Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Learning objectives

Describe the benefits of virtual teams.

Create a plan for adopting effective management practices and setting clear expectations with virtual teams.

Identify potential solutions to the challenges of managing performance and developing members of virtual teams.

Create an action plan to increase effectiveness in managing virtual teams.

Target audience

People managers who manage or plan to manage virtual teams.

Training length

Two three-hour sessions

Training material

• Use the speaker’s notes in the notes pane section of each slide to plan and practice the training session.
• Activity slides are scattered throughout this training deck and are clearly numbered in the slide title.
• Notes in italics are written to the facilitator and are not meant to be read aloud.
• Download the Workbook for participants to use.

Suggested materials for activities:

• Index cards or sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard/large table space/flip chart

Agenda & activities

Recommended Customization

Review all slides and adjust the language or content as needed to suit your organizational context and culture.

The pencil icon to the left denotes slides requiring customization of the slide and/or the speaker’s notes, e.g. adding in an organization-specific process.

Customization instructions are found in the notes pane.

Tips

• Adjust the speaker’s notes on the slides before (or after) any slides you modify or delete to ensure logical transitions between slides.
• Update the agenda to reflect new timings if major modifications are made.
• Even seasoned leaders need to be reminded of the basics now and again. Rather than delete more basic slides, cut back on the amount of time spent covering them and frame the content as a refresher.

• Participant Workbooks
• Relevant organization-specific documents (see side panel)
• Training Session Feedback Form

Required Information

• Communication guidelines for managers (e.g. cadence of manager interactions)
• Performance management process and guidelines
• Employee development guidelines
• List of available resources (e.g. social collaboration tools)

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 1.1

Practical foundations for managing teams in a remote environment

Feasibility of virtual IT teams

Most organizations are planning some combination of remote and onsite work in 2022.

Source: IT Talent Trends, 2022; n=199

Speaker’s Notes:

Most organizations are planning some combination of remote and onsite work in 2022 – the highest reported plans for WFH were hybrid, balanced, and partial work-from-home. This builds on our findings in the IT Talent Trends 2022 report.

Feasibility of virtual IT teams

What percentage of roles in IT are capable of being performed remotely permanently?

Approximately what percentage of roles in IT are capable of being performed remotely permanently?

IT Talent Trends, 2022; n=207

Speaker’s Notes:

80% of respondents estimated that 50 to 100% of IT roles can be performed remotely.

Virtual teams take all kinds of forms

A virtual team is any team that has members that are not colocated and relies on technology for communications.

Speaker’s Notes:

Before we start, it will be useful to review what we mean by the term “virtual team.” For our purposes we will be defining a virtual team as any team that has members that are not colocated and relies on technology for communications.

There are a wide variety of virtual work arrangements and a variety of terms used to describe them. For example, some common terms include:

• “Flexible work arrangements”: Employees have the option to work where they see fit (within certain constraints). They may choose to work from the office, home, a shared office space, the road, etc.
• “Remote work,” “work from home,” and “telecommuting”: These are just various ways of describing how or where people are working virtually. They all share the idea that these kinds of employees are not colocated.
• “Multi-office team”: the team members all work in office environments, but they may not always be in the same office as their team members or manager.

Our definition of virtual work covers all of these terms. It is also distance neutral, meaning that it applies equally to teams that are dispersed globally or regionally or even those working in the same cities but dispersed throughout different buildings. Our definition also applies whether virtual employees work full time or part time.

The challenges facing managers arise as soon as some team members are not colocated and have to rely on technology to communicate and coordinate work. Greater distances between employees can complicate challenges (e.g. time zone coordination), but the core challenges of managing virtual teams are the same whether those workers are merely located in different buildings in the same city or in different buildings on different continents.

1.1 What kind of virtual team do you lead?

15 Minutes

Working on your own, take five minutes to figure out what kind of virtual team you lead.

1. How many people on your team work virtually (all, most, or a small percentage)?
2. How often and how regularly do they tend to work virtually (full time, part time regularly, or part time as needed)?
3. What kinds of virtual work arrangements are there on your team (multi-site, work from home, mobile employees)?
4. Where do your workers tend to be physically located (different offices but in the same city/region or globally dispersed)?
5. Record this information in your workbook.
6. Discuss as a group.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Size of virtual team
• Current remote work practices

Output

• Documented list of current state of remote work

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Advantages

Speaker’s Notes:

Remote work arrangements are becoming more and more common, and for good reason: there are a lot of benefits to the organization – and to employees.

#1: Save Money

Perhaps one of the most common reasons for opting for remote-work arrangements is the potential cost savings. One study found that organizations could save about $11,000 per employee working from home half the time (Global Workplace Analytics, 2021).

#2 Increased Attraction

In addition, supporting remote-work arrangements can attract employees. One study found that 71% of employees would likely choose one employer over another based on WFH offerings (Owl Labs, 2019).

#3 Improve productivity.

There are also improvements to productivity. Fifty percent of employees report they would maintain or increase their productivity while working from home (Glassdoor Team, 2020).

Remote work also has benefits to employees.

#1: Save Money

As with organizations, employees also benefit financially from remote work arrangements, saving between $2,500 and $4,000 and on average 11 working days while working from home half of the time.

#2: Improved Wellbeing

Most employees agree that working from home makes them happier, reduces stress, and provides an improved work-life balance through increased flexibility.

Challenges

Organizations

• Concerns that WFH may stifle innovation (Scientific American, 2021), likely due to the potential lack of collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Fewer organic opportunities for informal interaction between employees working from home means active efforts are required to foster organizational culture.

Leaders

• 42% of managers believe that monitoring the productivity of their direct reports is a top challenge of WFH (Ultimate Software, 2019).
• The lack of in-person supervision compounded with a lack of trust in employees leads many leaders to believe that WFH will result in a drop in productivity.

Employees

• 20% of employees report collaboration/communication as their top struggle with WFH (Owl Labs, 2021).
• Employees often experience burnout from working longer hours due to the lack of commute, blurring of work and home life, and the perceived need to prove their productivity.

Many of these barriers can be addressed by changing traditional mindsets and finding alternative ways of working, but the traditional approach to work is so entrenched that it has been hard to make the shift.

Speaker’s Notes:

Many organizations are still grappling with the challenges of remote work. Some are just perceived challenges, while others are quite real.

Limited innovation and a lack of informal interaction are a potential consequence of failing to properly adapt to the remote-work environment.

Leaders also face challenges with remote work. Losing in-person supervision has led to the lack of trust and a perceived drop in productivity.

A study conducted 2021 asked remote workers to identify their biggest struggle with working remotely. The top three struggles remote workers report facing are unplugging after work, loneliness, and collaborating and/or communicating.

Seeing the struggles remote workers identify is a good reminder that these employees have a unique set of challenges. They need their managers to help them set boundaries around their work; create feelings of connectedness to the organization, culture, and team; and be expert communicators.

1.2 Virtual teams: benefits and challenges

20 Minutes

1. Discuss and list:
   1. Any positives you’ve experienced since managing virtual employees.
   2. Any challenges you’ve had to manage connected to managing virtual employees.
2. Record information in the workbook.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Personal experiences managing remote teams

Output

• List of benefits and challenges of remote work

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 1.2

Laying the foundations for a virtual team

The 3i’s: Inform, interact, and involve your way to effective management:

Speaker’s Notes:

Effectively managing a virtual team really comes down to adopting management approaches that will engage virtual employees.

Managing a virtual team does not actually require a new management style. The basics of effective management are the same in both colocated and virtual teams; however, the emphasis on certain behaviors and actions we take often differs. Managing a virtual team requires much more thoughtfulness and planning in our everyday interactions with our teams as we cannot rely on the relative ease of face-to-face interactions available to colocated teams.

The 3i’s Engaging Management Model is useful when interacting with all employees and provides a handy framework for more planful interactions with virtual employees.

Think of your management responsibilities in these three buckets – they are the most important components of being an effective manager. We’re first going to look at inform and involve before moving on to interact.

Inform: Relay information down from senior management and leaders to employees. Communicate the rationale behind decisions and priorities, and always explain how they will directly affect employees.

Why is this important? According to McLean & Company’s Engagement Survey data, employees who say their managers keep them well informed about decisions that affect them are 3.4 times more likely to be engaged (Source: McLean & Company, 2020; N=77,363). Your first reaction to this might be “I already do this,” which may very well be the case. Keep in mind, though, we sometimes tend to communicate on a “need-to-know basis,” especially when we are stressed or short on time. Engaging employees takes more. Always focus on explaining the “why?” or the rationale behind business decisions.

It might seem like this domain should be the least affected, since important company announcements probably continue in a remote environment. But remember that information like that also flows informally. And even in formal settings, there are question-and-answer opportunities. Or maybe your employee might come to your office to ask for more details. Virtual team members can’t gather around the watercooler. They don’t have the same opportunities to hear information in passing as people who are colocated do, so managers need to make a concerted effort to share information with virtual team members in a clear and timely way.

Swinging over to the other end, we have involve: Involve your employees. Solicit information and feedback from employees and collaborate with them.

However, it’s not enough to just solicit their feedback and input; you also need to act on it.

Make sure you involve your employees in a meaningful way. Such collaboration makes employees feel like a valued part of the team. Not to mention that they often have information and perspectives that can help make your decisions stronger!

Employees who say their department leaders act on feedback from them are 3.9 times more likely to be engaged than those whose leaders don’t. (Source: McLean & Company, 2020; N=59,779). That is a huge difference!

Keeping virtual employees engaged and feeling connected and committed to the organization requires planful and regular application of the 3i’s model.

Finally, Interact: Connect with employees on a personal level; get to know them and understand who they are on a personal and professional level.

Why? Well, over and above the fact that it can be rewarding for you to build stronger relationships with your team, our data shows that human connection makes a significant difference with employees. Employees who believe their managers care about them as a person are 3.8 times more likely to be engaged than those who do not (Source: McLean & Company, 2017; N=70,927).

And you might find that in a remote environment, this is the area that suffers the most, since a lot of these interactions tend to be unscripted, unscheduled, and face to face.

Typically, if we weren’t in the midst of a pandemic, we’d emphasize the importance of allocating some budget to travel and get some face-to-face time with your staff. Meeting and interacting with team members face to face is crucial to building trusting relationships, and ultimately, an effective team, so given the context of our current circumstances, we recommend the use of video when interacting with your employees who are remote.

Relay information down from senior management to employees.

Ensure they’ve seen and understand any organization-wide communication.

Share any updates in a timely manner.

Connect with employees on a personal level.
Ask how they’re doing with the new work arrangement.
Express empathy for challenges (sick family member, COVID-19 diagnosis, etc.).
Ask how you can support them.
Schedule informal virtual coffee breaks a couple of times a week and talk about non-work topics.

Get information from employees and collaborate with them.
Invite their input (e.g. have a “winning remotely” brainstorming session).
Escalate any challenges you can’t address to your VP.
Give them as much autonomy over their work as possible – don’t micromanage.

1.3 Identify behaviors to inform, interact with, and involve team members

20 Minutes

Individually:

1. Identify one behavior for each of Inform, Interact, and Involve to improve.
2. Record information in the workbook.

As a group:

1. Discuss behaviors to improve for each of Inform, Interact, and Involve and record new ideas to incorporate into your leadership practice.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• 3i's Model
• Current leadership behaviors to improve

Output

• List of behaviors to better inform, interact, and involve team members

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Laying the foundation: Set clear expectations

Tasks

• What are the daily and weekly team activities? How do they affect one another?

Goals

• Clarify any adjustments to strategy based on the situation; clarify metrics.

Communication

• How often and when will you check in? What should they come to you for? What modalities will you use and when?

Roadblocks

• Involve your team in deciding how to handle roadblocks and challenges.

Speaker’s Notes:

Clear expectations are important in any environment, remote or not. But it is much harder to do in a remote environment. The barrier to seeking clarification is so much higher (For example, email vs. catching someone in hallway, or you can’t notice that a colleague is struggling without them asking).

Communication – This is one area where the importance actually changes in a remote context. We’ve been talking about a lot of practices that are the same in importance whether you’re in an office or remote, and maybe you just enact them differently. But clarity around communication processes is actually tremendously more important in a remote environment.

Adopt a five-step process to set specific and documented expectations

1. Check in with how your team member is doing on a daily basis. Don’t forget to ask how they are doing personally.
2. Follow up on previously set expectations. Ask how things are going. Discuss if priorities or expectations have changed and update expectations accordingly.
3. Ask if they are experiencing any roadblocks and collaborate to find solutions.
4. Provide feedback and recognition as appropriate.
5. Document newly set expectations – either through a collaboration tool or through email.

Speaker’s Notes:

Suggested best practices: Hold daily team check-ins and hold separate individual check-ins. Increase frequency of these.

During Check-in

1. Set up a running Teams chat for your team.

• This is your community. You must be the biggest cheerleader and keep the team feeling like they are contributing. Make sure everyone is involved.

• Ask: What are you working on today? What will your momentum metrics be? What do you need from me?

After a Check-in

1. Be accessible:
   • Ensure your team knows the best way to get in touch with you.
   • Email is not ideal for informal, frequent contact – use messaging instead.
2. Be available:
   • Keep a running conversation going in Teams.
   • Respond in a timely manner; address issues quickly so that your team has what they need to succeed.
   • Let your team know if you’ll be away/offline for longer than an hour during the workday and ask them to do the same (e.g. for an appointment).
   • Help address roadblocks, answer questions, clarify priorities, etc.

Define communication requirements

• Set up an ongoing communication with your team.
  • E.g. a running conversation on Slack or Teams
• Schedule daily virtual meetings and check-ins.
  • This can help to maintain a sense of normalcy and conduct a pulse check on your team.
• Use video for important conversations.
  • Video chat creates better rapport, shows body language, and lessens feelings of isolation, but it can be taxing.
• Set expectations about communication.
  • Differentiate between day-to-day communication and updates on the state of events.
• Clearly communicate the collaboration toolkit.
  • What do we have available? What is the purpose of each?

Speaker’s Notes:

With organizational expectations set, we need to establish team expectations around how we collaborate and communicate.

Today there is no lack of technology available to support our virtual communication. We can use the phone, conference calls, videoconferencing, Skype, instant messaging, [insert organization-specific technological tools.], etc.

However, it is important to have a common understanding of which tools are most appropriate when and for what.

What are some of the communication channel techniques you’ve found useful in your informal interactions with employees or that you’ve seen work well between employees?

[Have participants share any technological tools they find useful and why.]

Check in with your team on communication requirements

• Should we share our calendars, hours of availability, and/or IM status?
• How often should we meet as a team and one on one? Should we institute a time when we should not communicate virtually?
• Which communication channel should we use in what context? How should we decide which communication method to use?
• Should I share guidelines for email and meeting etiquette (or any other communication methods)?
• Should we establish a new team charter?
• What feedback does the team have regarding how we’ve been communicating?

Speaker’s Notes:

Whenever we interact, we make the following kinds of social exchanges. We exchange:

• Information: Data or opinions
• Emotions: Feelings and evaluations about the data or opinions
• Motivations: What we feel like doing in response to data or opinions

We need to make sure that these exchanges are happening as each team member intends. To do this, we have to be sensitive to what information is being conveyed, what emotions are involved in the interaction, and how we are motivating each other to act through the interaction. Every interaction will have intended and unintended effects on others. No one can pay attention to all of these aspects of communication all the time, but if we develop habits that are conducive to successful exchanges in all three areas, we can become more effective.

In addition to being mindful of the exchange in our communication, as managers it is critical to build trusting relationships and rapport with employees as we saw in the 3i's model. However, in virtual teams we cannot rely on running into someone in the kitchen or hallway to have an informal conversation. We need to be thoughtful and deliberate in our interactions with employees. We need to find alternative ways to build these relationships with and between employees that are both easy and accepted by ourselves and employees. Because of that, it is important to set communication norms and really understand each other’s preferences. For example:

• Timing of responses. Set the expectation that emails should be responded to within X hours/days unless otherwise noted in the actual email.
• When it’s appropriate to send an email vs. using instant messaging.
• A team charter – the team’s objectives, individual roles and responsibilities, and communication and collaboration guidelines.

1.4 Identify and share ways you prefer to communicate for different activities

20 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list the different types of exchanges you have with your virtual employees and they have with each other.
2. List the various communication tools in use on your team.
3. Assign a preferred communication method for each type of exchange

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current types of exchanges on team
• Communication methods used

Output

• Defined ways to communicate for each communication method

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 2.1
Balancing wellbeing and performance in a virtual team context

The pandemic has taken a significant toll on employees’ mental wellbeing

44% of employees reported declined mental wellbeing since the start of the pandemic.

• 44% of those who work from home.
• 34% of those who have other work arrangements (i.e. onsite).
  (Qualtrics, 2020)

"If one of our colleagues were to fall, break their leg, and get a cast, colleagues would probably rally around that person signing their cast. But, really, we don’t view the health of our brain the same as we do the health of our body."
– Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Employee

Speaker’s Notes:

Despite being over two years into the pandemic, we are still seeing its effect on the physical and mental health of employees.

The mental health aspect has been often overlooked by organizations, but in order to have a safe, happy, and productive team, you need to give mental health the same level of focus as physical heath. This requires a change in mindset in order for you as a leader to support your team's mental wellbeing during the pandemic and beyond.

Employees are reporting several key mental wellbeing challenges

Stress: 67%

Employees report increasingly high levels of stress from the onset of COVID-19, stating that it has been the most stressful time in their careers.
(Qualtrics, 2020)

Anxiety: 57%

Similarly, employees’ anxiety levels have peaked because of the pandemic and the uncertainty it brings.
(Qualtrics, 2020)

Four main themes surrounding stress & anxiety

• Fear of contracting COVID-19
• Financial pressures
• Job security and uncertainty
• Loneliness caused by social isolation

Speaker’s Notes:

The stress and uncertainty about the future caused by the pandemic and its fallout are posing the biggest challenges to employees.

Organizations shutting down operations, moving to fully remote, or requiring some of their employees to be on site based on the current situation causes a lot of anxiety as employees are not able to plan for what is coming next.

Adding in the loss of social networks and in-person interactions exacerbates the problem employees are facing. As leaders, it is your job to understand and mitigate these challenges wherever possible.

Re-examine your workplace barriers to mental wellbeing

Key considerations:

• Work Environment
  • Accessibility of mental wellbeing programs and initiatives
• Organizational Culture
  • Modeling of wellbeing
  • Paid time off
  • Discussions around mental wellbeing
• Total Rewards
  • Benefits coverage
  • Employee assistance programs (EAPs)
  • Manager knowledge

Speaker’s Notes:

Organizational barriers to mental wellbeing are sadly not new. Workloads, stigma around mental health, lack of sick days, and limits to benefits for mental health supports were challenges before the pandemic. Adding in the new barriers can very easily result in a tipping point for many employees who are simply not equipped to deal with or supported in dealing with the added burden of remote work in a post-pandemic world.

To provide the needed support to your employees, it’s important to be mindful of the key considerations.

Holistic employee wellbeing has never been more critical than it is right now

Employee Wellbeing

Physical

The physical body; ensuring a person has the freedom, opportunities, and resources needed to sustainably maintain bodily health.

Mental

The psychological ability to cope with information, emotions, desires, and stressors (e.g. change, threats, etc.) in a healthy and balanced way. Essential for day-to-day living and functioning.

Social

The state of personal and professional relationships, including personal and community engagement. The capability for genuine, authentic, and mutually affirming interactions with others.

Financial

The state of a person’s finances; ensuring that a person feels capable to handle their financial situation and behaviors. The ability to live productively without the weight of financial stress.

Speaker’s Notes:

As a manager, you need to be mindful of all of these. Create an atmosphere where people are able to come to you for help if they are struggling in one of these areas. For example, some people might be more comfortable raising physical safety or comfort concerns (personal protective equipment, ergonomics) than concerns about mental health. Or they might feel like their feelings of loneliness are not appropriate to bring into their professional life.

Wellbeing is a delicate subject, and most of the time, people are reluctant to talk about it. It requires vulnerability. And here’s the thing about it: Your staff will not drive a change in your team around making these topics more acceptable. It has to be the manager. You have to be the one to not just tell but show them that it’s OK to talk about this

Encourage human-centered workplace behaviors

Promote empathy as a focus value

• Listen and show compassion.
• Allow room for emotions.

Encourage social connection

• Leverage networks.
• Infuse fun where possible.
• Encourage community and sense of joint purpose.

Cultivate a growth mindset

• Encourage mindfulness and resilience.
• Express gratitude.

Empower others

• Ask employees what they need and co-create solutions.
• Integrate needs of personal and family life with work life.
• Be clear on accountability.

Speaker’s Notes:

As a leader, your focus should be on encouraging the right behaviors on your team and in yourself.
Show empathy; allowing room for emotion and showing you are willing and able to listen goes a long way to establishing trust.

A growth mindset applies to resilience too. A person with a growth mindset is more likely to believe that even though they’re struggling now, they will get through it.

Infuse fun – schedule social check-ins. This is not wasted time, or time off work – it is an integral part of the workday. We have less of it now organically, so you must bring it back deliberately. Remember that theme? We are deliberately reinfusing important organic elements into the workday.

The last item, empowerment, is interesting – being clear on accountability. Have clear performance expectations. It might sound like telling people what to do would be disempowering, but it’s the opposite. By clarifying the goals of what they need to achieve, you empower them to invent their own “how,” because you and they are both sure they will arrive at the place that you agreed on. We will talk more about this in performance management.

Emphasize the importance of wellbeing by setting the tone for the team

Managers must…

• LEAD BY EXAMPLE
  • Employees look to their managers for cues about how to react in a crisis. If the manager reacts with stress and fear, the team will follow.
• ENCOURAGE OPEN COMMUNICATION
  • Frequent check-ins and transparent communication are essential during a time of crisis, especially when working remotely.
• ACKNOWLEDGE THE SITUATION
  • Recognizing the stress that teams may be facing and expressing confidence in them goes a long way.
• PROMOTE WELLBEING
  • Managers who take care of themselves can better support their teams and encourage them to practice good self-care too.
• REDUCE STIGMA
  • Reducing stigma around mental health encourages people to come forward with their struggles and get the support they need.

Speaker’s Notes:

Emphasize the importance of wellbeing with what you do. If you do not model self-care behavior, people will follow what you do, not what you say.

Lead by example – Live the behaviors you want to see in your employees. If you show confidence, positivity, and resiliency, it will filter down to your team.

Encourage open communication – Have regular meetings where your team is able to set the agenda, or allow one-on-ones to be guided by the employee. Make sure these are scheduled and keep them a priority.

Acknowledge the situation – Pretending things are normal doesn’t help the situation. Talk about the stress that the team is facing and express confidence that you will get through it together.

Promote wellbeing – Take time off, don’t work when you’re sick, and you will be better able to support your team!

Reduce stigma – Call it out when you see it and be sure to remind people of and provide access to any supports that the organization has.

Conduct dedicated conversations around wellbeing

1. Check in with how each team member is doing frequently and ask how they are doing personally.
2. Discuss how things are going. Ask: “How is your work situation working out for you so far? Do you feel supported? How are you taking care of yourself in these circumstances?”
3. Ask if there are any stressors or roadblocks that they have experienced and collaborate to find solutions.
4. Provide reassurance of your support and confidence in them.
5. Document the plan for managing stressors and roadblocks – either through a collaboration tool or through email.

Speaker’s Notes:

Going back to the idea of a growth mindset – this may be uncomfortable for you as a manager. So here’s a step-by-step guide that over time you can morph into your own style.

With your team – be prepared to share first and to show it is OK to be vulnerable and address wellbeing seriously.

1. Make sure you make time for the personal. Ask about their lives and show compassion.
2. Give opportunities for them to bring up things that might stay hidden otherwise. Ask questions that show you care.
3. Help identify areas they are struggling with and work with them to move past those areas.
4. Make sure they feel supported in what they are going through and reassured of their place on the team.
5. Roll wellbeing into your planning process. This signals to team that you see wellbeing as important, not just a checklist to cover during a team meeting, and are ready to follow through on it.

Recognize when professional help is needed

Speaker’s Notes:

As a leader, it is important to be on the lookout for warning signs of burnout and know when to step in and direct individuals to professional help.

Poor work performance – They struggle to maintain work performance, even after you’ve worked with them to create coping strategies.

Overwhelmed – They repeatedly tell you that they feel overwhelmed, very stressed, or physically unwell.

Frequent personal disclosure – They want to discuss their personal struggles at length on a regular basis.

Trouble sleeping and focusing – They tell you that they are not sleeping properly and are unable to focus on work.

Frequent time off – They feel the need to take time off more frequently.

Strained relationships – They have difficulty communicating effectively with coworkers; relationships are strained.

Substance abuse – They show signs of substance abuse (e.g. drunk/high while working, social media posts about drinking during the day).

Keeping an eye out for these signs and being able to step in before they become unmanageable can mean the difference between keeping and losing an employee experiencing burnout.

Remember: Managers also need support

• Added burden
• Lead by example
• Self-care

Speaker’s Notes:

If you’ve got managers under you, be mindful of their unique stressors. Don’t forget to check in with them, too.

If you are a manager, remember to take care of yourself and check in with your own manager about your own wellbeing.

2.1 Balance wellbeing and performance in a virtual team context

30 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list current practices and challenges connected to wellbeing on your teams.
2. Choose one or two wellbeing challenges that are most relevant for your team.
   
3. Discuss as a group and identify one solution for each challenge that you can put into action with your own virtual team. Document this under “Action plan to move forward” on the workbook slide “2.1 Balancing wellbeing and performance in a virtual team context.”

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current practices and challenges connected to wellbeing

Output

• Action plan for each challenge listed

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 2.2

Managing performance in a virtual team context

Virtual employees are craving more meaningful interactions with their managers

A survey indicated that, overall, remote employees showed less satisfaction with manager interactions compared to other non-remote employees.

1. 16% less likely to strongly agree their manager involves them in setting goals at work.
2. 28% less likely to strongly agree they continually work with their manager to clarify work priorities.
3. 29% less likely to strongly agree they have reviewed their greatest successes with their manager in the last six months.
4. 30% less likely to strongly agree they have talked with their manager about progress toward goals in the last six months.

Speaker’s Notes:

In many cases, we have put people into virtual roles because they are self-directed and self-motivated workers who can thrive with the kind of autonomy and flexibility that comes with virtual work. As managers, we should expect many of these workers to be proactively interested in how they are performing and in developing their careers.

It would be a mistake to take a hands-off approach when managing virtual workers. A recent survey indicated that, overall, remote employees showed less satisfaction with manager interactions compared to other non-remote employees. It was also one of the aspects of their work experience they were least satisfied with overall (Gallup, State of the American Workplace, 2017). Simply put, virtual employees are craving more meaningful conversations with their managers.

While conversations about performance and development are important for all employees (virtual or non-virtual), managers of remote teams can have a significant positive impact on their virtual employees’ experience and engagement at work by making efforts to improve their involvement and support in these areas.

During this module we will work together to identify ways that each of us can improve how we manage the performance of our virtual employees. At the end of the module everyone will create an action plan that they can put in place with their own teams. In the next module, we go through a similar set of activities to create an action plan for our interactions with employees about their development.

Building blocks of performance management

• Goal Setting

• Setting Expectations

• Measuring Progress

• Feedback & Coaching

Speaker’s Notes:

[Include a visualization of your existing performance management process in the slide. Walk the participants through the process to remind them of what is expected. While the managers participating in the training should know this, there may be different understandings of it, or it might just be the case that it’s been a while since people looked at the official process. The intention here is merely to ensure everyone is on the same page for the purposes of the activities that follow.]

Now that we’ve reviewed performance management at a high level, let’s dive into what is currently happening with the performance management of virtual teams.

I know that you have some fairly extensive material at your organization around how to manage performance. This is fantastic. And we’re going to focus mainly on how things change in a virtual context.

When measuring progress, how do you as a manager make sure that you are comfortable not seeing your team physically at their desks? This is the biggest challenge for remote managers.

2.2 Share current performance management practices for virtual teams

30 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list current high-level performance management practices connected to each building block. Record in your workbook.
2. Discuss current challenges connected to implementing the building blocks with virtual employees.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current performance management practices
• Challenges surrounding performance management

Output

• Current state of virtual performance management defined

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Communicate the “why”: Cascade organizational goals

Speaker’s Notes:

When assisting your employees with their goals, think about the organization’s overall mission and goals to help you determine team and individual goals.

• Organizational goals: Employee goals should align with organizational goals. Goals may cascade down through the organization.
• Department or team goals: Create a clear strategy based on high-level goals for the year so employees can link short-term goals to the larger picture.
• Individual goals: Employees should draw on their individual development plan to help set performance goals.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get employees thinking about goals and they need assistance from managers. It’s also important to be clear on team goals to help guide employees in setting individual ones.

The basic idea is to show people how their individual day-to-day work contributes to the overall success of the organization. It gives them a sense of purpose and a rationale, which translates to motivation. And also helps them problem solve with more autonomy.

You’re giving people a sense of the importance of their own contribution.

How to set clear expectations for job performance

Ensure employees have a clear understanding of what’s expected for their role:

1. Review their metrics so they understand how they’re being evaluated.
2. Outline daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals.
3. If needed, help them plan when and how each part of their job should be done and what to prioritize.
4. Ask them to come to you early if they experience a roadblock so that you can help rather than having them flounder on their own.
5. Document instances where employees aren’t meeting role or performance expectations.

Speaker’s Notes:

Tailor performance goals to address any root causes of poor performance.

For example:

• If personal factors are getting in the way, work with the employee (and HR if necessary) to create a strategy to address any impediments to performing in the role.

Tips for managing performance remotely

• Reflect on one key question: What needs to happen for my direct reports to continue their work while working remotely?
• Manage for results – not employee visibility at the office.
• Use metrics to measure performance. If you don’t have any, define tasks and deliverables as clearly as possible and conduct regular check-ins.
• Work with the employee to set goals and metrics to measure progress.

Focus on results: Be flexible about how and when work gets done, as long as team members are hitting their targets.

• For example, if they have childcare duties from 3 to 5pm during school closures and want to work later in the evening to make up the time, that’s fine – as long as the work gets done.
• Set clear expectations about which work must be done during normal work hours (e.g. attend team meetings, client calls) and which can be done at other hours.
• Team members must arrange with you any nonstandard working hours before they start using an altered schedule. It is your responsibility to keep track of hours and any alternate arrangements.
• Don’t make team members feel constantly monitored (i.e. “Where were you from 10 to 11am?”); trust them until you have reason not to.

Encourage your team members to unplug: If they’re sending you emails late at night and they haven’t made an alternate work hours agreement with you, encourage them to take time away from work.

• It’s harder to unplug when working at home, and everyone needs a break to stay productive.

Avoid micromanagement with holistic performance measures

Quality

How well tasks are accomplished

Behavior

Related to specific employee actions, skills, or attitudes

Quantity

How much work gets done

Holistic measures demonstrate all the components required for optimal performance. This is the biggest driver in having comfort as a manager of a remote team and avoiding micromanagement. Typically these are set at the organizational level. You may need to adjust for individual roles, etc.

Speaker's Notes:

Metrics come in different types. One way to ensure your metrics capture the full picture is to use a mix of different kinds of metrics.

Some metrics are quantitative: they describe quantifiable or numerical aspects of the goal. This includes timeliness. On the other hand, qualitative metrics have to do with the final outcome or product. And behavioral metrics have to do with employees' actions, skills, or attitudes. Using different kinds of metrics together helps you set holistic measures, which capture all the components of optimal performance toward your goal and prevent gaming the system.

Let's take an example:

A courier might have an objective to do a good job delivering packages. An example of a quantitative measure might be that the courier is required to deliver X number of packages per day on time. The accompanying metrics would be the number of packages delivered per day and the ratio of packages delivered on time vs. late.

Can you see a problem if we use only these quantitative measures to evaluate the courier's performance?

Wait to see if anyone volunteers an answer. Discuss suggestions.

That's right, if the courier's only goal is to deliver more packages, they might start to rush, may ruin the packages, and may offer poor customer service. We can help to guard against this by implementing qualitative and behavioral measures as well. For example, a qualitative measure might be that the courier is required to deliver the packages in mint condition. And the metric would be the number of customer complaints about damaged packages or ratings on a satisfaction survey related to package condition.

For the behavioral aspect, the courier might be required to provide customer-centric service with a positive attitude. The metrics could be ratings on customer satisfaction surveys related to the courier's demeanor or observations by the manager.

Managing poor performance virtually: Look for key signs

It’s crucial to acknowledge that an employee might have an “off week” or need time to balance work and life – things that can be addressed with performance management (PM) techniques. Managers should move into the process for performance improvement when:

1. Performance fluctuates frequently or significantly.
2. Performance has dropped for an extended period of time.
3. Expectations are consistently not being met.

Key signs to look for:

• PM data/performance-related assessments
• Continual absences
• Decreased quality or quantity of output
• Frequent excuses (e.g. repeated internet outages)
• Lack of effort or follow-through
• Missed deadlines
• Poor communication or lack of responsiveness
• Failure to improve

Speaker’s notes:

• Let’s talk more about identifying low performance.
• Everybody has off days or weeks. And what if they are new to the role or new to working remotely? Their performance may be low because they need time to adjust. These sort of situations should be managed, but they don’t require moving into the process for performance improvement.
• When managing employees who are remote or working in a hybrid situation, it is important to be alert to these signs and check in with your employees on a regular basis. Aim to identify and work with employees on addressing performance issues as they arise rather than waiting until it’s too late. Depending on your availability, the needs of the employee, and the complexity of their role, check-ins could occur daily, weekly, and/or monthly. As I mentioned, for remote employees, it’s often better to check-in more frequently but for a shorter period of time.
• You want to be present in their work life and available to help them manage through roadblocks and stay on track, but try to avoid over-monitoring employees. Micromanaging can impact the manager-employee relationship and lead to the employee feeling that there is a lack of trust. Remember, the employee needs to be responsible for their own performance and improvement.
• Check-ins should not just be about the work either. Take some time to check in personally. This is particularly important when managing remotely. It enables you to build a personal relationship with the employee and also keeps you aware if there are other personal issues at play that are impacting their work.
• So, how do you know what does require performance improvement? There are three key things that you should look for that are clear signals that performance improvement is necessary:
  1. Their performance is fluctuating frequently or significantly.
  2. Their performance has dropped for an extended period of time.
  3. Expectations are consistently not being met.
• What do you think are some key signs to look for that indicate a performance issue is occurring?

Managing poor performance virtually: Conducting remote performance conversations

Video calling

Always use video calls instead of phone calls when possible so that you don’t lose physical cues and body language.

Meeting invitations

Adding HR/your leader to a meeting invite about performance may cause undue stress. Think through who needs to participate and whether they need to be included in the invite itself.

Communication

Ensure there are no misunderstandings by setting context for each discussion and having the employee reiterate the takeaways back to you.

Focus on behavior

Don’t assume the intent behind the behavior(s) being discussed. Instead, just focus on the behavior itself.

Policies

Be sure to adhere to any relevant HR policies and support systems. Working with HR throughout the process will ensure none are overlooked.

Speaker’s notes:

There are a few best practices you should follow when having performance conversations:

• First, if you are in a different work environment than your employee, always use video calls instead of phone calls whenever possible so that you don’t miss out on physical cues and body language. If videoconferencing isn’t the norm, encourage them to turn on their video. Be empathic that it can feel awkward but explain the benefits, and you will both have an easier time communicating and understanding each other.
• As I’ve mentioned, be considerate of the environment they are in. If they are in the office and you are working remotely, be sure to book a private meeting room for them to go to for the conversation. If they are working from home, be sure to check that they are prepared and able to focus on the conversation.
• Next, carefully consider who you are adding to the meeting invite and whether it’s necessary for them to be there. Adding HR or your leader to a meeting invite may cause undue stress for the employee.
• Consider the timing of the invite. Don’t send it out weeks in advance. When a performance problem exists, you’ll want to address it as soon as possible. A day or two of notice would be an ideal approach because it gives them a heads up but will not cause them extended stress or worrying.
• Be considerate about the timing of the meeting and what else they may have scheduled. For example, a Friday afternoon before they are heading off on vacation or right before they are leading an important client call would not be appropriate timing.
• As we just mentioned clear communication is critical. Ensure there are no misunderstandings by setting context for each discussion and having the employee reiterate takeaways back to you.
• Focus on the behavior and don’t assume their intent. It can be tempting to say, “I know you didn’t mean to miss the deadline,” but you don’t know what they intended. Often people are not aware of the impact their behavior can have on others.
• Lastly, be sure to adhere to any relevant HR policies and support systems. Working with HR throughout the process will ensure nothing is overlooked.

2.3 Identify challenges of current practices and propose solutions

30 Minutes

1. Select one or two challenges from the previous activity.
2. Identify one solution for each challenge that you can put into action with your own virtual team. Document in the workbook.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current performance management practices
• Challenges surrounding performance management

Output

• Action plan to move forward

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Optional Section

Employee development in a virtual team setting

There are three main development approaches for both colocated and virtual employees

Speaker’s Notes:

As we have seen, our virtual employees crave more meaningful interactions with their managers. In addition to performance conversations, managers should also be having regular discussions with their employees about their employee development plans. One key component of these discussions is career planning. Whether you are thinking shorter term – how to become better at their current role – or longer term – how to advance beyond their current role – discussions about employee development are a great way to engage employees. Employees are ultimately responsible for creating and executing their own development plans, but managers are responsible for making sure that employees have thought through these plans and helping employees identify opportunities for executing those plans.

To help us think about our own employee development practices, identify challenges they pose when working with virtual employees, and create solutions to these challenges, it is useful to think about employee development opportunities according to three types:

1. The first kind of development opportunity is formal training. Formal training is organized and has a clearly defined curriculum and desired outcome. It usually takes the form of a group training session (like this one) or training videos or materials that employees can watch individually and on their own time. These opportunities usually end with a test or assignment that can be used to evaluate the degree to which the participant achieved the desired learning outcomes.
2. The second kind of development opportunity is relational learning. Perhaps the most common form of this type of learning is coaching or mentoring. By establishing a long-term work relationship, checking in with employees about their daily work and development goals, and sharing their own experiences and knowledge, mentors help employees reflect and draw out learning from everyday, on-the-job development activities. Other examples include a peer support group or communities of practice. In these group settings peers share best practices and work together to overcome challenges.
3. The third kind of development opportunity is experiential learning. This kind of opportunity provides employees the chance to work on real work problems, and the output of the development work can directly benefit the organization. Most people learn best by doing. On-the-job experiences that are challenging or new can force people to use and develop new skills and knowledge based on what worked effectively and what failed. Examples of experiential learning are on-the-job learning for new hires, stretch assignments, or special projects that take the employee beyond their daily routine and allow them to try new activities and develop competencies that they would not have the chance to develop as part of their regular job.

According to McLean & Company, organizations should use the “70-20-10” rule as a rough guideline when working with employees to create their development plans: 10% of the plan should be dedicated to formal training opportunities, 20% to relational learning, and 70% to experiential learning. Managers should work with employees to identify their performance and career goals, ensure that their development plans are aligned with these goals, and include an appropriate mixture of all three kinds of development opportunities.

To help identify challenges and solutions, think about how virtual work arrangements will impact the employee’s ability to leverage each type of opportunity at our organization.

Here are some examples that can help us start thinking about the kinds of challenges virtual employees on our team face:

Career Planning

• One challenge can be identifying a career path that is consistent with working virtually. If switching from a virtual arrangement to an onsite arrangement is not a viable option for an employee, some career paths may not feasibly be open to them (at least as the company is currently organized). For example, if an employee would eventually like to be promoted to a senior leadership role in their business function but all senior leaders are required to work onsite at corporate headquarters, the employee will need to consider whether such a move is possible for them. In some cases employees may be willing to do this, but in others they may not. The important thing is to have these conversations with virtual employees and avoid the assumption that all career paths can be done virtually, since that might not be the case

Formal Training

• This is probably the least problematic form of employee development for virtual employees. In many cases this kind of training is scheduled well in advance, so virtual employees may be able to join non-virtual employees in person for some group training. When this is not possible (due to distance, budget, or time zone), many forms of group training can be recorded and watched by virtual employees later. Training videos and training materials can also easily be shared with virtual employees using existing collaboration software.

Relational Learning

• One major challenge here is developing a mentoring relationship virtually. As we discussed in the module on performance management, developing relationships virtually can be challenging because people cannot rely upon the kind of informal and spontaneous interactions that occur when people are located in the same office. Mentors and mentees will have to put in more effort and planning to get to know each other and they will have to schedule frequent check-ins so that employees can reflect upon their progress and experience (with the help of their mentors) more often.
• Time zones and technology may pose potential barriers for certain candidates to be mentors. In some cases, employees that are best qualified to be mentors may not be as comfortable with collaborative software as other mentors or their mentees. If there are large time zone differences, some people who would otherwise be interested in acting as a mentor may be dissuaded. Managers need to take this into consideration if they are connecting employees with mentors or if they are thinking of taking on the mentor role themselves.

Experiential Learning

• Virtual employees risk being overlooked for special projects due to the “out of sight, out of mind” bias: When special projects come up, the temptation is to look around the room and see who is the best fit. The problem is, however, that in some cases the highest performers or best fit may not physically be in the room. In these cases it is important for managers to take on an advocate role for their employees and remind other managers that they have good virtual employees on their team that should be included or contacted. It is also important for managers to keep their team informed about these opportunities as often as possible.
• Sometimes certain projects or certain kinds of work just cannot be done virtually in a company for a variety of reasons. The experiential learning opportunities will not be open to virtual employees. If such opportunities are open to the majority of other workers in this role (potentially putting virtual employees’ career development at a disadvantage relative to their peers), managers should work with their virtual employees to identify alternative experiences. Managers may also want to consider advocating for more or for higher quality experiential learning opportunities at the organization.

Now that we have considered some general examples of challenges and solutions, let’s look at our own employee development practices and think about the practical steps we can take as managers to improve employee development for our virtual employees.

Employee development basics

• Career planning & performance improvement
• Formal training
• Relational learning
• Experiential learning

Speaker’s Notes:

[Customize this slide according to your organization’s own policies and processes for employee development. Provide useful images that outline this on the slide, and in these notes describe the processes/policies that are in place. Note: In some cases policies or processes may not be designed with virtual employees or virtual teams in mind. That is okay for the purposes of this training module. In the following activities participants will discuss how they apply these policies and processes with their virtual teams. If your organization is interested in adapting its policies/processes to better support virtual workers, it may be useful to record those conversations to supplement existing policies later.]

Now that we have considered some general examples of challenges and solutions, let’s look at our own employee development practices and think about the practical steps we can take as managers to improve employee development for our virtual employees.

2.4 Share current practices for developing employees on a virtual team

30 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list current high-level employee development practices. Record in your workbook.
2. Discuss current challenges connected to developing virtual employees. Record in your workbook.
3. Identify one solution for each challenge that you can put into action with your own virtual team.
4. Discuss as a group.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current employee development practices
• Challenges surrounding employee development

Output

• Action plan to move forward

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Refine Action Plans

2.5 Refine your action plan and commit to implementing it

30 Minutes

1. Review your action plans for consistency and overlap. Highlight any parts you may struggle to complete.
2. Meeting with your group, summarize your plans to each other. Provide feedback and discuss each other’s action plans.
3. Discuss how you can hold each other accountable.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Action items from previous activities.

Output

• Action plan to move forward

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Summary of Accomplishment

• We do not need to go out and learn a new set of manager responsibilities to better manage our virtual teams; rather, we have to “dial up” certain responsibilities we already have or adjust certain approaches that we already take.
• It is important to set clear expectations. While managers are ultimately responsible for making sure expectations are set and are clearly communicated, they are not the only ones with responsibilities. Employees and managers need to work together to overcome the challenges that virtual work involves.
• Virtual employees crave meaningful interactions with their managers and team. Managers must take charge in fostering an atmosphere of openness around wellbeing and establish effective performance management strategies. By being proactive with our virtual teams’ wellness and mindful of our performance management habits, we can take significant steps toward keeping these employees engaged and productive.
• Effective management in virtual contexts requires being more deliberate than is typical in non-virtual contexts. By working as a group to identify challenges and propose solutions, we have helped each other create action plans that we can use going forward to continually improve our management practices.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through an info-tech workshop or guided implementation.

Contact your account representative for more information

workshops@infotech.com

1-888-670-8889

Speaker’s Notes:

First, let’s take a moment to summarize the key things we have learned today:

1. We do not need to go out and learn a new set of manager competencies to better manage our virtual teams; rather, we have to “dial up” certain competencies we already have or adjust certain approaches that we already take. In many cases we just need to be more aware of the challenges that virtual communication poses and be more planful in our approaches.
2. It is important to set clear expectations. While managers are ultimately responsible for making sure expectations are set and clearly communicated, they are not the only ones with responsibilities. Employees and managers need to work together to overcome the challenges that virtual work involves. Making sure that teams have meaningful conversations about expectations, come to a shared understanding of them, and record them will create a firm foundation for all other interactions on the virtual team.
3. Virtual employees crave meaningful interactions with their managers related to performance and employee development. By creating action plans for improving these kinds of interactions with our teams, we can take significant steps toward keeping these employees engaged and productive.
4. Effective performance management and employee development in virtual contexts require more planfulness than is required in non-virtual contexts. By working as a group to identify challenges and propose solutions, we have helped each other create action plans that we can use going forward to continually improve our management practices.

Is there anything that anyone has learned that is not on this list and that they would like to share with the group?

Finally, were there any challenges identified today that were not addressed?

[Note to facilitator: Take note of any challenges not addressed and commit to getting back to the participants with some suggested solutions.]

Additional resources

Manager Training: Lead Through Change

Train managers to navigate the interpersonal challenges associated with change management and develop their communication and leadership skills. Upload this LMS module into your learning management system to enable online training.

Manager Training: Build a Better Manager: Manage Your People

Management skills training is needed, but organizations are struggling to provide training that makes a long-term difference in the skills managers use in their day to day.

Many training programs are ineffective because they offer the wrong content, deliver it in a way that is not memorable, and are not aligned with the IT department’s business objectives.

Blueprint: Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home

Assess and improve remote work performance with our ready-to-use tools.

Works Cited

April, Richard. “10 KPIs Every Sales Manager Should Measure in 2019.” HubSpot, 24 June 2019. Web.

Banerjea, Peter. “5 Powerful Strategies for Managing a Remote Sales Team.” Badger - Maps for field sales, n.d. Web.

Bibby, Adrianne. “5 Employers’ Awesome Quotes about Work Flexibility.” FlexJobs, 9 January 2017. Web.

Brogie, Frank. “The 14 KPIs every field sales rep should strive to improve.” Repsly, 2018. Web.

Dunn, Julie. “5 smart tips for leading field sales teams.” LevelEleven, March 2015. Web.

Edinger, Scott. “How great sales leaders coach.” Forbes, 2013. Web.

“Employee Outlook: Employee Views on Working Life.” CIPD, April 2016. Web.

Hall, Becki. “The 5 biggest challenges facing remote workers (and how to solve them).” interact, 7 July 2017. Web.

Hofstede, Geert. “National Cultural Dimensions.” Hofstede Insights, 2012. Web.

“Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2014 (EPA 430-R-16-002).” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 15 April 2016.

“Latest Telecommuting Statistics.” Global Workplace Analytics, June 2021. Web.

Knight, Rebecca. “How to manage remote direct reports.” Harvard Business Review, 2015. Web.

“Rewards and Recognition: 5 ways to show remote worker appreciation.” FurstPerson, 2019. Web.

Palay, Jonathan. "How to build your sales management cadence." CommercialTribe, 22 March 2018. Web.

“Sales Activity Management Matrix.” Asian Sales Guru, 2019. Web.

Smith, Simone. “9 Things to Consider When Recognizing Remote Employees.” hppy, 2018. Web.

“State of Remote Work 2017.” OWL Labs, 2021. Web.

“State of the American Workplace.” Gallup, 2017. Web.

“Telework Savings Potential.” Global Workplace Analytics, June 2021. Web.

“The Future of Jobs Employment Trends.” World Economic Forum, 2016. Web.

“The other COVID-19 crisis: Mental health.” Qualtrics, 14 April 2020. Web.

Thompson, Dan. “The straightforward truth about effective sales leadership.” Sales Hacker, 2017. Web.

Tsipursky, Gleb. “Remote Work Can Be Better for Innovation Than In-Person Meetings.” Scientific American, 14 Oct. 2021. Web.

Walsh, Kim. “New sales manager? Follow this guide to crush your first quarter.” HubSpot, May 2019. Web.

“What Leaders Need to Know about Remote Workers: Surprising Differences in Workplace Happiness and Relationships.” TINYpulse, 2016.

Zenger, Jack, and Joe Folkman. “Feedback: The Leadership Conundrum.” Talent Quarterly: The Feedback Issue, 2015.

Contributors

Anonymous CAMH Employee

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Change your focus from satisfying auditors to driving process optimization, consistent IT operations, and effective knowledge transfer.

Project Outline

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Do your SOPs drive process optimization?

"Most organizations struggle to document and maintain SOPs as required, leading to process inconsistencies and inefficiencies. These breakdowns directly impact the performance of IT operations. Effective SOPs streamline training and knowledge transfer, improve transparency and compliance, enable automation, and ultimately decrease costs as processes improve and expensive breakdowns are avoided. Documenting SOPs is not just good practice; it directly impacts IT efficiency and your bottom line."

Frank Trovato, Senior Manager, Infrastructure Research Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:

• IT Process Owners
• IT Infrastructure Managers
• IT Service Managers
• System Administrators
• And more…

This Research Will Help You:

• Identify, prioritize, and document SOPs for critical business processes.
• Discover opportunities for overall process optimization by documenting SOPs.
• Develop documentation best practices that support ongoing maintenance and review.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• CTOs
• Business unit leaders

This Research Will Help Them:

• Understand the need for and value of documenting SOPs in a usable format.
• Help set expectations around documentation best practices.
• Extend IT best practices to other parts of the business.

Executive summary

Situation

• Most organizations know it is good practice to have SOPs as it improves consistency, facilitates process improvement, and contributes to efficient operations.
• Though the benefits are understood, many organizations don't have SOPs and those that do don't maintain them.

Complication

• Writing SOPs is the last thing most people want to do, so the work gets pushed down the priority list and the documents become dated.
• Promoting the use of SOPs can also face staff resistance as the documentation is seen as time consuming to develop and maintain, too convoluted to be useful, and generally out of date.

Resolution

• Overcome staff resistance while implementing a sustainable SOP documentation approach by doing the following:
• Create visual documents that can be scanned. Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams are quicker to create, take less time to update, and are ultimately more usable than a dense manual.
• Use simple, but effective document management practices.
• Make SOPs part of your project deliverables rather than an afterthought. That includes checking documentation status as part of your change management process.
• Extend these principles to other areas of IT and business processes. The survey data and examples in this report include application development and business processes as well as IT operations.

Info-Tech Insight

1. Create visual documents, not dense SOP manuals.
2. Start with high-impact SOPs. Identify the most critical undocumented SOPs and document them first.
3. Integrate SOP creation into project requirements and create SOP approval steps to ensure documentation is reviewed and completed in a timely fashion.

Most organizations struggle to create and maintain SOP documents, especially in North America, despite the benefits

North American companies are traditionally more technology focused than process focused, and that is reflected in the approach to documenting SOPs.

• An ad hoc approach to SOPs almost certainly means documents will be out of date and ineffective. The same is also true when updating SOPs as part of periodic concerted efforts to prepare for an audit, annual review, or certification process, and this makes the task more imposing.
• Incorporating SOP updates as part of regular change management processes ensures documents are up to date and usable. This can also make reviews and audits much more manageable.

'It isn’t unusual for us to see infrastructure or operations documentation that is wildly out of date. We’re talking months, even years. Often it was produced as one big effort and then not reliably maintained.'

– Gary Patterson, Consultant, Quorum Resources

Organizations are most likely to update documents on an ad hoc basis or via periodic formal reviews. Less than 25% keep SOPs updated as needed.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=104

Document SOPs to improve knowledge transfer, optimize processes, and ultimately save money

COBIT, ISO, and ITIL aren’t a complete solution

"Being ITIL and ISO compliant hasn’t solved our documentation problem. We’re still struggling."

– Vendor Relationship Manager, Financial Services Industry

• Adopting a framework such as ITIL, COBIT, or ISO doesn’t always mean that SOP documents are accurate, effective, or up to date.
• Although these frameworks emphasize the importance of documenting processes, they tend to focus more on process development and requirements than on actual documentation. In other words, they deal more with what needs to be done than with how to do it.
• This research will focus more on the documentation process itself – so how to go about creating, updating, optimizing, managing, and distributing SOP documents.

Inadequate SOPs lead to major data loss and over $99,000 in recovery costs

CASE STUDY 1

Company A mid-sized US organization with over 1,000 employees

Source Info-Tech Interview

Situation

• IT supports storage nodes replicated across two data centers. SOPs for backup procedures did not include an escalation procedure for failed backups or a step to communicate successful backups. Management was not aware of the issue and therefore could not address it before a failure occurred.

Incident

• Primary storage had a catastrophic failure, and that put pressure on the secondary storage, which then also failed. All active storage failed and the data corrupted. Daily backups were failing due to lack of disk space on the backup device. The organization had to resort to monthly tape backups.

Impact

• Lost 1 month of data (had to go back to the last tape backup).
• Recovery also took much longer because recovery procedures were also not documented.
• Key steps such as notifying impacted customers were overlooked. Customers were left unhappy not only with the outage and data loss but also the lack of communication.

Intangible costs

High “goodwill” impact for internal staff and customers.

"The data loss pointed out a glaring hole in our processes – the lack of an escalation procedure. If I knew backups weren’t being completed, I would have done something about that immediately."

– Senior Division Manager, Information Technology Division

IT services company optimizes its SOPs using “Lean” approach

CASE STUDY 2

Company Atrion

SourceInfo-Tech Interview

Lean and SOPs

• Standardized work is important to Lean’s philosophy of continuous improvement. SOPs allow for replication of the current best practices and become the baseline standard for member collaboration toward further improvements.
• For more on Lean’s approach to SOPs, see “Lean Six Sigma Quality Transformation Toolkit (LSSQTT) Tool #17.”

Atrion’s approach

• Atrion is focused on documenting high-level processes that improve the client and employee experience or which can be used for training.
• Cross-functional teams collaborate to document a process and find ways to optimize that SOP.
• Atrion leverages visual documentation as much as possible: flowcharts, illustrations, video screen captures, etc.

Outcomes

• Large increase in usable, up-to-date documentation.
• Process and efficiency improvements realized and made repeatable.
• Success has been so significant that Atrion is planning to offer SOP optimization training and support as a service for its clients in the future.

Atrion

• Atrion provides IT services, solutions, and leadership to clients in the 250+ user range.
• After adopting the Lean framework for its organization, it has deliberately focussed on optimizing its documentation.

When we initiated a formal process efficiency program a little over a year ago and began striving towards a culture of continuous improvement, documenting our SOPs became key. We capture how we do things today and how to make that process more efficient. We call it current state and future state mapping of any process.

– Michelle Pope, COO, Atrion Networking Corp.

Strategies to overcome common documentation challenges

Use Info-Tech’s methodology to streamline the SOP documentation process.

Use this blueprint as a building block to complete these other Info-Tech projects

Improve IT-Business Alignment Through an Internal SLA

Understand business requirements, clarify capabilities, and close gaps.

Standardize the Service Desk – Module 2 & 3

Improve reporting and management of incidents and build service request workflows.

Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

Define appropriate objectives for DR, build a roadmap to close gaps, and document your incident response plan.

Extend the Service Desk to the Enterprise

Position IT as an innovator.

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

Create Visual SOP Documents – project overview

Workshop overview

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

Measured value for Guided Implementations (GIs)

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

Note: Documenting SOPs provides additional benefits that are more difficult to quantify: reducing the time spent by staff to find or execute processes, improving transparency and accountability, presenting opportunities for automation, etc.

Phase 1

Prioritize, Optimize, and Document Critical SOPs

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Phase 1 outline

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: Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2 weeks

Step 1.1: Prioritize SOPs

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Apply a client focus to critical IT services.
• Identify undocumented, critical SOPs.

Then complete these activities…

• Rank and prioritize your SOP documentation needs.

With this template:

Standard Operating Procedures Workbook

Step 1.2: Develop visual documentation

Review findings with analyst:

• Understand the benefits of a visual approach.
• Review possibilities for visual documentation.

Then complete these activities…

• Identify formats that can improve your SOP documentation.

With these templates:

• Example DRP Process Flows
• Example App Dev Process And more…

Step 1.3: Optimize and document critical processes

Finalize phase deliverable:

• Two visual SOP documents, mapped using a tabletop exercise.

Then complete these activities…

• Create the visual SOP.
• Review and optimize the process.

With this tool:

SOP Project Roadmap Tool

Phase 1 Results & Insights:

Identify opportunities to deploy visual documentation, and follow Info-Tech’s process to capture steps, gaps, and opportunities to improve IT processes.

Focus first on client-facing and high-impact SOPs

IT’s number one obligation to internal and external customers is to keep critical services running – that points to mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery.

Understand what makes an application or service mission critical

When email or a shared drive goes down, it may impact productivity, but may not be a significant impact to the business. Ask these questions when assessing whether an application or service is mission critical.

"Email and other Windows-based applications are important for our day-to-day operations, but they aren’t critical. We can still manufacture and ship clothing without them. However, our manufacturing systems, those are absolutely critical"

– Bob James, Technical Architect, Carhartt, Inc.

Create a high-level risk and benefit scale

1.1a

15 minutes

Define criteria for high, medium, and low risks and benefits, as shown in the example below. These criteria will be used in the upcoming exercises to rank SOPs.

Note: The goal in this section is to provide high-level indicators of which SOPs should be documented first, so a high-level set of criteria is used. To conduct a detailed business impact analysis, see Info-Tech’s Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan.

Materials

• Whiteboard

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Identify and prioritize undocumented mission-critical operations

1.1b

15 minutes

1. To navigate to this exercise, open Info-Tech’s Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.
2. List your top three–five mission critical applications or services.
3. Identify relevant SOPs that support those applications or services.
4. Indicate SOP status: Green = up to date and complete, Yellow = out-of-date or incomplete, Red = undocumented.
5. Assign risk and benefit scores (3=high, 1=low) to Yellow and Red SOPs based on potential impact if those processes failed (risk) and opportunity for process improvement (benefit).

OUTPUT

• Analysis of SOPs supporting mission-critical operations

Materials

• Whiteboard

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Identify and prioritize undocumented service management procedures

1.1c

15 minutes

1. To navigate to this exercise, open Info-Tech’s Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.
2. Identify service management SOPs.
3. Indicate SOP status: Green = up to date and complete, Yellow = out-of-date or incomplete, Red = undocumented.
4. Assign risk and benefit scores (3=high, 1=low) to Yellow and Red SOPs based on potential impact if those processes failed (risk) and opportunity for process improvement (benefit).

OUTPUT

• Analysis of SOPs supporting service management

Materials

• Whiteboard

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Identify and prioritize undocumented DR procedures

1.1d

20 minutes

1. To navigate to this exercise, open Info-Tech’s Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.
2. Identify DR SOPs.
3. Indicate SOP status: Green = up to date and complete, Yellow = out-of-date or incomplete, Red = undocumented.
4. Assign risk and benefit scores (3=high, 1=low) to Yellow and Red SOPs based on potential impact if those processes failed (risk) and opportunity for process improvement (benefit).

OUTPUT

• Analysis of SOPs supporting DR

Materials

• Whiteboard

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Select the SOPs to focus on for the first round of documentation

1.1e

20 minutes

1. Identify two significantly different priority 1 SOPs to document during this workshop. It’s important to get a sense of how the Info-Tech templates and methodology can be applied to different types of SOPs.
2. Rank the remaining SOPs that you still need to address post-workshop by priority level within each topic area.

INPUT

• SOP analysis from activities 1.1 and 1.2

OUTPUT

• A shortlist of critical, undocumented SOPs to review later in this phase

Materials

• Whiteboard

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Change the format of your documentation

Which document is more effective? Which is more likely to be used?

"The end result for most SOPs is a 100-page document that makes anyone but the author want to stab themselves rather than read it. Even worse is when you finally decide to waste an hour of your life reading it only to be told afterwards that it might not be quite right because Bob or Stan needed to make some changes last year but never got around to it."

– Peter Church, Solutions Architect

Create visual-based documentation to improve usability and effectiveness

"Without question, 300-page DRPs are not effective. I mean, auditors love them because of the detail, but give me a 10-page DRP with contact lists, process flows, diagrams, and recovery checklists that are easy to follow."

– Bernard Jones, MBCI, CBCP, CORP, Manager Disaster Recovery/BCP, ActiveHealth Management

SOPs, including those that support your disaster recovery plan (DRP), are often created to meet certification requirements. However, this often leads to lengthy overly detailed documentation that is geared to auditors and business leaders, not IT staff trying to execute a procedure in a high-pressure, time-sensitive scenario.

Staff don’t have time to flip through a 300-page manual, let alone read lengthy instructions, so organizations are transforming monster manuals into shorter, visual-based documentation. Benefits include:

• Quicker to create than lengthy manuals.
• Easier to be absorb, so they are more usable.
• More likely to stay up to date because they are easier to maintain.

Example: DRPs that include visual SOPs are easier to use — that leads to shorter recovery times and fewer mistakes.

Use flowcharts for process flows or a high-level view of more detailed procedures

• Flowcharts depict who does what and when; they provide an at-a-glance view that is easy to follow and makes task ownership clear.
• Use swim lanes, as in this example, to indicate process stages and task ownership.
• For experienced staff, a high-level reminder of process flows or key steps is sufficient.
• Where more detail is required, include links to supporting documentation (which could include checklists, vendor documentation, other flowcharts, etc.).

See Info-Tech’s Incident and Service Management Procedures – Service Desk Example.

"Flowcharts are more effective when you have to explain status and next steps to upper management."

– Assistant Director-IT Operations, Healthcare Industry

Example: SOP in flowchart format

Review your options for diagramming software

Many organizations look for an option that easily integrates with the MS Office suite. The default option is often Microsoft Visio.

Pros:

• Easy to learn and use.
• Has a wide range of features and capabilities.
• Comes equipped with a large collection of stencils and templates.
• Offers the convenience of fluid integration with the MS Office Suite.

Cons:

• Isn’t included in any version of the MS Office Suite and can be quite expensive to license.
• Not available for Mac or Linux environments.

Consider the options below if you’re looking for an alternative to Microsoft Visio:

Desktop Solutions

• Dia Diagram Editor
• Diagram Designer
• LibreOffice Draw
• Pencil Project
• yEd Graph Editor

• Draw.io
• Creately
• Gliffy
• LucidChart

Note: No preference or recommendation is implied from the ordering of the options above.

This list is not intended to be comprehensive.

Evaluate different solutions to identify one that works for you

Use the criteria below to identify a flowchart software that fits your needs.

Use checklists to streamline step-by-step procedures

• Checklists are ideal when staff just need a reminder of what to do, not how to do it.
• Remember your audience. You aren’t pulling in a novice to run a complex procedure, so all you really need here are a series of reminders.
• Where more detail is required, include links to supporting documentation.
• Note that a flowchart can often be used instead of a checklist, depending on preference.

For two different examples of a checklist template, see:

• Employee Termination Process Checklist – IT Security Example
• System Recovery Procedures Template

Use topology diagrams to capture network layout, integrations, and system information

• Organizations commonly have network topology diagrams for reference purposes, so this is just a re-use of existing resources.
• Physically label real world equipment to correspond to topology diagrams. While these labels will be redundant for most IT employees, they help give clarity and confidence when changes are being made.
• If your topology diagrams are housed in a tool such as a systems management product, then export the diagrams so they can be included in your SOP documentation suite.

"Our network engineers came to me and said our standard SOP template didn't work for them. They're now using a lot of diagrams and flowcharts, and that has worked out better for them."

Use screen captures and tutorials to facilitate training for applications and SOPs

• Screen capture tutorials or videos are effective for training staff on applications. For example, create a screen capture tutorial to train staff on the use of a help desk application and your company’s specific process for using that tool.
• Similarly, create tutorials to train end users on straightforward “technical” tasks (e.g. setting up their VPN connection) to reduce the demand on IT staff.
• Tutorials can be created quickly and easily with affordable software such as Snag-It, ScreenHunter Pro, HyperSnap, PicPick, FastStone, Ashampoo Snap 6, and many others.

"When contractors come onboard, they usually don't have a lot of time to learn about the organization, and we have a lot of unique requirements. Creating SOP documents with screenshots has made the process quicker and more accurate."

– Susan Bellamore, Business Analyst, Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia

Example: Disaster recovery notification and declaration procedure

1. Swim lanes indicate task ownership and process stages.
2. Links to supporting documentation (which could include checklists, vendor documentation, other flowcharts, etc.) are included where necessary.
3. Additional DR SOPs are captured within the same spreadsheet for convenient, centralized access.

Review Info-Tech’s Incident Response and Recovery Process Flows – DRP Example.

Example: DRP flowchart with links to supporting documents

Establish flowcharting standards

If you don’t have existing flowchart standards, then keep it simple and stick to basic flowcharting conventions as described below.

Start, End, and Connector. Traditional flowcharting standards reserve this shape for connectors to other flowcharts or other points in the existing flowchart. Unified Modeling Language (UML) also uses the circle for start and end points.

Start, End. Traditional flowcharting standards use this for start and end. However, Info-Tech recommends using the circle shape to reduce the number of shapes and avoid confusion with other similar shapes.

Process Step. Individual process steps or activities (e.g. create ticket or escalate ticket). If it’s a series of steps, then use the sub-process symbol and flowchart the sub-process separately.

Sub-Process. A series of steps. For example, a critical incident SOP might reference a recovery process as one of the possible actions. Marking it as a sub-process, rather than listing each step within the critical incident SOP, streamlines the flowchart and avoids overlap with other flowcharts (e.g. the recovery process).

Decision. Represents decision points, typically with Yes/No branches, but you could have other branches depending on the question (e.g. a “Priority?” question could branch into separate streams for Priority 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 issues).

Document/Report Output. For example, the output from a backup process might include an error log.

Conduct a tabletop planning exercise to build an SOP

1.3a

20 minutes

Tabletop planning is a paper-based exercise where your team walks through a particular process and maps out what happens at each stage.

1. For this exercise, choose one particular process to document.
2. Document each step of the process using cue cards, which can be arranged on the table in sequence.
3. Be sure to include task ownership in your steps.
4. Map out the process as it currently happens – we’ll think about how to improve it later.
5. Keep focused. Stay on task and on time.

OUTPUT

• Steps in the current process for one SOP

Materials

• Tabletop, pen, and cue cards

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t get weighed down by tools. Relying on software or other technological tools can detract from the exercise. Use simple tools such as cue cards to record steps so that you can easily rearrange steps or insert steps based on input from the group.

Collaborate to optimize the SOP

1.3b

20 minutes

Review the tabletop exercise. What gaps exist in current processes?

How can the process be made better? What are the outputs and checkpoints?

OUTPUT

• Identify steps to optimize the SOP

Materials

• Tabletop, pen, and cue cards

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

A note on colors: Use white cards to record steps. Record gaps on yellow cards (e.g. a process step not documented) and risks on red cards (e.g. only one person knows how to execute a step) to highlight your gaps/to-dos and risks to be mitigated or accepted.

If it’s necessary to clarify complex process flows during the exercise, also use green cards for decision diamonds, purple for document/report outputs, and blue for sub-processes.

Capture opportunities to improve processes in the Standard Operating Procedures Project Roadmap Tool

1.3

Rank and track projects to close gaps you discover in your processes.

1. As a group, identify potential solutions to close the gaps in your processes that you’ve uncovered through the tabletop mapping exercise.
2. Add these project names to the Standard Operating Procedures Project Roadmap Tool on the “Project Scoring” tab.
3. Review and adjust the criteria for evaluating the benefits and costs of different projects on the “Scoring Criteria” tab.
4. Return to the “Project Scoring” tab, and assign weights at the top of each scoring column. Use the drop-down menus to adjust the scores for each project category. The tool will automatically rank the projects based on your input, but you can adjust the ranks as needed.
5. Assign dates and descriptions to the projects on the “Implementation Schedule” tab, below.

Identify gaps to improve process performance and make SOP documentation a priority

CASE STUDY

Challenge

• Tabletop planning revealed a 77-hour gap between current and desired RTO for critical systems.
• Similarly, the current achievable RPO gap was up to one week, but the desired RPO was one hour.
• A DR site was available but not yet set up with the necessary equipment.
• Lack of documented standard operating procedures (SOPs) was identified as a risk since that increased the dependence on two or three key SMEs.

Solution

• Potential projects to close RTO/RPO gaps were identified, including:
• Deploy servers that were decommissioned (as a result of a server refresh) to the DR site as warm standby servers.
• Implement site-to-site data replication.
• Document SOPs to enable tasks to be delegated and minimize resourcing risks.

Results

• A DR project implementation schedule was defined.
• Many of the projects required no further investment, but rather deployment of existing equipment that could function as standby equipment at the DR site.
• The DR risk from a lack of SOPs enabled SOPs to be made a priority. An expected side benefit is the ability to review and optimize processes and improve consistency in IT operations.

Document the SOPs from the tabletop exercise

1.3c

20 minutes

Document the results from the tabletop exercise in the appropriate format.

1. Identify an appropriate visual format for the high-level SOP as well as for any sub-processes or supporting documentation.
2. Break into groups of two or three.
3. Each group will be responsible for creating part of the SOP. Include both the high-level SOP itself and any supporting documentation such as checklists, sign-off forms, sub-processes, etc.
4. Once your document is complete, exchange it with that of another group. Review each other’s documents to check for clarity and completeness.

OUTPUT

• Output from activities 1.4 and 1.5

Materials

• Flowcharting software, laptops

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Repeat the tabletop exercise for the second process

Come back together as a large group. Choose a process that is significantly different from the one you’ve just documented, and repeat the tabletop exercise.

As a reminder, the steps are:

1. Use the tabletop exercise to map out a current SOP.
2. Collaborate to optimize the SOP.
3. Decide on appropriate formats for the SOP and its supporting documents.
4. Divide into small groups to create the SOP and its supporting documents.
5. Repeat the steps above as needed for your initial review of critical processes.

Info-Tech Insight

If you plan to document more than two or three SOPs at once, consider making it an SOP “party” to add momentum and levity to an otherwise dry process. Review section 2.3 to find out how.

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:

1.1a-e

Get started by prioritizing SOPs

Ensure the SOP project remains business focused, and kick off the project by analyzing critical business services. Identify key IT services that support the relevant business services. Conduct a benefit/risk analysis to prioritize which SOPs should become the focus of the workshop.

1.3a-c

Document the SOPs from the tabletop exercise

Leverage a tabletop planning exercise to walk the team through the SOP. During the exercise, focus on identifying timelines, current gaps, and potential risks. Document the steps via que cards first and transpose the hard copies to an electronic version.

Phase 2

Establish a Sustainable Documentation Process

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Phase 2 outline

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: Establish a sustainable SOP documentation process

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 weeks

Step 2.1: Establish guidelines for identifying and organizing SOPs

Start with an analyst call:

• Establish documentation information guidelines.
• Review version control best practices.

Then complete these activities…

• Implement best practices to identify and organize your SOPs.

With these tools & templates:

• SOP Workbook

Step 2.2: Define a process to document and maintain SOPs

Review findings with analyst:

• Identify opportunities to create a culture that fosters SOP creation.

Then complete these activities…

• Create a plan to address SOP documentation gaps.

With these tools & templates:

• Document Management Checklist

Step 2.3: Plan time with experts to put a dent in your documentation backlog

Finalize phase deliverable:

• Address outstanding undocumented SOPs by working through process issues together.

Then complete these activities…

• Organize and run a working session to document and optimize processes.

With these tools & templates:

• SOP Workbook
• SOP Project Roadmap Tool

Phase 2 Results & Insights:

Improve the process for documenting and maintaining your SOPs, while putting a dent in your documentation backlog and gaining buy-in with staff.

Identify current content management practices and opportunities for improvement

DISCUSS

What is the current state of your content management practices?

Are you using a content management system? If not, where are documents kept?

Are your organizational or departmental SOPs easy to find?

Is version control a problem? What about file naming standards?

Get everyone on the same page on the current state of your SOP document management system, using the questions above as the starting point.

Keep document management simple for better adoption and consistency

If there is too much complexity and staff can’t easily find what they need, you won’t get buy-in and you won’t get consistency.

Whether you store SOPs in a sophisticated content management system (CMS) or on a shared network drive, keep it simple and focus on these primary goals:

• Enable staff to find the right document.
• Know if a document is the latest, approved version.
• Minimize document management effort to encourage buy-in and consistency.

If users can’t easily find what they need, it leads to bad practices. For example:

• Users maintain their own local copies of commonly used documents to avoid searching for them. The risk is that local copies will not be automatically updated when the SOP changes.
• Separate teams will implement their own document management system and repository. Now you have duplication of effort and company resources, multiple copies of documents (where each group needs their own version), and no centralized control over potentially sensitive documents.
• Users will ignore documented SOPs or ask a colleague who might also be following the above bad practices.

Insert a document information block on the first page of every document to identify key attributes

Include a document information block on the first page of every document to identify key attributes. This strategy is as much about minimizing resistance as it is ensuring key attributes are captured.

• A consistent document information block saves time (e.g. vs. customized approaches per document). If some fields don’t apply, enter “n/a.”
• It provides key information about the document without having to check soft copy metadata, especially if you work with hard copies.
• It’s a built-in reminder of what to capture and easier than updating document properties or header/footer information or entering metadata into a CMS.

Note: The Info-Tech templates in this blueprint include a copy of the document information block shown in this example. Add more fields if necessary for your organization’s needs.

For an example of a completed document information block, see Network Backup for Atlanta Data Center – Backups Example

Info-Tech Insight

For organizations with more advanced document management requirements, consider more sophisticated strategies (e.g. using metadata) as described in Info-Tech’s Use SharePoint for Enterprise Content Management and Reintroduce the Information Lifecycle to the Content Management Strategy. However, the basic concepts above still apply: establish standard attributes you need to capture and do so in a consistent manner.

Modify the Info-Tech document information block to meet your requirements

2.1a

15 minutes

1. Review “Guidelines and Template for the Document Information Block” in the Standard Operating Procedures Workbook. Determine if any changes are required, such as additional fields.
2. Identify which fields you want to standardize and then establish standard terms. Balance the needs for simplicity and consistency – don’t force consistency where it isn’t a good fit.
3. Pre-fill the document information block with standard terms and examples and add it to an SOP template that’s stored in your content management system.

Educate staff by pre-filling the document

• Providing examples built into the templates provides in-context, just-in-time training which is far more effective and easier than formal education efforts.
• Focus your training on communicating when the template or standard terms change so that staff know to obtain the new version. Otherwise, the tendency for many staff will be to use one of their existing documents as their template.

OUTPUT

• Completed document information block

Materials

• Laptop
• Projector

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Leverage the document information block to create consistent filenames that facilitate searching

Use the following filename format to create consistent, searchable, and descriptive filenames:

Topic – Document Title – Document Type – Version Date

For example:

• ERP – System Administration Monthly Maintenance Tasks – Checklist – 2016-01-15.docx
• ERP – System Administration Monthly Maintenance Tasks – SOP – 2017-01-10.docx
• Backups – Network Backup Procedure for Atlanta Data Center – SOP – 2017-03-06.docx
• PROJ437 – CRM Business Requirements – BRD – 2017-02-01.xlsx
• DRP – Notification Procedures – SOP – 2016-09-14.docx
• DRP – Emergency Response Team Roles and Responsibilities – Reference – 2018-03-10.xlsx

Apply filename and document information block guidelines to existing SOPs

2.1b

15 minutes

1. Review the SOPs created during the earlier exercises.
2. Update the filenames and document information block based on guidelines in this section.
3. Apply these guidelines to other select existing SOPs to see if additional modifications are required (e.g. additional standard terms).

INPUT

• Document Information Block

OUTPUT

• Updated filenames and document information blocks

Materials

• Laptop and projector

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

Implement version control policies for local files as well as those in your content management system (CMS)

1. Version Control in Your CMS

Always keep one master version of a document:

• When uploading a new copy of an existing SOP (or any other document), ensure the filenames are identical so that you are just adding a new version rather than a separate new file.
• Do not include version information in the filename (which would create a new separate file in your CMS). Allow your CMS to handle version numbering.

Ideally, staff would never keep local copies of files. However, there are times when it is practical or preferable to work from a local copy: for example, when creating or updating an SOP, or when working remotely if the CMS is not easily accessible.

Implement the following policies to govern these circumstances:

• Add the version date to the end of the filename while the document is local, as shown in the slide on filenames.
• Remove the date when uploading it to a CMS that tracks date and version. If you leave the date in the filename, you will end up with multiple copies in your CMS.
• When distributing copies for review, upload a copy to the CMS and send the link. Do not attach a physical file.

Reduce the need for version updates by isolating volatile information in a separate, linked document. For example:

• Use Policy documents to establish high-level expectations and goals, and use SOPs to capture workflow, but put volatile details in a separate reference document. For example, for Backup procedures, put offsite storage vendor details such as contact information, pick up times, and approved couriers in a separate document.
• Similarly, for DRP Notification procedures, reference a separate contacts list.

Modify the Info-Tech Document Management Checklist to meet your requirements

2.1c

15 minutes

1. Review the Info-Tech Document Management Checklist.
2. Add or remove checklist items.
3. Update the document information block.

OUTPUT

• Completed document management checklist

Materials

• Laptop, projector

Participants

• Process Owners
• SMEs

See Info-Tech’s Document Management Checklist.

If you aren’t going to keep your SOPs current, then you’re potentially doing more harm than good

An outdated SOP can be just as dangerous as having no SOP at all. When a process is documented, it’s trusted to be accurate.

• Disaster recovery depends as much on supporting SOPs – such as backup and restore procedures – as it does on a master incident response plan.
• For disaster scenarios, the ability to meet recovery point objectives (i.e. minimize data loss) and recovery time objectives (i.e. minimize downtime) depends on smoothly executed recovery procedures and on having well-defined and up-to-date DR documentation and supporting SOPs. For example:
• Recovery point (data loss) objectives are directly impacted by your backup procedures.
• Recovery time is minimized by a well-defined restore procedure that reduces the risk of human error during recovery which could lead to data loss or a delay in the recovery.
• Similarly, a clearly documented configuration procedure will reduce the time to bring a standby system online.

Follow Info-Tech best practices to keep SOPs current and drive consistent, efficient IT operations

The following best practices were measured in this chart, and will be discussed further in this section:

1. Identify documentation requirements as part of project planning.
2. Require a manager or supervisor to review and approve SOPs.
3. Check documentation status as part of change management.
4. Hold staff accountable.

Higher adoption of Info-Tech best practices leads to more effective SOPs and greater benefits in areas such as training and process improvement.

Info-Tech Insight

Audits for compliance requirements have little impact on getting SOPs done in a timely manner or the actual usefulness of those SOPs, because the focus is on passing the audit instead of creating SOPs that improve operations. The frantic annual push to complete SOPs in time for an audit is also typically a much greater effort than maintaining documents as part of ongoing change management.

Identify documentation requirements as part of project planning

DISCUSS

When are documentation requirements captured, including required changes to SOPs?

Make documentation requirements a clearly defined deliverable. As with any other task, this should include:

• Owner: The person ultimately responsible for the documentation.
• Assigned resource: The person who will actually put pen to paper. This could be the same person as the owner, or the owner could be a reviewer.
• Deadlines: Include documentation deliverables in project milestones.
• Verification process: Validate completion and accuracy. This could be a peer review or management review.

Example: Implement a new service desk application.

• Service desk SOP documentation requirements: SOP for monitoring and managing tickets will require changes to leverage new automation features.
• Owner: Service Desk Lead.
• Assigned resource: John Smith (service desk technician).
• Deadline: Align with “ready for QA testing.”
• Verification process: Service Desk Lead document review and signoff.

Info-Tech Insight

Realistically, documentation will typically be a far less urgent task than the actual application or system changes. However, if you want the necessary documentation to be ultimately completed, even if it’s done after more urgent tasks, it must be tracked.

Implement document approval steps at the individual and project level

DISCUSS

How do you currently review and validate SOP documents?

Require a manager or supervisor to review and approve SOPs.

• Avoid a bureaucratic review process involving multiple parties. The goal is to ensure accuracy and not just provide administrative protection.
• A review by the immediate supervisor or manager is often sufficient. Their feedback and the implied accountability improve the quality and usefulness of the SOPs.

Check documentation status as part of change management.

• Including a documentation status check holds the project leaders and management accountable.
• If SOPs are not critical to the project deliverable, then realistically the deliverable is not held back. However, keep the project open until relevant documents are updated so those tasks can’t be swept under the rug until the next audit.

SOP reviews, change management, and identifying requirements led to benefits such as training and process improvement.

"Our directors and our CIO have tied SOP work to performance evaluations and SOP status is reviewed during management meetings. People have now found time to get this work done."

– Assistant Director-IT Operations, Healthcare Industry

Review SOPs regularly and assign a process owner to avoid reinforcing silos

CASE STUDY

Industry

Public service organization

Source

Info-Tech client engagement

Situation

• The organization’s IT department consists of five heavily siloed units.
• Without communication or workflow accountability across units, each had developed incompatible workflows, making estimates of “time to resolution” for service requests difficult.
• The IT service manager purchases a new service desk tool, attempting to standardize requests across IT to improve efficiency, accountability, and transparency.

Complication

• The IT service manager implements the tool and creates standardized workflows without consulting stakeholders in the different service units.
• The separate units immediately rebel against the service manager and try to undermine the implementation of the new tool.

Results

• Info-Tech analysts helped to facilitate a solution between experts in the different units.
• In order to develop a common workflow and ticket categorization scheme, Info-Tech recommended that each service process should have a single approver.

The bottom line: ensure that there’s one approver per process to drive process efficiency and accountability and avoid problems down the road.

Hold staff accountable to encourage SOP work to be completed in a timely manner

DISCUSS

Are SOP updates treated as optional or “when I have time” work?

Hold staff directly accountable for SOP work.

Holding staff accountable is really about emphasizing the importance of ensuring SOPs stay current. If management doesn’t treat SOPs as a priority, then neither will your staff. Strategies include:

• Include SOP work in performance appraisals.
• Keep relevant tickets open until documentation is completed.
• Ensure documents are reviewed, as discussed earlier.
• Identify and assign documentation tasks as part of project planning efforts, as discussed earlier.

Holding staff accountable minimizes procrastination and therefore maintenance effort.

Info-Tech Insight

Holding staff accountable does not by itself make a significant impact on SOP quality (and therefore the typical benefits of SOPs), but it minimizes procrastination, so the work is ultimately done in a more timely manner. This ensures SOPs are current and usable, so they can drive benefits such as consistent operations, improved training, and so on.

Assign action items to address SOP documentation process challenges

2.2

1. Discuss the challenges mentioned at the start of this section, and other challenges highlighted by the strategies discussed in this section. For example:

• Are documentation requirements included in project planning?
• Are SOPs and other documentation deliverables reviewed?
• Are staff held accountable for documentation?

An “SOP party” fosters a collaborative approach and can add some levity to an otherwise dry exercise

What is an SOP party?

• An SOP party is a working session, bringing together process owners and key staff to define current SOPs and collaborate to identify optimization opportunities.
• The party aspect is really just about how you market the event. Order in food or build in a cooking contest (e.g. a chilli cook-off or dessert bake-off) to add some fun to what can be a dry activity.

Why does this work?

• Process owners become so familiar with their tasks that many of the steps essentially live in their heads. Questions from colleagues draw out those unwritten steps and get them down on paper so another sufficiently qualified employee could carry out the same steps.
• Once the processes are defined (e.g. via a tabletop exercise), input from colleagues can help identify risks and optimization opportunities, and process questions can be quickly answered because the key people are all present.
• The group approach also promotes consistency and enables you to set expectations (e.g. visual-based approach, standards, level of detail, etc.).

When is collaboration necessary (e.g. via tabletop planning)?

• Tabletop planning is ideal for complex processes as well as processes that span multiple tasks, people, and/or systems.
• For processes with a narrow focus (e.g. recovery steps for a specific server), assign these to the SME to document. Then ensure the SOP is reviewed to draw out the unwritten steps as described above.
• For example, if you use tabletop planning to document a high-level DR plan, sub-processes might include recovery procedures for individual systems; those SOPs can then be assigned to individual SMEs.

Schedule SOP working sessions until critical processes are documented

Ultimately, it’s more efficient to create and update SOPs as needed but dedicated working sessions will help address immediate critical needs.

Organize the working session:

1. Book a full-day meeting in an out of the way meeting room, invite key staff (system and process owners who ultimately need to be SOP owners), and order in lunch so no one has to leave.
2. Prioritize SOPs (see Phase 1) and set goals (e.g. complete the top 6 SOPs during this session).
3. Alternate between collaborative efforts and documenting the SOPs. For example:
1. Tabletop or flowchart the current SOP. Take a picture of the current state for reference purposes.
2. Look for process improvements. If you have the authority in the room to enable process changes, then modify the tabletop/flowchart accordingly and capture this desired future state (e.g. take a picture). Otherwise, identify action items to follow up on proposed changes.
3. Identify all related documentation deliverables (e.g. sub-processes, checklists, approval forms, etc.).
4. Create the identified documentation deliverables (divide the work among the team). Then repeat the above.
4. Repeat these working sessions on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on your requirements, until critical SOPs are completed.
5. When the SOP backlog is cleared, conduct quarterly or semi-annual refreshers for ongoing review and optimization of key processes.

Assign action items to capture next steps after SOP working sessions

2.3

1. Review the SOPs documented during this workshop. Identify action items to complete and validate those SOPs and related documents. For example, do the SOPs require further approval or testing?
2. Similarly, review the document management checklist and identify action items to complete, expand, and/or validate proposed standards.
3. For SOP working sessions, decide on a date, time, and who should be there based on the guidelines in this section. If the SOP party approach does not meet your requirements, then at the very least assign owners for the identified critical SOPs and set deadlines for completing those SOPs. Document these extra action items in your copy of the Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.

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

Book a workshop with out 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

Identify current content management practices

As a group, identify current pain points and opportunities for improvement in your current content management practices.

2.2

Assign action items to address documentation process challenges

Develop a list of action items to address gaps in the SOP documentation and maintenance process.

Phase 3

Identify a Content Management Solution

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Phase 3 outline

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: Decide on a content management solution for your SOPs

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 week

Step 3.1: Understand the options for CM solutions

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Review your current approach to content management and discuss possible alternatives.

Then complete these activities…

• Evaluate the pros and cons of different approaches to content management.
• Discuss approaches for fit with your team.

Step 3.2: Identify the right solution for you

Review findings with analyst:

• Identify 2–3 possible options for a content management strategy.

Then complete these activities…

• Identify the best solution based on portability, maintainability, cost, and implementation effort.

With these tools & templates:

• Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool
• SOP Project Roadmap
• SOP Workbook

Phase 3 Results & Insights:

Choose an approach to content management that will best support your organization’s SOP documentation and maintenance process.

Decide on an appropriate publishing and document management strategy for your organization

Publishing and document management considerations:

• Portability/External Access: At the best of times, portability is nice because it enables flexibility, but at the worst of times (such as in a disaster recovery situation) it is absolutely essential. If your primary site is down, can you still access your documentation? As shown in this chart, traditional storage strategies still dominate DRP documentation, but these aren’t necessarily the best options.
• Maintainability/Usability: How easy is it to create, update, and use the documentation? Is it easy to link to other documents? Is there version control? The easier the system is to use, the easier it is to get employees to use it.
• Cost/Effort: Is the cost and effort appropriate? For example, a large enterprise may need a formal solution like SharePoint or a Content Management System. For smaller organizations, the cost of these tools might be harder to justify.

Consider these approaches:

This section reviews the following approaches, their pros and cons, and how they meet publishing and document management requirements:

• SOP tools.
• Cloud-based content management software.
• In-house solutions combining SharePoint and MS Office (or equivalent).
• Wiki site.
• “Manual” approaches such as storing documents on a USB drive.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=118

Note: Percentages total more than 100% due to respondents using more than one portability strategy.

Develop a content management strategy and process to reduce organizational risk

CASE STUDY

Segment

Mid-market company

Source

Info-Tech Interview

Situation

• A mid-sized company hired a technical consultancy to manage its network.
• As part of this move, the company’s network administrator was fired.
• Over time, this administrator had become a “go-to” person for several other IT functions.

Complication

• The consulting team realizes that the network administrator kept critical documentation on his local hard drive.
• This includes configs, IP addresses, passwords, logins to vendor accounts, and more.
• It becomes clear the administrator was able to delete some of this information before leaving, which the consultants are required to retrieve and re-document.

Result

• Failing to implement effective SOPs for document management and terminating key IT staff exposed the organization to unnecessary risk and additional costs.
• Allowing a local content management system to develop created a serious security risk.
• The bottom line: create a secure, centralized, and backed-up location and establish SOPs around using it to help keep the company’s data safe.

Info-Tech offers a web-based policy management solution with process management capabilities

About this Approach:

myPolicies is a web-based solution to create, distribute, and manage corporate policies, procedures, and forms, built around best practices identified by our research.

Contact your Account Manager today to find out if myPolicies is right for you.

SOP software and DR planning tools can help, but they aren’t a silver bullet

Portability/External Access:

• Pros: Typically have a SaaS option, providing built-in external access with appropriate security and user administration to vary access rights.
• Cons: Dependent on the vendor to ensure external access, but this is typically not an issue.

Maintainability/Usability:

• Pros: Built-in templates encourage consistency as well as guide initial content development by indicating what details need to be captured.
• Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support, etc.), centralized access/navigation to required documents, and some automation (e.g. update contacts throughout the system).
• Cons: Not a silver bullet. You still have to do the work to define and capture your processes.
• Cons: Requires end-user and administrator training.
• Cons: Often modules of larger software suites. If you use the entire suite, it may make sense to use the SOP tool, but otherwise probably not.

Cost/Effort:

• Pros: For large enterprises, the convenience of built-in document management and templates can outweigh the cost.
• Cons: SOP tools can be costly. Expect to pay at least $3,000-7,000 for software licensing, plus additional per user and hosting fees.

About this Approach:

SOP tools such as Princeton Center’s SOP ExpressTM and SOP Tracks or MasterControl’s SOP Management and eSOP allow organizations to create, manage, and access SOPs. These programs typically offer a range of SOP templates and formats, electronic signatures, version control, and review options and training features such as quizzes and monitoring.

Similarly, DR planning solutions (e.g. eBRP, Recovery Planner, LDRPS, etc.) provide templates, tools, and document management to create DR documentation including SOPs.

Consider leveraging SharePoint to provide document management capabilities

Portability/External Access:

• Pros: SharePoint is commonly web-enabled and supports external access with appropriate security and user administration.
• Cons: Must be installed at redundant sites or be cloud-based to be effective in the event of a worst-case scenario disaster recovery situation in which the primary data center is down.

Maintainability/Usability:

• Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support, etc.) as well as centralized access to required documents.
• Pros: No tool learning curve – SharePoint and MS Office would be existing solutions already used on a daily basis.
• Cons: No built-in automated updates (e.g. automated updates to contacts throughout the system).
• Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing processes for document updates, review, and approval.

Cost/Effort:

• Pros: Using existing tools, so this is a sunk cost in terms of capex.
• Cons: Additional effort required to create templates and manage the documentation library.

For more information on SharePoint as a content management solution, see Info-Tech’s Use SharePoint for Enterprise Content Management.

About this Approach:

Most SOP documents start as MS Office documents, even if there is an SOP tool available (some SOP tools actually run within MS Office on the desktop). For organizations that decide to bypass a formal SOP tool, the biggest gap they have to overcome is document management.

Many organizations are turning to SharePoint to meet this need. For those that already have SharePoint in place, it makes sense to further leverage SharePoint for SOP documentation.

For SharePoint to be a practical solution, the documentation must still be accessible if the primary data center is down, e.g. by having redundant SharePoint instance at multiple in-house locations or using a cloud-based SharePoint solution.

As an alternative to SharePoint, SaaS tools such as Power DMS, NetDocuments, Xythos on Demand, Knowledge Tree, Spring CM, and Zoho Docs offer cloud-based document management, authoring, and distribution services that can work well for SOPs. Some of these, such as Power DMS and Spring CM, are geared specifically toward workflows.

A wiki may be all you need

Portability/External Access:

• Pros: Wiki sites can support external access as with any web solution.
• Cons: May lack more sophisticated content management features.

Maintainability/Usability:

• Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support, etc.) as well as centralized access to required information.
• Pros: Authorized users can make updates dynamically, depending on how much restriction you have on the site.
• Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contacts throughout the system).
• Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing processes for document updates, review, and approval.

Cost/Effort:

• Pros: An inexpensive option compared to traditional content management solutions such as SharePoint.
• Cons: Learning curve if wikis are new to your organization.

About this Approach:

Wiki sites are websites where users collaborate to create and edit the content. Wikipedia is an example.

While wiki sites are typically used for collaboration and dynamic content development, the traditional collaborative authoring model can be restricted to provide structure and an approval process.

Several tools are available to create and manage wiki sites (and other collaboration solutions), as outlined in the following research:

• Implement a Collaboration Platform
• Vendor Landscape: Collaboration Platforms

An approach that I’ve seen work well is to consult the wiki for any task, activity, job, etc. Is it documented? If not, then document it there and then. Sure, this led to 6-8 weeks of huge effort, but the documentation grew in terms of volume and quality at an alarming but pleasantly surprising rate. Providing an environment to create the documentation is important and a wiki is ideal. Fast, lightweight, in-browser editing leads to little resistance in creating documents.

- Lee Blackwell, Global IT Operation Services Manager, Avid Technology

Managing SOPs on a shared network drive involves major challenges and limitations

Portability/External Access:

• Cons: Must be hosted at redundant sites in order to be effective in a worst-case scenario that takes down your data center.

Maintainability/Usability:

• Pros: Easy to implement and no learning curve.
• Pros: Access can be easily managed.
• Cons: Version control, standardization, and document management can be significant challenges.

Cost/Effort:

• Pros: Little to no cost and no tool management required.
• Cons: Managing documents on a shared network drive requires strict attention to process for version control, updates, approvals, and distribution.

About this Approach:

With this strategy, SOP documents are stored and managed locally on a shared network drive. Only process owners and administrators have read-write permissions on documents on the shared drive.

The administrator grants access and manages security permissions.

Info-Tech Insight

For small organizations, the shared network drive approach can work, but this is ultimately a short-term solution. Move to an online library by creating a wiki site. Start slow by beginning with a particular department or project, then evaluate how well your staff adapt to this technology as well as its potential effectiveness in your organization. Refer to the Info-Tech collaboration strategy research cited on the previous slide for additional guidance.

Avoid extensive use of paper copies of SOP documentation

SOP documents need to be easy to update, accessible from anywhere, and searchable. Paper doesn’t meet these needs.

Portability/External Access:

• Pros: Does not rely on technology or power.
• Cons: Not adequate for disaster recovery situations; would require all staff to have a copy and to have it with them at all times.

Maintainability/Usability:

• Pros: In terms of usability, again there is no dependence on technology.
• Cons: Updates need to be printed and distributed to all relevant staff every time there is a change to ensure staff have access to the latest most accurate documentation.
• Cons: Navigation to other information is manual – flipping through pages etc. No searching or hyperlinks.

Cost/Effort:

• Pros: No technology system to maintain, aside from what you use for printing.
• Cons: Printing expenses are actually among the highest incurred by organizations and this adds to it.
• Cons: Labor-intensive due to need to print and physically distribute documentation updates.

About this Approach

Traditionally, SOPs were printed and kept somewhere in a large binder (or several large binders). This isn’t adequate to the needs of most organizations and typically results in documents that aren’t up to date or effective.

Use Info-Tech’s solution evaluation tool to decide on a publishing and document management strategy

All organizations have existing document management methodologies, even if it’s simply storing documents on a network drive.

Use Info-Tech’s solution evaluation tool to decide whether your existing solution meets the portability/external access, maintainability/usability, and cost/effort criteria, or whether you need to explore a different option.

Note: This tool was originally built to evaluate DRP publishing options, so the tool name and terminology refers to DR. However, the same tool can be used to evaluate general SOP publishing and document management solutions.

Consider using Info-Tech’s DRP Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool.

Info-Tech Insight

There is no absolute ranking for possible solutions. The right choice will depend on factors such as current in-house tools, maturity around document management, the size of your IT department, and so on. For example, a small shop may do very well with the USB drive strategy, whereas a multi-national company will need a more formal strategy to ensure consistent application of corporate guidelines.

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

Decide on a publishing and document management strategy

Review the pros and cons of different strategies for publishing and document management. Identify needs, priorities, and limitations of your environment. Create a shortlist of options that can meet your organization’s needs and priorities.

3.2

Complete the solution evaluation tool

Evaluate solutions on the shortlist to identify the strongest option for your organization, based on the criteria of maintainability, affordability, effort to implement, and accessibility/portability.

Insight breakdown

Create visual documents, not dense SOP manuals.

• Visual documents that can be scanned are more usable and easier to update.
• Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams all have their place in visual documentation.

Start with high-impact SOPs.

• It can be difficult to decide where to start when faced with a major documentation backlog.
• Focus first on client facing and high-impact SOPs, i.e. mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery procedures.

Integrate SOP creation into project requirements and hold staff accountable.

• Holding staff accountable does not provide all the benefits of a well documented and maintained SOP, but it minimizes procrastination, so the work is ultimately done in a more timely manner.

Summary of accomplishment

Knowledge Gained

SOPs may not be exciting, but they’re very important to organizational consistency, efficiency, and improvement.

This blueprint outlined how to:

• Prioritize and execute SOP documentation work.
• Establish a sustainable process for creating and maintaining SOP documentation.
• Choose a content management solution for best fit.

Processes Optimized

• Multiple processes supporting mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery were documented. Gaps in those processes were uncovered and addressed.
• In addition, your process for maintaining process documents was improved, including adding documentation requirements and steps requiring documentation approval.

Deliverables Completed

As part of completing this project, the following deliverables were completed:

• Standard Operating Procedures Workbook
• Standard Operating Procedures Project Roadmap Tool
• Document Management Checklist
• Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool

Project step summary

Client Project: Create and maintain visual SOP documentation.

1. Prioritize undocumented SOPs.
2. Develop visual SOP documentation.
3. Optimize and document critical processes.
4. Establish guidelines for identifying and organizing SOPs.
5. Define a process for documenting and maintaining SOPs.
6. Plan time with experts to put a dent in your documentation backlog.
7. Understand the options for content management solutions.
8. Identify the right content management solution for your organization.

Info-Tech Insight

This project has the ability to fit the following formats:

• Onsite workshop by Info-Tech Research Group consulting analysts.
• Do-it-yourself with your team.
• Remote delivery (Info-Tech Guided Implementation).

Bibliography

Anderson, Chris. “What is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?” Bizmanualz, Inc. No date. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. https://www.bizmanualz.com/save-time-writing-procedures/what-are-policies-and-procedures-sop.html

Grusenmeyer, David. “Developing Effective Standard Operating Procedures.” Dairy Business Management. 1 Feb. 2003. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/36910

Mosaic. “The Value of Standard Operating Procedures.” 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. ttp://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1086_Standard_Operating_Procedures.pdf

Sinn, John W. “Lean, Six Sigma, Quality Transformation Toolkit (LSSQTT) Tool #17 Courseware Content – Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) For Lean and Six Sigma: Infrastructure for Understanding Process.” Summer 2006. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BGSU/college-of-technology/documents/LSSQTT/LSSQTT%20Toolkit/toolkit3/LSSQTT-Tool-17.pdf

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Guidance for Preparing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).” April 2007. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/g6-final.pdf

Build a Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap

Align infrastructure investment to business-driven goals.

Analysts' Perspectives

Infrastructure roadmaps are an absolute necessity for all organizations. An organization's size often dictates the degree of complexity of the roadmap, but they all strive to paint the future picture of the organization's IT infrastructure.

Infrastructure roadmaps typically start with the current state of infrastructure and work on how to improve. That thinking must change! Start with the future vision, an unimpeded vision, as if there were no constraints. Now you can see where you want to be.

Look at your past to determine how you have been spending your infrastructure budget. If your past shows a trend of increased operational expenditures, that trend will likely continue. The same is true for capital spending and staffing numbers.

Now that you know where you want to go, and how you ended up where you are, look at the constraints you must deal with and make a plan. It's not as difficult as it may seem, and even the longest journey begins with one step.

Speaking of that first step, it should be to understand the business goals and align your roadmap with those same goals. Now you have a solid plan to develop a strategic infrastructure roadmap; enjoy the journey!

There are many reasons why you need to build a strategic IT infrastructure roadmap, but your primary objectives are to set the long-term direction, build a framework for decision making, create a foundation for operational planning, and be able to explain to the business what you are planning. It is a basis for accountability and sets out goals and priorities for the future.

Other than knowing where you are going there are four key benefits to building the roadmap.

1. It allows you to be strategic and transformative rather than tactical and reactive.
2. It gives you the ability to prioritize your tasks and projects in order to get them going.
3. It gives you the ability to align your projects to business outcomes.
4. Additionally, you can leverage your roadmap to justify your budget for resources and infrastructure.

When complete, you will be able to communicate to your fellow IT teams what you are doing and get an understanding of possible business- or IT-related roadblocks, but overall executing on your roadmap will demonstrate to the business your competencies and ability to succeed.

PJ Ryan
Research Director
Infrastructure & Operations Practice
Info-Tech Research Group

John Donovan
Principal Research Director
Infrastructure & Operations Practice
Info-Tech Research Group

Build a Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap

Align infrastructure investment to business-driven goals.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

When it comes to building a strategic roadmap, getting a seat at the table is your first objective. Knowing what the business wants to do and understanding its future needs is a challenge for most IT organizations.

Challenges such as:

• Understanding the business vision
• Clear communications on business planning
• Insight into what the future state should look like

Common Obstacles

Fighting fires, keeping the lights on, patching, and overseeing legacy debt maintenance – these activities prevent your IT team from thinking strategically and looking beyond day-to-day operations. Issues include:

• Managing time well
• Building the right teams
• Setting priorities

Procrastinating when it comes to thinking about your future state will get you nowhere in a hurry.

Info-Tech's Approach

Look into your past IT spend and resources that are being utilized.

• Analyze all aspects of the operation, and resources required.
• Be realistic with your timelines.
• Work from the future state backward.

Build your roadmap by setting priorities, understanding risk and gaps both in finance and resources. Overall, your roadmap is never done, so don't worry if you get it wrong on the first pass.

Info-Tech Insight

Have a clear vision of what the future state is, and know that when creating an IT infrastructure roadmap, it is never done. This will give your IT team an understanding of priorities, goals, business vision, and risks associated with not planning. Understand what you are currently paying for and why.

Insight Summary

"Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now."
Source: Alan Lakein, Libquotes

Your strategic objectives are key to building a roadmap

Many organizations' day-to-day IT operations are tactical and reactive. This needs to change; the IT team needs to become strategic and proactive in its planning and execution. Forward thinking bridges the gap from your current state, to what the organization is, to what it wants to achieve. Your strategic objectives need to align to the business vision and goals and keep it running.

Your future state will determine your roadmap priorities

Identify what the business needs to meet its goals; this should be reflected in your roadmap priorities. Then identify the tasks and projects that can get you there. Business alignment is key, as these projects require prioritization. Strategic initiatives that align to business outcomes will be your foundation for planning on those priorities. If you do not align your initiatives, you will end up spinning your wheels. A good strategic roadmap will have all the elements of forward thinking and planning to execute with the right resources, right priorities, and right funding to make it happen.

Understand what you have been paying for the last few years

Measure the cost of "keeping the lights on" as a baseline for your budget that is earmarked and already spent. Determine if your current spend is holding back innovation due to:

1. The high cost of maintenance
2. Resources in operations doing low-value work due to the effort required to do tasks related to break/fix on aging hardware and software

A successful strategic roadmap will be determined when you have a good handle on your current spending patterns and planning for future needs that include resources, budget, and know-how. Without a plan and roadmap, that plan will not get business buy-in or funding.

Top challenges reported by Info-Tech members

Lack of strategic direction

• Infrastructure leadership must discover the business goals.

Time seepage

• Project time is constantly being tracked incorrectly.

Technical debt

• Aging equipment is not proactively cycled out with newer enabling technologies.

Case Study

The strategic IT roadmap allows Dura to stay at the forefront of automotive manufacturing.

INDUSTRY: Manufacturing
SOURCE: Performance Improvement Partners

Challenge

Following the acquisition of Dura, MiddleGround aimed to position Dura as a leader in the automotive industry, leveraging the company's established success spanning over a century.

However, prior limited investments in technology necessitated significant improvements for Dura to optimize its processes and take advantage of digital advancements.

Solution

MiddleGround joined forces with PIP to assess technology risks, expenses, and prospects, and develop a practical IT plan with solutions that fit MiddleGround's value-creation timeline.

By selecting the top 15 most important IT projects, the companies put together a feasible technology roadmap aimed at advancing Dura in the manufacturing sector.

Results

Armed with due diligence reports and a well-defined IT plan, MiddleGround and Dura have a strategic approach to maximizing value creation.

By focusing on key areas such as analysis, applications, infrastructure and the IT organization, Dura is effectively transforming its operations and shaping the future of the automotive manufacturing industry.

How well do you know your business strategy?

A mere 25% of managers
can list three of the company's
top five priorities.

Based on a study from MIT Sloan, shared understanding of strategic directives barely exists beyond the top tiers of leadership.

Take your time back

Unplanned incident response is a leading cause of the infrastructure time crunch, but so too are nonstandard service requests and service requests that should be projects.

Source: MIT Sloan

Inventory Assessment

Lifecycle

Refresh strategies are still based on truisms (every three years for servers, every seven years for LAN, etc.) more than risk-based approaches.

Opportunity Cost

Assets that were suitable to enable business goals need to be re-evaluated as those goals change.

See Info-Tech's Manage Your Technical Debt blueprint

Key IT strategy initiatives can be categorized in three ways

IT key initiative plan

Initiatives collectively support the business goals and corporate initiatives, and improve the delivery of IT services.

1. Business support
   • Support major business initiatives
   • Each corporate initiative is supported by a major IT project and each project has unique IT challenges that require IT support.
2. IT excellence
   • Reduce risk and improve IT operational excellence
   • These projects will increase IT process maturity and will systematically improve IT.
3. Innovation
   • Drive technology innovation
   • These projects will improve future innovation capabilities and decrease risk by increasing technology maturity.

Info-Tech Insight

A CIO has three roles: enable business productivity, run an effective IT shop, and drive technology innovation. Your key initiative plan must reflect these three mandates and how IT strives to fulfill them.

IT must accomplish many things

Manage
the lifecycle of aging equipment against current capacity and capability demands.

Curate
a portfolio of enabling technologies to meet future capacity and capability demands.

Initiate
a realistic schedule of initiatives that supports a diverse range of business goals.

Adapt
to executive feedback and changing business goals.

Primary and secondary infrastructure drivers

• Primary driver – The infrastructure component that is directly responsible for enabling change in the business metric.
• Secondary driver – The infrastructure component(s) that primary drivers rely on.

(Source: BMC)

Sample primary and secondary drivers

Info-Tech Insight

You may not be able to directly influence the primary drivers of the business, but your infrastructure can have a major impact as a secondary driver.

Info-Tech's approach

1. Align strategy and goals

• Establish the scope of your IT strategy by defining IT's mission and vision statements and guiding principles.

• Envision and define your future infrastructure and analyze what is holding you back.

• Establish a risk framework, identify initiatives, and build your strategic infrastructure roadmap.

Blueprint deliverables

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

Mission and Vision Statement
Goal Alignment (Slide 28)

Construct your vision and mission aligned to the business.

Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap tool

Build initiatives and prioritize them. Build the roadmap.

Infrastructure Domain Study

What is stealing your time from getting projects done?

Initiative Templates Process Maps & Strategy

Build templates for initiates, build process map, and develop strategies.

Key Deliverable

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

Info-Tech's methodology for an infrastructure strategy and roadmap

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Workshop Overview

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

Phase 1

Align Strategy and Goals

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• How to build IT mission and vision statements
• How to elicit IT guiding principles
• How to finalize and communicate your IT strategy scope

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

Step 1.1

Develop the Infrastructure Strategy

Activities

1.1.1 Review/validate the business context

1.1.2 Construct your mission and vision statements

1.1.3 Elicit your guiding principles and finalize IT strategy scope

This step requires the following inputs:

• Business Mission Statement
• Business Vision Statement
• Business Goals

This step involves the following participants:

• Roadmap team

Outcomes of this step

• IT mission statement
• IT vision statement
• Guiding principles

To complete this phase, you will need:

Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template

Use the IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template to document the results from the following activities:

• Mission and Vision Statements
• Business impact
• Roadmap

IT must aim to support the organization's mission and vision

A mission statement

• Focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve the mission.
• Drives the company.
• Answers: What do we do? Who do we serve? How do we service them?

"A mission statement focuses on the purpose of the brand; the vision statement looks to the fulfillment of that purpose."

A vision statement

• Focuses on tomorrow and what an organization ultimately wants to become.
• Gives the company direction.
• Answers: What problems are we solving? Who and what are we changing?

"A vision statement provides a concrete way for stakeholders, especially employees, to understand the meaning and purpose of your business. However, unlike a mission statement – which describes the who, what, and why of your business – a vision statement describes the desired long-term results of your company's efforts."
Source: Business News Daily, 2020

Characteristics of mission and vision statements

A strong mission statement has the following characteristics:

• Articulates the IT function's purpose and reason for existence.
• Describes what the IT function does to achieve its vision.
• Defines the customers of the IT function.
• Is:
• Compelling
• Easy to grasp
• Sharply focused
• Concise

A strong vision statement has the following characteristics:

• Describes a desired future achievement.
• Focuses on ends, not means.
• Communicates promise.
• Is:
• Concise; no unnecessary words
• Compelling
• Achievable
• Measurable

Derive the IT mission and vision statements from the business

Begin the process by identifying and locating the business mission and vision statements.

• Corporate websites
• Business strategy documents
• Business executives

Ensure there is alignment between the business and IT statements.

Note: Mission statements may remain the same unless the IT department's mandate is changing.

1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements

1 hour

Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

Step 1:

1. Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your business context inputs, specifically the corporate mission statement.
2. Begin by asking the participants:
1. What is our job as a team?
2. What's our goal? How do we align IT to our corporate mission?
3. What benefit are we bringing to the company and the world?
1. Ask them to share general thoughts in a check-in.

Step 2:

1. Share some examples of IT mission statements.
2. Example: IT provides innovative product solutions and leadership that drives growth and
   success.
3. Provide each participant with some time to write their own version of an IT mission statement.

Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

Input

• Business vision statement
• Business mission statement

Output

• IT mission statement
• IT vision statement

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard
• Paper
• Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

Participants

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

1 hour

Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

Step 3:

This step involves reviewing individual mission statements, combining them, and building one collective mission statement for the team.

1. Consider the following approach to build a unified mission statement:

Use the 20x20 rule for group decision-making. Give the group no more than 20 minutes to craft a collective team purpose with no more than 20 words.

1. As a facilitator, provide guidelines on how to write for the intended audience. Business stakeholders need business language.
2. Refer to the corporate mission statement periodically and ensure there is alignment.
3. Document your final mission statement in your ITRG Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template.

Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

Input

• Business vision statement
• Business mission statement

Output

• IT mission statement
• IT vision statement

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard
• Paper
• Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

Participants

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

1 hour

Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

Step 4:

1. Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your business context inputs, specifically the corporate vision statement.
2. Share one or more examples of vision statements.
3. Provide participants with sticky notes and writing materials and ask them to work individually for this step.
4. Ask participants to brainstorm:
1. What is the desired future state of the IT organization?
2. How should we work to attain the desired state?
3. How do we want IT to be perceived in the desired state?
5. Provide participants with guidelines to build descriptive, compelling, and achievable statements regarding their desired future state.
6. Regroup as a team and review participant answers.

Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

Input

• Business vision statement
• Business mission statement

Output

• IT mission statement
• IT vision statement

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard
• Paper
• Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

Participants

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

1 hour

Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

Step 5:

1. Ask the team to post their notes on the wall.
2. Have the team group the words that have a similar meaning or feeling behind them; this will create themes.
3. When the group is done categorizing the statements into themes, ask if there's anything missing. Did they ensure alignment to the corporate vision statement? Are there any elements missing when considering alignment back to the corporate vision statement?

Step 6:

1. Consider each category as a component of your vision statement.
2. Review each category with participants; define what the behavior looks like when it is being met and what it looks like when it isn't.
3. As a facilitator, provide guidelines on word-smithing and finessing the language.
4. Refer to the corporate vision statement periodically and ensure there is alignment.
5. Document your final mission statement in your IT Strategy Presentation Template.

Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

Input

• Business vision statement
• Business mission statement

Output

• IT mission statement
• IT vision statement

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard
• Paper
• Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

Participants

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

Tips for online facilitation:

• Pick an online whiteboard tool that allows participants to use a large, zoomable canvas.
• Set up each topic at a different area of the board; spread them out just like you would do on the walls of a room.
• Invite participants to zoom in and visit each section and add their ideas as sticky notes once you reach that section of the exercise.
• If you're not using an online whiteboard, we'd recommend using a collaboration tool such as Google Docs or Teams Whiteboard to collect the information for each step under a separate heading. Invite everyone into the document but be very clear regarding editing rights.
• Pre-create your screen deck and screen share this with your participants through your videoconferencing software. We'd also recommend sharing this so participants can go through the deck again during the reflection steps.
• When facilitating group discussion, we'd recommend that participants use non-verbal means to indicate they'd like to speak. You can use tools like Teams' hand-raising tool, a reaction emoji, or have people put their hands up. The facilitator can then invite that person to talk.

Source: Hyper Island

Input

• Business vision statement
• Business mission statement

Output

• IT mission statement
• IT vision statement

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard
• Paper
• Collaboration/brainstorming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

Participants

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

IT mission statements demonstrate IT's purpose

The IT mission statement specifies the function's purpose or reason for being. The mission should guide each day's activities and decisions. The mission statements use simple and concise terminology and speak loudly and clearly, generating enthusiasm for the organization.

Strong IT mission statements have the following characteristics:

• Articulate the IT function's purpose and reason for existence
• Describe what the IT function does to achieve its vision
• Define the customers of the IT function
• Are:
• Compelling
• Easy to grasp
• Sharply focused
• Inspirational
• Memorable
• Concise

Sample IT Mission Statements:

• To provide infrastructure, support, and innovation in the delivery of secure, enterprise-grade information technology products and services that enable and empower the workforce at [Company Name].
• To help fulfill organizational goals, the IT department is committed to empowering business stakeholders with technology and services that facilitate effective processes, collaboration, and communication.
• The mission of the information technology (IT) department is to build a solid, comprehensive technology infrastructure; to maintain an efficient, effective operations environment; and to deliver high-quality, timely services that support the business goals and objectives of ABC Inc.
• The IT department has operational, strategic, and fiscal responsibility for the innovation, implementation, and advancement of technology at ABC Inc. in three main areas: network administration and end-user support, instructional services, and information systems. The IT department provides leadership in long-range planning, implementation, and maintenance of information technology across the organization.
• The IT group is customer-centered and driven by its commitment to management and staff. It oversees services in computing, telecommunications, networking, administrative computing, and technology training.

Sample mission statements (cont'd)

• To collaborate and empower our stakeholders through an engaged team and operational agility and deliver innovative technology and services.
• To empower our stakeholders with innovative technology and services, through collaboration and agility.
• To collaborate and empower our stakeholder, by delivering innovative technology and services, with an engaged team and operational agility.
• To partner with departments and be technology leaders that will deliver innovative, secure, efficient, and cost-effective services for our citizens.
• As a client-centric strategic partner, provide excellence in IM and IT services through flexible business solutions for achieving positive user experience and satisfaction.
• Develop a high-performing global team that will plan and build a scalable, stable operating environment.
• Through communication and collaboration, empower stakeholders with innovative technology and services.
• Build a robust portfolio of technology services and solutions, enabling science-lead and business-driven success.
• Guided by value-driven decision making, high-performing teams and trusted partners deliver and continually improve secure, reliable, scalable, and reusable services that exceed customer expectations.
• Engage the business to grow capabilities and securely deliver efficient services to our users and clients.
• Engage the business to securely deliver efficient services and grow capabilities for our users and clients.

IT vision statements demonstrate what the IT organization aspires to be

The IT vision statement communicates a desired future state of the IT organization. The statement is expressed in the present tense. It seeks to articulate the desired role of IT and how IT will be perceived.

Strong IT vision statements have the following characteristics:

• Describe a desired future
• Focus on ends, not means
• Communicate promise
• Are:
• Concise; no unnecessary words
• Compelling
• Achievable
• Inspirational
• Memorable

Sample IT vision statements:

• To be a trusted advisor and partner in enabling business innovation and growth through an engaged IT workforce.
• The IT organization will strive to become a world-class value center that is a catalyst for innovation.
• IT is a cohesive, proactive, and disciplined team that delivers innovative technology solutions while demonstrating a strong customer-oriented mindset.
• Develop and maintain IT and an IT support environment that is secure, stable, and reliable within a dynamic environment.

Sample vision statements (cont'd)

• Alignment: To ensure that the IT organizational model and all related operational services and duties are properly aligned with all underlying business goals and objectives. Alignment reflects an IT operation "that makes sense," considering the business served, its interests and its operational imperatives.
• Engagement: To ensure that all IT vision stakeholders are fully engaged in technology-related planning and the operational parameters of the IT service portfolio. IT stakeholders include the IT performing organization (IT Department), company executives and end-users.
• Best Practices: To ensure that IT operates in a standardized fashion, relying on practical management standards and strategies properly sized to technology needs and organizational capabilities.
• Commitment to Customer Service: To ensure that IT services are provided in a timely, high-quality manner, designed to fill the operational needs of the front-line end-users, working within the boundaries established by business interests and technology best practices.

Quoted From ITtoolkit, 2020

Case Study

Acme Corp. was able to construct its IT mission and vison statements by aligning to its corporate mission and vision.

INDUSTRY: Professional Services
COMPANY: This case study is based on a real company but was anonymized for use in this research.

IT guiding principles set the boundaries for your strategy

Strategic guiding principles advise the IT organization on the boundaries of the strategy.

Guiding principles are a priori decisions that limit the scope of strategic thinking to what is acceptable organizationally, from budgetary, people, and partnership standpoints. Guiding principles can cover other dimensions, as well.

Organizational stakeholders are more likely to follow IT principles when a rationale is provided.

After defining the set of IT principles, ensure that they are all expanded upon with a rationale. The rationale ensures principles are more likely to be followed because they communicate why the principles are important and how they are to be used. Develop the rationale for each IT principle your organization has chosen.

IT guiding principles = IT strategy boundaries

Consider these four components when brainstorming guiding principles

Breadth

of the IT strategy can span across the eight perspectives: people, process, technology, data, process, sourcing, location, and timing.

Defining which of the eight perspectives is in scope for the IT strategy is crucial to ensuring the IT strategy will be comprehensive, relevant, and actionable.

Depth

of coverage refers to the level of detail the IT strategy will go into for each perspective. Info-Tech recommends that depth should go to the initiative level (i.e. individual projects).

Organizational coverage

will determine which part of the organization the IT strategy will cover.

Planning horizon

of the IT strategy will dictate when the target state should be reached and the length of the roadmap.

Consider these criteria when brainstorming guiding principle statements

Review ten universal IT principles to determine if your organization wishes to adopt them

1.1.3 Elicit guiding principles

1 hour

Objective: Generate ideas for guiding principle statements with silent sticky note writing.

1. Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your mission and vision statements.
2. Ask the group to brainstorm answers individually, silently writing their ideas on separate sticky notes. Provide the brainstorming criteria from the previous slide to all team members. Allow the team to put items on separate notes that can later be shuffled and sorted as distinct thoughts.
3. After a set amount of time, ask the members of the group to stick their notes to the whiteboard and quickly present them. Categorize all ideas into four major buckets: breadth, depth, organizational coverage, and planning horizon. Ideally, you want one guiding principle to describe each of the four components.
4. If there are missing guiding principles in any category or anyone's items inspire others to write more, they can stick those up on the wall too, after everyone has presented.
5. Discuss and finalize your IT guiding principles.
6. Document your guiding principles in the IT Strategy Presentation Template in Section 1.

Source: Hyper Island

Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

Input

• Four components for eliciting guiding principles
• Mission and vision statements

Output

• IT guiding principles
• IT strategy scope

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard
• Paper
• Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

Participants

• CIO
• Senior IT Team

Guiding principle examples

• Alignment: Our IT decisions will align with [our organization's] strategic plan.
• Resources: We will allocate cyber-infrastructure resources based on providing the greatest value and benefit for [the community].
• User Focus: User needs will be a key component in all IT decisions.
• Collaboration: We will work within and across organizational structures to meet strategic goals and identify opportunities for innovation and improvement.
• Transparency: We will be transparent in our decision making and resource use.
• Innovation: We will value innovative and creative thinking.
• Data Stewardship: We will provide a secure but accessible data environment.
• IT Knowledge and Skills: We will value technology skills development for the IT community.
• Drive reduced costs and improved services
• Deploy packaged apps – do not develop – retain business process knowledge expertise – reduce apps portfolio
• Standardize/Consolidate infrastructure with key partners
• Use what we sell, and help sell
• Drive high-availability goals: No blunders
• Ensure hardened security and disaster recovery
• Broaden skills (hard and soft) across the workforce
• Improve business alignment and IT governance

Quoted From: Office of Information Technology, 2014; Future of CIO, 2013

Case Study

Acme Corp. elicited guiding principles that set the scope of its IT strategy for FY21.

INDUSTRY: Professional Services
COMPANY: Acme Corp.

The following guiding principles define the values that drive IT's strategy in FY23 and provide the criteria for our 12-month planning horizon.

• We will focus on big-ticket items during the next 12 months.
• We will keep the budget within 5%+/- YOY.
• We will insource over outsource.
• We will develop a cloud-first technology stack.

Finalize your IT strategy scope

Your mission and vision statements and your guiding principles should be the first things you communicate on your IT strategy document.

Why is this important?

• Communicating these elements shows how IT supports the corporate direction.
• The vision and mission statements will clearly articulate IT's aspirations and purpose.
• The guiding principles will clearly articulate how IT plans to support the business strategically.
• These elements set expectations with stakeholders for the rest of your strategy.

Input information into the IT Strategy Presentation Template.

Summary of Accomplishment

Established the scope of your IT strategy

• Constructed the IT mission statement to communicate the IT organization's reason for being.
• Constructed the IT vision statement to communicate the desired future state of the IT organization.
• Elicited IT's guiding principles to communicate the overall scope and time horizon for the strategy.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop

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

Step 1.2

Business Goal Alignment

Activities

1.2.1 Intake identification and analysis

1.2.2 Survey results analysis

1.2.3 Goal brainstorming

1.2.4 Goal association and analysis

This step requires the following inputs:

• Last year's accomplished project list
• Business unit input source list
• Goal list
• In-flight initiatives list

This step involves the following participants:

• Business leadership
• Project Management Office
• Service Desk
• Business Relationship Management
• Solution or Enterprise Architecture
• Roadmap team

Outcomes of this step

• Intake analysis
• Goal list
• Initiative-to-goal map

Identify who is expecting what from the infrastructure

"Typically, IT thinks in an IT first, business second, way: 'I have a list of problems and if I solve them, the business will benefit.' This is the wrong way of thinking. The business needs to be thought of first, then IT."

– Fred Chagnon, Infrastructure Director,
Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Insight

If you're not soliciting input from or delivering on the needs of the various departments in your company, then who is? Be explicit and track how you communicate with each individual unit within your company.

Mature project portfolio management and enterprise architecture practices are no substitute for understanding your business clientele.

It may not be a democracy, but listening to everyone's voice is an essential step toward generating a useful roadmap.

Building good infrastructure requires an understanding of how it will be used. Explicit consultation with stakeholders maximizes a roadmap's usefulness and holds the enterprise accountable in future roadmap iterations as goals change.

Who are the customers for infrastructure?

Internal customer examples:

• Network Operations manager
• IT Systems manager
• Webmaster
• Security manager

External customer examples:

• Director of Sales
• Operations manager
• Applications manager
• Clients
• Partners and consultants
• Regulators/government

1.2.1 Intake identification and analysis

1 hour

The humble checklist is the single most effective tool to ensure we don't forget someone or something:

1. Have everyone write down their top five completed projects from last year – one project per sticky note.
2. Organize everyone's sticky notes on a whiteboard according to input source – did these projects come from the PMO? Directly from a BRM? Service request? VP or LoB management?
3. Make a MECE list of these sources on the left-hand side of a whiteboard.
4. On the right-hand side list all the departments or functional business units within the company.
5. Draw lines from right to left indicating which business units use which input source to request work.
6. Optional: Rate the efficacy of each input channel – what is the success rate of projects per channel in terms of time, budget, and functionality?

Discussion:

1. How clearly do projects and initiatives arrive at infrastructure to be acted on? Do they follow the predictable formal process with all the needed information or is it more ad hoc?
2. Can we validate that business units are using the correct input channel to request the appropriate work? Does infrastructure have to spend more time validating the requests of any one channel?
3. Can we identify business units that are underserved? How about overserved? Infrastructure initiatives tend to be near universal in effect – are we forgetting anyone?
4. Are all these methods passive (order taking), or is there a process for infrastructure to suggest an initiative or project?

Input

• Last year's accomplished project list

Output

• Work requested workflow and map

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

Case Study

Building IT governance and digital infrastructure for tech-enabled student experiences

INDUSTRY: Education
COMPANY: Collegis Education

Challenge

In 2019, Saint Francis University decided to expand its online program offering to reach students outside of its market.

It had to first transform its operations to deliver a high-quality, technology-enabled student experience on and off campus. The remote location of the campus posed power outages, Wi-Fi issues, and challenges in attracting and retaining the right staff to help the university achieve its goals.

It began working with an IT consulting firm to build a long-term strategic roadmap.

Solution

The consultant designed a strategic multi-year roadmap for digital transformation that would prioritize developing infrastructure to immediately improve the student experience and ultimately enable the university to scale its online programs. The consultant worked with school leadership to establish a virtual CIO to oversee the IT department's strategy and operations. The virtual CIO quickly became a key advisor to the president and board, identifying gaps between technology initiatives and enrollment and revenue targets. St. Francis staff also transitioned to the consultant's technology team, allowing the university to alleviate its talent acquisition and retention challenges.

Results

• $200,000 in funds reallocated to help with upgrades due to streamlined technology infrastructure
• Updated card access system for campus staff and students
• Active directory implementation for a secure and strong authentication technology
• An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) backup is installed to ensure power continues in the event of a power outage
• Upgrade to a reliable, campus-wide Wi-Fi network
• Behind-the-scenes upgrades like state-of-the-art data centers to stabilize aging technology for greater reliability

Track your annual activity by business unit – not by input source

A simple graph showing the breakdown of projects by business unit is an excellent visualization of who is getting the most from infrastructure services.

Show everyone in the organization that the best way to get anything done is by availing themselves of the roadmap process.

Enable technology staff to engage in business storytelling by documenting known goals in a framework

Without a goal framework

Technology-focused IT staff are notoriously disconnected from the business process and are therefore often unable to explain the outcomes of their projects in terms that are meaningful to the business.

With a goal framework

When business, IT, and infrastructure goals are aligned, the business story writes itself as you follow the path of cascading goals upward.

Info-Tech Best Practice

So many organizations we speak with don't have goals written down. This rarely means that the goals aren't known, rather that they're not clearly communicated.

When goals aren't clear, personal agendas can take precedence. This is what often leads to the disconnect between what the business wants and what IT is delivering.

1.2.2 Survey and results analysis

1 hour

Infrastructure succeeds by effectively scaling shared resources for the common good. Sometimes that is a matter of aggregating similarities, sometimes by recognizing where specialization is required.

1. Have every business unit provide their top three to five current goals or objectives for their department. Emphasize that you are requesting their operational objectives, not just the ones they think IT may be able to help them with.
2. Put each goal on a sticky note (optional: use a unique sticky note or marker color for each department) and place them on a whiteboard.
3. Group the sticky notes according to common themes.
4. Rank each grouping according to number of occurrences.

Discussion:

1. This is very democratic. Do certain departments' goals carry more weight more than others?
2. What is the current business prioritization process? Do the results of our activity match with the current published output of this process?
3. Consider each business goal in the context of infrastructure activity or technology feature or capability. As infrastructure is a lift function existing only to serve the business, it is important to understand our world in context.

Examples: The VP of Operations is looking to reduce office rental costs over the next three years. The VP of Sales is focused on increasing the number of face-to-face customer interactions. Both can potentially be served by IT activities and technologies that increase mobility.

Input

• Business unit input source list

Output

• Prioritized list of business goals

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

1.2.3 Goal brainstorming – Affinity diagramming exercise

1 hour

Clarify how well you understand what the business wants.

1. Ask each participant to consider: "What are the top three priorities of the company [this period]?" They should consider not what they think the priorities should be, but their understanding of what business leadership's priorities actually are.
2. Have each participant write down their three priorities on sticky notes – one per note.
3. Select a moderator from the group – not the infrastructure leader or the CIO. The moderator will begin by placing (and explaining) their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
4. Have each participant place and explain their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
5. The moderator will assist each participant in grouping sticky notes together based on theme.
6. Groups that become overly large may be broken into smaller, more precise themes.
7. Once everyone has placed their sticky notes, and the groups have been arranged and rearranged, you should have a visual representation of infrastructure's understanding of the business' priorities.
8. Let the infrastructure leader and/or CIO place their sticky notes last.

Discussion:

Is there a lot of agreement within the group? What does it mean if there are 10 or 15 groups with equal numbers of sticky notes? What does it mean if there are a few top groups and dozens of small outliers?

How does the group's understanding compare with that of the Director and/or CIO?

What mechanisms are in place for the business to communicate their goals to infrastructure? Are they effective? Does the team take the time to reimagine those goals and internalize them?

What does it mean if infrastructure's understanding differs from the business?

Input

• Business unit input source list

Output

• Prioritized list of business goals

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

Additional Activity

Now that infrastructure has a consensus on what it thinks the business' goals are, suggest a meeting with leadership to validate this understanding. Once the first picture is drawn, a 30-minute meeting can help clear up any misconceptions.

Build your own framework or start with these three root value drivers

With a framework of cascading goals in place, a roadmap is a Rosetta Stone. Being able to map activities back to governance objectives allows you to demonstrate value regardless of the audience you are addressing.

(Info-Tech, Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy 2022)

1.2.4 Goal association exercise and analysis

1 hour

Wherever possible use the language of your customers to avoid confusion, but at least ensure that everyone in infrastructure is using a common language.

1. Take your business strategy or IT strategy or survey response (Activity 1.2.3) or Info-Tech's fundamental goals list (strategic agility, improved cash flow, innovate product, safety, standardize end-user experience) and write them across the top of a whiteboard.
2. Have everyone write, on a sticky note, their current in-flight initiatives – one per sticky note.
3. Have each participant then place each of their sticky notes on the whiteboard and draw a line from the initiative to the goal it supports.
4. The rest of the group should challenge any relationships that seem unsupported or questionable.

Discussion:

1. How many goals are you supporting? Are there too many? Are you doing enough to support the right goals?
2. Is there a shared understanding of the business goals among the infrastructure staff? Or, do questions about meaning keep coming up?
3. Do you have initiatives that are difficult to express in terms of business goals? Do you have a lot of them or just a few?

Input

• Goal list
• In-flight initiatives list

Output

• Initiatives-to-goals map

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

Summary of Accomplishment

Review performance from last fiscal year.

• Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
• Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
• Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop

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

Phase 2

Envision Future and Analyze Constraints

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Determine from a greenfield perspective what the future state looks like.
• Do SWOT analysis on technology you may plan to use in the future.
• Complete a time study.

This phase involves the following participants:

• Roadmap team

Step 2.1

Define the future state

Activities

2.1.1 Define your future infrastructure vision

2.1.2 Document desired future state

2.1.3 Develop a new technology identification process

2.1.4 Conduct a SWOT analysis

This step requires the following inputs:

• Emerging technology interest

This step involves the following participants:

• Roadmap team
• External SMEs

Outcomes of this step

• Technology discovery process
• Technology assessment process
• Future state vision document

Future state discussion

"Very few of us are lucky enough to be one of the first few employees in a new organization. Those of you who get to plan the infrastructure with a blank slate and can focus all of your efforts on doing things right the first time."

BMC, 2018

"A company's future state is ultimately defined as the greater vision for the business. It's where you want to be, your long-term goal in terms of the ever-changing state of technology and how that applies to your present-day business."
"Without a definitive future state, a company will often find themselves lacking direction, making it harder to make pivotal decisions, causing misalignment amongst executives, and ultimately hindering the progression and growth of a company's mission."
Source: Third Stage Consulting

"When working with digital technologies, it is imperative to consider how such technologies can enhance the solution. The future state should communicate the vision of how digital technologies will enhance the solutions, deliver value, and enable further development toward even greater value creation."
Source: F. Milani

Info-Tech Insight

Define your infrastructure roadmap as if you had a blank slate – no constraints, no technical debt, and no financial limitations. Imagine your future infrastructure and let that vision drive your roadmap.

Expertise is not innate; it requires effort and research

Evaluating new enterprise technology is a process of defining it, analyzing it, and sourcing it.

• Understand what a technology is in order to have a common frame of reference for discussion. Just as important, understand what it is not.
• Conduct an internal and external analysis of the technology including an adoption case study.
• Provide an overview of the vendor landscape, identifying the leading players in the market and how they differentiate their offerings.

This is not intended to be a thesis grade research project, nor an onerous duty. Most infrastructure practitioners came to the field because of an innate excitement about technology! Harness that excitement and give them four to eight hours to indulge themselves.

An output of approximately four slides per technology candidate should be sufficient to decided if moving to PoC or pilot is warranted.

Including this material in the roadmap helps you control the technology conversation with your audience.

Info-Tech Best Practices

Don't start from scratch. Recall the original sources from your technology watchlist. Leverage vendors and analyst firms (such as Info-Tech) to give the broad context, letting you focus instead on the specifics relevant to your business.

Channel emerging technologies to ensure the rising tide floats all boats rather than capsizing your business

Adopting the wrong new technology can be even more dangerous than failing to adopt any new technology.

Implementing every new promising technology would cost prodigious amounts of money and time. Know the costs before choosing what to invest in.

The risk of a new technology failing is acceptable. The risk of that failure disrupting adjacent core functions is unacceptable. Vet potential technologies to ensure they can be safely integrated.

Best practices for new technologies are nonexistent, standards are in flux, and use cases are fuzzy. Be aware of the unforeseen that will negatively affect your chances of a successful implementation.

"Like early pioneers crossing the American plains, first movers have to create their own wagon trails, but later movers can follow in the ruts."
Harper Business, 2014

Info-Tech Insight

The right technology for someone else can easily be the wrong technology for your business.

Even with a mature Enterprise Architecture practice, wrong technology bets can happen. Minimize the chance of this occurrence by making selection an infrastructure-wide activity. Leverage the practical knowledge of the day-to-day operators.

2.1.1 Create your future infrastructure vision

1 hour

Objective: Help teams define their future infrastructure state (assuming zero constraints or limitations).

1. Ask each participant to ponder the question: "How would the infrastructure look if there were no limitations?" They should consider all aspects of their infrastructure but keep in mind the infrastructure vision and mission statements from phase one, as well as the business goals.
2. Have each participant write down their ideas on sticky notes – one per note.
3. Select a moderator and a scribe from the group – not the infrastructure leader or the CIO. The moderator will begin by placing (and explaining) their sticky notes on the whiteboard. The scribe will summarize the results in short statements at the end.
4. Have each participant place and explain their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
5. The moderator will assist each participant in grouping sticky notes together based on theme.
6. Once everyone has placed their sticky notes and groups have been arranged and rearranged, you should have a visual representation of infrastructure's understanding of the business' priorities.
7. Let the infrastructure leader and/or CIO place their sticky notes last.

Discussion:

1. Assume a blank slate as a starting point. No technical debt or financial constraints; nothing holding you back.
2. Can SaaS, PaaS, or other cloud-based offerings play a role in this future utopia?
3. Do vendors play a larger or smaller role in your future infrastructure vision?

Download the IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

Input

• Thoughts and ideas about how the future infrastructure should look.

Output

• Future state vision

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

2.1.1 Document your future state vision (cont'd)

Objective: Help teams define their future infrastructure state (assuming zero constraints or limitations).

1 hour

Steps:

8. The scribe will take the groups of suggestions and summarize them in a statement or two, briefly describing the infrastructure in that group.
9. The statements should be recorded on Tab 2 of the Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Tool.

Discussion:

• Should the points be listed in any specific order?
• Include all suggestions in the summary. Remember this is a blank slate with no constraints, and no idea is higher or lower in weight at this stage.

Download Info-Tech's Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Tool and document your future state vision in the Infrastructure Future State tab.

Input

• Thoughts and ideas about how the future infrastructure should look.

Output

• Future state vision

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

2.1.2 Identification and association exercise

1 hour

Formalize what is likely an ad hoc process.

1. Brainstorm with the group a list of external sources they are currently using to stay abreast of the market.
2. Organize this list on the left-hand side of a whiteboard, in vendor and vendor-neutral groups.
   1. For each item in the list ask a series of questions:
   2. Is this a push or pull source?
   3. Is this source suited to individual or group consumption?
   4. What is the frequency of this source?
3. What is the cost of this source to the company?
4. On the right-hand side of the whiteboard brainstorm a list of internal mechanisms for sharing new technology information. Ask about the audience, distribution mode, and frequency for each of those mechanisms.
5. Map which of the external sources make it over to internal distribution.

Discussion:

1. Are we getting the most value out of our high-cost conferences? Does that information make it from the attendees to the rest of the team?
2. Do we share information only within our domains? Or across the whole infrastructure practice?
3. Do we have sufficient diversity of sources? Are we in danger of believing one vendor's particular market interpretation?
4. How do we select new technologies to explore further? Make it fun – upvotes, for example.

Input

• Team knowledge
• Conference notes
• Expense reports

Output

• Internal socialization process
• Tech briefings & repository

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

Info-Tech Best Practices

It is impractical for everyone to present their tech briefing at the monthly meeting. But you want to avoid a one-to-many exercise. Keep the presenter a secret until called on. Those who do not present live can still contribute their material to the technology watchlist database.

Analyze new technologies for your future state

Four to eight hours of research per technology can uncover a wealth of relevant information and prepare the infrastructure team for a robust discussion. Key research elements include:

• Précis: A single page or slide that describes the technology, outlines some of the vendors, and explores the value proposition.
• SWOT Analysis:
• Strengths and weaknesses: What does the technology inherently do well (e.g. lots of features) and what does it do poorly (e.g. steep learning curve)?
• Opportunities and threats: What capabilities can the technology enable (e.g. build PCs faster, remote sensing)? Why would we not want to exploit this technology (e.g. market volatility, M&As)

Download the IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template slides 21, 22, 23 for sample output.

Position infrastructure as the go-to source for information about new technology

One way or another, tech always seems to finds its way into infrastructure's lap. Better to stay in front and act as stewards rather than cleanup crew.

Effective treatment options

1. Targeted regular communication with a technology portfolio analysis customized to the specific goals of the business.
2. Ongoing PoC and piloting efforts with detailed results reporting.

While no permanent cure exists, regular treatment makes this chronic syndrome manageable.

Keep your roadmap horizon in mind

Technology doesn't have to be bleeding edge. New-to-you can have plenty of value.

You want to present a curated landscape of technologies, demonstrating that you are actively maintaining expertise in your chosen field.

Most enterprise IT shops buy rather than develop their technology, which means they want to focus effort on what is market available. The outcome is that infrastructure sponsors and delivers new technologies whose capabilities and features will help the business achieve its goals on this roadmap.

If you want to think more like a business disruptor or innovator, we suggest working through the blueprint Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology.
Explore technology five to ten years into the future!

Info-Tech Insight

The ROI of any individual effort is difficult to justify – in aggregate, however, the enterprise always wins!
Money spent on Google Glass in 2013 seemed like vanity. Certainly, this wasn't enterprise-ready technology. But those early experiences positioned some visionary firms to quickly take advantage of augmented reality in 2018. Creative research tends to pay off in unexpected and unpredictable ways.
.

2.1.3 Working session, presentation, and feedback

1 hour

Complete a SWOT analysis with future state technology.

The best research hasn't been done in isolation since the days of da Vinci.

1. Divide the participants into small groups of at least four people.
2. Further split those groups into two teams – the red team and the white team.
3. Assign a technology candidate from the last exercise to each group. Ideally the group should have some initial familiarity with the technology and/or space.
4. The red team from each group will focus on the weaknesses and threats of the technology. The white team will focus on the strengths and opportunities of the technology.
5. Set a timer and spend the next 30-40 minutes completing the SWOT analysis.
6. Have each group present their analysis to the larger team. Encourage conversation and debate. Capture and refine the understanding of the analysis.
7. Reset with the next technology candidate. Have the participants switch teams within their groups.
8. Continue until you've exhausted your technology candidates.

Discussion:

1. Does working in a group make for better research? Why?
2. Do you need specific expertise in order to evaluate a technology? Is an outsider (non-expert) view sometimes valuable?
3. Is it easier to think of the positive or the negative qualities of a technology? What about the internal or external implications?

Input

• Technology candidates

Output

• Technology analysis including SWOT

Materials

• Projector
• Templates
• Laptops & internet

Participants

• Roadmap team

Step 2.2

Constraints analysis

Activities

2.2.1 Historical spend analysis

2.2.2 Conduct a time study

2.2.3 Identify roadblocks

This step requires the following inputs:

• Historical spend and staff numbers
• Organizational design identification and thought experiment
• Time study
• Roadblock brainstorming session
• Prioritization exercise

This step involves the following participants:

• Financial leader
• HR Leader
• Roadmap team

Outcomes of this step

• OpEx, CapEx, and staffing trends
• Domain time study
• Prioritized roadblock list

2.2.1 Historical spend analysis

"A Budget is telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went."
-David Ramsay

"Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are"
-James Frick, Due.com

Annual IT budgeting aligns with business goals
	50% of businesses surveyed see that improvements are necessary for IT budgets to align to business goals, while 18% feel they require significant improvements to align to business goals Source: ITRG Diagnostics 2022
Challenges in IT spend visibility
	Visibility of all spend data for on-prem, SaaS and cloud environments Source: Flexera
The challenges that keep IT leaders up at night
	Lack of visibility in resource usage and cost Source: BMC, 2021

2.2.1 Build a picture of your financial spending and staffing trends

Follow the steps below to generate a visualization so you can start the conversation:

1 hour

1. Open the Info-Tech Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Spend Analysis Tool.
2. The Instructions tab will provide guidance, or you can follow the instructions below.
3. Insert values into the appropriate uncolored blocks in the first 4 rows of the Spend Record Entry tab to reflect the amount spent on IT OpEx, IT CapEx, or staff numbers for the present year (budgeted) as well as the previous five years.
4. Data input populates cells in subsequent rows to quickly reveal spending ratios.

Download the Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Analysis Tool
( additional Deep Dive available if required)

Input

• Historical spend and staff numbers

Output

• OpEx, CapEx, and staffing trends for your organization

Materials

• Info-Tech's Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Spend Analysis Tool

Participants

• Infrastructure leader
• Financial leader
• HR leader

2.2.1 Build a picture of your financial spending and staffing trends (cont'd)

Continue with the steps below to generate a visualization so you can start the conversation.

1 hour

5. Select tab 3 (Results) to reveal a graphical analysis of your data.
6. Trends are shown in graphs for OpEx, CapEx, and staffing levels as well as comparative graphs to show broader trends between multiple spend and staffing areas.
7. Some observations worth noting may include the following:
   • Is OpEx spending increasing over time or decreasing?
   • Is CapEx increasing or decreasing?
   • Are OpEx and CapEx moving in the same directions?
   • Are IT staff to total staff ratios increasing or decreasing?
   • Trends will continue in the same direction unless changes are made.

Download the Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Analysis Tool
( additional Deep Dive available if required)

Input

• Historical spend and staff numbers

Output

• OpEx, CapEx, and staffing trends for your organization

Materials

• Info-Tech's Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Spend Analysis Tool

Participants

• Infrastructure leader
• Financial leader
• HR leader

Consider perceptions held by the enterprise when dividing infrastructure into domains

2.2.2 Conduct a time study

Internal divisions that seem important to infrastructure may have little or even negative value when it comes to users accessing their services.

Domains are the logical divisions of work within an infrastructure practice. Historically, the organization was based around physical assets: servers, storage, networking, and end-user devices. Staff had skills they applied according to specific best practices using physical objects that provided functionality (computing power, persistence, connectivity, and interface).

Modern enterprises may find it more effective to divide according to activity (analytics, programming, operations, and security) or function (customer relations, learning platform, content management, and core IT). As a rule, look to your organizational chart; managers responsible for buying, building, deploying, or supporting technologies should each be responsible for their own domain.

Regardless of structure, poor organization leads to silos of marginally interoperable efforts working against each other, without focus on a common goal. Clearly defined domains ensure responsibility and allow for rapid, accurate, and confident decision making.

• Server
• Network
• Storage
• End User
• DevOps
• Analytics
• Core IT
• Security

Info-Tech Insight

The medium is the message. Do stakeholders talk about switches or storage or services? Organizing infrastructure to match its external perception can increase communication effectiveness and improve alignment.

Case Study

IT infrastructure that makes employees happier

INDUSTRY: Services
SOURCE: Network Doctor

Challenge

Atlas Electric's IT infrastructure was very old and urgently needed to be refreshed. Its existing server hardware was about nine years old and was becoming unstable. The server was running Windows 2008 R2 server operating systems that was no longer supported by Microsoft; security updates and patches were no longer available. They also experienced slowdowns on many older PCs.

Recommendations for an upgrade were not approved due to budgetary constraints. Recommendations for upgrading to virtual servers were approved following a harmful phishing attack.

Solution

The following improvements to their infrastructure were implemented.

• Installing a new physical host server running VMWare ESXi virtualization software and hosting four virtual servers.
• Migration of data and applications to new virtual servers.
• Upgrading networking equipment and deploying new relays, switches, battery backups, and network management.
• New server racks to host new hardware.

Results

Virtualization, consolidating servers, and desktops have made assets more flexible and simpler to manage.

Improved levels of efficiency, reliability, and productivity.

Enhanced security level.

An upgraded backup and disaster recovery system has improved risk management.

Optimize where you spend your time by doing a time study

Infrastructure activity is limited generally by only two variables: money and time. Money is in the hands of the CFO, which leaves us a single variable to optimize.

Not all time is spent equally, nor is it equally valuable. Analysis lets us communicate with others and gives us a shared framework to decide where our priorities lie.

There are lots of frameworks to help categorize our activities. Stephen Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) describes a four-quadrant system along the axes of importance and urgency. Gene Kim, through his character Erik in The Phoenix Project,speaks instead of business projects, internal IT projects, changes, and unplanned work.

We propose a similar four-category system.

Survey and analysis

Perform a quick time study.

Verifiable data sources are always preferred but large groups can hold each other's inherent biases in check to get a reasonable estimate.

1 hour

1. Organize the participants into the domain groups established earlier.
2. On an index card have each participant independently write down the percentage of time they think their entire domain (not themselves personally) spends during the average month, quarter, or year on:
   1. Admin
   2. Reactive work
   3. Maintenance
3. Draw a matrix on the whiteboard; collect the index cards and transcribe the results from participants into the matrix.
4. Add up the three reported time estimates and subtract from 100 – the result is the percentage of time available for/spent on project work.

Discussion

1. Certain domains should have higher percentages of reactive work (think Service Desk and Network Operations Center) – can we shift work around to optimize resources?
2. Why is reactive work the least desirable type? Could we reduce our reactive work by increasing our maintenance work?
3. From a planning perspective, what are the implications of only having x% of time available for project work?
4. Does it feel like backing into the project work from adding the other three together provides a reasonable assessment?

Input

• Domain groups

Output

• Time study

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Index cards

Participants

• Roadmap team

Quickly and easily evaluate all your infrastructure

Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 2, Capacity Analysis

In order to quickly and easily build some visualizations for the eventual final report, Info-Tech has developed the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool.

• Up to five infrastructure domains are supported.
• For practices that cannot be reasonably collapsed into five domains, multiple copies of the tool can be used and manually stitched together.
• The tool can be used in either an absolute (total number) or relative mode (percentage of available).
• By design we specifically don't ask for a project work figure but rather calculate it based on other values.
• For everything but miscellaneous duties, hard data sources can (and where appropriate should) be leveraged.
• Reactive work – service desk tool
• Project work – project management tool
• Maintenance work – logs or ITSM tool
• Individual domains' values are calculated, as well as the overall breakdown for the infrastructure practice.
• Even these rough estimates will be useful during the planning steps throughout the rest of the roadmap process.

Please note that this tool requires Microsoft's Power Pivot add-in to be installed if you are using Excel 2010 or 2013. The scatter plot labels on tabs 5 and 8 may not function correctly in Excel 2010.

Build your roadmap from both the top and the bottom for best results

Strong IT strategy favors top-down: activities enabling clearly dictated goals. The bottom-up approach aggregates ongoing activities into goals.

Systematic approach

External stakeholders prioritize a list of goals requiring IT initiatives to achieve.

Roadblocks:

• Multitudes of goals easily overwhelm scant IT resources.
• Unglamorous yet vital maintenance activities get overlooked.
• Goals are set without awareness of IT capacity or capabilities.

Organic approach

Practitioners aggregate initiatives into logical groups and seek to align them to one or more business goals.

Roadblocks:

• Pet initiatives can be perpetuated based on cult of personality rather than alignment to business goals.
• Funding requests can fall flat when competing against other business units for executive support.

A successful roadmap respects both approaches.

Info-Tech Insight

Perfection is anathema to practicality. Draw the first picture and not only expect but welcome conflicting feedback! Socialize it and drive the conversation forward to a consensus.

2.2.3 Brainstorming – Affinity diagramming

Identify the systemic roadblocks to executing infrastructure projects

1 hour

Affinity diagramming is a form of structured brainstorming that works well with larger groups and provokes discussion.

1. Have each participant write down their top five impediments to executing their projects from last year – one roadblock per sticky note.
2. Once everyone has written their top five, select a moderator from the group. The moderator will begin by placing (and explaining) their five sticky notes on the whiteboard.
3. Have each participant then place and explain their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
4. The moderator will assist participants in grouping sticky notes together based on theme.
5. Groups that have become overly large may be broken into smaller, more precise themes.
6. Once everyone has placed their sticky notes, you should be able to visually identify the greatest or most common roadblocks the group perceives.

Discussion

Categorize each roadblock identified as either internal or external to infrastructure's control.

Attempt to understand the root cause of each roadblock. What would you need to ask for in order to remove the roadblock?

Additional Research

Also called the KJ Method (after its inventor, Jiro Kawakita, a 1960s Japanese anthropologist), this activity helps organize large amounts of data into groupings based on natural relationships while reducing many social biases.

Input

• Last years initiatives and their roadblocks

Output

• List of refined Roadblocks

Materials

• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard & markers

Participants

• Roadmap team

2.2.4 Prioritization exercise – Card sorting

Choose your priorities wisely.

Which roadblocks do you need to work on? How do you establish a group sense of these priorities? This exercise helps establish priorities while reducing individual bias.

1 hour

1. Distribute index cards that have been prepopulated with the roadblocks identified in the previous activity – one full set of cards to each participant.
2. Have each participant sort their set-in order of perceived priority, highest on top.
3. Where n=number of cards in the stack, take the n-3 lowest priority cards and put a tick mark in the upper-right-hand corner. Pass these cards to the person on the left, who should incorporate them into their pile (if you start with eight cards you're ticking and passing five cards). Variation: On the first pass, allow everyone to take the most important and least important cards, write "0th" and "NIL" on them, respectively, and set them aside.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for a total of n times. Treat duplicates as a single card in your hand.
5. After the final pass, ask each participant to write the priority in the upper-left-hand corner of their top three cards.
6. Collect all the cards, group by roadblock, count the number of ticks, and take note of the final priority.

Discussion

Total the number of passes (ticks) for each roadblock. A large number indicates a notionally low priority. No passes indicates a high priority.

Are the internal or external roadblocks of highest priority? Were there similarities among participants' 0th and NILs compared to each other or to the final results?

Input

• Roadblock list

Output

• Prioritized roadblocks

Materials

• Index cards

Participants

• Roadmap team

Summary of Accomplishment

Review performance from last fiscal year

• Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
• Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
• Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop

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

Phase 3

Align and Build the Roadmap

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Elicit business context from the CIO & IT team
• Identify key initiatives that support the business
• Identify key initiatives that enable IT excellence
• Identify initiatives that drive technology innovation
• Build initiative profiles
• Construct your strategy roadmap

This phase involves the following participants:

• Roadmap Team

Step 3.1

Drive business alignment

Activities

3.1.1 Develop a risk framework

3.1.2 Evaluate technical debt

This step requires the following inputs:

• Intake identification and analysis
• Survey results analysis
• Goal brainstorming
• Goal association and analysis

This step involves the following participants:

• Business leadership
• Project Management Office
• Service Desk
• Business Relationship Management
• Solution or Enterprise Architecture
• Roadmap team

Outcomes of this step

• Intake analysis
• Goal list
• Initiative-to-goal map

Speak for those with no voice – regularly review your existing portfolio of IT assets and services

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; while you'll receive no accolades for keeping the lights on, you'll certainly hear about it if you don't!

Time has been a traditional method for assessing the fitness of infrastructure assets – servers are replaced every five years, core switches every seven, laptops and desktops every three. While quick, this framework of assessment is overly simplistic for most modern organizations.

Building one that is instead based on the likelihood of asset failure plotted against the business impact of that failure is not overly burdensome and yields more practical results. Infrastructure focuses on its strength (assessing IT risk) and validates an understanding with the business regarding the criticality of the service(s) enabled by any given asset.

Rather than fight on every asset individually, agree on a framework with the business that enables data-driven decision making.

IT Risk Factors
Age, Reliability, Serviceability, Conformity, Skill Set

Business Risk Factors
Suitability, Capacity, Safety, Criticality

Info-Tech Insight

Infrastructure in a cloud-enabled world: As infrastructure operations evolve it is important to keep current with the definition of an asset. Software platforms such as hypervisors and server OS are just as much an asset under the care and control of infrastructure as are cloud services, managed services from third-party providers, and traditional racks and switches.

3.1.1 Develop a risk framework – Classification exercise

While it's not necessary for each infrastructure domain to view IT risk identically, any differences should be intensely scrutinized.

1 hour

1. Divide the whiteboard along the axes of IT Risk and
   Business Risk (criticality) into quadrants:
   1. High IT Risk & High Biz Risk (upper right)
   2. Low IT Risk & Low Biz Risk (bottom left)
   3. Low IT Risk & High Biz Risk (bottom right)
   4. High IT Risk & Low Biz Risk (upper left)
2. Have each participant write the names of two or three infrastructure assets or services they are responsible or accountable for – one name per sticky note.
3. Have each participant come one-at-a-time and place their sticky notes in one quadrant.
4. As each additional sticky note is placed, verify with the group that the relative positioning of the others is still accurate.

Discussion:

1. Most assets should end up in the lower-right quadrant, indicating that IT has lowered the risk of failure commensurate to the business consequences of a failure. What does this imply about assets in the other three quadrants?
2. Infrastructure is foundational; do we properly document and communicate all dependencies for business-critical services?
3. What actions can infrastructure take to adjust the risk profile of any given asset?

Input

• List of infrastructure assets

Output

• Notional risk analysis

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Roadmap team

3.1.2 Brainstorming and prioritization exercise

Identify the key elements that make up risk in order to refine your framework.

A shared notional understanding is good, but in order to bring the business onside a documented defensible framework is better.

1 hour

1. Brainstorm (possibly using the affinity diagramming technique) the component elements of IT risk.
2. Ensure you have a non-overlapping set of risk elements. Ensure that all the participants are comfortable with the definitions of each element. Write them on a whiteboard.
3. Give each participant an equal number (three to five) of voting dots.
4. As a group have the participants go the whiteboard and use their dots to cast their votes for what they consider to be the most important risk element(s). Participants are free to place any number of their dots on a single element.
5. Based on the votes cast select a reasonable number of elements with which to proceed.
6. For each element selected, brainstorm up to six tiers of the risk scale. You can use numbers or words, whichever is most compelling.
   • E.g. Reliability: no failures, >1 incident per year, >1 incident per quarter, >1 incident per month, frequent issues, unreliable.
7. Repeat the above except with the components of business risk. Alternately, rely on existing business risk documentation, possibly from a disaster recovery or business continuity plan.

Discussion
How difficult was it to agree on the definitions of the IT risk elements? What about selecting the scale? What was the voting distribution like? Were there tiers of popular elements or did most of the dots end up on a limited number of elements? What are the implications of having more elements in the analysis?

Input

• Notional risk analysis

Output

• Risk elements
• Scale dimensions

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Voting dots

Participants

• Roadmap team

3.1.3 Forced ranking exercise

Alternate: Identify the key elements that make up risk in order to refine your framework

A shared notional understanding is good, but in order to bring the business onside a documented defensible framework is better.

1 hour

1. Brainstorm (possibly using the affinity diagramming technique) the component elements of IT risk.
2. Ensure you have a non-overlapping set of risk elements. Ensure that all the participants are comfortable with the definitions of each element. Write them on a whiteboard.
3. Distribute index cards (one per participant) with the risk elements written down one side.
4. Ask the participants to rank the elements in order of importance, with 1 being the most important.
5. Collect the cards and write the ranking results on the whiteboard.
6. Look for elements with high variability. Also look for the distribution of 1, 2, and 3 ranks.
7. Based on the results select a reasonable number of elements with which to proceed.
8. Follow the rest of the procedure from the previous activity.

Discussion:

What was the total number of elements required in order to contain the full set of every participant's first-, second-, and third-ranked risks? Does this seem a reasonable number?

Why did some elements contain both the lowest and highest rankings? Was one (or more) participant thinking consistently different from the rest of the group? Are they seeing something the rest of the group is overlooking?

This technique automatically puts the focus on a smaller number of elements – is this effective? Or is it overly simplistic and reductionist?

Input

• Notional risk analysis

Output

• Risk elements

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Index cards

Participants

• Roadmap team

3.1.4 Consensus weighting

Use your previous notional assessment to inform your risk weightings:

1 hour

1. Distribute index cards that have been prepopulated with the risk elements from the previous activity.
2. Have the participants independently assign a weighting to each element. The assigned weights must add up to 100.
3. Collect the cards and transcribe the results into a matrix on the whiteboard.
4. Look for elements with high variability in the responses.
5. Discuss and come to a consensus figure for each element's weighting.
6. Select a variety of assets and services from the notional assessment exercise. Ensure that you have representation from all four quadrants.
7. Using your newly defined risk elements and associated scales, evaluate as a group the values you'd suggest for each asset. Aim for a plurality of opinion rather than full consensus.
8. Use Info-Tech's Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool to document the elements, weightings, scales, and asset analysis.
9. Compare the output generated by the tool (Tab 4) with the initial notional assessment.

Discussion:

How much framework is too much? Complexity and granularity do not guarantee accuracy. What is the right balance between effort and result?

Does your granular assessment match your notional assessment? Why or why not? Do you need to go back and change weightings? Or reduce complexity?

Is this a more reasonable and valuable way of periodically evaluating your infrastructure?

Input

• Notional risk analysis

Output

• Weighted risk framework

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Index cards
• Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool

Participants

• Roadmap team

3.1.5 Platform assessment set-up

Hard work up front allows for year-over-year comparisons

The value of a risk framework is that once the heavy lifting work of building it is done, the analysis and assessment can proceed very quickly. Once built, the framework can be tweaked as necessary, rather than recreated every year.

• Open Info-Tech's Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 3.
• Up to eight elements each of IT and business risk can be captured.
• IT risk elements of end-of-life and dependencies are mandatory and do not count against the eight customizable elements.
• Every element can have up to six scale descriptors. Populate them from left to right in increasing magnitude of risk.
• Scale descriptors must be input as string values and not numeric.
• Each element's scale can be customized from linear to a risk-adverse or risk-seeking curve. We recommend linear.

IT platform assessment

Quickly and easily evaluate all your infrastructure.

Once configured, individual domain teams can spend surprisingly little time answering reasonably simple questions to assess their assets. The common framework lets results be compared between teams and produces a valuable visualization to communication with the business.

• Open the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 4.
• The tool has been tested successfully with up to 2,000 asset items. Don't necessarily list every asset; rather, think of the logical groups of assets you'd cycle in or out of your environment.
• Each asset must be associated with one and only one infrastructure domain and have a defined End of Service Life date.
• With extreme numbers of assets an additional filter can be useful – the Grouping field allows you to set any number of additional tags to make sorting and filtering easier.
• Drop-down menus for each risk element are prepopulated with the scale descriptors from Tab 3. Unused elements are greyed out.
• Each asset can be deemed dependent on up to four additional assets or services. Use this to highlight obscure or undervalued relationships between assets. It is generally not useful to be reminded that everything relies on Cat 6 cabling.

Prioritized upgrades

Validate and tweak your framework with the business

Once the grunt work of inputting all the assets and the associated risk data has been completed, you can tweak the risk profile and sort the data to whatever the business may require.

• Open Info-Tech's Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 5.
• IT platforms in the upper-right quadrant have an abundance of IT risk and are critical to the business.
• The visualization can be sorted by selecting the slicers on the left. Sort by:
• Infrastructure domain
• Customized grouping tag
• Top overall risk platforms
• With extreme numbers of assets an additional filter can be useful. The Grouping field allows you to set any number of additional tags to make sorting and filtering easier.
• Risk weightings can be individually adjusted to reflect changing business priorities or shared infrastructure understanding of predictive power.
• In order to make year-over-year comparisons valuable it is recommended that changing IT risk elements should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

Step 3.2

Build the roadmap

Activities

3.2.1 Build templates and visualize

3.2.2 Generate new initiatives

3.2.3 Repatriate shadow IT initiatives

3.2.4 Finalize initiative candidates

This step requires the following inputs:

• Develop an initiative template
• Restate the existing initiatives with the template
• Visualize the existing initiatives
• Brainstorm new initiatives
• Initiative ranking
• Solicit, evaluate, and refine shadow IT initiatives
• Resource estimation

This step involves the following participants:

• Roadmap team

Outcomes of this step

• Initiative communication template
• Roadmap visualization diagram

Tell them what they really need to know

Templates transform many disparate sources of data into easy-to-produce, easy-to-consume, business-ready documents.

Develop a high-level document that travels with the initiative from inception through executive inquiry and project management, and finally to execution. Understand an initiative's key elements that both IT and the business need defined and that are relatively static over its lifecycle.

Initiatives are the waypoints along a roadmap leading to the eventual destination, each bringing you one step closer. Like steps, initiatives need to be discrete: able to be conceptualized and discussed as a single largely independent item. Each initiative must have two characteristics:

• Specific outcome: Describe an explicit change in the people, processes, or technology of the enterprise.
• Target end date: When the described outcome will be in effect.

"Learn a new skill"– not an effective initiative statement.

"Be proficient in the new skill by the end of the year" – better.

"Use the new skill to complete a project and present it at a conference by Dec 15" – best!

Info-Tech Insight

Bundle your initiatives for clarity and manageability.
Ruthlessly evaluate if an initiative should stand alone or can be rolled up with another. Fewer initiatives increases focus and alignment, allowing for better communication.

3.2.1 Develop impactful templates to sell your initiative upstream

Step 1: Open Info-Tech's Strategic Roadmap Initiative Template. Determine and describe the goals that the initiative is enabling or supporting.
Step 2: State the current pain points from the end-user or business perspective. Do not list IT-specific pain points here, such as management complexity.
Step 3: List both the tangible (quantitative) and ancillary (qualitative) benefits of executing the project. These can be pain relievers derived from the pain points, or any IT-specific benefit not captured in Step 1.
Step 4: List any enabled capability that will come as an output of the project. Avoid technical capabilities like "Application-aware network monitoring." Instead, shoot for business outcomes like "Ability to filter network traffic based on application type."

Info-Tech Insight

Sell the project to the mailroom clerk! You need to be able to explain the outcome of the project in terms that non-IT workers can appreciate. This is done by walking as far up the goals cascade as you have defined, which gets to the underlying business outcome that the initiative supports.

Develop impactful templates to sell your initiative upstream (cont'd)

Strategic Roadmap Initiative Template, p. 2

Step 5: State the risks to the business for not executing the project (and avoid restating the pain points).
Step 6: List any known or anticipated roadblocks that may come before, during, or after executing the project. Consider all aspects of people, process, and technology.
Step 7: List any measurable objectives that can be used to gauge the success of the projects. Avoid technical metrics like "number of IOPS." Instead think of business metrics such as "increased orders per hour."
Step 8: The abstract is a short 50-word project description. Best to leave it as the final step after all the other aspects of the project (risks and rewards) have been fully fleshed out. The abstract acts as an executive summary – written last, read first.

Info-Tech Insight

Every piece of information that is not directly relevant to the interests of the audience is a distraction from the value proposition.

Working session, presentation, and feedback

Rewrite your in-flight initiatives to ensure you're capturing all the required information:

1 hour

1. Have each participant select an initiative they are responsible or accountable for.
2. Introduce the template and discuss any immediate questions they might have.
3. Take 15-20 minutes and have each participant attempt to fill out the template for their initiative.
4. Have each participant present their initiative to the group.
5. The group should imagine themselves business leaders and push back with questions or clarification when IT jargon is used.
6. Look to IT leadership in the room for cues as to what hot button items they've encountered from the business executives.
7. Debate the merits of each section in the template. Adjust and customize as appropriate.

Discussion:
Did everyone use the goal framework adopted earlier? Why not?
Are there recurring topics or issues that business leaders always seem concerned about?
Of all the information available, what consistently seems to be the talking points when discussing an initiative?

Input

• In-flight initiatives

Output

• Completed initiatives templates

Materials

• Templates
• Laptops & internet

Participants

• Roadmap team

3.2.2 Visual representations are more compelling than text alone

Being able to quickly sort and filter data allows you to customize the visualization and focus on what matters to your audience. Any data that is not immediately relevant to them risks becoming a distraction.

1. Open the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tabs 6 and 7.
2. Up to ten goals can be supported. Input the goals into column F of the tool. Be explicit but brief.
3. Initiatives and Obstacles can be independently defined, and the tool supports up to five subdivisions of each. Initiative by origin source makes for an interesting analysis but initially we recommend simplicity.
4. Every Initiative and Obstacle must be given a unique name in column H. Context-sensitive drop-downs let you define the subtype and responsible infrastructure domain.
5. Three pieces of data are captured for each initiative: Business Impact is the qualitative value to the business; Risk is the qualitative likelihood of failure – entirely or partially (e.g. significantly over budget or delayed); and Effort is a relative measure of magnitude ($ or time). Only the value for Effort must be specified.
6. Every initiative can claim to support one or many goals by placing an "x" in the appropriate column(s).
7. On Tab 7 you must select the initiative end date (go-live date). You can also document start date, owner, and manager if required. Remember, though, that the tool does not replace proper project management tools.

Decoding your visualization

Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 8, "Roadmap"

Visuals aren't always as clear as we assume them to be.

If you could suggest one thing, what would it be?

The roadmap is likely the best and most direct way to showcase our ideas to business leadership – take advantage of it.

We've spent an awful lot of time setting the stage, deciding on frameworks so we agree on what is important. We know how to have an effective conversation – now what do we want to say?

Creative thinking, presentation, and feedback

Since we're so smart – how could we do it better?

1 hour

1. Introduce the Roadmap Initiative Template and discuss any immediate questions the participants might have.
2. Take 15-20 minutes and have each participant attempt to fill out the template for their initiative candidate.
3. Have each author present their initiative to the group.
4. The group should imagine themselves business leaders and push back with questions or clarification when IT jargon is used.
5. Look to IT leadership in the room for cues as to what hot button items they've encountered from the business executives
6. Debate the merits of each section in the template. Adjust and customize as appropriate.

Discussion:
Did everyone use the goal framework adopted earlier? Why not?
Do we think we can find business buy-in or sponsorship? Why or why not?
Are our initiatives at odds with or complementary to the ones proposed through the normal channels?

Input

• Everything we know

Output

• Initiative candidates

Materials

• Info-Tech's Infrastructure Roadmap Initiatives Template
• Laptops & internet

Participants

• Roadmap team

Forced Ranking Exercise

Showcase only your best and brightest ideas:

1 hour

1. Write the initiative titles from the previous exercise across the top of a whiteboard.
2. Distribute index cards (one per participant) with the initiative titles written down one side.
3. Ask each participant to rank the initiatives in order of importance, with 1 being the most important.
4. Collect the cards and write the ranking results on the whiteboard.
5. Look at the results with an eye toward high variability. Also look for the distribution of 1, 2, and 3 ranks.
6. Based on the results, select (through democratic vote or authoritarian fiat – Director or CIO) a reasonable number of initiatives.
7. Refine the selected initiative templates for inclusion in the roadmap.

Discussion:
Do participants tend to think their idea is the best and rank it accordingly?
If so, then is it better to look at the second, third, and fourth rankings for consensus instead?
What is a reasonable number of initiatives to suggest? How do we limit ourselves?

Input

• Infrastructure initiative candidates

Output

• Infrastructure initiatives

Materials

• Index cards

Participants

• Roadmap team

Who else might be using technology to solve business problems?

Shadow IT operates outside of the governance and control structure of Enterprise IT and so is, by definition, a problem. an opportunity!

Except for that one thing they do wrong, that one small technicality, they may well do everything else right.

Consider:

1. Shadow IT evolves to solve a problem or enable an activity for a specific group of users.
2. This infers that because stakeholders spend their own resources resolving a problem or enabling an action, it is a priority.
3. The technology choices they've made have been based solely on functionality for value, unrestrained by any legacy of previous decisions.
4. Staffing demands and procedural issues must be modest or nonexistent.
5. The users must be engaged, receptive to change, and tolerant of stutter steps toward a goal.

In short, shadow IT can provide fully vetted infrastructure initiatives that with a little effort can be turned into easy wins on the roadmap.

Info-Tech Insight

Shadow IT can include business-ready initiatives, needing only minor tweaking to align with infrastructure's best practices.

3.2.3 Survey and hack-a-thon

Negotiate amnesty with shadow IT by evaluating their "hacks" for inclusion on the roadmap.

1 hour

1. Put out an open call for submissions across the enterprise. Ask "How do you think technology could help you solve one of your pain points?" Be specific.
2. Gather the responses into a presentable format and assemble the roadmap team.
3. Use voting dots (three per person) to filter out a shortlist.
4. Invite the original author to come in and work with a roadmap team member to complete the template.
5. Reassemble the roadmap team and use the forced ranking exercise to select initiatives to move forward.

Discussion:
Did you learn anything from working directly with in-the-trenches staff? Can those learnings be used elsewhere in infrastructure? Or in larger IT?

Input

• End-user ideas

Output

• Roadmap initiatives

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Voting dots
• Index cards
• Templates

Participants

• Enthusiastic end users
• Roadmap team
• Infrastructure leader

3.2.4 Consensus estimation

Exploit the wisdom of groups to develop reasonable estimates.

1 hour

Also called scrum poker (in Agile software circles), this method reduces anchoring bias by requiring all participants to formulate and submit their estimates independently and simultaneously.

Equipment: A typical scrum deck shows the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, or similar progression, with the added values of ∞ (project too big and needs to be subdivided), and a coffee cup (need a break). Use of the (mostly) Fibonacci sequence helps capture the notional uncertainty in estimating larger values.

1. The infrastructure leader, who will not play, moderates the activity. A "currency" of estimation is selected. This could be person, days, or weeks, or a dollar value in the thousands or tens of thousands – whatever the group feels they can speak to authoritatively.
2. The author of each initiative gives a short overview, and the participants are given the chance to ask questions and clarify assumptions and risks.
3. Participants lay a card representing their estimate face down on the table. Estimates are revealed simultaneously.
4. Participants with the highest and lowest estimates are given a soapbox to offer justification. The author is expected to provide clarifications. The moderator drives the conversation.
5. The process is repeated until consensus is reached (decided by the moderator).
6. To structure discussion, the moderator can impose time limits between rounds.

Discussion:

How often was the story unclear? How often did participants have to ask for additional information to make their estimate? How many rounds were required to reach consensus?
Does number of person, days, or weeks, make more sense than dollars? Should we estimate both independently?
Source: Scrum Poker

Input

• Initiative candidates from previous activity

Output

• Resourcing estimates

Materials

• Scrum poker deck

Participants

• Roadmap team

Hard work up front allows for year-over-year comparisons

Open the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 6, "Initiatives & Goals" and Tab 7, "Timeline"

Add your ideas to the visualization.

• An initiative subtype can be useful here to differentiate infrastructure-sponsored initiatives from traditional ones.
• Goal alignment is as important as always – ideally you want your sponsored initiatives to fill gaps or support the highest-priority business goals.
• The longer-term roadmap is an excellent parking lot for ideas, especially ones the business didn't even know they wanted. Make sure to pull those ideas forward, though, as you repeat the process periodically.

Pulling it all together – the published report

We started with eight simple questions. Logically, the answers suggest sections for a published report. Developing those answers in didactic method is effective and popular among technologists as answers build upon each other. Business leaders and journalists, however, know never to bury the lead.

Summary of Accomplishment

Review performance from last fiscal year

• Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
• Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
• Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop

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

Phase 4

Communicate and Improve the Process

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Identify authors and target audiences
• Understand the planning process
• Identify if the process outputs have value
• Set up realistic KPIs

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• Roadmap team

Step 4.1

Identify the audience

Activities

4.1.1 Identify required authors and target audiences

4.1.2 Planning the process

4.1.3 Identifying supporters and blockers

This step requires the following inputs:

• Identify required authors and target audiences
• Plan the process
• Identify supporters and blockers

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• Roadmap team

Outcomes of this step

• Process schedule
• Communication strategy

Again! Again!

And you thought we were done. The roadmap is a process. Set a schedule and pattern to the individual steps.

Publishing an infrastructure roadmap once a year as a lead into budget discussion is common practice. But this is just the last in a long series of steps and activities. Balance the effort of each activity against its results to decide on a frequency. Ensure that the frequency is sufficient to allow you to act on the results if required. Work backwards from publication to develop the schedule.

A lot of work has gone into creating this final document. Does a single audience make sense? Who else may be interested in your promises to the business? Look back at the people you've asked for input. They probably want to know what this has all been about. Publish your roadmap broadly to ensure greater participation in subsequent years.

4.1.1 Identify required authors and target audiences

1 hour

Identification and association

Who needs to hear (and more importantly believe) your message? Who do you need to hear from? Build a communications plan to get the most from your roadmap effort.

1. Write your eight roadmap section titles in the middle of a whiteboard.
2. Make a list of everyone who answered your questions during the creation of this roadmap. Write these names on a single color of sticky notes and place them on the left side.
3. Make a list of everyone who would be (or should be) interested in what you have to say. Write these names on a different single color of sticky notes and place them on the right side.
4. Draw lines between the stickies and the relevant section of the roadmap. Solid lines indicate a must have communication while dashed lines indicate a nice-to-have communication.
5. Come to a consensus.

Discussion:

How many people appear in both lists? What are the implications of that?

Input

• Roadmap sections

Output

• Roadmap audience and contributors list

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Roadmap team

4.1.2 Planning the process and scheduling

The right conversation at the right time

The roadmap report is just a point-in-time snapshot, but to be most valuable it needs to come at the end of a full process cycle. Know your due date, work backwards, and assign responsibility.

Discussion:

1. Do each of the steps make sense? Is the outcome clear and does it flow naturally to where it will be useful?
2. Is the effort required for each step commensurate with its value? Are we doing to much for not enough return?
3. Are we acting on the information we're gathering? Is it informing or changing decisions throughout the year or period?

Input

• Roadmap sections

Output

• Roadmap process milestones

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Template

Participants

• Roadmap team

Tailor your messaging to secure stakeholders' involvement and support

If your stakeholders aren't on board, you're in serious trouble.

Certain stakeholders will not only be highly involved and accountable in the process but may also be responsible for approving the roadmap and budget, so it's essential that you get their buy-in upfront.

4.1.3 Identifying supporters and blockers

Classification and Strategy

1 hour

You may want to restrict participation to senior members of the roadmap team only.

This activity requires a considerable degree of candor in order to be effective. It is effectively a political conversation and as such can be sensitive.

Steps:

1. Review your sticky notes from the earlier activity (list of input and output names).
2. Place each name in the corresponding quadrant of a 2x2 matrix like the one on the right.
3. Come to a consensus on the placement of each sticky note.

Input

• Roadmap audience and contributors list

Output

• Communications strategy & plan

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Senior roadmap team

Step 4.2

Process improvement

Activities

4.2.1 Evaluating the value of each process output

4.2.2 Brainstorming improvements

4.2.3 Setting realistic measures

This step requires the following inputs:

• Evaluating the efficacy of each process output
• Brainstorming improvements
• Setting realistic measures

This step involves the following participants:

• Roadmap team

Outcomes of this step

• Process map
• Process improvement plan

Continual improvement

Not just for the DevOps hipsters!

You started with a desire – greater satisfaction with infrastructure from the business. All of the inputs, processes, and outputs exist only, and are designed solely, to serve the attainment of that outcome.

The process outlined is not dogma; no element is sacrosanct. Ruthlessly evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts so you can do better next time.

You would do no less after a server migration, network upgrade, or EUC rollout.

Consider these four factors to help make your infrastructure roadmap effort more successful.

Leadership
If infrastructure leaders aren't committed, then this will quickly become an exercise of box-checking rather than candid communication.

Data
Quantitative or qualitative – always try to go where the data leads. Reduce unconscious bias and be surprised by the insight uncovered.

Metrics
Measurement allows management but if you measure the wrong thing you can game the system, cheating yourself out of the ultimate prize.

Focus
Less is sometimes more.

4.2.1 Evaluating the value of each process output

Understanding why and how individual steps are effective (or not) is how we improve the outcome of any process.

1 hour

1. List each of the nine roadmap steps on the left-hand side of a whiteboard.
2. Ask the participants "Why was this step included? Did it accomplish its objective?" Consider using a reduced scale affinity diagramming exercise for this step.
3. Consider the priority characteristics of each step; try to be as universal as possible (every characteristic will ideally apply to each step).
4. Include two columns at the far right: "Improvement" and "Expected Change."
5. Populate the table. If this is your first time, brainstorm reasonable objectives for your left-hand columns. Otherwise, document the reality of last year and focus on brainstorming the right-hand columns.
6. Optional: Conduct a thought experiment and brainstorm tension metrics to establish whether the process is driving the outcomes we desire.
7. Optional: Consider Info-Tech's assertion about the four things a roadmap can do. Brainstorm KPIs that you can measure yearly. What else would you want the roadmap to be able to do?

Discussion:

Did the group agree on the intended outcome of each step? Did the group think the step was effective? Was the outcome clear and did it flow naturally to where it was useful?
Is the effort required for each step commensurate with its value? Are we doing too much for not enough return?
Are we acting on the information we're gathering? Is it informing or changing decisions throughout the year or period?

Input

• Roadmap process steps

Output

• Process map
• Improvement targets & metrics

Materials

• Whiteboard & markers
• Sticky notes
• Process Map Template (see next slide)

Participants

• Roadmap team

Process map template

Replace the included example text with your inputs.

Establish baseline metrics

Baseline metrics will improve through:

1. Increased communication. More information being shared to more people who need it.
2. Better planning. More accurate information being shared.
3. Reduced lead times. Less due diligence or discovery work required as part of project implementations.
4. Faster delivery times. Less less-valuable work, freeing up more time to project work.

Insight Summary

Insight 1

Draw the first picture.

Highly engaged and effective team members are proactive rather than reactive. Instead of waiting for clear inputs from the higher ups, take what you do know, make some educated guesses about the rest, and present that to leadership. Where thinking diverges will be crystal clear and the necessary adjustments will be obvious.

Insight 2

Infrastructure must position itself as the broker for new technologies.

No man is an island; no technology is a silo. Infrastructure's must ensure that everyone in the company benefits from what can be shared, ensure those benefits are delivered securely and reliably, and prevent the uninitiated from making costly technological mistakes. It is easier to lead from the front, so infrastructure must stay on top of available technology.

Insight 3

The roadmap is a process that is business driven and not a document.

In an ever-changing world the process of change itself changes. We know the value of any specific roadmap output diminishes quickly over time, but don't forget to challenge the process itself from time to time. Striving for perfection is a fool's game; embrace constant updates and incremental improvement.

Insight 4

Focus on the framework, not the output.

There usually is no one right answer. Instead make sure both the business and infrastructure are considering common relevant elements and are working from a shared set of priorities. Data then, rather than hierarchical positioning or a d20 Charisma roll, becomes the most compelling factor in making a decision. But since your audience is in hierarchical ascendency over you, make the effort to become familiar with their language.

4.2.3 Track metrics throughout the project to keep stakeholders informed

An effective strategic infrastructure roadmap should help to:

1. Initiate a schedule of infrastructure projects to achieve business goals.
2. Adapt to feedback from executives on changing business priorities.
3. Curate a portfolio of enabling technologies that align to the business whether growing or stabilizing.
4. Manage the lifecycle of aging equipment in order to meet capacity demands.

Summary of Accomplishment

Review performance from last fiscal year

• Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
• Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
• Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop

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

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Summary of Accomplishment

Knowledge gained

• Deeper understanding of business goals and priorities
• Key data the business requires for any given initiative
• Quantification of risk
• Leading criteria for successful technology adoption

Processes optimized

• Infrastructure roadmap
• Initiative creation, estimation, evaluation, and prioritization
• Inventory assessment for legacy infrastructure debt
• Technology adoption

Deliverables completed

• Domain time study
• Initiative intake analysis
• Prioritized roadblock list
• Goal listing
• IT and business risk frameworks
• Infrastructure inventory assessment
• New technology analyzes
• Initiative templates
• Initiative candidates
• Roadmap visualization
• Process schedule
• Communications strategy
• Process map
• Roadmap report

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop

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

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