many other stakeholders throughout the organization.

• The product owner, to set the priorities and direction of the project, and to gather requirements and ensure they are being met. Often, but not always, the BA and product owner are the same individual.
• The development team, to provide clear and concise requirements that they can use to build and test the product.
• Other stakeholders, such as customers, end-users, and subject matter experts to gather their requirements, feedback and validate the solution.
  • Design, to ensure that the product meets user needs. They may provide feedback and ensure that the design is aligned with requirements.
  • Security, to ensure that the solution meets all necessary security requirements and to identify potential risks and appropriate use of controls.
  • Testing, to ensure that the solution is thoroughly tested before it is deployed. They may create test cases or user scenarios that validate that everything is working as intended.
  • Deployment, to ensure that the necessary preparations have been made, including testing, security, and user acceptance.

Additionally, during the sprint retrospectives, the team will review their performance and find ways to improve for the next sprint. As a team member, the business analyst helps to identify areas where the team could improve how they are working with requirements and understand how the team can improve communication with stakeholders.

3.1.1 (Optional) Define Your Agile Requirements RACI

Estimated Time: 60 Minutes

1. Identify the project deliverables: The first step is to understand the project deliverables and the tasks that are required to complete them. This will help you to identify the different roles and responsibilities that need to be assigned.
2. Define the roles and responsibilities: Identify the different roles that will be involved in the project and their associated responsibilities. These roles may include project manager, product owner, development team, stakeholders, and any other relevant parties.
3. Assign RACI roles: Assign a RACI role to each of the identified tasks. The RACI roles are:
1. Responsible: the person or team who is responsible for completing the task
2. Accountable: the person who is accountable for the task being completed on time and to the required standard
3. Consulted: the people or teams who need to be consulted to ensure the task is completed successfully
4. Informed: the people or teams who need to be informed of the task's progress and outcome
4. Create the RACI chart: Use the information gathered in the previous steps to create a matrix or chart that shows the tasks, the roles, and the RACI roles assigned to each task.
5. Review and refine: Review the RACI chart with the project team and stakeholders to ensure that it accurately reflects the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved. Make any necessary revisions and ensure that all parties understand their roles and responsibilities.
6. Communicate and implement: Communicate the RACI chart to all relevant parties and ensure that it is used as a reference throughout the project. This will help to ensure that everyone understands their role and that tasks are completed on time and to the required standard.

Input

• A list of required tasks and activities
• A list of stakeholders

Output

• A list of defined roles and responsibilities for your project

Materials

• Agile Requirements Workbook

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

A Case Study in Team Formation

Industry: Anonymous Organization in the Energy sector
Source: Interview

Challenge

Agile teams were struggling to deliver within a defined sprint, as there were consistent delays in requirements meeting the definition of ready for development. As such, sprints were often delayed, or key requirements were descoped and deferred to a future sprint.

During a given two-week sprint cycle, the business analyst assigned to the team would be working along multiple horizons, completing elicitation, analysis, and validation, while concurrently supporting the sprint and dealing with stakeholder changes.

Solution

As a part of addressing this ongoing pain, a pilot program was run to add a second business analyst to the team.

The intent was, as one is engaged preparing requirements through elicitation, analysis, and validation for a future sprint, the second is supporting the current sprint cycle, and gaining insights from stakeholders to refine the requirements backlog.

Essentially, these two were leap-frogging each other in time. At all times, one BA was focused on the present, and one on the future.

Result

A happier team, more satisfied stakeholders, and consistent delivery of features and functions by the Agile teams. The pilot team outperformed all other Agile teams in the organization, and the "2 BA" approach was made the new standard.

Understanding the Agile requirements process

Shorter cycles make effective requirements management more necessary, not less

Short development cycles can make requirements management more difficult because they often result in a higher rate of change to the requirements. In a shorter timeframe, there is less time to gather and verify requirements, leading to a higher likelihood of poor or incomplete requirements. Additionally, there may be more pressure to make decisions quickly, which can lead to less thorough analysis and validation of requirements. This can make it more challenging to ensure that the final solution meets the needs of the stakeholders.
When planning your requirements cycles, it's important to consider;

• Your sprint logistics (how long?)
• Your release plan (at the end of every sprint, monthly, quarterly?)
• How the backlog will be managed (as tickets, on a visual medium, such as a Kanban board?)
• How will you manage communication?
• How will you monitor progress?
• How will future sprint planning happen?

Info-Tech's Agile requirements framework

	Sprint N(-1)	Sprint N	Sprint N(+1)
Changes from waterfall to Agile	Gathering and documenting requirements: Requirements are discovered and refined throughout the project, rather than being gathered and documented up front. This can be difficult for business analysts who are used to working in a waterfall environment where all requirements are gathered and documented before development begins. Prioritization of requirements: Requirements are prioritized based on their value to the customer and the team's ability to deliver them. This can be difficult for business analysts who are used to prioritizing requirements based on the client's needs or their own understanding of what is important.	Defining acceptance criteria: Acceptance criteria are defined for each user story to ensure that the team understands what needs to be delivered. Business analysts need to understand how to write effective acceptance criteria and how to use them to ensure that the team delivers what the customer needs. Supporting Testing and QA: The business analyst plays a role in ensuring that testing (and test cases) are completed and of proper quality, as defined in the requirements.	Managing changing requirements: It is expected that requirements will change throughout the project. Business analysts need to be able to adapt quickly to changing requirements and ensure that the team is aware of the changes and how they will impact the project. Collaboration with stakeholders: Requirements are gathered from a variety of stakeholders, including customers, users, and team members. Business analysts need to be able to work effectively with all stakeholders to gather and refine requirements and ensure that the team is building the right product.

3.1.2 Define your Agile requirements process

Estimated time: 60 Minutes

1. Gather all relevant stakeholders to discuss and define your process for requirements management.
2. Have a team member facilitate the session to define the process. The sample in the Agile Requirements Workbook can be used optionally as a starting point. You can also use any existing processes and procedures as a baseline.
3. Gain agreement on the process from all involved stakeholders.
4. Revisit the process periodically to review its performance and make adjustments as needed.

NOTE: The process is intended to be at a high enough level to leave space and flexibility for team members to adapt and adjust, but at a sufficient depth that everyone understands the process and workflows. In other words, the process will be both flexible and rigid, and the two are not mutually exclusive.

Input

• Project team and RACI
• Existing Process (if available)

Output

• A process for Agile requirements that is flexible yet rigid

Materials

• Agile Requirements Workbook

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Establish the right level of governance and decision-making

Establishing the right level of governance and decision making is important in Agile requirements because there is a cost to decision making, as time plays an important factor. Even the failure to decide can have significant impacts.

Good governance and decision-making practices can help to minimize risks, ensure that requirements are well understood and managed, and that project progress is tracked and reported effectively.

In Agile environments, this often involves establishing clear roles and responsibilities, implementing effective communication and collaboration practices, and ensuring that decision-making processes are efficient and effective.

Good requirements management practices can help to ensure that projects are aligned with organizational goals and strategy, that stakeholders' needs are understood and addressed, and that deliverables are of high quality and meet the needs of the business.

By ensuring that governance and decision-making is effective, organizations can improve the chances of project success, and deliver value to the business. Risks and costs can be mitigated by staying small and nimble.

Check out Make Your IT Governance Adaptable

Develop an adaptive governance process

Maturing governance is a journey

Organizations should look to progress in their governance stages. Ad-hoc and controlled governance tends to be slow, expensive, and a poor fit for modern practices.

The goal as you progress through your stages is to delegate governance and empower teams to make optimal decisions in real-time, knowing that they are aligned with the understood best interests of the organization.

Automate governance for optimal velocity, while mitigating risks and driving value.

This puts your organization in the best position to be adaptive and able to react effectively to volatility and uncertainty.

Five key principles for building an adaptive governance framework

Delegate and empower

Decision making must be delegated down within the organization, and all resources must be empowered and supported to make effective decisions.

Define outcomes

Outcomes and goals must be clearly articulated and understood across the organization to ensure decisions are in line and stay within reasonable boundaries.

Make risk- informed decisions

Integrated risk information must be available with sufficient data to support decision making and design approaches at all levels of the organization.

Embed / automate

Governance standards and activities need to be embedded in processes and practices. Optimal governance reduces its manual footprint while remaining viable. This also allows for more dynamic adaptation.

Establish standards and behavior

Standards and policies need to be defined as the foundation for embedding governance practices organizationally. These guardrails will create boundaries to reinforce delegated decision making.

Sufficient decision-making power should be given to your Agile teams

Push the decision-making process down to your pilot teams.

• Bring your business stakeholders and subject matter experts together to identify the potential high-level risks.
• Bring your business stakeholders and subject matter experts together to identify the potential high-level risks.
• Discuss with the business the level of risk they are willing to accept.
• Define the level of authority project teams have in making critical decisions.

"Push the decision making down as far as possible, down to the point where sprint teams completely coordinate all the integration, development, and design. What I push up the management chain is risk taking. [Management] decides what level of risk they are willing to take and [they] demonstrate that by the amount of decision making you push down."
– Senior Manager, Canadian P&C Insurance Company, Info-Tech Interview

Step 3.2

Define Your Level of Acceptable Documentation

Activities

3.2.1 Calculate the cost of documentation

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• Quantified cost of documentation produced for your Agile project.

Defining Your Requirements Thresholds

Right-size Your Documentation

Why do we need it, and what purpose does it serve?

Before creating any documentation, consider why; why are you creating documentation, and what purpose is it expected to serve?
Is it:

• … to gain approval?
• … to facilitate decision-making?
• .. to allow the team to think through a challenge or compare solution options?

Next, consider what level of documentation would be acceptable and 'enough' for your stakeholders. Recognize that 'enough' will depend on your stakeholder's personal definition and perspective.
There may also be considerations for maintaining documentation for the purposes of compliance, and auditability in some contexts and industries.
The point is not to eliminate all documentation, but rather, to question why we're producing it, so that we can create just enough to deliver value.

"What does the next person need to do their work well, to gain or create a shared understanding?"
- Filip Hendrickx, Innovating BA and Founder, altershape

Documentation comes at a cost

We need to quantify the cost of documentation, against the expected benefit

All things take time, and that would imply that all things have an inherent cost. We often don't think in these terms, as it's just the work we do, and costs are only associated with activities requiring additional capital expenditure. Documentation of requirements can come at a cost in terms of time and resources. Creating and maintaining detailed documentation requires effort from project team members, which could be spent on other aspects of the project such as development or testing. Additionally, there may be costs associated with storing and distributing the documentation.

When creating documentation, we are making a decision. There is an opportunity cost of investing time to create, and concurrently, not working on other activities. Documentation of requirements can come at a cost in terms of time and resources. Creating and maintaining detailed documentation requires effort from project team members, which could be spent on other aspects of the project such as development or testing. Additionally, there may be costs associated with storing and distributing the documentation.

In order to make better informed decisions about the types, quantity and even quality of the documentation we are producing, we need to capture that data. To ensure we are receiving good value for our documentation, we should compare the expected costs to the expected benefits of a sprint or project.

3.2.1 Calculate the cost of documentation

Estimated time: as needed

1. Use this tool to quantify the cost of creating and maintaining current state documentation for your Agile requirements team. It provides an indication, via the Documentation Cost Index, of when your project is documenting excessively, relative to the expected benefits of the sprint or project.
2. In Step 1, enter the hourly rate for the person (or persons) completing the business analysis function for your Agile team. NB: This does not have to be a person with the title of business analyst. If there are multiple people fulfilling this role, enter the average rate (if their rates are same or similar) or a weighted average (if there is a significant range in the hourly rate)
3. In Step 2, enter the expected benefit (in $) for the sprint or project.
4. In Step 3, enter the total number of hours spent on each task/activity during the sprint or project. Use blank spaces as needed to add tasks and activities not listed.
5. In Step 4, you'll find the Documentation Cost Index, which compares your total documentation cost to the expected benefits. The cell will show green when the value is < 0.8, yellow between 0.8 and 1, and red when >1.
6. Use the information to plan future sprints and documentation needs, identify opportunities for improvement in your requirements practice, and find balance in "just enough" documentation.

Input

• Project team and RACI
• Existing Process (if available)

Output

• A process for Agile requirements that is flexible yet rigid

Materials

• Agile Requirements Workbook

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Lack of documentation also comes at a cost

Lack of documentation can bring costs to Agile projects in a few different ways.

• Onboarding new team members
• Improving efficiency
• Knowledge management
• Auditing and compliance
• Project visibility
• Maintaining code

Info-Tech Insight

Re-using deliverables (documentation, process, product, etc.) is important in maintaining the velocity of work. If you find yourself constantly recreating your current state documentation at the start of a project, it's hard to deliver with agility.

Step 3.3

Manage Requirements as an Asset

Activities

3.3.1 Discuss your current perspectives on requirements as assets

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• Awareness of the value in, and tactics for enabling effective management of requirements as assets

Defining Your Requirements Thresholds

What do we mean by "assets"?

And when do requirements become assets?

In order to delivery with agility, you need to maximize the re-usability of artifacts. These artifacts could take the form of current state documentation, user stories, test cases, and yes, even requirements for re-use.
Think of it like a library for understanding where your organization is today. Understanding the people, processes, and technology, in one convenient location. These artifacts become assets when we choose to retain them, rather than discard them at the end of a project, when we think they'll no longer be needed.
And just like finding a single book in a vast library, we need to ensure our assets can be found when we need them. And this means making them searchable.
We can do this by establishing criteria for requirements and artifact reuse;

• What business need and benefit is it aligned to?
• What metadata needs to be attached, related to source, status, subject, author, permissions, type, etc.?
• Where will it be stored for ease of retrieval?

Info-Tech Insight

When writing requirements for products or services, write them for the need first, and not simply for what is changing.

The benefits of managing requirements as assets

Retention of knowledge in a knowledge base that allows the team to retain current business requirements, process documentation, business rules, and any other relevant information.
A clearly defined scope to reduce stakeholder, business, and compliance conflicts.
Impact analysis of changes to the current organizational assets.

Source: Requirement Engineering Magazine, 2017.

A case study in creating an asset repository

Industry: Anonymous Organization in the Government sector
Source: Interview

Challenge

A large government organization faced a challenge with managing requirements, processes, and project artifacts with any consistency.

Historically, their documentation was lacking, with multiple versions existing in email sent folders and manila folders no one could find. Confirming the current state at any given time meant the heavy lift of re-documenting and validating, so that effort was avoided for an excessive period.

Then there was a request for audit and compliance, to review their existing documentation practices. With nothing concrete to show, drastic recommendations were made to ensure this practice would end.

Solution

A small but effective team was created to compile and (if not available) document all existing project and product documentation, including processes, requirements, artifacts, business cases, etc.

A single repository was built and demonstrated to key stakeholders to ensure it would satisfy the needs of the audit and compliance group.

Result

A single source of truth for the organization, which was;

• Accessible (view access to the entire organization).
• Transparent (anyone could see and understand the process and requirements as intended).
• A baseline for continuous improvement, as it was clear what the one defined "best way" was.
• Current, where no one retained current documentation outside of this library.

3.3.1 Discuss your current perspectives on requirements as assets

Estimated time: 30 Minutes

1. Gather all relevant stakeholder to share perspectives on the use of requirements as assets, historically in the organization.
2. Have a team member facilitate the session. It is optional to document the findings.
3. After looking at the historical use of requirements as assets, discuss the potential uses, benefits, and drawbacks of managing as assets in the target state.

Input

• Participant knowledge and experience

Output

• A shared perspective and history on requirements as assets

Materials

• A method for data capture (optional)

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Apply changes to baseline documentation

Baseline + Release Changes = New Baseline

• Start from baseline documentation dramatically to reduce cost and risk
• Treat all scope as changes to baseline requirements
• Sum of changes in the release scope
• Sum of changes and original baseline becomes the new baseline
• May take additional time and effort to maintain accurate baseline

What is the right tool?

While an Excel spreadsheet is great to start off, its limitations will become apparent as your product delivery process becomes more complex. Look at these solutions to continue your journey in managing your Agile requirements:

Step 3.4

Define Your Requirements Change Management Plan

Activities

3.4.1 Triage your requirements

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• An approach for determining the appropriate level of governance over changes to requirements.

Expect and embrace change

In Agile development, change is expected and embraced. Instead of trying to rigidly follow a plan that may become outdated, Agile teams focus on regularly reassessing their priorities and adapting their plans accordingly. This means that the requirements can change often, and it's important for the team to have a process in place for managing these changes.

A common approach to managing change in Agile is to use a technique called "backlog refinement." Where previously we populated our backlog with requirements to get them ready for development and deployment, this involves regularly reviewing and updating the list of work to be done. The team will prioritize the items on the evolving backlog, and the prioritized items will be worked on during the next sprint. This allows the team to quickly respond to changes in requirements and stay focused on the most important work.

Another key aspect of managing change in Agile is effective communication. The team should have regular meetings, such as daily stand-up meetings or weekly sprint planning meetings, to discuss any changes in requirements and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Best practices in change and backlog refinement

Communicate

Clearly communicate your change process, criteria, and any techniques, tools, and templates that are part of your approach.

Understand impacts/risks

Maintain consistent control and communication and ensure that an impact assessment is completed. This is key to managing risks.

Leverage tools

Leverage tools when you have them available. This could be a Requirements Management system, a defect/change log, or even by turning on "track changes" in your documents.

Cross-reference

For every change, define the source of the change, the reason for the change, key dates for decisions, and any supporting documentation.

Communicate the reason, and stay on message throughout the change

Leaders of successful change spend considerable time developing a powerful change message: a compelling narrative that articulates the desired end state and makes the change concrete and meaningful to staff. They create the change vision with staff to build ownership and commitment.

• The change message should:
• Explain why the change is needed.
• Summarize the things that will stay the same.
• Highlight the things that will be left behind.
• Emphasize the things that are being changed.
• Explain how the change will be implemented.
• Address how the change will affect the various roles in the organization.
• Discuss staff's role in making the change successful.

The five elements of communicating the reason for the change:

How to make the management of changes more effective

Key decisions and considerations

How will changes to requirements be codified?
How will intake happen?

• What is the submission process?
• Who has approval to submit?
• What information is needed to submit a request?

How will potential changes be triaged and evaluated?

• What criteria will be used to assess the impact and urgency of the potential change?
• How will you treat material and non-material changes?

What is the review and approval process?

• How will acceptance or rejection status be communicated to the submitter?

3.4.1 Triage Your requirements

If there's no material impact, update and move on

Material changes require oversight and approval

Planning Your Next Steps

Phase 4

Planning Your Next Steps

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Completing Your Agile Requirements Playbook
• EXERCISE: Capability Gap List

This phase involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Managing Requirements in an Agile Environment

Step 4.1

Preparing New Ways of Working

Activities

4.1.1 Define your communication plan

Planning Your Next Steps

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• Recognize the changes required on the team and within the broader organization, to bring stakeholders on board.

How we do requirements work will change

Change within the team, and in the broader organization

How to build an effective blend Agile and requirements management

Within the team

• Meetings should happen as needed
• Handoffs should be clear and concise
• Interactions should add value
• Stand-ups should similarly add value, and shouldn't be for status updates

Within the organization

• PMO inclusion, to ensure alignment across the organization
• Business/Operating areas, to recognize what they are committing to for time, resources, etc.
• Finance, for how your project or product is funded
• Governance and oversight, to ensure velocity is maintained

"Whether in an Agile environment or not, collaboration and relationships are still required and important…how you collaborate, communicate, and how you build relationships are key."
- Paula Bell, CEO, Paula A. Bell Consulting

Get stakeholders on board with Agile requirements

1. Stakeholder feedback and management support are key components of successful Agile requirements.
2. Stakeholders can see a project's progression and provide critical feedback about its success at critical milestones.
3. Management helps teams succeed by trusting them to complete projects with business value at top of mind and by removing impediments that are inhibiting their productivity.
4. Agile will bring a new mindset and significant amounts of people, process, and technology changes that stakeholders and management may not be accustomed to. Working through these issues in requirements management enables a smoother rollout.
5. Management will play a key role in ensuring long-term Agile requirements success and ultimately rolling it out to the rest of the organization.
6. The value of leadership involvement has not changed even though responsibilities will. The day-to-day involvement in projects will change but continual feedback will ultimately dictate the success or failure of a project.

4.1.1 Define your communication plan

Estimated time: 60 Minutes

1. Gather all relevant stakeholder to create a communication plan for project or product stakeholders.
2. Have a team member facilitate the session.
3. Identify
4. ;
1. Each stakeholder
2. The nature of information they are interested in
3. The channel or medium best to communicate with them
4. The frequency of communication
5. (Optional) Consider validating the results with the stakeholders, if not present.
6. Document the results in the Agile Requirements Workbook and include in Agile Requirements Playbook.
7. Revisit as needed, whether at the beginning of a new initiative, or over time, to ensure the content is still valid.

Input

• Participant knowledge and experience

Output

• A plan for communicating with stakeholders

Materials

• Agile Requirements Workbook

Participants

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team

Step 4.2

Develop a Roadmap for Next Steps

Activities

4.2.1 Develop your Agile requirements action plan

4.2.2 Prioritize with now, next, later

This step involves the following participants:

• Business Analyst(s)
• Project Team
• Sponsor/Executive
• Relevant Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• A comprehensive and prioritized list of opportunities and improvements to be made to mature the Agile requirements practice.

Planning Your Next Steps

Identify opportunities to improve and close gaps

Maturing at multiple levels

With a mindset of continuous improvement, there is always some way we can get better.

As you mature your Agile requirements practice, recognize that those gaps for improvement can come from multiple levels, from the organizational down to the individual.

Each level will bring challenges and opportunities.

The organization

• Organizational culture
• Organizational behavior
• Political will
• Unsupportive stakeholders

The team

• Current ways of working
• Team standards, norms and values

The individual

• Practitioner skills
• Practitioner experience
• Level of training received

Make sure your organization is ready to transition to Agile requirements management

	Learning: Agile is a radical change in how people work and think. Structured, facilitated learning is required throughout the transformation to help leaders and practitioners go from doing Agile to being Agile.
	Automation: While Agile is tool-agnostic at its roots, Agile work management tools and DevOps inspired SDLC tools that have become a key part of Agile practices.
	Integrated Teams: While temporary project teams can get some benefits from Agile, standing, self-organizing teams that cross business, delivery, and operations are essential to gain the full benefits of Agile.
	Metrics and Governance: Successful Agile implementations require the disciplined use of delivery and operations metrics that support governance focused on developing better teams.
	Culture: Agile teams believe that value is best created by standing, self-organizing cross-functional teams who deliver sustainably in frequent, short increments supported by leaders who coach them through challenges.

Info-Tech Insight

Agile gaps may only have a short-term, perceived benefit. For example, coding without a team mindset can allow for maximum speed to market for a seasoned developer. Post-deployment maintenance initiatives, however, often lock the single developer as no one else understands the rationale for the decisions that were made.

4.2.1 Develop your Agile requirements action plan

Estimated time: 60 Minutes

1. Gather all relevant stakeholder to create a road map and action plan for requirements management.
2. Have a team member facilitate the session using the results of the Agile Requirements Maturity Assessment.
3. Identify gaps from current to future state and brainstorm possible actions that can be taken to address those gaps. Resist the urge to analyze or discuss the feasibility of each idea at this stage. The intent is idea generation.
4. When the group has exhausted all ideas, the facilitator should group like ideas together, with support from participants. Discuss any ideas that are unclear or ambiguous.
5. Document the results in the Agile Requirements Workbook.

Note: the feasibility and timing of the ideas will happen in the following "Now, Next, Later" exercise.

Prioritize your roadmap

Taking steps to mature your Agile requirements practice.

The "Now, Next, Later" technique is a method for prioritizing and planning improvements or tasks. This involves breaking down a list of tasks or improvements into three categories: "Now" tasks are those that must be completed immediately. These tasks are usually urgent or critical, and they must be completed to keep the project or organization running smoothly. "Next" tasks are those that should be completed soon. These tasks are not as critical as "now" tasks, but they are still important and should be tackled relatively soon. "Later" tasks are those that can be completed later. These tasks are less critical and can be deferred without causing major problems. By using this technique, you can prioritize and plan the most important tasks first, while also allowing for flexibility and the ability to adjust plans as necessary. This process also helps you get a clear picture on what needs to be done first and what can be done later. This way you can work on the most important things first, and keep track of what you need to do next, for keeping the development/improvement process smooth and efficient.

Monitor your progress

Monitoring progress is important in achieving your target state. Be deliberate with your actions, to continue to mature your Agile requirements practice.

As you navigate toward your target state, continue to monitor your progress, your successes, and your challenges. As your Agile requirements practice matures, you should see improvements in the stated metrics below.

Establish a cadence to review these metrics, as well as how you are progressing on your roadmap, against the plan.

This is not about adding work, but rather, about ensuring you're heading in the right direction; finding the balance in your Agile requirements practice.

Appendix

Research Contributors and Experts

Emal Bariali
Business Architect & Business Analyst
Bariali Consulting

Emal Bariali is a Senior Business Analyst and Business Architect with 17 years of experience, executing nearly 20 projects. He has experience in both waterfall and Agile methodologies and has delivered solutions in a variety of forms, including custom builds and turnkey projects. He holds a Master's degree in Information Systems from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor's degree in Information Technology from York University, and a post-diploma in Software & Database Development from Seneca College.

Paula Bell
Paula A. Bell Consulting, LLC

Paula Bell is the CEO of Paula A Bell Consulting, LLC. She is a Business Analyst, Leadership and Career Development coach, consultant, speaker, and author with 21+ years of experience in corporate America in project roles including business analyst, requirements manager, business initiatives manager, business process quality manager, technical writer, project manager, developer, test lead, and implementation lead. Paula has experience in a variety of industries including media, courts, manufacturing, and financial. Paula has led multiple highly-visible multi-million-dollar technology and business projects to create solutions to transform businesses as either a consultant, senior business analyst, or manager.

Currently she is Director of Operations for Bridging the Gap, where she oversees the entire operation and their main flagship certification program.

Ryan Folster
Consulting Services Manager, Business Analysis
Dimension Data

Ryan Folster is a Business Analyst Lead and Product Professional from Johannesburg, South Africa. His strong focus on innovation and his involvement in the business analysis community have seen Ryan develop professionally from a small company, serving a small number of users, to large multi-national organizations. Having merged into business analysis through the business domain, Ryan has developed a firm grounding and provides context to the methodologies applied to clients and projects he is working on. Ryan has gained exposure to the Human Resources, Asset Management, and Financial Services sectors, working on projects that span from Enterprise Line of Business Software to BI and Compliance.

Ryan is also heavily involved in the local chapter of IIBA®; having previously served as the chapter president, he currently serves as a non-executive board member. Ryan is passionate about the role a Business Analyst plays within an organization and is a firm believer that the role will develop further in the future and become a crucial aspect of any successful business.

Filip Hendrickx
Innovating BA, Visiting Professor @ VUB
altershape

Filip loves bridging business analysis and innovation and mixes both in his work as speaker, trainer, coach, and consultant.

As co-founder of the BA & Beyond Conference and IIBA Brussels Chapter president, Filip helps support the BA profession and grow the BA community in and around Belgium. For these activities, Filip received the 2022 IIBA® EMEA Region Volunteer of the Year Award.

Together with Ian Richards, Filip is the author ofBrainy Glue, a business novel on business analysis, innovation and change. Filip is also co-author of the BCS book Digital Product Management and Cycles, a book, method and toolkit enabling faster innovation.

Fabricio Laguna
Professional Speaker, Consultant, and Trainer
TheBrazilianBA.com

Fabrício Laguna, aka The Brazilian BA, is the main reference on business analysis in Brazil. Author and producer of videos, articles, classes, lectures, and playful content, he can explain complex things in a simple and easy-to-understand way. IIBA Brazil Chapter president between 2012-2022. CBAP, AAC, CPOA, PMP, MBA. Consultant and instructor for more than 25 years working with business analysis, methodology, solution development, systems analysis, project management, business architecture, and systems architecture. His online courses are approved by students from 65 countries.

Ryland Leyton
Business Analyst and Agile Coach
Independent Consultant

Ryland Leyton, CBAP, PMP, CSM, is an avid Agile advocate and coach, business analyst, author, speaker, and educator. He has worked in the technology sector since 1998, starting off with database and web programming, gradually moving through project management and finding his passion in the BA and Agile fields. He has been a core team member of the IIBA Extension to the BABOK and the IIBA Agile Analysis Certification. Ryland has written popular books on agility, business analysis, and career. He can be reached at www.RylandLeyton.com.

Steve Jones
Supervisor, Market Support Business Analysis
ISO New England

Steve is a passionate analyst and BA manager with more than 20 years of experience in improving processes, services and software, working across all areas of software development lifecycle, business change and business analysis. He rejoices in solving complex business problems and increasing process reproducibility and compliance through the application of business analysis tools and techniques.

Steve is currently serving as VP of Education for IIBA Hartford. He is a CBAP, certified SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager, Six Sigma Green Belt, and holds an MS in Information Management and Communications.

Angela Wick
Founder
BA-Squared and BA-Cube

Founder of BA-Squared and BA-Cube.com, Angela is passionate about teaching practical, modern product ownership and BA skills. With over 20 years' experience she takes BA skills to the next level and into the future!
Angela is also a LinkedIn Learning instructor on Agile product ownership and business analysis, an IC-Agile Authorized Trainer, Product Owner and BA highly-rated trainer, highly-rated speaker, sought-after workshop facilitator, and contributor to many industry publications, including:

• IIBA BABOK v3 Core Team, leading author on the BABOK v3
• Expert Reviewer, IIBA Agile Extension to the BABOK
• PMI BA Practice Guide – Expert Reviewer
• PMI Requirements Management Practice Guide – Expert Reviewer
• IIBA Competency Model – Lead Author and Team Lead, V1, V2, and V3.

Rachael Wilterdink
Principal Consultant
Infotech Enterprises

Rachael Wilterdink is a Principal Consultant with Infotech Enterprises. With over 25 years of IT experience, she holds multiple business analysis and Agile certifications. As a consultant, Rachael has served clients in the financial, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, government, non-profit, and insurance industries. Giving back to the professional community, Ms. Wilterdink served on the boards of her local IIBA® and PMI® chapters. As a passionate public speaker, Rachael presents various topics at conferences and user groups across the country and the world. Rachael is also the author of the popular eBook "40 Agile Transformation Pain Points (and how to avoid or manage them)."

Bibliography

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Bryar, Colin and Bill Carr. "Have We Taken Agile Too Far?" Harvard Business Review, 9 April 2021. Accessed 11 November, 2022.
Clarke, Thomas. "When Agile Isn't Responsive to Business Goals" RCG Global Services, Accessed 14 November 2022.
Digital.ai "The 15th State of Agile Report". Digital.ai. Accessed 21 November 2022.
Hackshall, Robin. "Product Backlog Refinement." Scrum Alliance. 9 Oct. 2014.
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Karlsson, Johan. "Backlog Grooming: Must-Know Tips for High-Value Products." Perforce. 18 May 2018
KPMG. Agile Transformation (2019 Survey on Agility). KPMG. Accessed November 29.
Laguna, Fabricio "REQM guidance matrix: A framework to drive requirements management", Requirements Engineering Magazine. 12 September 2017. Accessed 10 November 2022.
Miller, G. J. (2013). Agile problems, challenges, & failures. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2013—North America, New Orleans, LA. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Product Management: MoSCoW Prioritization." ProductPlan, n.d. Web.
Podeswa, Howard "The Business Case for Agile Business Analysis" Requirements Engineering Magazine. 21 February 2017. Accessed 7 November 2022.
PPM Express. "Why Projects Fail: Business Analysis is the Key". PPM Express. Accessed 16 November 2022.
Reifer, Donald J. "Quantitative Analysis of Agile Methods Study: Twelve Major Findings." InfoQ, 6 February, 2017.
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The Standish Group. The Chaos Report, 2015. The Standish Group.

Where do I go next?

Improve Requirements Gathering

Back to basics: great products are built on great requirements.

Make the Case for Product Delivery

Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.

Requirements for Small and Medium Enterprises

Right-size the guidelines of your requirements gathering process.

Implement Agile Practices that Work

Improve collaboration and transparency with the business to minimize project failure.

Create an Agile-Friendly Gating and Governance Model

Use Info-Tech's Agile Gating Framework as a guide to gating your Agile projects following a "trust but verify" approach.

Make Your IT Governance Adaptable

Governance isn't optional, so keep it simple and make it flexible.

Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.

Get Started With Customer Advocacy

Develop a customer advocacy program to transform customer satisfaction into revenue growth.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst perspective

Customer advocacy is critical to driving revenue growth

Customer advocacy puts the customer at the center of everything your organization does. By cultivating a deep understanding of customer needs and how they define value and by delivering positive experiences throughout the customer journey, organizations inspire and empower customers to become evangelists for their brands or products. Both the client and solution provider enjoy satisfying and ongoing business outcomes as a result.

Focusing on customer advocacy is critical for software solutions providers. Business-to-business (B2B) buyers are increasingly looking to their peers and third-party resources to arm themselves with information on solutions they feel they can trust before they choose to engage with solution providers. Your satisfied customers are now your most trusted and powerful resource.

Customer advocacy helps build strong relationships with your customers, nurtures brand advocacy, gives your marketing messaging credibility, and differentiates your company from the competition; it’s critical to driving revenue growth. Companies that develop mature advocacy programs can increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) by 16% (Wharton Business School, 2009), increase customer retention by 35% (Deloitte, 2011), and give themselves a strong competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Emily Wright
Senior Research Analyst, Advisory
SoftwareReviews

Executive summary

Your Challenge

Ad hoc customer advocacy (CA) efforts and reference programs, while still useful, are not enough to drive growth. Providers increase their chance for success by assessing if they face the following challenges:

• Lack of referenceable customers that can turn into passionate advocates, or a limited pool that is at risk of burnout.
• Lack of references for all key customer types, verticals, etc., especially in new growth segments or those that are hard to recruit.
• Lack of a consistent program for gathering customer feedback and input to make improvements and increase customer satisfaction.
• Lack of executive and stakeholder (e.g. Sales, Customer Success, channel partners, etc.) buy-in for the importance and value of customer advocacy.

Building a strong customer advocacy program must be a high priority for customer service/success leaders in today’s highly competitive software markets.

Common Obstacles

Getting started with customer advocacy is no easy task. Many customer success professionals carry out ad hoc customer advocacy activities to address immediate needs but lack a more strategic approach. What separates them from success are several nagging obstacles:

• Efforts lack funding and buy-in from stakeholders.
• Senior management doesn’t fully understand the business value of a customer advocacy program.
• Duplicate efforts are taking place between Sales, Marketing, product teams, etc., because ownership, roles, and responsibilities have not been determined.
• Relationships are guarded/hoarded by those who feel they own the relationship (e.g. Sales, Customer Success, channel partners, etc.).
• Customer-facing staff often lack the necessary skills to foster customer advocacy.

SoftwareReviews’ Approach

This blueprint will help leaders of customer advocacy programs get started with developing a formalized pilot program that will demonstrate the value of customer advocacy and lay a strong foundation to justify rollout. Through SoftwareReviews’ approach, customer advocacy leaders will:

• Enable the organization to identify and develop meaningful relationships with top customers and advocates.
• Understand the concepts and benefits of CA and how CA can be used to improve marketing and sales and fuel growth and competitiveness.
• Follow SoftwareReviews’ methodology to identify where to start to apply CA within the organization.
• Develop a customer advocacy proof of concept/pilot program to gain stakeholder approval and funding to get started with or expand efforts around customer advocacy.

What is customer advocacy?

“Customer advocacy is the act of putting customer needs first and working to deliver solution-based assistance through your products and services." – Testimonial Hero, 2021

Customer advocacy is designed to keep customers loyal through customer engagement and advocacy marketing campaigns. Successful customer advocacy leaders experience decreased churn while increasing return on investment (ROI) through retention, acquisition, and cost savings.

Businesses that implement customer advocacy throughout their organizations find new ways of supporting customers, provide additional customer value, and ensure their brands stand unique among the competition.

Customer Advocacy Is…

• An integral part of any marketing and/or business strategy.
• Essential to improving and maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Focused on delivering value to customers.
• Not only a set of actions, but a mindset that should be fostered and reinforced through a customer-centric culture.
• Mutually beneficial relationships for both company and customer.

Customer Advocacy Is Not…

• Only referrals and testimonials.
• Solely about what you can get from your advocates.
• Brand advocacy. Brand advocacy is the desired outcome of customer advocacy.
• Transactional. Brand advocates must be engaged.
• A nice-to-have.
• Solved entirely by software. Think about what you want to achieve and how a software solution can you help you reach those goals.

SoftwareReviews Insight

Customer advocacy has evolved into being a valued company asset versus a simple referral program – success requires an organization-wide customer-first mindset and the recognition that customer advocacy is a strategic growth initiative necessary to succeed in today’s competitive market.

Customer advocacy: Essential to high retention

When customers advocate for your company and products, they are eager to retain the value they receive

• Customer acts of advocacy correlate to high retention.
• Acts of advocacy won’t happen unless customers feel their interests are placed ahead of your company’s, thereby increasing satisfaction and customer success. That’s the definition of a customer-centric culture.
• And yet your company does receive significant benefits from customer advocacy:
  • When customers advocate and renew, your costs go down and margins rise because it costs less to keep a happy customer than it does to bring a new customer onboard.
  • When renewal rates are high, customer lifetime value increases, also increasing profitability.

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer (Huify, 2018).

Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95% (Bain & Company, cited in Harvard Business Review, 2014).

SoftwareReviews Insight

Don’t overlook the value of customer advocacy to retention! Despite the common knowledge that it’s far easier and cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to sell to a new prospect, most companies fail to leverage their customer advocacy programs and continue to put pressure on Marketing to focus their budgets on customer acquisition.

Customer advocacy can also be your ultimate growth strategy

In your marketing and sales messaging, acts of advocacy serve as excellent proof points for value delivered.

Forty-five percent of businesses rank online reviews as a top source of information for selecting software during this (top of funnel) stage, followed closely by recommendations and referrals at 42%. These sources are topped only by company websites at 54% (Clutch, 2020).

With referrals coming from customer advocates to prospects via your lead gen engine and through seller talk tracks, customer advocacy is central to sales, marketing, and customer experience success.

✓ Advocates can help your new customers learn your solution and ensure higher adoption and satisfaction.
✓ Advocates can provide valuable, honest feedback on new updates and features.

“A customer advocacy program is not just a fancy buzz word or a marketing tool that’s nice to have. It’s a core discipline that every major brand needs to integrate into their overall marketing, sales and customer success strategies if they expect to survive in this trust economy. Customer advocacy arguably is the common asset that runs throughout all marketing, sales and customer success activities regardless of the stage of the buyer’s journey and ties it all together.” – RO Innovation, 2017

Positive experience drives acts of advocacy

More than price or product, experience now leads the way in customer advocacy and retention

Advocacy happens when customers recommend your product. Our research shows that the biggest drivers of likeliness to recommend and acts of customer advocacy are the positive experiences customers have with vendors and their products, not product features or cost savings. Customers want to feel that:

1. Their productivity and performance is enhanced and the vendor is helping them to innovate and grow as a company.
2. Their vendor inspires them and helps them to continually improve.
3. They can rely on the vendor and the product they purchased.
4. They are respected by the vendor.
5. They can trust that the vendor will be on their side and save them time.

Note that anything above 0.5 indicates a strong driver of satisfaction.
Source: SoftwareReviews buyer reviews (based on 82,560 unique reviews).

SoftwareReviews Insight

True customer satisfaction comes from helping customers innovate, enhancing their performance, inspiring them to continually improve, and being reliable, respectful, trustworthy, and conscious of their time. These true drivers of satisfaction should be considered in your customer advocacy and retention efforts. The experience customers have with your product and brand is what will differentiate your brand from competitors, drive advocacy, and ultimately, power business growth. Talk to a SoftwareReviews advisor to learn how users rate your product on these satisfaction drivers in the SoftwareReviews Emotional Footprint Report.

Yet challenges exist for customer advocacy program leaders

Customer success leaders without a strong customer advocacy program feel numerous avoidable pains:

• Lack of compelling stories and proof points for the sales team, causing long sales cycles.
• Heavy reliance on a small pool of worn-out references.
• Lack of references for all needed customer types, verticals, etc.
• Lack of a reliable customer feedback process for solution improvements.
• Overspending on acquiring new customers due to a lack of customer proof points.
• Missed opportunities that could grow the business (customer lifetime value, upsell/cross-sell, etc.).

Marketing, customer success, and sales teams experiencing any one of the above challenges must consider getting started with a more formalized customer advocacy program.

Obstacles to customer advocacy programs

Leaders must overcome several barriers in developing a customer advocacy program:

• Stakeholders are often unclear on the value customer advocacy programs can bring and require proof of benefits to invest.
• Efforts are duplicated among sales, marketing, product, and customer success teams, given ownership and collaboration practices are ill-defined or nonexistent.
• There is a culture of guarding or hoarding customer relationships by those who feel they own the relationship, or there’s high turnover among employees who own the customer relationships.
• The governance, technology, people, skills, and/or processes to take customer advocacy to the next level are lacking.
• Leaders don’t know where to start with customer advocacy, what needs to be improved, or what to focus on first.

A lack of customer centricity hurts organizations

12% of people believe when a company says they put customers first. (Source: HubSpot, 2019)

Brands struggle to follow through on brand promises, and a mismatch between expectations and lived experience emerges. Customer advocacy can help close this gap and help companies live up to their customer-first messaging.

42% of companies don’t conduct any customer surveys or collect feedback. (Source: HubSpot, 2019)

Too many companies are not truly listening to their customers. Companies that don’t collect feedback aren’t going to know what to change to improve customer satisfaction. Customer advocacy will orient companies around their customer and create a reliable feedback loop that informs product and service enhancements.

Customer advocacy is no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity for solution providers

B2B buyers increasingly turn to peers to learn about solutions:

“84% of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral.” (Source: Influitive, Gainsight & Pendo, 2020)

“46% of B2B buyers rely on customer references for information before purchasing.” (Source: RO Innovation, 2017)

“91% of B2B purchasers’ buying decisions are influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations.” (Source: ReferralRock, 2022)

“76% of individuals admit that they’re more likely to trust content shared by ‘normal’ people than content shared by brands.” (Source: TrustPilot, 2020)

By ignoring the importance of customer advocacy, companies and brands are risking stagnation and missing out on opportunities to gain competitive advantage and achieve growth.

Getting Started With Customer Advocacy: SoftwareReviews' Approach

1 BUILD
Build the business case
Identify your key stakeholders, steering committee, and working team, understand key customer advocacy principles, and note success barriers and ways to overcome them as your first steps.

2 DEVELOP
Develop your advocacy requirements
Assess your current customer advocacy maturity, identify gaps in your current efforts, and develop your ideal advocate profile.

3 WIN
Win executive approval and implement pilot
Determine goals and success metrics for the pilot, establish a timeline and key project milestones, create advocate communication materials, and finally gain executive buy-in and implement the pilot.

SoftwareReviews Insight
Building and implementing a customer advocacy pilot will help lay the foundation for a full program and demonstrate to executives and key stakeholders the impact on revenue, retention, and CLV that can be achieved through coordinated and well-planned customer advocacy efforts.

Customer advocacy benefits

Our research benefits customer advocacy program managers by enabling them to:

• Explain why having a centralized, proactive customer advocacy program is important.
• Clearly communicate the benefits and business case for having a formalized customer advocacy program.
• Develop a customer advocacy pilot to provide a proof of concept (POC) and demonstrate the value of customer advocacy.
• Assess the maturity of your current customer advocacy efforts and identify what to improve and how to improve to grow your customer advocacy function.

"Advocacy is the currency for business and the fuel for explosive growth. Successful marketing executives who understand this make advocacy programs an essential part of their go-to-market strategy. They also know that advocacy isn't something you simply 'turn on': ... ultimately, it's about making human connections and building relationships that have enduring value for everyone involved."
- Dan Cote, Influitive, Dec. 2021

Case Study: Advocate impact on sales at Genesys

Genesys' Goal

Provide sales team with compelling customer reviews, quotes, stories, videos, and references.

Approach to Advocacy

• Customers were able to share their stories through Genesys' customer hub GCAP as quotes, reviews, etc., and could sign up to host reference forum sessions for prospective customers.
• Content was developed that demonstrated ROI with using Genesys' solutions, including "top-tier logos, inspiring quotes, and reference forums featuring some of their top advocates" (Influitive, 2021).
• Leveraged customer advocacy-specific software solution integration with the CRM to easily identify reference recommendations for Sales.

Advocate Impact on Sales

According to Influitive (2021), the impacts were:

• 386% increase in revenue influences from references calls
• 82% of revenue has been influence by reference calls
• 78 reference calls resulted in closed-won opportunities
• 250 customers and prospects attended 7 reference forums
• 112 reference slides created for sales enablement
• 100+ quotes were collect and transformed into 78 quote slides

Who benefits from getting started with customer advocacy?

This Research Is Designed for:

• Customer advocacy leaders and marketers who are looking to:
  • Take a more strategic, proactive, and structured approach to customer advocacy.
  • Find a more effective and reliable way to gather customer feedback and input on products and services.
  • Develop and nurture a customer-oriented mindset throughout the organization.
  • Improve marketing credibility both within the company and outside to prospective customers.

This Research Will Help You:

• Explain why having a centralized, proactive customer advocacy program is important.
• Clearly communicate the benefits and business case for having a formalized customer advocacy program.
• Develop a customer advocacy pilot to provide a proof of concept (POC) and demonstrate the value of customer advocacy.
• Assess the maturity of your current customer advocacy efforts and identify what to improve and how to improve to grow your customer advocacy function.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• Customer success leaders and sales directors who are responsible for:
  • Gathering customer references and testimonials.
  • Referral or voice of the customer (VoC) programs.

This Research Will Help Them:

• Align stakeholders on an overall program of identifying ideal advocates.
• Coordinate customer advocacy efforts and actions.
• Gather and make use of customer feedback to improve products, solutions, and service provided.
• Provide an amazing customer experience throughout the entirety of the customer journey.

SoftwareReviews’ methodology for getting started with customer advocacy