The Small Enterprise Guide to People and Resource Management

Quickly start getting the right people, with the right skills, at the right time

Is this research right for you?

Research Navigation

Managing the people in your department is essential, whether you have three employees or 300. Depending on your available time, resources, and current workforce management maturity, you may choose to focus on the overall essentials, or dive deep into particular areas of talent management. Use the questions below to help guide you to the right Info-Tech resources that best align with your current needs.

Analyst Perspective

Workforce planning is even more important for small enterprises than large organizations.

It can be tempting to think of workforce planning as a bureaucratic exercise reserved for the largest and most formal of organizations. But workforce planning is never more important than in small enterprises, where every individual accounts for a significant portion of your overall productivity.

Without workforce planning, organizations find themselves in reactive mode, hiring new staff as the need arises. They often pay a premium for having to fill a position quickly or suffer productivity losses when a critical role goes unexpectedly vacant.

A workforce plan helps you anticipate these challenges, come up with solutions to mitigate them, and allocate resources for the most impact, which means a greater return on your workforce investment in the long run.

This blueprint will help you accomplish this quickly and efficiently. It will also provide you with the essential development and knowledge transfer tools to put your plan into action.

Jane Kouptsova
Senior Research Analyst, CIO Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

52% of small business owners agree that labor quality is their most important problem.¹

Almost half of all small businesses face difficulty due to staff turnover.

76% of executives expect the talent market to get even more challenging.²

Common Obstacles

76% of executives expect workforce planning to become a top strategic priority for their organization.²

But…

30% of small businesses do not have a formal HR function.³

Small business leaders are often left at a disadvantage for hiring and retaining the best talent, and they face even more difficulty due to a lack of support from HR.

Small enterprises must solve the strategic workforce planning problem, but they cannot invest the same time or resources that large enterprises have at their disposal.

Info-Tech's Approach

A modular, lightweight approach to workforce planning and talent management, tailored to small enterprises

Clear activities that guide your team to decisive action

Founded on your IT strategy, ensuring you have not just good people, but the right people

Concise yet comprehensive, covering the entire workforce lifecycle from competency planning to development to succession planning and reskilling

Info-Tech Insight

Every resource counts. When one hire represents 10% of your workforce, it is essential to get it right.

¹CNBC & SurveyMonkey. ²ADP. ³Clutch.

Labor quality is small enterprise's biggest challenge

The key to solving it is strategic workforce planning

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is a systematic process designed to identify and address gaps in today's workforce, including pinpointing the human capital needs of the future.

Linking workforce planning with strategic planning ensures that you have the right people in the right positions, in the right places, at the right time, with the knowledge, skills, and attributes to deliver on strategic business goals.

SWP helps you understand the makeup of your current workforce and how well prepared it is or isn't (as the case may be) to meet future IT requirements. By identifying capability gaps early, CIOs can prepare to train or develop current staff and minimize the need for severance payouts and hiring costs, while providing clear career paths to retain high performers.

¹CNBC & SurveyMonkey. ²Clutch. ³ADP.

Workforce planning matters more for small enterprises

You know that staffing mistakes can cost your department dearly. But did you know the costs are greater for small enterprises?

The price of losing an individual goes beyond the cost of hiring a replacement, which can range from 0.5 to 2 times that employee's salary (Gallup, 2019). Additional costs include loss of productivity, business knowledge, and team morale.

This is a major challenge for large organizations, but the threat is even greater for small enterprises, where a single individual accounts for a large proportion of IT's productivity. Losing one of a team of 10 means 10% of your total output. If that individual was solely responsible for a critical function, your department now faces a significant gap in its capabilities. And the effect on morale is much greater when everyone is on the same close-knit team.

And the threat continues when the staffing error causes you not to lose a valuable employee, but to hire the wrong one instead. When a single individual makes up a large percentage of your workforce, as happens on small teams, the effects of talent management errors are magnified.

Info-Tech Insight

One bad hire on a team of 100 is a problem. One bad hire on a team of 10 is a disaster.

Blueprint pre-step: Determine your starting point

People and Resource management is essential for any organization. But depending on your needs, you may want to start at different stages of the process. Use this slide as a quick reference for how the activities in this blueprint fit together, how they relate to other workforce management resources, and the best starting point for you.

Your IT strategy is an essential input to your workforce plan. It defines your destination, while your workforce is the vessel that carries you there. Ensure you have at least an informal strategy for your department before making major workforce changes, or review Info-Tech's guidance on IT strategy.

This blueprint covers the parts of workforce management that occur to some extent in every organization:

• Workforce planning
• Knowledge transfer
• Development planning

You may additionally want to seek guidance on contract and vendor management, if you outsource some part of your workload outside your core IT staff.

Track metrics

Consider these example metrics for tracking people and resource management success

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

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 between 4 to 6 calls over the course of 3 to 4 months.

Workshop Overview

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

Workshop Overview

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

Each onsite day is structured with group working sessions from 9-11 a.m. and 1:30-3:30 p.m. and includes Open Analyst Timeslots, where our facilitators are available to expand on scheduled activities, capture and compile workshop results, or review additional components from our comprehensive approach.

Phase 1

Workforce Planning

The Small Enterprise Guide to People and Resource Management

Phase Participants

• Leadership team
• Managers
• Human resource partner (if applicable)

Additional Resources

Workforce Planning Workbook for Small Enterprises

Phase pre-step: Gather resources and participants

1. Ensure you have an up-to-date IT strategy. If you don't have a formal strategy in place, ensure you are aware of the main organizational objectives for the next 3-5 years. Connect with executive stakeholders if necessary to confirm this information.
   If you are not sure of the organizational direction for this time frame, we recommend you consult Info-Tech's material on IT strategy first, to ensure your workforce plan is fully positioned to deliver value to the organization.
2. Consult with your IT team and gather any documentation pertaining to current roles and skills. Examples include an org chart, job descriptions, a list of current tasks performed/required, a list of company competencies, and a list of outsourced projects.
3. Gather the right participants. Most of the decisions in this section will be made by senior leadership, but you will also need input from front-line managers. Ensure they are available on an as-needed basis. If your organization has an HR partner, it can also be helpful to involve them in your workforce planning process.

Formal workforce planning benefits even small teams

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is a systematic process designed to identify and address gaps in your workforce today and plan for the human capital needs of the future.

Your workforce plan is an extension of your IT strategy, ensuring that you have the right people in the right positions, in the right places, at the right time, with the knowledge, skills, and attributes to deliver on strategic business goals.

SWP helps you understand the makeup of your current workforce and how well prepared it is or isn't (as the case may be) to meet future IT requirements. By identifying capability gaps early, CIOs can prepare to train or develop current staff and minimize the need for severance payouts and hiring costs, while providing clear career paths to retain high performers.

The smaller the business, the more impact each individual's performance has on the overall success of the organization. When a given role is occupied by a single individual, the organization's performance in that function is determined wholly by one employee. Creating a workforce plan for a small team may seem excessive, but it ensures your organization is not unexpectedly hit with a critical competency gap.

Right-size your workforce planning process to the size of your enterprise

Small organizations are 2.2 times more likely to have effective workforce planning processes.¹ Be mindful of the opportunities and risks for organizations of your size as you execute the project. How you build your workforce plan will not change drastically based on the size of your organization; however, the scope of your initiative, the size of your team, and the tactics you employ may vary.

¹ McLean & Company Trends Report 2014

1.1 Set project outcomes and success metrics

1-3 hours

1. As a group, brainstorm key pain points that the IT department experiences due to the lack of a workforce plan. Ask them to consider turnover, retention, training, and talent acquisition.
2. Discuss any key themes that arise and brainstorm your desired project outcomes. Keep a record of these for future reference and to aid in stakeholder communication.
3. Break into smaller groups (or if too small, continue as a single group):
   1. For each desired outcome, consider what metrics you could use to track progress. Keep your initial list of pain points in mind as you brainstorm metrics.
   2. Write each of the metric suggestions on a whiteboard and agree to track 3-5 metrics. Set targets for each metric. Consider the effort required to obtain and track the metric, as well as its reliability.
   3. Assign one individual for tracking the selected metrics. Following the meeting, that individual will be responsible for identifying the baseline and targets, and reporting on metrics progress.

1.2 Identify key roles and competency gaps

1-3 hours

1. As a group, identify all strategic, core, and supporting roles by reviewing the organizational chart:
   1. Strategic: What are the roles that must be filled by top performers and cannot be left vacant in order to meet strategic objectives?
   2. Core: What roles are important to drive operational excellence?
   3. Supporting: What roles are required for day-to-day work, but are low risk if the role is vacant for a period of time?
2. Working individually or in small groups, have managers for each identified role define the level of competence required for the job. Consider factors such as:
   1. The difficulty or criticality of the tasks being performed
   2. The impact on job outcomes
   3. The impact on the performance of other employees
   4. The consequence of errors if the competency is not present
   5. How frequently the competency is used on the job
   6. Whether the competency is required when the job starts or can be learned or acquired on the job within the first six months
3. Continue working individually and rate the level of proficiency of the current incumbent.
4. As a group, review the assessment and make any adjustments.

Record this information in the Workforce Planning Workbook for Small Enterprises.

Download the Workforce Planning Workbook for Small Enterprises

1.2 Identify key roles and competency gaps

Conduct a risk-of-departure analysis

A risk-of-departure analysis helps you plan for future talent needs by identifying which employees are most likely to leave the organization (or their current role).

A risk analysis takes into account two factors: an employee's risk for departure and the impact of departure:

Employees are high risk for departure if they:

• Have specialized or in-demand skills (tenured employees are more likely to have this than recent hires)
• Are nearing retirement
• Have expressed career aspirations that extend outside your organization
• Have hit a career development ceiling at your organization
• Are disengaged
• Are actively job searching
• Are facing performance issues or dismissal OR promotion into a new role

Employees are low risk for departure if they:

• Are a new hire or new to their role
• Are highly engaged
• Have high potential
• Are 5-10 years out from retirement

If you are not sure where an employee stands with respect to leaving the organization, consider having a development conversation with them. In the meantime, consider them at medium risk for departure.

To estimate the impact of departure, consider:

• The effect of losing the employee in the near- and medium-term, including:
  • Impact on the organization, department, unit/team and projects
  • The cost (in time, resources, and productivity loss) to replace the individual
  • The readiness of internal successors for the role

1.3 Conduct a risk analysis to identify future needs

1-3 hours

Preparation: Your estimation of whether key employees are at risk of leaving the organization will depend on what you know of them objectively (skills, age), as well as what you learn from development conversations. Ensure you collect all relevant information prior to conducting this activity. You may need to speak with employees' direct managers beforehand or include them in the discussion.

• As a group, list all your current employees, and using the previous slide for guidance, rank them on two parameters: risk of departure and impact of departure, on a scale of low to high. Record your conclusions in a chart like the one on the right. (For a more in-depth risk assessment, use the "Risk Assessment Results" tab of the Key Roles Succession Planning Tool.)
• Employees that fall in the "Mitigate" quadrant represent key at-risk roles with at least moderate risk and moderate impact. These are your succession planning priorities. Add these roles to your list of key roles and competency gaps, and include them in your workforce planning analysis.
• Employees that fall in the "Manage" quadrants represent secondary priorities, which should be looked at if there is capacity after considering the "Mitigate" roles.

Record this information in the Workforce Planning Workbook for Small Enterprises.

Info-Tech Insight

Don't be afraid to rank most or all your staff as "high impact of departure." In a small enterprise, every player counts, and you must plan accordingly.

1.3 Conduct a risk analysis to identify future needs

Determine your skill sourcing route

The characteristics of need steer hiring managers to a preferred choice, while the marketplace analysis will tell you the feasibility of each option.

Sourcing Options		Preferred Options		Final Choice
	State of the Marketplace		State of the Marketplace
	Urgency: How soon do we need this skill? What is the required time-to-value? Criticality: How critical, i.e. core to business goals, are the services or systems that this skill will support? Novelty: Is this skill brand new to our workforce? Availability: How often, and at what hours, will the skill be needed? Durability: For how long will this skill be needed? Just once, or indefinitely for regular operations?		Scarcity: How popular or desirable is this skill? Do we have a large enough talent pool to draw from? What competition are we facing for top talent? Cost: How much will it cost to hire vs. contract vs. outsource vs. train this skill? Preparedness: Do we have internal resources available to cultivate this skill in house?

1.4 Determine your skill sourcing route

1-3 hours

1. Identify the preferred sourcing method as a group, starting with the most critical or urgent skill need on your list. Use the characteristics of need to guide your discussion. If more than one option seems adequate, carry several over to the next step.
2. Consider the marketplace factors applicable to the skill in question and use these to narrow down to one final sourcing decision.
   1. If it is not clear whether a suitable internal candidate is available or ready, refer to the next activity for a readiness assessment.
3. Be sure to document the rationale supporting your decision. This will ensure the decision can be clearly communicated to any stakeholders, and that you can review on your decision-making process down the line.

Record this information in the Workforce Planning Workbook for Small Enterprises.

Info-Tech Insight

Consider developing a pool of successors instead of pinning your hopes on just one person. A single pool of successors can be developed for either one key role that has specialized requirements or even multiple key roles that have generic requirements.

1.5 Determine readiness of internal successors

1-3 hours

1. As a group, and ensuring you include the candidates' direct managers, identify potential successors for the first role on your list.
2. Ask how effectively the potential successor would serve in the role today. Review the competencies for the key role in terms of:
   1. Relationship-building skills
   2. Business skills
   3. Technical skills
   4. Industry-specific skills or knowledge
3. Determine what competencies the succession candidate currently has and what must be learned. Be sure you know whether the candidate is open to a career change. Don't assume – if this is not clear, have a development conversation to ensure everyone is on the same page.
4. Finally, determine how difficult it will be for the successor to acquire missing skills or knowledge, whether the resources are available to provide the required development, and how long it will take to provide it.
5. As a group, decide whether training an internal successor is a viable option for the role in question, considering the successor's readiness and the characteristics of need for the role. If a clear successor is not readily apparent, consider:
   1. If the development of the successor can be fast-tracked, or if some requirements can be deprioritized and the successor provided with temporary support from other employees.
   2. If the role in question is being discussed because the current incumbent is preparing to leave, consider negotiating an arrangement that extends the incumbent's employment tenure.
6. Record the decision and repeat for the next role on your list.

Info-Tech Insight

A readiness assessment helps to define not just development needs, but also any risks around the organization's ability to fill a key role.

Use alternative work arrangements to gain time to prepare successors

Alternative work arrangements are critical tools that employers can use to achieve a mutually beneficial solution that mitigates the risk of loss associated with key roles.

Alternative work arrangements not only support employees who want to keep working, but more importantly, they allow the business to retain employees that are needed in key roles who are departure risks due to retirement.

Viewing retirement as a gradual process can help you slow down skill loss in your organization and ensure you have sufficient time to train successors. Retiring workers are becoming increasingly open to alternative work arrangements. Among employed workers aged 50-75, more than half planned to continue working part-time after retirement.
Source: Statistics Canada.

Flexible work options are the most used form of alternative work arrangement

Source: McLean & Company, N=44

Choose the alternative work arrangement that works best for you and the employee

Choose the alternative work arrangement that works best for you and the employee

Phase 2

Knowledge Transfer

The Small Enterprise Guide to People and Resource Management

Phase Participants

• Leadership/management team
• Incumbent & successor

Additional Resources

IT Knowledge Identification Interview Guide Template

Knowledge Transfer Plan Template

Determine your skill sourcing route

Knowledge transfer plans have three key components that you need to complete for each knowledge source:

Don't miss tacit knowledge

There are two basic types of knowledge: "explicit" and "tacit." Ensure you capture both to get a well-rounded overview of the role.

Embed your knowledge transfer methods into day-to-day practice

Multiple methods should be used to transfer as much of a person's knowledge as possible, and mentoring should always be one of them. Select your method according to the following criteria:

Info-Tech Insight

The more integrated knowledge transfer is in day-to-day activities, the more likely it is to be successful, and the lower the time cost. This is because real learning is happening at the same time real work is being accomplished.

Type of Knowledge

• Tacit knowledge transfer methods are often informal and interactive:
  • Mentoring
  • Multi-generational work teams
  • Networks and communities
  • Job shadowing
• Explicit knowledge transfer methods tend to be more formal and one way:
  • Formal documentation of processes and best practices
  • Self-published knowledge bases
  • Formal training sessions
  • Formal interviews

Incumbent's Preference/Successor's Preference

Ensure you consult the employees, and their direct manager, on the way they are best prepared to teach and learn. Some examples of preferences include:

1. Prefer traditional classroom learning, augmented with participation, critical reflection, and feedback.
2. May get bored during formal training sessions and retain more during job shadowing.
3. Prefer to be self-directed or self-paced, and highly receptive to e-learning and media.
4. Prefer informal, incidental learning, tend to go immediately to technology or direct access to people. May have a short attention span and be motivated by instant results.
5. May be uncomfortable with blogs and wikis, but comfortable with SharePoint.

Cost

Consider costs beyond the monetary. Some methods require an investment in time (e.g. mentoring), while others require an investment in technology (e.g. knowledge bases).

The good news is that many supporting technologies may already exist in your organization or can be acquired for free.

Methods that cost time may be difficult to get underway since employees may feel they don't have the time or must change the way they work.

2.1 Create a knowledge transfer plan

1-3 hours

1. Working together with the current incumbent, brainstorm the key information pertaining to the role that you want to pass on to the successor. Use the IT Knowledge Identification Interview Guide Template to ensure you don't miss anything.
   • Consider key knowledge areas, including:
     • Specialized technical knowledge.
     • Specialized research and development processes.
     • Unique design capabilities/methods/models.
     • Special formulas/algorithms/techniques.
     • Proprietary production processes.
     • Decision-making criteria.
     • Innovative sales methods.
     • Knowledge about key customers.
     • Relationships with key stakeholders.
     • Company history and values.
   • Ask questions of both sources and receivers of knowledge to help determine the best knowledge transfer methods to use.
   • What is the nature of the knowledge? Explicit or tacit?
   • Why is it important to transfer?
   • How will the knowledge be used?
   • What knowledge is critical for success?
   • How will the users find and access it?
   • How will it be maintained and remain relevant and usable?
   • What are the existing knowledge pathways or networks connecting sources to recipients?
2. Once the knowledge has been identified, use the information on the following slides to decide on the most appropriate methods. Be sure to consult the incumbent and successor on their preferences.
3. Prioritize your list of knowledge transfer activities. It's important not to try to do too much too quickly. Focus on some quick wins and leverage the success of these initiatives to drive the project forward. Follow these steps as a guide:
   1. Take an inventory of all the tactics and techniques which you plan to employ. Eliminate redundancies where possible.
   2. Start your implementation with your highest risk role or knowledge item, using explicit knowledge transfer tactics. Interviews, use cases, and process mapping will give you some quick wins and will help gain momentum for the project.
   3. Then move forward to other tactics, the majority of which will require training and process design. Pick 1-2 other key tactics you would like to employ and build those out. For tactics that require resources or monetary investment, start with those that can be reused for multiple roles.

Record your plan in the IT Knowledge Transfer Plan Template.

Download the IT Knowledge Identification Interview Guide Template

Download the Knowledge Transfer Plan Template

Info-Tech Insight

Wherever possible, ask employees about their personal learning styles. It's likely that a collaborative compromise will have to be struck for knowledge transfer to work well.

2.1 Create a knowledge transfer plan

Not every transfer method is effective for every type of knowledge

This table shows the relative strengths and weaknesses of each knowledge transfer tactic compared against four different knowledge types.

Not all techniques are effective for all types of knowledge; it is important to use a healthy mixture of techniques to optimize effectiveness.

Employees' engagement can impact knowledge transfer effectiveness

When considering which tactics to employ, it's important to consider the knowledge holder's level of engagement. Employees who you would identify as being disengaged may not make good candidates for job shadowing, mentoring, or other tactics where they are required to do additional work or are asked to influence others.

Knowledge transfer can be controversial for all employees as it can cause feelings of job insecurity. It's essential that motivations for knowledge transfer are communicated effectively.

Pay particular attention to your communication style with disengaged and indifferent employees, communicate frequently, and tie communication back to what's in it for them.

Putting disengaged employees in a position where they are mentoring others can be a risk, as their negativity could influence others not to participate, or it could negate the work you're doing to create a positive knowledge sharing culture.

Employees' engagement can impact knowledge transfer effectiveness

Phase 3

Development Planning

The Small Enterprise Guide to People and Resource Management

Phase Participants

• Leadership team
• Managers
• Employees

Additional Resources

• IT Competency Library
• Leadership Competencies Workbook
• IT Employee Career Development Workbook
• Individual Competency Development Plan
• Learning Methods Catalog

Effective development planning hinges on robust performance management

Your performance management framework is rooted in organizational goals and defines what it means to do any given role well.

Your organization's priority competencies are the knowledge, skills and attributes that enable an employee to do the job well.

Each individual's development goals are then aimed at building these priority competencies.

Info-Tech Insight

Without a performance management framework, your employees cannot align their development with the organization's goals. For detailed guidance, see Info-Tech's blueprint Setting Meaningful Employee Performance Measures.

What is a competency?

The term "competency" refers to the collection of knowledge, skills, and attributes an employee requires to do a job well.

Often organizations have competency frameworks that consist of core, leadership, and functional competencies.

Core competencies apply to every role in the organization. Typically, they are tied to organizational values and business mission and/or vision.

Functional competencies are at the department, work group, or job role levels. They are a direct reflection of the function or type of work carried out.

Leadership competencies generally apply only to people managers in the organization. Typically, they are tied to strategic goals in the short to medium term

Use the SMART model to make sure goals are reasonable and attainable

Example goal:

"Learn Excel this summer."

Problems:

Not specific enough, not measurable enough, nor time bound.

Alternate SMART goal:

"Consult with our Excel expert and take the lead on creating an Excel tool in August."

3.2 Identify target competencies & draft development goals

1 hour

Pre-work: Employees should come to the career conversation having done some self-reflection. Use Info-Tech's IT Employee Career Development Workbook to help employees identify their career goals.

1. Pre-work: Managers should gather any data they have on the employee's current proficiency at key competencies. Potential sources include task-based assessments, performance ratings, supervisor or peer feedback, and informal conversation.
   
   Prioritize competencies. Using your list of priority organizational competencies, work with your employees to help them identify two to four competencies to focus on developing now and in the future. Use the Individual Competency Development Plan template to document your assessment and prioritize competencies for development. Consider the following questions for guidance:
   1. Which competencies are needed in my current role that I do not have full proficiency in?
   2. Which competencies are related to both my career interests and the organization's priorities?
   3. Which competencies are related to each other and could be developed together or simultaneously?
2. Draft goals. Ask your employee to create a list of multiple simple goals to develop the competencies they have selected to work on developing over the next year. Identifying multiple goals helps to break development down into manageable chunks. Ensure goals are concrete, for example, if the competency is "communication skills," your development goals could be "presentation skills" and "business writing."
3. Review goals:
   1. Ask why these areas are important to the employee.
   2. Share your ideas and why it is important that the employee develop in the areas identified.
   3. Ensure that the goals are realistic. They should be stretch goals, but they must be achievable. Use the SMART framework on the previous slide for guidance.

Info-Tech Insight

Lack of career development is the top reason employees leave organizations. Development activities need to work for both the organization and the employee's own development, and clearly link to advancing employees' careers either at the organization or beyond.

Download the IT Employee Career Development Workbook

Download the Individual Competency Development Plan

3.2 Identify target competencies & draft development goals

Apply a blend of learning methods

• Info-Tech recommends the 70-20-10 principle for learning and development, which places the greatest emphasis on learning by doing. This experiential learning is then supported by feedback from mentoring, training, and self-reflection.
• Use the 70-20-10 principle as a guideline – the actual breakdown of your learning methods will need to be tailored to best suit your organization and the employee's goals.

Spend development time and effort wisely:

Internal initiatives are a cost-effective development aid

Incorporating a development objective into daily tasks

What do we mean by incorporating into daily tasks?

The next time you assign a project to an employee, you should also ask the employee to think about a development goal for the project. Try to link it back to their existing goals or have them document a new goal in their development plan.

For example: A team of employees always divides their work in the same way. Their goal for their next project could be to change up the division of responsibility so they can learn each other's roles.

Another example:

"I'd like you to develop your ability to explain technical terms to a non-technical audience. I'd like you to sit down with the new employee who starts tomorrow and explain how to use all our software, getting them up and running."

Info-Tech Insight

Employees often don't realize that they are being developed. They either think they are being recognized for good work or they are resentful of the additional workload.

You need to tell your employees that the activity you are asking them to do is intended to further their development.

However, be careful not to sell mundane tasks as development opportunities – this is offensive and detrimental to engagement.

Establish manager and employee accountability for following up

Ensure that the employee makes progress in developing prioritized competencies by defining accountabilities:

3.3 Select development activities and schedule check-ins

1-3 hours

Pre-work: Employees should research potential development activities and come prepared with a range of suggestions.

Pre-work: Managers should investigate options for employee development, such as internal training/practice opportunities for the employee's selected competencies and availability of training budget.

1. Communicate your findings about internal opportunities and external training allowance to the employee. This can also be done prior to the meeting, to help guide the employee's own research. Address any questions or concerns.
2. Review the employee's proposed list of activities, and identify priority ones based on:
   1. How effectively they support the development of priority competencies.
   2. How closely they match the employee's original goals.
   3. The learning methods they employ, and whether the chosen activities support a mix of different methods.
   4. The degree to which the employee will have a chance to practice new skills hands-on.
   5. The amount of time the activities require, balanced against the employee's work obligations.
3. Guide the employee in selecting activities for the short and medium term. Establish an understanding that this list is tentative and subject to ongoing revision during future check-ins.
   1. If in doubt about whether the employee is over-committing, err on the side of fewer activities to start.
4. Schedule a check-in for one month out to review progress and roadblocks, and to reaffirm priorities.
5. Check-ins should be repeated regularly, typically once a month.

Download the Learning Methods Catalog

Info-Tech Insight

Adopt a blended learning approach using a variety of techniques to effectively develop competencies. This will reinforce learning and accommodate different learning styles. See Info-Tech's Learning Methods Catalog for a description of popular experiential, relational, and formal learning methods.

3.3 Select development activities and schedule check-ins

Tips for tricky conversations about development

What to do if…

Employees aren't interested in development:

• They may have low aspiration for advancement.
• Remind them about the importance of staying current in their role given increasing job requirements.
• Explain that skill development will make their job easier and make them more successful at it; sell development as a quick and effective way to learn the skill.
• Indicate your support and respond to concerns.

Employees have greater aspiration than capability:

• Explain that there are a number of skills and capabilities that they need to improve in order to move to the next level. If the specific skills were not discussed during the performance appraisal, do not hesitate to explain the improvements that you require.
• Inform the employee that you want them to succeed and that by pushing too far and too fast they risk failure, which would not be beneficial to anyone.
• Reinforce that they need to do their current job well before they can be considered for promotion.

Employees are offended by your suggestions:

• Try to understand why they are offended. Before moving forward, clarify whether they disagree with the need for development or the method by which you are recommending they be developed.
• If it is because you told them they had development needs, then reiterate that this is about helping them to become better and that everyone has areas to develop.
• If it is about the development method, discuss the different options, including the pros and cons of each.

Coaching and feedback skills help managers guide employee development

Coaching and providing feedback are often confused. Managers often believe they are coaching when they are just giving feedback. Learn the difference and apply the right approach for the right situation.

What is coaching?

A conversation in which a manager asks questions to guide employees to solve problems themselves.

Coaching is:

• Future-focused
• Collaborative
• Geared toward growth and development

What is feedback?

Information conveyed from the manager to the employee about their performance.

Feedback is:

• Past-focused
• Prescriptive
• Geared toward behavior and performance

Info-Tech Insight

Don't forget to develop your managers! Ensure coaching, feedback, and management skills are part of your management team's development plan.

Apply the "4A" behavior-focused coaching model

Using a model allows every manager, even those with little experience, to apply coaching best practices effectively.

Use the following questions to have meaningful coaching conversations

Opening Questions

• What's on your mind?
• Do you feel you've had a good week/month?
• What is the ideal situation?
• What else?

Problem-Identifying Questions

• What is most important here?
• What is the challenge here for you?
• What is the real challenge here for you?
• What is getting in the way of you achieving your goal?

Problem-Solving Questions

• What are some of the options available?
• What have you already tried to solve this problem? What worked? What didn't work?
• Have you considered all the possibilities?
• How can I help?

Next-Steps Questions

• What do you need to do, and when, to achieve your goal?
• What resources are there to help you achieve your goal? This includes people, tools, or even resources outside our organization.
• How will you know when you have achieved your goal? What does success look like?

The purpose of asking questions is to guide the conversation and learn something you didn't already know. Choose the questions you ask based on the flow of the conversation and on what information you would like to uncover. Approach the answers you get with an open mind.

Info-Tech Insight

Avoid the trap of "hidden agenda" questions, whose real purpose is to offer your own advice.

Use the following approach to give effective feedback

Provide the feedback in a timely manner

• Plan the message you want to convey.
• Provide feedback "just-in-time."
• Ensure recipient is not preoccupied.
• Try to balance the feedback; refer to successful as well as unsuccessful behavior.

Communicate clearly, using specific examples and alternative behaviors

• Feedback must be honest and helpful.
• Be specific and give a recent example.
• Be descriptive, not evaluative.
• Relate feedback to behaviors that can be changed.
• Give an alternative positive behavior.

Confirm their agreement and understanding

• Solicit their thoughts on the feedback.
• Clarify if not understood; try another example.
• Confirm recipient understands and accepts the feedback.

Manager skill is crucial to employee development

Development is a two-way street. This means that while employees are responsible for putting in the work, managers must enable their development with support and guidance. The latter is a skill, which managers must consciously cultivate.

For more in-depth management skills development, see the Info-Tech "Build a Better Manager" training resources:

• Basic Management Skills: Time management, delegation, accountability.
• Manage Your People: Communication, coaching, and performance management.
• Personal Leadership: Manager's role in the organization, decision-making, and conflict management.

Bibliography

Anderson, Kelsie. "Is Your IT Department Prepared for the 4 Biggest Challenges of 2017?" 14 June 2017.
Atkinson, Carol, and Peter Sandiford. "An Exploration of Older Worker Flexible Working Arrangements in Smaller Firms." Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 26, no. 1, 2016, pp. 12–28. Wiley Online Library.
BasuMallick, Chiradeep. "Top 8 Best Practices for Employee Cross-Training." Spiceworks, 15 June 2020.
Birol, Andy. "4 Ways You Can Succeed With a Staff That 'Wears Multiple Hats.'" The Business Journals, 26 Nov. 2013.
Bleich, Corey. "6 Major Benefits To Cross-Training Employees." EdgePoint Learning, 5 Dec. 2018.
Cancialosi, Chris. "Cross-Training: Your Best Defense Against Indispensable Employees." Forbes, 15 Sept. 2014.
Cappelli, Peter, and Anna Tavis. "HR Goes Agile." Harvard Business Review, Mar. 2018.
Chung, Kai Li, and Norma D'Annunzio-Green. "Talent Management Practices of SMEs in the Hospitality Sector: An Entrepreneurial Owner-Manager Perspective." Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, vol. 10, no. 4, Jan. 2018.
Clarkson, Mary. Developing IT Staff: A Practical Approach. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.
"CNBC and SurveyMonkey Release Latest Small Business Survey Results." Momentive, 2019. Press Release. Accessed 6 Aug. 2020.
Cselényi, Noémi. "Why Is It Important for Small Business Owners to Focus on Talent Management?" Jumpstart:HR | HR Outsourcing and Consulting for Small Businesses and Startups, 25 Mar. 2013.
dsparks. "Top 10 IT Concerns for Small Businesses." Stratosphere Networks IT Support Blog - Chicago IT Support Technical Support, 16 May 2017.
Duff, Jimi. "Why Small to Mid-Sized Businesses Need a System for Talent Management | Talent Management Blog | Saba Software." Saba, 17 Dec. 2018.
Employment and Social Development Canada. "Age-Friendly Workplaces: Promoting Older Worker Participation." Government of Canada, 3 Oct. 2016.
Exploring Workforce Planning. Accenture, 23 May 2017.
"Five Major IT Challenges Facing Small and Medium-Sized Businesses." Advanced Network Systems. Accessed 25 June 2020.
Harris, Evan. "IT Problems That Small Businesses Face." InhouseIT, 17 Aug. 2016.
Heathfield, Susan. "What Every Manager Needs to Know About Succession Planning." Liveabout, 8 June 2020.
---. "Why Talent Management Is an Important Business Strategy." Liveabout, 29 Dec. 2019.
Herbert, Chris. "The Top 5 Challenges Facing IT Departments in Mid-Sized Companies." ExpertIP, 25 June 2012.
How Smaller Organizations Can Use Talent Management to Accelerate Growth. Avilar. Accessed 25 June 2020.
Krishnan, TN, and Hugh Scullion. "Talent Management and Dynamic View of Talent in Small and Medium Enterprises." Human Resource Management Review, vol. 27, no. 3, Sept. 2017, pp. 431–41.
Mann Jackson, Nancy. "Strategic Workforce Planning for Midsized Businesses." ADP, 6 Feb. 2017.
McCandless, Karen. "A Beginner's Guide to Strategic Talent Management (2020)." The Blueprint, 26 Feb. 2020.
McFeely, Shane, and Ben Wigert. "This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion." Gallup.com, 13 Mar. 2019.
Mihelič, Katarina Katja. Global Talent Management Best Practices for SMEs. Jan. 2020.
Mohsin, Maryam. 10 Small Business Statistics You Need to Know in 2020 [May 2020]. 4 May 2020.
Ramadan, Wael H., and B. Eng. The Influence of Talent Management on Sustainable Competitive Advantage of Small and Medium Sized Establishments. 2012, p. 15.
Ready, Douglas A., et al. "Building a Game-Changing Talent Strategy." Harvard Business Review, no. January–February 2014, Jan. 2014.
Reh, John. "Cross-Training Employees Strengthens Engagement and Performance." Liveabout, May 2019.
Rennie, Michael, et al. McKinsey on Organization: Agility and Organization Design. McKinsey, May 2016.
Roddy, Seamus. "The State of Small Business Employee Benefits in 2019." Clutch, 18 Apr. 2019.
SHRM. "Developing Employee Career Paths and Ladders." SHRM, 28 Feb. 2020.
Strandberg, Coro. Sustainability Talent Management: The New Business Imperative. Strandberg Consulting, Apr. 2015.
Talent Management for Small & Medium-Size Businesses. Success Factors. Accessed 25 June 2020.
"Top 10 IT Challenges Facing Small Business in 2019." Your IT Department, 8 Jan. 2019.
"Why You Need Workforce Planning." Workforce.com, 24 Oct. 2022.

Adding the Right Value: Building Cloud Brokerages That Enable

Considerations for implementing an institutional-focused cloud brokerage.

Your Challenge

Increasingly, large institutions and governments are adopting cloud-first postures for delivering IT resources. Combined with the growth of cloud offerings that are able to meet the certifications and requirements of this segment that has been driven by federal initiatives like Cloud-First in Canada and Cloud Smart in the United States, these two factors have left institutions (and the businesses that serve them) with the challenge of delivering cloud services to their users while maintaining compliance, control, and IT sanity.

In many cases, the answer is to develop a cloud brokerage to manage the complexity. But what should your cloud broker be delivering and how?

Navigating the Problem

Not all cloud brokerages are the same. And while they can be an answer to cloud complexity, an ineffective brokerage can drain value and complicate operations even further. Cloud brokerages need to be designed:

1. To deliver the right type of value to its users.
2. To strike the balance between effective governance & security and flexibility & ease of use.

Info-Tech’s Approach

By defining your end goals, framing solutions based on the type of value and rigor your brokerage needs to deliver, and focusing on the right balance of security and flexibility, you can deliver a brokerage that delivers the best of all worlds.

1. Define the brokerage value you want to deliver.
2. Build the catalog and partner ecosystem.
3. Understand how to maximize adoption and minimize disintermediation while maintaining architectural discipline and compliance.

Info-Tech Insight

Sometimes a brokerage delivery model makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t! Understanding the value addition you want your brokerage to provide before creating it allows you to not only avoid pitfalls and maximize benefits but also understand when a brokerage model does and doesn’t make sense in the first place.

Project Overview

Understand what value you want your brokerage to deliver

Different institutions want brokerage delivery for different reasons. It’s important to define up front why your users need to work through a brokerage and what value that brokerage needs to deliver.

What’s in the catalog? Is it there to consolidate and simplify billing and consumption? Or does it add value further up the technology stack or value chain? If so, how does that change the capabilities you need internally and from partners?

Security and compliance are usually the highest priority

Among institutions adopting cloud, a broker that can help deliver their defined security and compliance standards is an almost universal requirement. Especially in government institutions, this can mean the need to meet a high standard in both implementation and validation.

The good news is that even if you lack the complete set of skills in-house, the high certification levels available from hyperscale providers combined with a growing ecosystem of service providers working on these platforms means you can usually find the right partner(s) to make it possible.

The real goal: frictionless intermediation and enablement

Ultimately, if end users can’t get what they need from you, they will go around you to get it. This challenge, which has always existed in IT, is further amplified in a cloud service world that offers users a cornucopia of options outside the brokerage. Furthermore, cloud users expect to be able to consume IT seamlessly. Without frictionless satisfaction of user demand your brokerage will become disintermediated, which risks your highest priorities of security and compliance.

Understand the evolution: Info-Tech thought model

While initial adoption of cloud brokerages in institutions was focused on ensuring the ability of IT to extend its traditional role as gatekeeper to the realm of cloud services, the focus has now shifted upstream to enabling ease of use and smart adoption of cloud services. This is evidenced clearly in examples like the US government’s renaming of its digital strategy from “Cloud First” to “Cloud Smart” and has been mirrored in other regions and institutions.

Info-Tech Insights

To avoid failure, you need to provide security and compliance.

Basic user satisfaction means becoming a frictionless intermediary.

Exceed expectations! Enabling brokers provide knowledge and guidance for the best usage of cloud.

• Security & Compliance
• Frictionless Intermediation
• Cloud-Enabling Brokerage

Define the role of a cloud broker

Where do brokers fit in the cloud model?

• NIST Definition: An entity that manages the use, performance, and delivery of cloud services and negotiates relationships between cloud providers and cloud consumers.
• Similar to a telecom master agent, a cloud broker acts as the middle-person and end-user point of contact, consolidating the management of underlying providers.
• A government or institutional cloud broker (GCB) is responsible for the delivery of all cloud services consumed by the departments or agencies it supports or that are mandated to use it.

Balancing governance and agility

Info-Tech Insight

While GCBs fill a critical role as a control point for IT consumption, they can easily turn into a friction point for IT projects. It’s important to find the right balance between enabling compliance and providing frictionless usability.

Model brokerage drivers and benefits

Maintain compliance and ensure architecture discipline: Brokerages can be an effective gating point for ensuring properly governed and managed IT consumption that meets the specific regulations and compliances required for an institution. It can also be a strong catalyst and enabler for moving to even more effective cloud consumption through automation.

Avoid disintermediation: Especially in institutions, cloud brokers are a key tool in the fight against disintermediation – that is, end users circumventing your IT department’s procurement and governance by consuming an ad hoc cloud service.

Leverage economies of scale: Simply put, consolidation of your cloud consumption drives effectiveness by making the most of your buying power.

Info-Tech Insights

Understanding the importance of each benefit type to your brokerage audience will help you define the type of brokerage you need to build and what skills and partners will be required to deliver the right value.

The brokerage landscape

The past ten years have seen governments and institutions evolve from basic acceptance of cloud services to the usage of cloud as the core of most IT initiatives.

• As part of this evolution, many organizations now have well-defined standards and guidance for the implementation, procurement, and regulation of cloud services for their use.
• Both Canada (Strategic Plan for Information Management and Information Technology) and the United States (Cloud Smart – formerly known as Cloud First) have recently updated their guidance on adoption of cloud services. The Australian Government has also recently updated its Cloud Computing Policy.
• AWS and Azure both now claim Full FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) certification.
• This has not only enabled easy adoption of these core hyperscale cloud service by government but also driven the proliferation of a large ecosystem of FedRAMP-authorized cloud service providers.
• This trend started with government at the federal level but has cascaded downstream to provincial and municipal governments globally, and the same model seems likely to be adopted by other governments and other institution types over time.

Info-Tech Insight

The ecosystem of platforms and tools has grown significantly and examples of best practices, especially in government, are readily available. Once you’ve defined your brokerage’s value stance, the building blocks you need to deliver often don’t need to be built from scratch.

Address the unique challenges of business-led IT in institutions

With the business taking more accountability and management of their own technology, brokers must learn how to evolve from being gatekeepers to enablers.

Turn brokerage pitfalls into opportunities

The greatest risks in using a cloud broker come from its nature as a single point of distribution for service and support. Without resources (or automation) to enable scale, as well as responsive processes for supporting users in finding the right services and making those services available through the brokerage, you will lose alignment with your users’ needs, which inevitably leads to disintermediation, loss of IT control, and broken compliance

Info-Tech Insights

Standardization and automation are your friend when building a cloud brokerage! Sometimes this means having a flexible catalog of options and configurations, but great brokerages can deliver value by helping their users redefine and evolve their workloads to work more effectively in the cloud. This means providing guidance and facilitating the landing/transformation of users’ workloads in the cloud, the right way.

Validate your cloud brokerage strategy using Info-Tech’s approach

Value Definition

• Define your brokerage type and value addition

Capabilities Mapping

• Understand the partners and capabilities you need to be able to deliver

Measuring Value

• Define KPIs for both compliant delivery and frictionless intermediation

Provide Cloud Excellence

• Move from intermediation to enablement and help users land on the cloud the right way

Define the categories for your brokerage’s benefit and value

Depending on the type of brokerage, the value delivered may be as simple as billing consolidation, but many brokerages go much deeper in their value proposition.

Define the categories of brokerage value to add

• Purchasing Agents save the purchaser time by researching services from different vendors and providing the customer with information about how to use cloud computing to support business goals.
• Contract Managers may also be assigned power to negotiate contracts with cloud providers on behalf of the customer. In this scenario, the broker may distribute services across multiple vendors to achieve cost-effectiveness, while managing the technical and procurement complexity of dealing with multiple vendors.
  • The broker may provide users with an application program interface (API) and user interface (UI) that hides any complexity and allows the customer to work with their cloud services as if they were being purchased from a single vendor. This type of broker is sometimes referred to as a cloud aggregator.
• Cloud Enablers can also provide the customer with additional services, such as managing the deduplication, encryption, and cloud data transfer and assisting with data lifecycle management and other activities.
• Cloud Customizers integrate various underlying cloud services for customers to provide a custom offering under a white label or its own brand.
• Cloud Agents are essentially the software version of a Contract Manager and act by automating and facilitating the distribution of work between different cloud service providers.

Info-Tech Insights

Remember that these categories are general guidelines! Depending on the requirements and value a brokerage needs to deliver, it may fit more than one category of broker type.

Brokerage types and value addition

Info-Tech Insights

Each value addition your brokerage invests in delivering should tie to reinforcing efficiency, compliance, frictionlessness, or enablement.

Start by delivering value in these common brokerage service categories

Security & Compliance

• Reporting & Auditing
• SIEM & SOC Services
• Patching & Monitoring

Cost Management

• Right-Sizing
• Billing Analysis
• Anomaly Detection & Change Recommendations

Data Management

• Data Tiering
• Localization Management
• Data Warehouse/Lake Services

Resilience & Reliability

• Backup & Archive
• Replication & Sync
• DR & HA Management
• Ransomware Prevention/Mitigation

Cloud-Native & DevOps Enablement

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• DevOps Tools & Processes
• SDLC Automation Tools

Design, Transformation, and Integration

• CDN Integration
• AI Tools Integration
• SaaS Customizations

Activity: Brokerage value design

Who are you and who are you building this for?

• Internal brokerage (i.e. you are a department in an organization that is tasked with providing IT resources to other internal groups)
  • No profit motivation
  • Primary goal is to maintain compliance and avoid disintermediation
• Third-party brokerage (i.e. you are an MSP that needs to build a brokerage to provide a variety of downstream services and act as the single point of consumption for an organization)
  • Focus on value-addition to the downstream services you facilitate for your client
  • Increased requirement to quickly add new partners/services from downstream as required by your client

What requirements and pains do you need to address?

• Remember that in the world of cloud, users ultimately can go around IT to find the resources and tools they want to use. In short, if you don’t provide ease and value, they will get it somewhere else.
• Assess the different types of cloud brokerages out there as a guide to what sort of value you want to deliver.

Why are you creating a brokerage? There are several categories of driver and more than one may apply.

• Compliance and security gating/validation
• Cost consolidation and governance
• Value-add or feature enhancement of raw/downstream services being consumed

It’s important to clearly understand how best you can deliver unique value to ensure that they want to consume from you.

Understand the ecosystem you’ll require to deliver value

GCB

• Enabling Effectiveness
• Cost Governance
• Adoption and User Satisfaction
• Security & Compliance

Whatever value proposition and associated services your brokerage has defined, either internal resources or additional partners will be required to run the platform and processes you want to offer on top of the defined base cloud platforms.

Info-Tech Insights

Remember to always align your value adds and activities to the four key themes:

• Efficiency
• Compliance
• Frictionlessness
• Cloud Enablement

Delivering value may require an ecosystem

The additional value your broker delivers will depend on the tools and services you can layer on top of the base cloud platform(s) you support.

In many cases, you may require different partners to fulfil similar functions across different base platforms. Although this increases complexity for the brokerage, it’s also a place where additional value can be delivered to end users by your role as a frictionless intermediary.

Base Partner/Platform

• Third-party software & platforms
• Third-party automations & integrations
• Third-party service partners
• Internal value-add functions

Build the ecosystem you need for your value proposition

Leverage partners and automation to bake compliance in.

Different value-add types (based on the category/categories of broker you’re targeting) require different additional platforms and partners to augment the base cloud service you’re brokering.

Security & Config

• IaC Tools
• Cloud Resource Configuration Validation
• Templating Tools
• Security Platforms
• SDN and Networking Platforms
• Resilience (Backup/Replication/DR/HA) Platforms
• Data & Storage Management
• Compliance and Validation Platforms & Partners

Cost Management

• Subscription Hierarchy Management
• Showback and Chargeback Logic
• Cost Dashboarding and Thresholding
• Governance and Intervention

Adoption & User Satisfaction

• Service Delivery SLAs
• Support Process & Tools
• Capacity/Availability Management
• Portal Usability/UX

Speed of Evolution

• Partner and Catalog/Service Additions
• Broker Catalog Roadmapping
• User Request Capture (new services)
• User Request Capture (exceptions)

Build your features and services lists

Incorporate your end user, business, and IT perspectives in defining the list of mandatory and desired features of your target solution.

See our Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process blueprint for information on procurement practices, including RFP templates.

End User

• Visual, drag-and-drop models to define data models, business logic, and user interfaces
• One-click deployment
• Self-healing application
• Vendor-managed infrastructure
• Active community and marketplace
• Prebuilt templates and libraries
• Optical character recognition and natural language processing

Business

• Audit and change logs
• Theme and template builder
• Template management
• Knowledgebase and document management
• Role-based access
• Business value, operational costs, and other KPI monitoring
• Regulatory compliance
• Consistent design and user experience across applications
• Business workflow automation

IT

• Application and system performance monitoring
• Versioning and code management
• Automatic application and system refactoring and recovery
• Exception and error handling
• Scalability (e.g. load balancing) and infrastructure management
• Real-time debugging
• Testing capabilities
• Security management
• Application integration management

Understand the stakeholders

Depending on the value-add(s) you are trying to deliver, as well as the requirements from your institution(s), you will have a different delineation of responsibilities for each of the value-add dimensions. Typically, there will be at least three stakeholders whose role needs to be considered for each dimension:

• Base Cloud Provider
• Third-Party Platforms/Service Providers
• Internal Resources

Info-Tech Insights

It’s important to remember that the ecosystem of third-party options available to you in each case will likely be dependent on if a given partner operates or supports your chosen base provider.

Define the value added by each stakeholder in your value chain

A basic table of the stakeholders and platforms involved in your value stream is a critical tool for aligning activities and partners with brokerage value.

Remember to tie each value-add category you’re embarking on to at least one of the key themes!

Cost Governance → Efficiency

Security & Compliance → Compliance

Adoption & User Satisfaction → Frictionlessness

New Service Addition Responsiveness → Frictionlessness, Enablement

End-User Cloud Effectiveness → Enablement

Info-Tech Insights

The expectations for how applications are consumed and what a user experience should look like is increasingly being guided by the business and by the disintermediating power of the cloud-app ecosystem.

“Enabling brokers” help embrace business-led IT

In environments where compliance and security are a must, the challenges of handing off application management to the business are even more complex. Great brokers learn to act not just as a gatekeeper but an enabler of business-led IT.

Business Empowerment

Organizations are looking to enhance their Agile and BizDevOps practices by shifting traditional IT practices left and toward the business.

Changing Business Needs

Organizational priorities are constantly changing. Cost reduction opportunities and competitive advantages are lost because of delayed delivery of features.

Low Barrier to Entry

Low- and no-code development tools, full-stack solutions, and plug-and-play architectures allow non-technical users to easily build and implement applications without significant internal technical support or expertise.

Democratization of IT

A wide range of digital applications, services, and information are readily available and continuously updated through vendor and public marketplaces and open-source communities.

Technology-Savvy Business

The business is motivated to learn more about the technology they use so that they can better integrate it into their processes.

Balance usability and compliance: accelerate cloud effectiveness

Move to being an accelerator and an enabler! Rather than creating an additional layer of complexity, we can use the abstraction of a cloud brokerage to bring a wide variety of value-adds and partners into the ecosystem without increasing complexity for end users.

Manage the user experience

• Your portal is a great source of data for optimizing user adoption and satisfaction.
• Understand the KPIs that matter to your clients or client groups from both a technical and a service perspective.

Be proactive and responsive in meeting changing needs

• Determine dashboard consumption by partner view.
• Regularly review and address the gaps in your catalog.
• Provide an easy mechanism for adding user-demanded services.

Think like a service provider

• You do need to be able to communicate and even market internally new services and capabilities as you add them or people won't know to come to you to use them.
• It's also critical in helping people move along the path to enablement and knowing what might be possible that they hadn't considered.

Provide cloud excellence functions

Enablement Broker

• Mentorship & Training
  • Build the skills, knowledge, and experiences of application owners and managers with internal and external expertise.
• Organizational Change Leadership
  • Facilitate cultural, governance, and other organizational changes through strong relationships with business and IT leadership.
• Good Delivery Practices & Thinking
  • Develop, share, and maintain a toolkit of good software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices and techniques.
• Knowledge Sharing
  • Centralize a knowledgebase of up-to-date and accurate documentation and develop community forums to facilitate knowledge transfer.
• Technology Governance & Leadership
  • Implement the organizational standards, policies, and rules for all applications and platforms and coordinate growth and sprawl.
• Shared Services & Integrations
  • Provide critical services and integrations to support end users with internal resources or approved third-party providers and partners.

Gauge value with the right metrics

Focus your effort on measuring key metrics.

Determine measures that demonstrate the value of your brokerage by aligning it with your quality definition, value drivers, and users’ goals and objectives. Recognize that your journey will require constant monitoring and refinement to adjust to situations that may arise as you adopt new products, standards, strategies, tactics, processes, and tools.

Activity Output

Ultimately, the goal is designing a brokerage that can evolve from gatekeeping to frictionless intermediation to cloud enablement.

Maintain focus on the value proposition, your brokerage ecosystem, and the metrics that represent enablement for your users and avoid pitfalls and challenges from the beginning.

Appendix

Related blueprints and tools

Document Your Cloud Strategy

This blueprint covers aligning your value proposition with general cloud requirements.

Define Your Digital Business Strategy

Phase 1 of this research covers identifying value chains to be transformed.

Embrace Business-Managed Applications

Phase 1 of this research covers understanding the business-managed applications as a factor in developing a frictionless intermediary model.

Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process

This blueprint provides information on partner selection and procurement practices, including RFP templates.

Bibliography

“3 Types of Cloud Brokers That Can Save the Cloud.” Cloud Computing Topics, n.d. Web.

Australian Government Cloud Computing Policy. Government of Australia, October 2014. Web.

“Cloud Smart Policy Overview.” CIO.gov, n.d. Web.

“From Cloud First to Cloud Smart.” CIO.gov, n.d. Web.

Gardner, Dana. “Cloud brokering: Building a cloud of clouds.” ZDNet, 22 April 2011. Web.

Narcisi, Gina. “Cloud, Next-Gen Services Help Master Agents Grow Quickly And Beat 'The Squeeze' “As Connectivity Commissions Decline.” CRN, 14 June 2017. Web.

Smith, Spencer. “Asigra calls out the perils of cloud brokerage model.” TechTarget, 28 June 2019. Web.

Tan, Aaron. “Australia issues new cloud computing guidelines.” TechTarget, 27 July 2020. Web.

The European Commission Cloud Strategy. ec.europa.eu, 16 May 2019. Web.

“TrustRadius Review: Cloud Brokers 2022.” TrustRadius, 2022. Web.

Yedlin, Debbie. “Pros and Cons of Using a Cloud Broker.” Technology & Business Integrators, 17 April 2015. Web.

Effectively Manage CxO Relations

Make relationship management a daily habit with a personalized action plan.

Analyst Perspective

"Technology does not run an enterprise, relationships do." – Patricia Fripp

As technology becomes increasingly important, an organization's success depends on the evolution of the modern CIO from a technology evangelist to a strategic business leader. The modern CIO will need to leverage their expansive partnerships to demonstrate the value of technology to the business while safeguarding their time and effort on activities that support their strategic priorities. CIOs struggling to transition risk obsolescence with the emergence of new C-suite roles like the Digital Transformation Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Data Officer, and so on.

CIOs will need to flex new social skills to accommodate diverse styles of work and better predict dynamic situations. This means expanding beyond their comfort level to acquire new social skills. Having a clear understanding of one's own work style (preferences, natural tendencies, motivations, and blind spots) is critical to identify effective communication and engagement tactics.

Building trust is an art. Striking a balance between fulfilling your own goals and supporting others will require a carefully curated approach to navigate the myriad of personalities and work styles. A personal relationship journal will help you stay committed through these peaks and troughs to foster productive partnerships and expand your sphere of influence over the long term.

Joanne Lee
Principal, Research Director, CIO Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

Highly effective executives have in common the ability to balance three things: time, personal capabilities, and relationships. Whether you are a new CIO or an experienced leader, the relentless demand on your time and unpredictable shifts in the organization's strategy will require a personal game plan to deliver business value. This will require more than managing stakeholders one IT project at a time: It requires an action plan that fosters relationships over the long term.

Key Concepts

Stakeholder Management
A common term used in project management to describe the successful delivery of any project, program, or activity that is associated with organizational change management. The goal of stakeholder management is intricately tied to the goals of the project or activity with a finite end. Not the focus of this advisory research.

Relationship Management
A broad term used to describe the relationship between two parties (individuals and/or stakeholder groups) that exists to create connection, inclusion, and influence. The goals are typically associated with the individual's personal objectives and the nature of the interaction is seen as ongoing and long-term.

Continuum of Commitment
Info-Tech's framework that illustrates the different levels of commitment in a relationship. It spans from active resistance to those who are committed to actively supporting your personal priorities and objectives. This can be used to baseline where you are today and where you want the relationship to be in the future.

Work Style
A reference to an individual's natural tendencies and expectations that manifest itself in their communication, motivations, and leadership skills. This is not a behavior assessment nor a commentary on different personalities but observable behaviors that can indicate different ways people communicate, interact, and lead.

Glossary
CDxO: Chief Digital Officer
CDO: Chief Data Officer
CxO: C-Suite Executives

The C-suite is getting crowded, and CIOs need to foster relationships to remain relevant

The span of influence and authority for CIOs is diminishing with the emergence of Chief Digital Officers and Chief Data Officers.

63% of CDxOs report directly to the CEO ("Rise of the Chief Digital Officer," CIO.com)

44% of organizations with a dedicated CDxO in place have a clear digital strategy versus 22% of those without a CDxO (KPMG/Harvey Nash CIO Survey)

The "good news": CIOs tend to have a longer tenure than CDxOs.

Source: "Age and Tenure of C-Suites," Korn Ferry

The "bad news": The c-suite is getting overcrowded with other roles like Chief Data Officer.

Source: "Chief Data Officer Study," PwC, 2022

Info-Tech Insight

The digital evolution has created the emergence of new roles like the Chief Digital Officer and Chief Data Officer. They are a response to bridge the skill gap that exists between the business and technology. CIOs need to focus on building effective partnerships to better communicate the business value generated by technology or they risk becoming obsolete.

Create a relationship journal to effectively manage your stakeholders

Info-Tech's approach

From managing relationships with friends to key business partners, your success will come from having the right game plan. Productive relationships are more than managing stakeholders to support IT initiatives. You need to effectively influence those who have the potential to champion or derail your strategic priorities. Understanding differences in work styles is fundamental to adapting your communication approach to various personalities and situations.

Summary of Insights

Insight 1: Expand your sphere of influence
It's not just about gaining a volume of acquaintances. Figure out where you want to spend your limited time, energy, and effort to develop a network of professional allies who will support and help you achieve your strategic priorities.

Insight 2: Know thyself first and foremost
Healthy relationships start with understanding your own working style, preferences, and underlying motivations that drive your behavior and ultimately your expectations of others. A win/win scenario emerges when both parties' needs for inclusion, influence, and connection are met or mutually conceded.

Insight 3: Walk a mile in their shoes
If you want to build successful partnerships, you need to understand the context in which your stakeholder operates: their motivations, desires, priorities, commitments, and challenges. This will help you adapt as their needs shift and, moreover, leverage empathy to identify the best tactics for different working styles.

Insight 4: Nurturing relationships is a daily commitment
Building, fostering, and maintaining professional relationships requires a daily commitment to a plan to get through tough times, competing priorities, and conflicts to build trust, respect, and a shared sense of purpose.

Related Info-Tech Research

Supplement your CIO journey with these related blueprints.

Executive Brief Case Study

• Industry: Community Services
• Source: Scott Lawry, Head of Digital

Conversation From Down Under

What are the hallmarks of a healthy relationship with your key stakeholders?
"In my view, I work with partners like they are an extension of my team, as we rely on each other to achieve mutual success. Partnerships involve a deeper, more intimate relationship, where both parties are invested in the long-term success of the business."

Why is it important to understand your stakeholder's situation?
"It's crucial to remember that every IT project is a business project, and vice versa. As technology leaders, our role is to demystify technology by focusing on its business value. Empathy is a critical trait in this endeavor, as it allows us to see a stakeholder's situation from a business perspective, align better with the business vision and goals, and ultimately connect with people, rather than just technology."

How do you stay committed during tough times?
"I strive to leave emotions at the door and avoid taking a defensive stance. It's important to remain neutral and not personalize the issue. Instead, stay focused on the bigger picture and goals, and try to find a common purpose. To build credibility, it's also essential to fact-check assumptions regularly. By following these principles, I approach situations with a clear mind and better perspective, which ultimately helps achieve success."

Key Takeaways

In a recent conversation with a business executive about the evolving role of CIOs, she expressed: "It's the worst time to be perceived as a technology evangelist and even worse to be perceived as an average CIO who can't communicate the business value of technology."

This highlights the immense pressure many CIOs face when evolving beyond just managing the IT factory.

The modern CIO is a business leader who can forge relationships and expand their influence to transform IT into a core driver of business value.

Stakeholder Sentiment

Identify key stakeholders and their perception of IT's effectiveness

1.1 Identify Key Stakeholders

Identify and prioritize your key stakeholders. Be diligent with stakeholder identification. Use a broad view to identify stakeholders who are known versus those who are "hidden." If stakeholders are missed, then so are opportunities to expand your sphere of influence.

1.2 Understand Stakeholder's Perception of IT

Assess stakeholder sentiments from Info-Tech's diagnostic reports and/or your organization's satisfaction surveys to help identify individuals who may have the greatest influence to support or detract IT's performance and those who are passive observers that can become your greatest allies. Determine where best to focus your limited time amid competing priorities by focusing on the long-term goals that support the organization's vision.

Info-Tech Insight

Understand which individuals can directly or indirectly influence your ability to achieve your priorities. Look inside and out, as you may find influencers beyond the obvious peers or executives in an organization. Influence can result from expansive connections, power of persuasion, and trust to get things done.

Visit Info-Tech's Diagnostic Programs

Activity: Identify and Prioritize Stakeholders

30-60 minutes

1.1 Identify Key Stakeholders

Start with the key stakeholders that are known to you. Take a 360-degree view of both internal and external connections. Leverage external professional & network platforms (e.g. LinkedIn), alumni connections, professional associations, forums, and others that can help flush out hidden stakeholders.

1.2 Prioritize Key Stakeholders

Use stakeholder satisfaction surveys like Info-Tech's Business Vision diagnostic as a starting point to identify those who are your allies and those who have the potential to derail IT's success, your professional brand, and your strategic priorities. Review the results of the diagnostic reports to flush out those who are:

• Resisters: Vocal about their dissatisfaction with IT's performance and actively sabotage or disrupt
• Skeptics: Disengaged, passive observers
• Ambassadors: Aligned but don't proactively support
• Champions: Actively engaged and will proactively support your success

Consider the following:

• Influencers may not have formal authority within an organization but have relationships with your stakeholders.
• Influencers may be hiding in many places, like the coach of your daughter's soccer team who rows with your CEO.
• Prioritize, i.e. three degrees of separation due to potential diverse reach of influence.

Key Output: Create a tab for your most critical stakeholders.

Download the Personal Relationship Management Journal Template.

Understand stakeholders' business

Create a stakeholder profile to understand the context in which stakeholders operate.

2.1 Create individual profile for each stakeholder

Collect and analyze key information to understand the context in which your stakeholders operate. Use the information to derive insights about their mandate, accountabilities, strategic goals, investment priorities, and performance metrics and challenges they may be facing.

Stakeholder profiles can be used to help design the best approach for personal interactions with individuals as their business context changes.

If you are short on time, use this checklist to gather information:

• Stakeholder's business unit (BU) strategy goals
• High-level organizational chart
• BU operational model or capability map
• Key performance metrics
• Projects underway and planned
• Financial budget (if available)
• Milestone dates for key commitments and events
• External platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Instagram, Meetup, blogs

Info-Tech Insight

Understanding what stakeholders want (and more importantly, what they don't) requires knowing their business and the personal and social circumstances underlying their priorities and behaviors.

Activity: Create a stakeholder profile

30-60 minutes

2.1.0 Understand stakeholder's business context

Create a profile for each of your priority stakeholders to document their business context. Review all the information collected to understand their mandate, core accountability, and business capabilities. The context in which individuals operate is a window into the motivations, pressures, and vested interests that will influence the intersectionality between their expectations and yours.

2.1.1 Document Observable Challenges as Private Notes

Crushing demands and competing priorities can lead to tension and stress as people jockey to safeguard their time. Identify some observable challenges to create greater situational awareness. Possible underlying factors:

• Sudden shifts/changes in mandate
• Performance (operations, projects)
• Finance
• Resource and talent gaps
• Politics
• Personal circumstances
• Capability gaps/limitations
• Capacity challenges

Analyze Stakeholder's Work Style

Adapt communication styles to the situational context in which your stakeholders operate

2.2 Determine the ideal approach for engaging each stakeholder

Each stakeholder has a preferred modality of working which is further influenced by dynamic situations. Some prefer to meet frequently to collaborate on solutions while others prefer to analyze data in solitude before presenting information to substantiate recommendations. However, fostering trust requires:

1. Understanding your preferred default when engaging others.
2. Knowing where you need to expand your skills.
3. Identifying which skills to activate for different professional scenarios.

Adapting your communication style to create productive interactions will require a diverse arsenal of interpersonal skills that you can draw upon as situations shift. The ability to adapt your work style to dial any specific trait up or down will help to increase your powers of persuasion and influence.

"There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it, or you can inspire it." – Simon Sinek

Activity: Identify Engagement Strategies

30 minutes

2.2.0 Establish work styles

Every individual has a preferred style of working. Determine work styles starting with self-awareness:

• Express myself - How you communicate and interact with others
• Expression by others - How you want others to communicate and interact with you

Through observation and situational awareness, we can make inferences about people's work style.

• Observations - Observable traits of other people's work style
• Situations - Personal and professional circumstances that influence how we communicate and interact with one another

Where appropriate and when opportunities arise, ask individuals directly about their preferred work styles and method for communication. What is their preferred method of communication? During a normal course of interaction vs. for urgent priorities?

2.2.1 Brainstorm possible engagement strategies

Consider the following when brainstorming engagement strategies for different work styles.

Think engagement strategies in different professional scenarios:

• Meetings - Where and how you connect
• Communicating - How and what you communicate to create connection
• Collaborating - What degree of involved in shared activities
• Persuading - How you influence or direct others to get things done

Expand New Interpersonal Skills

Use the Business Archetypes to brainstorm possible approaches for engaging with different work styles. Additional communication and engagement tactics may need to be considered based on circumstances and changing situations.

Communicate Effectively

Productive communication is a dialogue that requires active listening, tailoring messages to fluid situations, and seeking feedback to adapt.

Be Relevant

• Understand why you need to communicate
• Determine what you need to convey
• Tailor your message to what matters to the audience and their context
• Identify the most appropriate medium based on the situation

Be Consistent and Accurate

• Say what you mean and mean what you say to avoid duplicity
• Information should be accurate and complete
• Communicate truthfully; do not make false promises or hide bad news
• Don't gossip

Be Clear and Concise

• Keep it simple and avoid excessive jargon
• State asks upfront to set intention and transparency
• Avoid ambiguity and focus on outcomes over details
• Be brief and to the point or risk losing stakeholder's attention

Be Attentive and Authentic

• Stay engaged and listen actively
• Be curious and inquire for clarification or explanation
• Be flexible to adapt to both verbal and non-verbal cues
• Be authentic in your approach to sharing yourself
• Avoid "canned" approaches

"Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity."– Nat Turner (LinkedIn, 2020)

Exemplar: Engaging With Jane

Exemplar: Engaging With Ali

Develop an Action Plan

Moving from intent to action requires a plan to ensure you stay committed through the peaks and troughs.

Create Your 120-Day Plan

Key elements of the action plan:

• Strategic priorities – Your top focus
• Objective – Your goals
• 30-60-90-120 Day Topics – Key agenda items
• Meeting Progress Notes – Key takeaways from meetings
• Private Notes – Confidential observations

Investing in relationships is a long-term process. You need to accumulate enough trust to trade or establish coalitions to expand your sphere of influence. Even the strongest of professional ties will have their bouts of discord. To remain committed to building the relationship during difficult periods, use an action plan that helps you stay grounded around:

• Shared purpose
• Removing emotion from the situation
• Continuously learning from every interaction

"Make intentional actions to set intentionality. Plans are good to keep you grounded and focused especially when relationship go through ups and down and there are changes: to new people and new relationships."
– Angela Diop, Senior Director, Executive Services, Info-Tech & former VP of Information Services with Unity Health Care

Activity: Design a Tailored Action Plan

30-60 minutes

3.1.0 Determine your personal expectations

Establish your personal goals and expectations around what you are seeking from the relationship. Determine the strength of your current connection and identify where you want to move the relationship across the continuum of commitment.

Use insights from your stakeholder's profile to explore their span of influence and degree of interest in supporting your strategic priorities.

3.1.1 Determine what you want from the relationship

Based on your personal goals, identify where you want to move the relationship across the continuum of commitment: What are you hoping to achieve from the relationship? How will this help create a win/win situation for both you and the key stakeholder?

3.1.2 Identify your metrics for progress

Fostering relationships take time and commitment. Utilizing metrics or personal success criteria for each of your focus areas will help you stay on track and find opportunities to make each engagement valuable instead of being transactional.

Make your action plan impactful

Level of Connection

The strength of the relationship will help inform the level of time and effort needed to achieve your goals.

• Is this a new or existing relationship?
• How often do you connect with this individual?
• Are the connections driven by a shared purpose or transactional as needs arise?

Focus on Relational Value

Cultivate your network and relationship with the goal of building emotional connection, understanding, and trust around your shared purpose and organization's vision through regular dialogue. Be mindful of transactional exchanges ("quid pro quo") to be strategic about its use. Treat every interaction as equally important regardless of agenda, duration, or channel of communication.

Plan and Prepare

Everyone's time is valuable, and you need to come prepared with a clear understanding of why you are engaging. Think about the intentionality of the conversation:

• Gain buy-in
• Create transparency
• Specific ask
• Build trust and respect
• Provide information to clarify, clear, or contain a situation

Non-Verbal Communication Matters

Communication is built on both overt expressions and subtext. While verbal communication is the most recognizable form, non-lexical components of verbal communication (i.e. paralanguage) can alter stated vs. intended meaning. Engage with the following in mind:

• Tone, pitch, speed, and hesitation
• Facial expressions and gestures
• Choice of channel for engagement

Exemplar: Action Plan for VP, Digital

Make Relationship Management a Daily Habit

Management plans are living documents and need to be flexible to adapt to changes in stakeholder context.

Monitor and Adjust to Communicate Strategically

Building trust takes time and commitment. Treat every conversation with your key stakeholders as an investment in building the social capital to expand your span of influence when and where you need it to go. This requires making relationship management a daily habit. Action plans need to be a living document that is your personal journal to document your observations, feelings, and actions. Such a plan enables you to make constant adjustments along the relationship journey.

"Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it."– Stephen Convey (LinkedIn, 2016)

Capture some simple metrics

If you can't measure your actions, you can't manage the relationship.

While a personal relationship journal is not a formal performance management tool, identifying some tangible measures will improve the likelihood of aligning your intent with outcomes. Good measures will help you focus your efforts, time, and resources appropriately.

Keep the following in mind:

1. WHAT are you trying to measure?
   Specific to the situation or scenario
2. WHY is this important?
   Relevant to your personal goals
3. HOW will you measure?
   Achievable and quantifiable
4. WHAT will the results tell you?
   Intended outcome that is directional

Summary of accomplishments

Knowledge Gained

• Relationship management is critical to a CIO's success
• A personal relationship journal will help build:
  • Customized approach to engaging stakeholders
  • New communication skills to adapt to different work styles

New Concepts

• Work style assessment framework and engagement strategies
• Effective communication strategies
• Continuum of commitment to establish personal goals

Approach to Creating a Personal Journal

• Step-by-step approach to create a personal journal
• Key elements for inclusion in a journal
• Exemplar and recommendations

Related Info-Tech Research

Appendix: Framework

Content:

• Adaptation of DiSC profile assessment
• DiSC Profile Assessment
• FIRO-B Framework
• Experience Cube

Info-Tech's Adaption of DiSC Assessment

Info-Tech's Business Archetypes was created based on our analysis of the DiSC Profile and Myers-Briggs FIRO-B personality assessment tools that are focused on assessing interpersonal traits to better understand personalities.

The adaptation is due in part to Info-Tech's focus on not designing a personality assessment tool as this is neither the intent nor the expertise of our services. Instead, the primary purpose of this adaptation is to create a simple framework for our members to base their observations of behavioral cues to identify appropriate communication styles to better interact with key stakeholders.

Cautionary note:
Business archetypes are personas and should not be used to label, make assumptions and/or any other biased judgements about individual personalities. Every individual has all elements and aspects of traits across various spectrums. This must always remain at the forefront when utilizing any type of personality assessments or frameworks.

Click here to learn about DiSC Profile
Click here learn about FIRO-B
Click here learn about Experience Cube

DiSC Profile Assessment

What is DiSC?

DisC® is a personal assessment tool that was originally developed in 1928 by psychologist William Moulton Marston, who designed it to predict job performance. The tool has evolved and is now widely used by thousands of organizations around the world, from large government agencies and Fortune 500 companies to nonprofit and small businesses, to help improve teamwork, communication, and productivity in the workplace. The tool provides a common language people can use to better understand themselves and those they interact with - and use this knowledge to reduce conflict and improve working relationships.

What does DiSC mean?

DiSC is an acronym that stands for the four main personality profiles described in the Everything DiSC model: (D)ominance, (i)nfluence, (S)teadiness, (C)onscientiousness

People with (D) personalities tend to be confident and emphasize accomplishing bottom-line results.
People with (i) personalities tend to be more open and emphasize relationships and influencing or persuading others.
People with (S) personalities tend to be dependable and emphasize cooperation and sincerity.
People with (C) personalities tend to emphasize quality, accuracy, expertise, and competency.

Go to this link to explore the DiSC styles

FIRO-B® – Interpersonal Assessment

What is FIRO workplace relations?

The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation Behavior (FIRO-B®) tool has been around for forty years. The tool assesses your interpersonal needs and the impact of your behavior in the workplace. The framework reveals how individuals can shape and adapt their individual behaviors, influence others effectively, and build trust among colleagues. It has been an excellent resource for coaching individuals and teams about the underlying drivers behind their interactions with others to effectively build successful working relationships.

What does the FIRO framework measure?

The FIRO framework addresses five key questions that revolve around three interpersonal needs. Fundamentally, the framework focuses on how you want to express yourself toward others and how you want others to behave toward you. This interaction will ultimately result in the universal needs for (a) inclusion, (b) control, and (c) affection. The insights from the results are intended to help individuals adjust their behavior in relationships to get what they need while also building trust with others. This will allow you to better predict and adapt to different situations in the workplace.

How can FIRO influence individual and team performance in the workplace?

FIRO helps people recognize where they may be giving out mixed messages and prompts them to adapt their exhibited behaviors to build trust in their relationships. It also reveals ways of improving relationships by showing individuals how they are seen by others, and how this external view may differ from how they see themselves. Using this lens empowers people to adjust their behavior, enabling them to effectively influence others to achieve high performance.

In team settings, it is a rich source of information to explore motivations, underlying tensions, inconsistent behaviors, and the mixed messages that can lead to mistrust and derailment. It demonstrates how people may approach teamwork differently and explains the potential for inefficiencies and delays in delivery. Through the concept of behavioral flexibility, it helps defuse cultural stereotypes and streamline cross-cultural teams within organizations.

Go to this link to explore FIRO-B for Business

Experience Cube

What is an experience cube?

The Experience Cube model was developed by Gervase Bushe, a professor of Leadership and Organization at the Simon Fraser University's school of Business and a thought leader in the field of organizational behavior. The experience cube is intended as a tool to plan and manage conversations to communicate more effectively in the moment. It does this by promoting self-awareness to better reduce anxiety and adapt to evolving and uncertain situations.

How does the experience cube work?

Using the four elements of the experience cube (Observations, Thoughts, Feelings, and Wants) helps you to separate your experience with the situation from your potential judgements about the situation. This approach removes blame and minimizes defensiveness, facilitating a positive discussion. The goal is to engage in a continuous internal feedback loop that allows you to walk through all four quadrants in the moment to help promote self-awareness. With heightened self-awareness, you may (1) remain curious and ask questions, (2) check-in for understanding and clarification, and (3) build consensus through agreement on shared purpose and next steps.

Observations: Sensory data (information you take in through your senses), primarily what you see and hear. What a video camera would record.

Thoughts: The meaning you add to your observations (i.e. the way you make sense of them, including your beliefs, expectations, assumptions, judgments, values, and principles). We call this the "story you make up."

Feelings: Your emotional or physiological response to the thoughts and observations. Feelings words such as sad, mad, glad, scared, or a description of what is happening in your body.

Wants: Clear description of the outcome you seek. Wants go deeper than a simple request for action. Once you clearly state what you want, there may be different ways to achieve it.

Go to this link to explore more: Experience Cube

Research Contributors and Experts

Joanne Lee
Principal, Research Director, CIO Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

Joanne is a professional executive with over twenty-five years of experience in digital technology and management consulting spanning healthcare, government, municipal, and commercial sectors across Canada and globally. She has successfully led several large, complex digital and business transformation programs. A consummate strategist, her expertise spans digital and technology strategy, organizational redesign, large complex digital and business transformation, governance, process redesign, and PPM. Prior to joining Info-Tech Research Group, Joanne was a Director with KPMG's CIO Advisory management consulting services and the Digital Health practice lead for Western Canada. She brings a practical and evidence-based approach to complex problems enabled by technology.

Joanne holds a Master's degree in Business and Health Policy from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science (Nursing) from the University of British Columbia.

Gord Harrison
Senior Vice President, Research and Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

Gord Harrison, SVP, Research and Consulting, has been with Info-Tech Research Group since 2002. In that time, Gord leveraged his experience as the company's CIO, VP Research Operations, and SVP Research to bring the consulting and research teams together under his current role, and to further develop Info-Tech's practical, tactical, and value-oriented research product to the benefit of both organizations.

Prior to Info-Tech, Gord was an IT consultant for many years with a focus on business analysis, software development, technical architecture, and project management. His background of educational game software development, and later, insurance industry application development gave him a well-rounded foundation in many IT topics. Gord prides himself on bringing order out of chaos and his customer-first, early value agile philosophy keeps him focused on delivering exceptional experiences to our customers.

Angela Diop
Senior Director, Executive Services
Info-Tech Research Group

Angela has over twenty-five years of experience in healthcare, as both a healthcare provider and IT professional. She has spent over fifteen years leading technology departments and implementing, integrating, managing, and optimizing patient-facing and clinical information systems. She believes that a key to a healthcare organization's ability to optimize health information systems and infrastructure is to break the silos that exist in healthcare organizations.

Prior to joining Info-Tech, Angela was the Vice President of Information Services with Unity Health Care. She has demonstrated leadership and success in this area by fostering environments where business and IT collaborate to create systems and governance that are critical to providing patient care and sustaining organizational health.

Angela has a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering and Design from the University of Illinois and a Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University. She is a Certified CIO with the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. She is a two-time Health Information Systems Society (HIMSS) Davies winner.

Edison Barreto
Senior Director, Executive Services
Info-Tech Research Group

Edison is a dynamic technology leader with experience growing different enterprises and changing IT through creating fast-paced organizations with cultural, modernization, and digital transformation initiatives. He is well versed in creating IT and business cross-functional leadership teams to align business goals with IT modernization and revenue growth. Over twenty-five years of Gaming, Hospitality, Retail, and F&B experience has given him a unique perspective on guiding and coaching the creation of IT department roadmaps to focus on business needs and execute successful changes.

Edison has broad business sector experience, including:
Hospitality, Gaming, Sports and Entertainment, IT policy and oversight, IT modernization, Cloud first programs, R&D, PCI, GRDP, Regulatory oversight, Mergers acquisitions and divestitures.

Mike Tweedie
Practice Lead, CIO Strategy
Info-Tech Research Group

Michael Tweedie is the Practice Lead, CIO – IT Strategy at Info-Tech Research Group, specializing in creating and delivering client-driven, project-based, practical research, and advisory. He brings more than twenty-five years of experience in technology and IT services as well as success in large enterprise digital transformations.

Prior to joining Info-Tech, Mike was responsible for technology at ADP Canada. In that role, Mike led several large transformation projects that covered core infrastructure, applications, and services and worked closely with and aligned vendors and partners. The results were seamless and transparent migrations to current services, like public cloud, and a completely revamped end-user landscape that allowed for and supported a fully remote workforce.

Prior to ADP, Mike was the North American Head of Engineering and Service Offerings for a large French IT services firm, with a focus on cloud adoption and complex ERP deployment and management; he managed large, diverse global teams and had responsibilities for end-to-end P&L management.

Mike holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Ryerson University.

Carlene McCubbin
Practice Lead, People and Leadership
Info-Tech Research Group

Carlene McCubbin is a Research Lead for the CIO Advisory Practice at Info-Tech Research Group covering key topics in operating models & design, governance, and human capital development.

During her tenure at Info-Tech, Carlene has led the development of Info-Tech's Organization and Leadership practice and worked with multiple clients to leverage the methodologies by creating custom programs to fit each organization's needs.

Before joining Info-Tech, Carlene received her Master of Communications Management from McGill University, where she studied development of internal and external communications, government relations, and change management. Her education honed her abilities in rigorous research, data analysis, writing, and understanding the organization holistically, which has served her well in the business IT world.

Anubhav Sharma
Research Director, CIO Strategy
Info-Tech Research Group

Anubhav is a digital strategy and execution professional with extensive experience in leading large-scale transformation mandates for organizations both in North America and globally, including defining digital strategies for leading banks and spearheading a large-scale transformation project for a global logistics pioneer across ten countries. Prior to joining Info-Tech Research Group, he held several industry and consulting positions in Fortune 500 companies driving their business and technology strategies. In 2023, he was recognized as a "Top 50 Digital Innovator in Banking" by industry peers.

Anubhav holds an MBA in Strategy from HEC Paris, a Master's degree in Finance from IIT-Delhi, and a Bachelor's degree in Engineering.

Kim Osborne-Rodriguez
Research Director, CIO Strategy
Info-Tech Research Group

Kim is a professional engineer and Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD) with over a decade of experience in management and engineering consulting spanning healthcare, higher education, and commercial sectors. She has worked on some of the largest hospital construction projects in Canada, from early visioning and IT strategy through to design, specifications, and construction administration. She brings a practical and evidence-based approach to digital transformation, with a track record of supporting successful implementations.

Kim holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechatronics Engineering from University of Waterloo.

Amanda Mathieson
Research Director, People and Leadership
Info-Tech Research Group

Amanda joined Info-Tech Research Group in 2019 and brings twenty years of expertise working in Canada, the US, and globally. Her expertise in leadership development, organizational change management, and performance and talent management comes from her experience in various industries spanning pharmaceutical, retail insurance, and financial services. She takes a practical, experiential approach to people and leadership development that is grounded in adult learning methodologies and leadership theory. She is passionate about identifying and developing potential talent, as well as ensuring the success of leaders as they transition into more senior roles.

Amanda has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and Master of Arts in Organization and Leadership Development from Fielding Graduate University, as well as a post-graduate diploma in Adult Learning Methodologies from St. Francis Xavier University. She also has certifications in Emotional Intelligence – EQ-i 2.0 & 360, Prosci ADKAR® Change Management, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Step I and II.

Bibliography

Bacey, Christopher. "KPMG/Harvey Nash CIO Survey finds most organizations lack enterprise-wide digital strategy." Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey. Accessed Jan. 6, 2023. KPMG News Perspective - KPMG.us.com

Calvert, Wu-Pong Susanna. "The Importance of Rapport. Five tips for creating conversational reciprocity." Psychology Today Magazine. June 30, 2022. Accessed Feb. 10, 2023. psychologytoday.com/blog

Coaches Council. "14 Ways to Build More Meaningful Professional Relationships." Forbes Magazine. September 16, 2020. Accessed Feb. 20, 2023. forbes.com/forbescoachescouncil

Council members. "How to Build Authentic Business Relationships." Forbes Magazine. June 15, 2021. Accessed Jan. 15, 2023. Forbes.com/business council

Deloitte. "Chief Information Officer (CIO) Labs. Transform and advance the role of the CIO." The CIO program. Accessed Feb. 5, 2021.

Dharsarathy, Anusha et al. "The CIO challenge: Modern business needs a new kind of tech leader." McKinsey and Company. January 27, 2020. Accessed Feb 2023. Mckinsey.com

DiSC profile. "What is DiSC?" DiSC Profile Website. Accessed Feb. 5, 2023. discprofile.com

FIRO Assessment. "Better working relationships". Myers Brigg Website. Resource document downloaded Feb. 10, 2023. myersbriggs.com/article

Fripp, Patricia. "Frippicisms." Website. Accessed Feb. 25, 2023. fripp.com

Grossman, Rhys. "The Rise of the Chief Digital Officer." Russell Reynolds Insights, January 1, 2012. Accessed Jan. 5, 2023. Rise of the Chief Digital Officer - russellreynolds.com

Kambil, Ajit. "Influencing stakeholders: Persuade, trade, or compel." Deloitte Article. August 9, 2017. Accessed Feb. 19, 2023. www2.deloitte.com/insights

Kambil, Ajit. "Navigating the C-suite: Managing Stakeholder Relationships." Deloitte Article. March 8, 2017. Accessed Feb. 19, 2023. www2.deloitte.com/insights

Korn Ferry. "Age and tenure in the C-suite." Kornferry.com. Accessed Jan. 6, 2023. Korn Ferry Study Reveals Trends by Title and Industry

Kumthekar, Uday. "Communication Channels in Project". Linkedin.com, 3 March 2020. Accessed April 27, 2023. Linkedin.com/Pulse/Communication Channels

McWilliams, Allison. "Why You Need Effective Relationships at Work." Psychology Today Magazine. May 5, 2022. Accessed Feb. 11, 2023. psychologytoday.com/blog

McKinsey & Company. "Why do most transformations fail? A conversation with Harry Robinson." Transformation Practice. July 2019. Accessed Jan. 10, 2023. Mckinsey.com

Mind Tools Content Team. "Building Good Work Relationships." MindTools Article. Accessed Feb. 11, 2023. mindtools.com/building good work relationships

Pratt, Mary. "Why the CIO-CFO relationship is key to digital success." TechTarget Magazine. November 11, 2021. Accessed Feb. 2023. Techtarget.com

LaMountain, Dennis. "Quote of the Week: No Involvement, No Commitment". Linkedin.com, 3 April 2016. Accessed April 27, 2023. Linkedin.com/pulse/quote-week-involvement

PwC Pulse Survey. "Managing Business Risks". PwC Library. 2022. Accessed Jan. 30, 2023. pwc.com/pulse-survey

Rowell, Darin. "3 Traits of a Strong Professional Relationship." Harvard Business Review. August 8, 2019. Accessed Feb. 20, 2023. hbr.org/2019/Traits of a strong professional relationship

Sinek, Simon. "The Optimism Company from Simon Sinek." Website. Image Source. Accessed, Feb. 21, 2023. simonsinek.com

Sinek, Simon. "There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it." Twitter. Dec 9, 2022. Accessed Feb. 20, 2023. twitter.com/simonsinek

Whitbourne, Susan Krauss. "10 Ways to Measure the Health of Relationship." Psychology Today Magazine. Aug. 7, 2021. Accessed Jan. 30, 2023. psychologytoday.com/blog

Domino – Maintain, Commit to, or Vacate?

Lotus Domino still lives, and you have options for migrating away from or remaining with the platform.

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

“HCL announced that they have somewhere in the region of 15,000 Domino customers worldwide, and also claimed that that number is growing. They also said that 42% of their customers are already on v11 of Domino, and that in the year or so since that version was released, it’s been downloaded 78,000 times. All of which suggests that the Domino platform is, in fact, alive and well.”
– Nigel Cheshire in Team Studio

Your Challenge

You have a Domino/Notes footprint embedded within your business units and business processes. This is taxing your support organization; you are meeting resistance from the business, and you are now asked to help the organization migrate away from the Lotus Notes platform. The Lotus Notes platform was long used by technology and businesses as a multipurpose solution that, over the years, became embedded within core business applications and processes.

Common Obstacles

For organizations that are struggling to understand their options for the Domino platform, the depth of business process usage is typically the biggest operational obstacle. Migrating off the Domino platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to business process and application complexity. In addition, migrating clients have to resolve the challenges with more than one replaceable solution.

Info-Tech Approach

The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand their Domino migration options and adopt an application rationalization strategy for the Domino applications entrenched within the business. Options include retiring, replatforming, migrating, or staying with your Domino platform.

Review

Is “Lotus” Domino still alive?

Problem statement

The number of member engagements with customers regarding the Domino platform has, as you might imagine, dwindled in the past couple of years. While many members have exited the platform, there are still many members and organizations that have entered a long exit program, but with how embedded Domino is in business processes, the migration has slowed and been met with resistance. Some organizations had replatformed the applications but found that the replacement target state was inadequate and introduced friction because the new solution was not a low-code/business-user-driven environment. This resulted in returning the Domino platform to production and working through a strategy to maintain the environment.

This research is designed for:

• IT strategic direction decision-makers
• IT managers responsible for an existing Domino platform
• Organizations evaluating migration options for mission-critical applications running on Domino

This research will help you:

1. Evaluate migration options.
2. Assess the fit and purpose.
3. Consider strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
4. Determine the future of this platform for your organization.

The “everything may work” scenario

Adopt and expand

Believe it or not, Domino and Notes are still options to consider when determining a migration strategy. With HCL still committed to the platform, there are options organizations should seek to better understand rather than assuming SharePoint will solve all. In our research, we consider:

Importance to current business processes

• Importance of use
• Complexity in migrations
• Choosing a new platform

Available tools to facilitate

• Talent/access to skills
• Economies of scale/lower cost at scale
• Access to technology

Info-Tech Insight

With multiple options to consider, take the time to clearly understand the application rationalization process within your decision making.

• Archive/retire
• Application migration
• Application replatform
• Stay right where you are

Eliminate your bias – consider the advantages

“There is a lot of bias toward Domino; decisions are being made by individuals who know very little about Domino and more importantly, they do not know how it impacts business environment.”

– Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivet Technology Partners

Domino advantages include:

Modern Cloud & Application

• No-code/low-code technology

Business-Managed Application

• Business written and supported
• Embrace the business support model
• Enterprise class application

Leverage the Application Taxonomy & Build

• A rapid application development platform
• Develop skill with HCL training

HCL Domino is a supported and developed platform

Why consider HCL?

• Consider scheduling a Roadmap Session with HCL. This is an opportunity to leverage any value in the mission and brand of your organization to gain insights or support from HCL.
• Existing Domino customers are not the only entities seeking certainty with the platform. Software solution providers that support enterprise IT infrastructure ecosystems (backup, for example) will also be seeking clarity for the future of the platform. HCL will be managing these relationships through the channel/partner management programs, but our observations indicate that Domino integrations are scarce.
• HCL Domino should be well positioned feature-wise to support low-code/NoSQL demands for enterprises and citizen developers.

Visualize Your Application Roadmap

1. Focus on the application portfolio and crafting a roadmap for rationalization.
   • The process is intended to help you determine each application’s functional and technical adequacy for the business process that it supports.
2. Document your findings on respective application capability heatmaps.
   • This drives your organization to a determination of application dispositions and provides a tool to output various dispositions for you as a roadmap.
3. Sort the application portfolio into a disposition status (keep, replatform, retire, consolidate, etc.)
   • This information will be an input into any cloud migration or modernization as well as consolidation of the infrastructure, licenses, and support for them.

Our external support perspective

by Darin Stahl

Member Feedback

• Some members who have remaining Domino applications in production – while the retire, replatform, consolidate, or stay strategy is playing out – have concerns about the challenges with ongoing support and resources required for the platform. In those cases, some have engaged external services providers to augment staff or take over as managed services.
• While there could be existing support resources (in house or on retainer), the member might consider approaching an external provider who could help backstop the single resource or even provide some help with the exit strategies. At this point, the conversation would be helpful in any case. One of our members engaged an external provider in a Statement of Work for IBM Domino Administration focused on one-time events, Tier 1/Tier 2 support, and custom ad hoc requests.
• The augmentation with the managed services enabled the member to shift key internal resources to a focus on executing the exit strategies (replatform, retire, consolidate), since the business knowledge was key to that success.
• The member also very aggressively governed the Domino environment support needs to truly technical issues/maintenance of known and supported functionality rather than coding new features (and increasing risk and cost in a migration down the road) – in short, freezing new features and functionality unless required for legal compliance or health and safety.
• There obviously are other providers, but at this point Info-Tech no longer maintains a market view or scan of those related to Domino due to low member demand.

Domino database assessments

Consider the database.

• Domino database assessments should be informed through the lens of a multi-value database, like jBase, or an object system.
• The assessment of the databases, often led by relational database subject matter experts grounded in normalized databases, can be a struggle since Notes databases must be denormalized.

Key/Value		Column
Use case: Heavily accessed, rarely updated, large amounts of data Data Model: Values are stored in a hash table of keys. Fast access to small data values, but querying is slow Processor friendly Based on amazon's Dynamo paper Example: Project Voldemort used by LinkedIn		Use case: High availability, multiple data centers Data Model: Storage blocks of data are contained in columns Handles size well Based on Google's BigTable Example: Hadoop/Hbase used by Facebook and Yahoo
Document		Graph
Use case: Rapid development, Web and programmer friendly Data Model: Stores documents made up of tagged elements. Uses Key/Value collections Better query abilities than Key/Value databases. Inspired by Lotus Notes. Example: CouchDB used by BBC		Use case: Best at dealing with complexity and relationships/networks Data model: Nodes and relationships. Data is processed quickly Inspired by Euler and graph theory Can easily evolve schemas Example: Neo4j

Understand your options

Archive/Retire

Store the application data in a long-term repository with the means to locate and read it for regulatory and compliance purposes.

Migrate

Migrate to a new version of the application, facilitating the process of moving software applications from one computing environment to another.

Replatform

Replatforming is an option for transitioning an existing Domino application to a new modern platform (i.e. cloud) to leverage the benefits of a modern deployment model.

Stay

Review the current Domino platform roadmap and understand HCL’s support model. Keep the application within the Domino platform.

Archive/retire

Retire the application, storing the application data in a long-term repository.

Abstract

The most common approach is to build the required functionality in whatever new application/solution is selected, then archive the old data in PDFs and documents.

Typically this involves archiving the data and leveraging Microsoft SharePoint and the new collaborative solutions, likely in conjunction with other software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

Advantages

• Reduce support cost.
• Consolidate applications.
• Reduce risk.
• Reduce compliance and security concerns.
• Improve business processes.

Considerations

• Application transformation
• eDiscovery costs
• Legal implications
• Compliance implications
• Business process dependencies

Info-Tech Insights

Be aware of the costs associated with archiving. The more you archive, the more it will cost you.

Application migration

Migrate to a new version of the application

Abstract

An application migration is the managed process of migrating or moving applications (software) from one infrastructure environment to another.

This can include migrating applications from one data center to another data center, from a data center to a cloud provider, or from a company’s on-premises system to a cloud provider’s infrastructure.

Advantages

• Reduce hardware costs.
• Leverage cloud technologies.
• Improve scalability.
• Improve disaster recovery.
• Improve application security.

Considerations

• Data extraction, starting from the document databases in NSF format and including security settings about users and groups granted to read and write single documents, which is a powerful feature of Lotus Domino documents.
• File extraction, starting from the document databases in NSF format, which can contain attachments and RTF documents and embedded files.
• Design of the final relational database structure; this activity should be carried out without taking into account the original structure of the data in Domino files or the data conversion and loading, from the extracted format to the final model.
• Design and development of the target-state custom applications based on the new data model and the new selected development platform.

Application replatform

Transition an existing Domino application to a new modern platform

Abstract

This type of arrangement is typically part of an application migration or transformation. In this model, client can “replatform” the application into an off-premises hosted provider platform. This would yield many benefits of cloud but in a different scaling capacity as experienced with commodity workloads (e.g. Windows, Linux) and the associated application.

Two challenges are particularly significant when migrating or replatforming Domino applications:

• The application functionality/value must be reproduced/replaced with not one but many applications, either through custom coding or a commercial-off-the-shelf/SaaS solution.
• Notes “databases” are not relational databases and will not migrate simply to an SQL database while retaining the same business value. Notes databases are essentially NoSQL repositories and are difficult to normalize.

Advantages

• Leverage cloud technologies.
• Improve scalability.
• Align to a SharePoint platform.
• Improve disaster recovery.
• Improve application security.

Considerations

• Application replatform resource effort
• Network bandwidth
• New platform terms and conditions
• Secure connectivity and communication
• New platform security and compliance
• Degree of complexity

Info-Tech Insights

There is a difference between a migration and a replatform application strategy. Determine which solution aligns to the application requirements.

Stay with HCL

Stay with HCL, understanding its future commitment to the platform.

Abstract

Following the announced acquisition of IBM Domino and up until around December 2019, HCL had published no future roadmap for the platform. The public-facing information/website at the time stated that HCL acquired “the product family and key lab services to deliver professional services.” Again, there was no mention or emphasis on upcoming new features for the platform. The product offering on their website at the time stated that HCL would leverage its services expertise to advise clients and push applications into four buckets:

1. Replatform
2. Retire
3. Move to cloud
4. Modernize

That public-facing messaging changed with release 11.0, which had references to IBM rebranded to HCL for the Notes and Domino product – along with fixes already inflight. More information can be found on HCL’s FAQ page.

Advantages

• Known environment
• Domino is a supported platform
• Domino is a developed platform
• No-code/low-code optimization
• Business developed applications
• Rapid application framework

Understand your tools

Many tools are available to help evaluate or migrate your Domino Platform. Here are a few common tools for you to consider.

• SWING Software
  • Lotus Notes application archiving with Seascape for Notes: Seascape for Notes and Lotus Notes migration
  • Lotus Notes to SharePoint Migration
• Rivit MigrateMe
• SkyBow Notes to SharePoint
• CIMtrek: CIMtrek SharePoint Migrator and Migrating Lotus Notes Applications to the Cloud Using the CIMtrek migration tools [PDF]
• 4WS.Platform

Notes Archiving & Notes to SharePoint

Summary of Vendor

“SWING Software delivers content transformation and archiving software to over 1,000 organizations worldwide. Our solutions uniquely combine key collaborative platforms and standard document formats, making document production, publishing, and archiving processes more efficient.”*

Tools

Lotus Notes Data Migration and Archiving: Preserve historical data outside of Notes and Domino

Lotus Note Migration: Replacing Lotus Notes. Boost your migration by detaching historical data from Lotus Notes and Domino.

Headquarters

Croatia

Best fit

• Application archive and retire
• Migration to SharePoint

* swingsoftware.com

Domino Migration to SharePoint

Summary of Vendor

“Providing leading solutions, resources, and expertise to help your organization transform its collaborative environment.”*

Tools

Notes Domino Migration Solutions: Rivit’s industry-leading solutions and hardened migration practice will help you eliminate Notes Domino once and for all.

Rivive Me: Migrate Notes Domino applications to an enterprise web application

Headquarters

Canada

Best fit

• Application Archive & Retire
• Migration to SharePoint

* rivit.ca

Lotus Notes to M365

Summary of Vendor

“More than 300 organizations across 40+ countries trust skybow to build no-code/no-compromise business applications & processes, and skybow’s community of customers, partners, and experts grows every day.”*

Tools

SkyBow Studio: The low-code platform fully integrated into Microsoft 365

Headquarters:

Switzerland

Best fit

• Application Archive & Retire
• Migration to SharePoint

* skybow.com | About skybow

Notes to SharePoint Migration

Summary of Vendor

“CIMtrek is a global software company headquartered in the UK. Our mission is to develop user-friendly, cost-effective technology solutions and services to help companies modernize their HCL Domino/Notes® application landscape and support their legacy COBOL applications.”*

Tools

CIMtrek SharePoint Migrator: Reduce the time and cost of migrating your IBM® Lotus Notes® applications to Office 365, SharePoint online, and SharePoint on premises.

Headquarters

United Kingdom

Best fit

• Application replatform
• Migration to SharePoint

* cimtrek.com | About CIMtrek

Domino replatform/Rapid application selection framework

Summary of Vendor

“4WS.Platform is a rapid application development tool used to quickly create multi-channel applications including web and mobile applications.”*

Tools

4WS.Platform is available in two editions: Community and Enterprise.
The Platform Enterprise Edition, allows access with an optional support pack.

4WS.Platform’s technical support provides support services to the users through support contracts and agreements.

The platform is a subscription support services for companies using the product which will allow customers to benefit from the knowledge of 4WS.Platform’s technical experts.

Headquarters

Italy

Best fit

• Application replatform

* 4wsplatform.org

Activity

Understand your Domino options

Application Rationalization Exercise

Info-Tech Insight

Application rationalization is the perfect exercise to fully understand your business-developed applications, their importance to business process, and the potential underlying financial impact.

This activity involves the following participants:

• IT strategic direction decision-makers.
• IT managers responsible for an existing Domino platform
• Organizations evaluating platforms for mission-critical applications.

Outcomes of this step:

• Completed Application Rationalization Tool

Application rationalization exercise

Use this Application Rationalization Tool to input the outcomes of your various application assessments

In the Application Entry tab:

• Input your application inventory or subset of apps you intend to rationalize, along with some basic information for your apps.

In the Business Value & TCO Comparison tab, determine rationalization priorities.

• Input your business value scores and total cost of ownership (TCO) of applications.
• Review the results of this analysis to determine which apps should require additional analysis and which dispositions should be prioritized.

In the Disposition Selection tab:

• Add to or adapt our list of dispositions as appropriate.

In the Rationalization Inputs tab:

• Add or adapt the disposition criteria of your application rationalization framework as appropriate.
• Input the results of your various assessments for each application.

In the Disposition Settings tab:

• Add or adapt settings that generate recommended dispositions based on your rationalization inputs.

In the Disposition Recommendations tab:

• Review and compare the rationalization results and confirm if dispositions are appropriate for your strategy.

In the Timeline Considerations tab:

• Enter the estimated timeline for when you execute your dispositions.

In the Portfolio Roadmap tab:

• Review and present your roadmap and rationalization results.

Follow the instructions to generate recommended dispositions and populate an application portfolio roadmap.

Info-Tech Insight

Watch out for misleading scores that result from poorly designed criteria weightings.

Related Info-Tech Research

Build an Application Rationalization Framework

Manage your application portfolio to minimize risk and maximize value.

Embrace Business-Managed Applications

Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

Satisfy Digital End Users With Low- and No-Code

Extend IT, automation, and digital capabilities to the business with the right tools, good governance, and trusted organizational relationships.

Maximize the Benefits from Enterprise Applications with a Center of Excellence

Optimize your organization’s enterprise application capabilities with a refined and scalable methodology.

Drive Successful Sourcing Outcomes With a Robust RFP Process

Leverage your vendor sourcing process to get better results.

Research Authors

Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor,
Info-Tech Research Group

Darin is a Principal Research Advisor within the Infrastructure practice, leveraging 38+ years of experience. His areas of focus include IT operations management, service desk, infrastructure outsourcing, managed services, cloud infrastructure, DRP/BCP, printer management, managed print services, application performance monitoring, managed FTP, and non-commodity servers (zSeries, mainframe, IBM i, AIX, Power PC).

Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead,
Info-Tech Research Group

Troy has over 24 years of experience and has championed large enterprise-wide technology transformation programs, remote/home office collaboration and remote work strategies, BCP, IT DRP, IT operations and expense management programs, international right placement initiatives, and large technology transformation initiatives (M&A). Additionally, he has deep experience working with IT solution providers and technology (cloud) startups.

Research Contributors

Rob Salerno, Founder & CTO, Rivit Technology Partners

Rob is the Founder and Chief Technology Strategist for Rivit Technology Partners. Rivit is a system integrator that delivers unique IT solutions. Rivit is known for its REVIVE migration strategy which helps companies leave legacy platforms (such as Domino) or move between versions of software. Rivit is the developer of the DCOM Application Archiving solution.

Bibliography

Cheshire, Nigel. “Domino v12 Launch Keeps HCL Product Strategy On Track.” Team Studio, 19 July 2021. Web.

“Is LowCode/NoCode the best platform for you?” Rivit Technology Partners, 15 July 2021. Web.

McCracken, Harry. “Lotus: Farewell to a Once-Great Tech Brand.” TIME, 20 Nov. 2012. Web.

Sharwood, Simon. “Lotus Notes refuses to die, again, as HCL debuts Domino 12.” The Register, 8 June 2021. Web.

Woodie, Alex. “Domino 12 Comes to IBM i.” IT Jungle, 16 Aug. 2021. Web.

Decide if You Are Ready for SAFe

Approach the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) with open eyes and an open wallet.

Analyst Perspective

Ensure that SAFe is the right move before committing.

Waterfall is dead. Or obsolete at the very least.

Organizations cannot wait months or years for product, service, application, and process changes. They need to embrace business agility to respond to opportunities more quickly and deliver value sooner. Agile established values and principles that have promoted smaller cycle times, greater connections between teams, improved return on investment (ROI) prioritization, and improved team empowerment.

Where organizations continue to struggle is matching localized Scrum teams with enterprise initiatives. This struggle is compounded by legacy executive planning cycles, which undermine Agile team authority. SAFe has provided a series of frameworks to help organizations deal with these issues. It combines enterprise planning and alignment with cross-team collaboration.

Don't rely on popularity or marketing to make your scaled Agile decision. SAFe is a highly disruptive transformation, and it requires extensive training, coaching, process changes, and time to implement. Without the culture shift to an Agile mindset at all levels, SAFe becomes a mirror of Waterfall processes dressed in SAFe names. Furthermore, SAFe itself will not fix problems with communication, requirements, development, testing, release, support, or governance. You will still need to fix these problems within the SAFe framework to be successful.

Hans Eckman
Principal Research Director, Applications Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight
SAFe is a highly disruptive enterprise transformation, and it won't solve your organizational delivery challenges by itself. Start with an open mind, and understand what is needed to support a multi-year cultural transition. Decide how far and how fast you are willing to transform, and make sure that you have the right transformation and coaching partner in place. There is no right software development lifecycle (SDLC) or methodology. Find or create the methodology that best aligns to your needs and goals.

Agile's Four Core Values

"...while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."
- The Agile Manifesto

STOP! If you're not Agile, don't start with SAFe.

Successful SAFe requires an Agile mindset at all levels.

Be aware of common myths around Agile and SAFe

SAFe does not...

1...solve development and communication issues.

2...ensure that you will finish requirements faster.

3...mean that you do not need planning and documentation.

"Without proper planning, organizations can start throwing more resources at the work, which spirals into the classic Waterfall issues of managing by schedule."
– Kristen Morton, Associate Implementation Architect,
OneShield Inc. (Info-Tech Interview)

Info-Tech Insight
Poor culture, processes, governance, and leadership will disrupt any methodology. Many drivers for SAFe could be solved by improving and standardizing development and release management within current methodologies.

Review the drivers that are motivating your organization to adopt and scale Agile practices

Functional groups have their own drivers to adopt Agile development processes, practices, and techniques (e.g. to improve collaboration, decrease churn, or increase automation). Their buy-in to scaling Agile is just as important as the buy-in of stakeholders.

If a group's specific needs and drivers are not addressed, its members may develop negative sentiments toward Agile development. These negative sentiments can affect their ability to see the benefits of Agile, and they may return to their old habits once the opportunity arises.

It is important to find opportunities in which both business objectives and functional group drivers can be achieved by scaling Agile development. This can motivate teams to continuously improve and adhere to the new environment, and it will maintain business buy-in. It can also be used to justify activities that specifically address functional group drivers.

Examples of Motivating Drivers for Scaling Agile

• Improve artifact handoffs between development and operations.
• Increase collaboration among development teams.
• Reveal architectural and system risks early.
• Expedite the feedback loop from support.
• Improve capacity management.
• Support development process innovation.
• Create a safe environment to discuss concerns.
• Optimize value streams.
• Increase team engagement and comradery.

Don't start with scaled Agile!

Scaling Agile is a way to optimize product management and product delivery in application lifecycle management practices. Do not try to start with SAFe when the components are not yet in place.

Scale Agile delivery to improve cross-functional dependencies and releases

Top Business Concerns When Scaling Agile

1 Organizational Culture: The current culture may not support team empowerment, learning from failure, and other Agile principles. SAFe also allows top-down decisions to persist.

2 Executive Support: Executives may not dedicate resources, time, and effort into removing obstacles to scaling Agile because of lack of business buy-in.

3 Team Coordination: Current collaboration structures may not enable teams and stakeholders to share information freely and integrate workflows easily.

4 Business Misalignment: Business vision and objectives may be miscommunicated early in development, risking poorly planned and designed initiatives and low-quality products.

Extending collaboration is the key to success.

Uniting stakeholders and development into a single body is the key to success. Assess the internal and external communication flow and define processes for planning and tracking work so that everyone is aware of how to integrate, communicate, and collaborate.

The goal is to enable faster reaction to customer needs, shorter release cycles, and improved visibility of the project's progress with cross-functional and diverse conversations.

Advantages of successful SAFe implementations

Once SAFe is complete and operational, organizations have seen measurable benefits:

• Multiple frameworks to support different levels of SAFe usage
• Deliberate and consistent planning and coordination
• Coordinating dependencies within value streams
• Reduced time to delivery
• Focus on customers and end users
• Alignment to business goals and value streams
• Increased employee engagement

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023;
"Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Source: "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023

Recognize the difference between Scrum teams and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

SAFe provides a framework that aligns Scrum teams into coordinated release trains driven by top-down prioritization.

Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation

Source: Scaled Agile, Inc.

Info-Tech's IT Management & Governance Framework

Info-Tech Insight
SAFe is an enterprise, culture, and process transformation that impacts all IT services. Some areas of Info-Tech's IT Management & Governance Framework have higher impacts and require special attention. Plan to include transformation support for each of these topics during your SAFe implementation. SAFe will not fix broken processes on its own.

Without adopting an Agile mindset, SAFe becomes Waterfall with SAFe terminology

Source: Scaled Agile, Inc.

Info-Tech Insight
When first implementing SAFe, organizations reproduce their organizational design and Waterfall delivery structures with SAFe terms:

• Delivery Manager = Release Train Engineer
• Stakeholder/Sponsor = Product Manager
• Release = Release Train
• Project/Program = Project or Portfolio

SAFe isn't without risks or challenges

Risks and Causes of Failed SAFe Transformations

• SAFe conflicts with legacy cultures and delivery processes.
• SAFe promotes continued top-down decisions, undermining team empowerment.
• Scaled product families are required to define proper value streams.
• Team empowerment and autonomy are reduced.
• SAFe activities are poorly executed.
• There are high training and coaching costs.
• Implementation takes a long time.
• End-to-end delivery management tools aligned to SAFe are required.
• Legacy delivery challenges are not specifically solved with SAFe.
• SAFe is designed to work for large-scale development teams.

Challenges

• Adjusting to a new set of terms for common roles, processes, and activities
• Executing planning cycles
• Defining features and epics at the right level
• Completing adequate requirements
• Defining value streams
• Coordinating releases and release trains
• Providing consistent quality

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023;
"Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Focus on your core competencies instead

Before undertaking an enterprise transformation, consider improving the underlying processes that will need to be fixed anyway. Fixing these areas while implementing SAFe compounds the effort and disruption.

Product Delivery

• Agile/DevOps Research Center
• Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation
  • Understand Agile fundamentals, principles, and practices so you can apply them effectively in your organization.
• Implement DevOps Practices That Work
  • Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

Product Management

• Product Lifecycle Management Research Center
• Make the Case for Product Delivery
  • Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.
• Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
  • Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.
• Deliver Digital Products at Scale
  • Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.
• Introduce Program Management to Your Organization
  • Use programs to align projects to your strategic goals.
• Optimize IT Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization
  • Decide which IT projects to approve and when to start them.
• Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment
  • Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.
• Build a Software Quality Assurance Program
  • Build quality into every step of your SDLC.
• Automate Testing to Get More Done
  • Drive software delivery throughput and quality confidence by extending your automation test coverage.
• Application Portfolio Management Foundations
  • Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

"But big-bang transitions are hard. They require total leadership commitment, a receptive culture, enough talented and experienced agile practitioners to staff hundreds of teams without depleting other capabilities, and highly prescriptive instruction manuals to align everyone's approach."
– "Agile at Scale," Harvard Business Review

Insight Summary

Overarching insight
SAFe is a highly disruptive enterprise transformation, and it will not solve your organizational delivery challenges by itself. Start with an open mind, and understand what is needed to support a multi-year cultural transition. Decide how far and fast you are willing to transform and make sure that you have the right transformation and coaching partner in place.

SAFe conflicts with core Agile principles.
The popularity of SAFe is largely due to its structural resemblance to enterprise portfolio and project planning with top-down prioritization and decision-making. This directly conflicts with Agile's purpose and principles of empowerment and agility.

SAFe and Agile will not solve enterprise delivery challenges.
Poor culture, processes, governance, and leadership will disrupt any methodology. Many issues with drivers for SAFe could be solved by improving development and release management within current methodologies.

Most organizations should not be using a pure SAFe framework
Few organizations are capable of, or should be, applying a pure SAFe framework. Successful organizations have adopted and modified SAFe frameworks to best fit their needs, teams, value streams, and maturity.

Without an Agile mindset, SAFe will be executed as Waterfall stages using SAFe terminology.
Groups that "Do Agile" are not likely to embrace the behavioral changes needed to make any scaled framework effective. SAFe becomes a series of Waterfall PIs using SAFe terminology.

Your transformation does not start with SAFe.
Start your transition to scaled Agile with a maturity assessment for current delivery practices. Fixing broken process, tools, and teams must be at the heart of your initiative.

Blueprint Deliverables

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

Key Deliverable

SAFe Transformation Playbook

Build a transformation and organizational change management plan to guide your transition. Define clear ownership for every critical step.

Scaled Agile Readiness Assessment

Conduct the Agile readiness survey. Without an Agile mindset, SAFe will follow Waterfall or WaterScrumFall practices.

Case Study

Spotify's approach to Agile at scale

INDUSTRY: Digital Media
SOURCE: Unified Communications and Collaborations

Spotify's Scaling Agile Initiative

With rapid user adoption growth (over 15 million active users in under six years), Spotify had to find a way to maintain an Agile mindset across 30+ teams in three different cities, while maintaining the benefits of cross-functional collaboration and flexibility for future growth.

Spotify's Approach

Spotify found a fit-for-purpose way for the organization to increase team autonomy without losing the benefits of cross-team communication from economics of scale. Spotify focused on identifying dependencies that block or slow down work through a mix of reprioritization, reorganization, architectural changes, and technical solutions. The organization embraced dependencies that led to cross-team communication and built in the necessary flexibility to allow Agile to grow with the organization.

Spotify's scaling Agile initiative used interview processes to identify what each team depended on and how those dependencies blocked or slowed the team.

Squad refers to an autonomous Agile release team in this case study.

Case Study

Suncorp instilled dedicated communication streams to ensure cross-role collaboration and culture.

INDUSTRY: Insurance
SOURCE: Agile India, International Conference on Agile and Lean Software Development, 2014

Case Study

Nationwide embraces DevOps and improves software quality.

INDUSTRY: Insurance
SOURCE: Agile India, International Conference on Agile and Lean Software Development, 2014

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

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 one to four calls over the course of one to six weeks.

Workshop Overview

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

Supporting Your Agile Journey

Enable Product Agile Delivery Executive Workshop	Develop Your Agile Approach	Spread Best Practices with an Agile Center of Excellence	Implement DevOps Practices That Work	Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile
Align and prepare your IT leadership teams. Audience: Senior and IT delivery leadership Size: 8-16 people Time: 7 hours	Tune Agile team practices to fit your organization culture. Audience: Agile pilot teams and subject matter experts (SMEs) Size: 10-20 people Time: 4 days	Leverage Agile thought leadership to expand your best practices. Audience: Agile SMEs and thought leaders Size: 10-20 people Time: 4 days	Build a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Audience: Product owners (POs) and delivery team leads Size: 10-20 people Time: 4 days	Execute a disciplined approach to rolling out Agile methods. Audience: Agile steering team and SMEs Size: 3-8 people Time: 3 hours

Sample agendas are included in the following sections for each of these topics.

Your Product Transformation Journey

Phase 1

Determine if SAFe Is Right for Your Organization

Phase 1
1.1 Understand where SAFe fits into your delivery methodologies and SDLCs
1.2 Determine if you are ready for SAFe (fit for purpose)

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• 1.1.1 Define your primary drivers for SAFe.
• 1.1.2 Create your own list of pros and cons of SAFe.
• 1.2.1 Assess your Agile readiness.
• 1.2.2 Define enablers and blockers for scaling Agile delivery.
• 1.2.3 Estimate your SAFe implementation risk.
• 1.2.4 Start your SAFe implementation plan.

This phase involves the following participants:

• Senior leadership
• IT leadership
• Project Management Office
• Delivery managers
• Product managers/owners
• Agile thought leaders and coaches
• Compliance teams leads

Step 1.1

Understand where SAFe fits into your delivery methodologies and SDLCs

Activities
1.1.1 Define your primary drivers for SAFe
1.1.2 Create your own list of pros and cons of SAFe

This step involves the following participants:

• IT leadership
• Delivery managers
• Project management office
• Product owners and managers
• Development team leads
• Portfolio managers
• Architects

Outcomes of this step:

• List of primary drivers for SAFe
• List of pros and cons of SAFe

Agile's Four Core Values

"...while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."
– The Agile Manifesto

STOP! If you're not Agile, don't start with SAFe.

Successful SAFe requires an Agile mindset at all levels.

Be aware of common myths around Agile and SAFe

SAFe does not...

1...solve development and communication issues.

2...ensure that you will finish requirements faster.

3...mean that you do not need planning and documentation.

"Without proper planning, organizations can start throwing more resources at the work, which spirals into the classic Waterfall issues of managing by schedule."
– Kristen Morton, Associate Implementation Architect,
OneShield Inc. (Info-Tech Interview)

Info-Tech Insight
SAFe only provides a framework and steps where these issues can be resolved.

The importance of values and principles

Modern development practices (such as Agile, Lean, and DevOps) are based on values and principles. This supports the move away from command-and-control management to self-organizing teams.

Values

• Values represent your team's core beliefs and capture what you want to instill in your team.

Principles

• Principles represent methods for solving a problem or deciding.
• Given that principles are rooted in specifics, they can change more frequently because they are both fallible and conducive to learning.

Consider the guiding principles of your application team

Teams may have their own perspectives on how they deliver value and their own practices for how they do this. These perspectives can help you develop guiding principles for your own team to explain your core values and cement your team's culture. Guiding principles can help you:

• Enable the appropriate environment to foster collaboration within current organizational, departmental, and cultural constraints
• Foster the social needs that will engage and motivate your team in a culture that suits its members
• Ensure that all teams are driven toward the same business and team goals, even if other teams are operating differently
• Build organizational camaraderie aligned with corporate strategies

Info-Tech Insight
Following methodologies by the book can be detrimental if they do not fit your organization's needs, constraints, and culture. The ultimate goal of all teams is to deliver value. Any practices or activities that drive teams away from this goal should be removed or modified.

Review the drivers that are motivating your organization to adopt and scale Agile practices

Functional groups have their own drivers to adopt Agile development processes, practices, and techniques (e.g. to improve collaboration, decrease churn, or increase automation). Their buy-in to scaling Agile is just as important as the buy-in of stakeholders.

By not addressing a group's specific needs and drivers, the resulting negative sentiments of its members toward Agile development can affect their ability to see the benefits of Agile and they may return to old habits once the opportunity arises.

Find opportunities in which both business objectives and functional group drivers can be achieved with scaling Agile development. This alignment can motivate teams to continuously improve and adhere to the new environment, and it will maintain business buy-in. This assessment can also be used to justify activities that specifically address functional group drivers.

Examples of Motivating Drivers for Scaling Agile

• Improve artifact hand-offs between development and operations.
• Increase collaboration among development teams.
• Reveal architectural and system risks early.
• Expedite the feedback loop from support.
• Improve capacity management.
• Support development process innovation.
• Create a safe environment to discuss concerns.
• Optimize value streams.
• Increase team engagement and comradery.

Exercise 1.1.1 Define your primary drivers for SAFe

30 minutes

• Brainstorm a list of drivers for scaling Agile.
• Build a value canvas to help capture and align team expectations.
• Identify jobs or functions that will be impacted by SAFe.
• List your current pains and gains.
• List the pain relievers and gain creators.
• Identify the deliverable needed for a successful transformation.
• Complete your SAFe value canvas in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.

SAFe Value Canvas Template

Case Study

A public utilities organization steadily lost stakeholder engagement, diminishing product quality.

INDUSTRY: Public Utilities
SOURCE: Info-Tech Expert Interview

Challenge

• The goal of a public utilities organization was to adopt Agile so it could quickly respond to changes and trim costs.
• The organization decided to scale Agile using a structured approach. It began implementation with IT teams that were familiar with Agile principles and leveraged IT seniors as Agile champions. To ensure that Agile principles were widespread, the organization decided to develop a training program with vendor assistance.
• As Agile successes began to be seen, the organization decided to increase the involvement of business teams gradually so it could organically grow the concept within the business.

Results

• Teams saw significant success with many projects because they could easily demonstrate deliverables and clearly show the business value. Over time, the teams used Agile for large projects with complex processing needs.
• Teams continued to deliver small projects successfully, but business engagement waned over time. Some of the large, complex applications they delivered using Agile lacked the necessary functionality and appropriate controls and, in some cases, did not have the ability to scale due to a poor architectural framework. These applications required additional investment, which far exceeded the original cost forecasts.

While Agile and product development are intertwined, they are not the same!

Delivering products does not necessarily require an Agile mindset. However, Agile methods help to facilitate the journey because product thinking is baked into them.

Recognize the difference between Scrum teams and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

SAFe provides a framework that aligns Scrum teams into coordinated release trains driven by top-down prioritization.

Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation

Without adopting an Agile mindset, SAFe becomes Waterfall with SAFe terminology

Info-Tech Insight
When first implementing SAFe, organizations reproduce their organizational design and Waterfall delivery structures with SAFe terms:

• Delivery Manager = Release Train Engineer
• Stakeholder/Sponsor = Product Manager
• Release = Release Train
• Project/Program = Project or Portfolio

Advantages of successful SAFe implementations

Once SAFe is complete and operational, organizations have seen measurable benefits:

• Multiple frameworks to support different levels of SAFe usage
• Deliberate and consistent planning and coordination
• Coordinating dependencies within value streams
• Reduced time to delivery
• Focus on customers and end users
• Alignment to business goals and value streams
• Increased employee engagement

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023;
"Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Source: "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023

SAFe isn't without risks or challenges

Risks and Causes of Failed SAFe Transformations

• SAFe conflicts with legacy cultures and delivery processes.
• SAFe promotes continued top-down decisions, undermining team empowerment.
• Scaled product families are required to define proper value streams.
• Team empowerment and autonomy are reduced.
• SAFe activities are poorly executed.
• There are high training and coaching costs.
• Implementation takes a long time.
• End-to-end delivery management tools aligned to SAFe are required.
• Legacy delivery challenges are not specifically solved with SAFe.
• SAFe is designed to work for large-scale development teams.

Challenges

• Adjusting to a new set of terms for common roles, processes, and activities
• Executing planning cycles
• Defining features and epics at the right level
• Completing adequate requirements
• Defining value streams
• Coordinating releases and release trains
• Providing consistent quality

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023; "Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Exercise 1.1.2 Create your own list of the pros and cons of SAFe

1 hour

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook

Focus on your core competencies instead

Before undertaking an enterprise transformation, consider improving the underlying processes that will need to be fixed anyway. Fixing these areas while implementing SAFe compounds the effort and disruption.

Product Delivery

• Agile/DevOps Research Center
• Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation
  • Understand Agile fundamentals, principles, and practices so you can apply them effectively in your organization.
• Implement DevOps Practices That Work
  • Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

Product Management

• Product Lifecycle Management Research Center
• Make the Case for Product Delivery
  • Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.
• Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
  • Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.
• Deliver Digital Products at Scale
  • Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.
• Introduce Program Management to Your Organization
  • Use programs to align projects to your strategic goals.
• Optimize IT Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization
  • Decide which IT projects to approve and when to start them.
• Managing Requirements in an Agile Environment
  • Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.
• Build a Software Quality Assurance Program
  • Build quality into every step of your SDLC.
• Automate Testing to Get More Done
  • Drive software delivery throughput and quality confidence by extending your automation test coverage.
• Application Portfolio Management Foundations
  • Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

"But big-bang transitions are hard. They require total leadership commitment, a receptive culture, enough talented and experienced agile practitioners to staff hundreds of teams without depleting other capabilities, and highly prescriptive instruction manuals to align everyone's approach."
- "Agile at Scale," Harvard Business Review

Step 1.2

Determine if you are ready for SAFe (fit for purpose)

Activities
1.2.1 Assess your Agile readiness
1.2.2 Define enablers and blockers for scaling Agile delivery
1.2.3 Estimate your SAFe implementation risk
1.2.4 Start your SAFe implementation plan

This step involves the following participants:

• IT leadership
• Delivery managers
• Project management office
• Product owners and managers
• Development team leads
• Portfolio managers
• Architects

Outcomes of this step:

• Agile Readiness Assessment results
• Enablers and blockers for scaling Agile
• SAFe implementation risk
• SAFe implementation plan

Use CLAIM to guide your Agile journey

Conduct the Agile Readiness Assessment Survey

Without an Agile mindset, SAFe will follow Waterfall or WaterScrumFall practices.

• Start your journey with a clear understanding of the level of Agile and product maturity throughout your organization.
• Each area that lacks strength should be evaluated further and added to your journey map.

Exercise 1.2.1 Assess your Agile readiness

1 hour

• Open and complete the Agile Readiness Assessment in your playbook or the Excel tool provided.
• Discuss each area's high and low scores to reach a consensus.
• Record your results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.

Enter the results in Scaled Agile Readiness Assessment.

Exercise 1.2.2 Define enablers and blockers for scaling Agile delivery

1 hour

• Identify and mitigate blockers for scaling Agile in your organization.
  • Identify enablers who will support successful SAFe transformation.
  • Identify blockers who will make the transition to SAFe more difficult.
  • For each blocker, define at least one mitigating step.

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook

Estimate your SAFe implementation risk

Exercise 1.2.3 Estimate your SAFe implementation risk

30 minutes

• Determine which description best matches your overall organizational state.
• Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.
• Change the text to bold in the cell you selected to describe your current state and/or add a border around the cell.

Enter the results in SAFe Transformation Playbook.

Interpret your SAFe implementation risks

Analyze your highlighted selections and patterns in the rows and columns. Use these factors to inform your SAFe implementation steps and timing.

Build your implementation plan

Build a transformation and organizational change management plan to guide your transition. Define clear ownership for every critical step.

Plan your transformation.

• Align stakeholders and thought leaders.
• Select an implementation partner.
• Insert critical steps.

Build your SAFe framework.

• Define your target SAFe framework.
• Customize your SAFe framework.
• Establish SAFe governance and reporting.
• Insert critical steps.

Implement SAFe practices.

• Define product families and value streams.
• Conduct SAFe training for:
  • Executive leadership
  • Agile SAFe coaches
  • Practitioners
• Insert critical steps.

For additional help with OCM, please download Master Organizational Change Management Practices.

Exercise 1.2.4 Start your SAFe implementation plan

30 minutes

• Using the high-level SAFE implementation framework, begin building out the critical steps.
• Record the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.
• Your playbook is an evergreen document to help guide your implementation. It should be reviewed often.

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook

Select an implementation partner

Finding the right SAFe implementation partner is critical to your transformation success.

• Using your previous assessment, align internal and external resources to support your transformation.
• Select a partner who has experience in similar organizations and is aligned with your delivery goals.
• Plan to transition support to internal teams when SAFe practices have stabilized and moved into continuous improvement.
• Augment your transformation partner with internal coaches.
• Plan for a multiyear engagement before SAFe benefits are realized.

Summary of Accomplishments

Your journey begins.

Implementing SAFe is a long, expensive, and difficult process. For some organizations, SAFe provides the balance of leadership-driven prioritization and control with shorter release cycles and time to value. The key is making sure that SAFe is right for you and you are ready for SAFe. Few organizations fit perfectly into one of the SAFe frameworks. Instead, consider fine-tuning and customizing SAFe to meet your needs and gradual transformation.

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

Additional Support

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

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 at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

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

Scaled Agile Delivery Readiness Assessment
This assessment will help identify enablers and blockers in your organizational culture using our CLAIM+G organization transformation model.

SAFE Value Canvas
Use a value campus to define jobs, pains, gains, pain relievers, gain creators, and needed deliverables to help inform and guide your SAFe transformation.

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

Bibliography

"6 Biggest SAFe Agile Implementation Mistakes to Avoid." Triumph Strategic Consulting, 27 July 2017.

"The 7 Must-Haves for Achieving Scaling Agile Success." The 7 Must-Haves for Achieving Scaling Agile Success.

Ageling, Willem-Jan. "11 Most Common Reasons to Use Scaled Agile Framework (SAFE) and How to Do This With Unscaled Scrum." Medium, Serious Scrum, 26 Jan. 2020.

Agile India, International Conference on Agile and Lean Software Development, 2014.

"Air France - KLM - Agile Adoption with SAFe." Scaled Agile, 28 Nov. 2022.

"Application Development Trends 2019 - Global Survey Report." OutSystems.

"Benefits of SAFe: How It Benefits Organizations." Scaled Agile, 13 Mar. 2023.

Berkowitz, Emma. "The Cost of a SAFe(r) Implementation: CPRIME Blog." Cprime, 30 Jan. 2023.

"Chevron - Adopting SAFe with Remote Workforce." Scaled Agile, 28 Nov. 2022.

"Cisco It - Adopting Agile Development with SAFe." Scaled Agile, 13 Sept. 2022.

"CMS - Business Agility Transformation Using SAFe." Scaled Agile, 13 Sept. 2022.

Crain, Anthony. "4 Biggest Challenges in Moving to Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)." TechBeacon, 25 Jan. 2019.

"The Essential Role of Communications ." Project Management Institute .

Gardiner, Phil. "SAFe Implementation: 4 Tips for Getting Started." Applied Frameworks, 20 Jan. 2022.

"How Do I Start Implementing SAFe?" Agility in Mind, 29 July 2022.

"How to Masterfully Screw Up Your SAFe Implementation." Wibas Artikel-Bibliothek, 6 Sept. 2022.

"Implementation Roadmap." Scaled Agile Framework, 14 Mar. 2023.

Islam, Ayvi. "SAFe Implementation 101 - The Complete Guide for Your Company." //Seibert/Media, 22 Dec. 2020.

"Johnson Controls - SAFe Implementation Case Study." Scaled Agile, 28 Nov. 2022.

"The New Rules and Opportunities of Business Transformation." KPMG.

"Nokia Software - SAFe Agile Transformation." Scaled Agile, 28 Nov. 2022.

Pichler, Roman. "What Is Product Management?" Romanpichler, 2014.

"Product Documentation." ServiceNow.

"Pros and Cons of Scaled Agile Framework." PremierAgile.

"Pulse of the Profession Beyond Agility." Project Management Institute.

R, Ramki. "Pros and Cons of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)." Medium, 3 Mar. 2019.

R, Ramki. "When Should You Consider Implementing SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework)?" Medium, Medium, 3 Mar. 2019.

Rigby, Darrell, Jeff Sutherland, and Andy Noble. "Agile at Scale: How to go from a few teams to hundreds." Harvard Business Review, 2018.

"SAFe Implementation Roadmap." Scaled Agile Framework, Scaled Agile, Inc., 14 Mar. 2023.

"SAFe Partner Cprime: SAFe Implementation Roadmap: Scaled Agile." Cprime, 5 Apr. 2023.

"SAFe: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Project Management Institute.

"Scaled Agile Framework." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Mar. 2023.

"Scaling Agile Challenges and How to Overcome Them." PremierAgile.

"SproutLoud - a Case Study of SAFe Agile Planning." Scaled Agile, 29 Nov. 2022.

"Story." Scaled Agile Framework, 13 Apr. 2023.

Sutherland , Jeff. "Scrum: How to Do Twice as Much in Half the Time." Tedxaix, YouTube, 7 July 2014.

Venema, Marjan. "6 Scaled Agile Frameworks - Which One Is Right for You?" NimbleWork, 23 Dec. 2022.

Warner, Rick. "Scaled Agile: What It Is and Why You Need It." High-Performance Low-Code for App Development, OutSystems, 25 Oct. 2019.

Watts, Stephen, and Kirstie Magowan. "The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFE): What to Know and How to Start." BMC Blogs, 9 Sept. 2020.

"What Is SAFe? The Scaled Agile Framework Explained." CIO, 9 Feb. 2021.

"Why Agile Transformations Fail: Four Common Culprits." Planview.

"Why You Should Use SAFe (and How to Find SAFe Training to Help)." Easy Agile.

Y., H. "Story Points vs. 'Ideal Days.'" Cargo Cultism, 19 Aug. 2010.

Bibliography

Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile

Ambler, Scott W. "Agile Architecture: Strategies for Scaling Agile Development." Agile Modeling, 2012.

- - -. "Comparing Approaches to Budgeting and Estimating Software Development Projects." AmbySoft.

- - -. "Agile and Large Teams." Dr. Dobb's, 17 Jun 2008.

Ambler, Scott W. and Mark Lines. Disciplined Agile Delivery: A Practitioner's Guide to Agile Software Delivery in the Enterprise. IBM Press, 2012.

Ambler, Scott W., and Mark Lines. "Scaling Agile Software Development: Disciplined Agility at Scale." Disciplined Agile Consortium White Paper Series, 2014.

AmbySoft. "2014 Agile Adoption Survey Results." Scott W. Ambler + Associates, 2014.

Bersin, Josh. "Time to Scrap Performance Appraisals?" Forbes Magazine, 5 June 2013. Accessed 30 Oct. 2013..

Cheese, Peter, et al. " Creating an Agile Organization." Accenture, Oct. 2009. Accessed Nov. 2013..

Croxon, Bruce, et al. "Dinner Series: Performance Management with Bruce Croxon from CBC's 'Dragon's Den.'" HRPA Toronto Chapter. Sheraton Hotel, Toronto, ON, 12 Nov. 2013. Panel discussion.

Culbert, Samuel. "10 Reasons to Get Rid of Performance Reviews." Huffington Post Business, 18 Dec. 2012. Accessed 28 Oct. 2013.

Denning, Steve. "The Case Against Agile: Ten Perennial Management Objections." Forbes Magazine, 17 Apr. 2012. Accessed Nov. 2013.

Estis, Ryan. "Blowing up the Performance Review: Interview with Adobe's Donna Morris." Ryan Estis & Associates, 17 June 2013. Accessed Oct. 2013.

Heikkila et al. "A Revelatory Case Study on Scaling Agile Release Planning." EUROMICRO Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), 2010.

Holler, Robert, and Ian Culling. "From Agile Pilot Project to Enterprise-Wide Deployment: Five Sure-Fire Ways To Fail When You Scale." VersionOne, 2010.

Kniberg, Henrik, and Anders Ivarsson, "Scaling Agile @ Spotify," Unified Communications and Collaborations, 2012.

Narayan, Sriram. "Agile IT Organization Design: For Digital Transformation and Continuous Delivery." Addison-Wesley Professional, 2015.

Shrivastava, NK, and Phillip George. "Scaling Agile." RefineM, 2015.

Sirkia, Rami, and Maarit Laanti. "Lean and Agile Financial Planning." Scaled Agile Framework Blog, 2014.

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). "Agile Architecture." Scaled Agile Inc., 2015.

VersionOne. 9th Annual: State of Agile Survey. VersionOne, LLC, 2015.

Appendix A: Supporting Info-Tech Research

Transformation topics and supporting research to make your journey easier, with less rework

Supporting research and services

Improving IT Alignment

Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy
Success depends on IT initiatives clearly aligned to business goals, IT excellence, and driving technology innovation.

Make Your IT Governance Adaptable
Governance isn't optional, so keep it simple and make it flexible.

Create an IT View of the Service Catalog
Unlock the full value of your service catalog with technical components.

Application Portfolio Management Foundations
Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

Shifting Toward Agile DevOps

Agile/DevOps Research Center
Access the tools and advice you need to be successful with Agile.

Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation
Understand Agile fundamentals, principles, and practices so you can apply them effectively in your organization.

Implement DevOps Practices That Work
Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

Perform an Agile Skills Assessment
Being Agile isn't about processes, it's about people.

Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery
Projects and products are not mutually exclusive.

Shifting Toward Product Management

Make the Case for Product Delivery
Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.

Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.

Deliver Digital Products at Scale
Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.

Mature and Scale Product Ownership
Strengthen the product owner role in your organization by focusing on core capabilities and proper alignment.

Build a Value Measurement Framework
Focus product delivery on business value- driven outcomes.

Improving Value and Delivery Metrics

Build a Value Measurement Framework
Focus product delivery on business value-driven outcomes.

Create a Holistic IT Dashboard
Mature your IT department by measuring what matters.

Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively
Be careful what you ask for, because you will probably get it.

Reduce Time to Consensus With an Accelerated Business Case
Expand on the financial model to give your initiative momentum.

Improving Governance, Prioritization, and Value

Make Your IT Governance Adaptable
Governance isn't optional, so keep it simple and make it flexible.

Maximize Business Value From IT Through Benefits Realization
Embed benefits realization into your governance process to prioritize IT spending and confirm the value of IT.

Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies
Innovate and transform your business models with digital platforms.

Succeed With Digital Strategy Execution
Building a digital strategy is only half the battle: create a systematic roadmap of technology initiatives to execute the strategy and drive digital transformation.

Build a Value Measurement Framework
Focus product delivery on business value-driven outcomes.

Create a Holistic IT Dashboard
Mature your IT department by measuring what matters.

Improving Requirements Management and Quality Assurance

Requirements Gathering for Small Enterprises
Right-size the guidelines of your requirements gathering process.

Improve Requirements Gathering
Back to basics: great products are built on great requirements.

Build a Software Quality Assurance Program
Build quality into every step of your SDLC.

Automate Testing to Get More Done
Drive software delivery throughput and quality confidence by extending your automation test coverage.

Manage Your Technical Debt
Make the case to manage technical debt in terms of business impact.

Create a Business Process Management Strategy
Avoid project failure by keeping the "B" in BPM.

Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook
Optimize and automate your business processes with a user-centric approach.

Improving Release Management

Optimize Applications Release Management
Build trust by right-sizing your process using appropriate governance.

Streamline Application Maintenance
Effective maintenance ensures the long-term value of your applications.

Streamline Application Management
Move beyond maintenance to ensure exceptional value from your apps.

Optimize IT Change Management
Right-size IT change management to protect the live environment.

Manage Your Technical Debt
Make the case to manage technical debt in terms of business impact.

Improve Application Development Throughput
Drive down your delivery time by eliminating development inefficiencies and bottlenecks while maintaining high quality.

Improving Business Relationship Management

Embed Business Relationship Management in IT
Show that IT is worthy of Trusted Partner status.

Mature and Scale Product Ownership
Strengthen the product owner role in your organization by focusing on core capabilities and proper alignment.

Improving Security

Build an Information Security Strategy
Create value by aligning your strategy to business goals and business risks.

Develop and Deploy Security Policies
Enhance your overall security posture with a defensible and prescriptive policy suite.

Simplify Identity and Access Management
Leverage risk- and role-based access control to quantify and simplify the identity and access management (IAM) process.

Improving and Supporting Business-Managed Applications

Embrace Business-Managed Applications
Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

Enhance Your Solution Architecture Practices
Ensure your software systems solution is architected to reflect stakeholders' short- and long-term needs.

Satisfy Digital End Users With Low- and No-Code
Extend IT, automation, and digital capabilities to the business with the right tools, good governance, and trusted organizational relationships.

Build Your First RPA Bot
Support RPA delivery with strong collaboration and management foundations.

Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation
Embrace the symbiotic relationship between the human and digital workforce.

Improving Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Reporting

Modernize Data Architecture for Measurable Business Results
Enable the business to achieve operational excellence, client intimacy, and product leadership with an innovative, agile, and fit-for-purpose data architecture practice.

Build a Reporting and Analytics Strategy
Deliver actionable business insights by creating a business-aligned reporting and analytics strategy.

Build Your Data Quality Program
Quality data drives quality business decisions.

Design Data-as-a-Service
Journey to the data marketplace ecosystems.

Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy
Learn about the key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

Build an Application Integration Strategy
Level the table before assembling the application integration puzzle or risk losing pieces.

Appendix B: SDLC Transformation Steps

Waterfall SDLC

Valuable product delivered at the end of an extended project lifecycle, frequently in years

• Business is separated from the delivery of technology it needs. Only one-third of the product is actually valuable (ITRG, N=40,000).
• In Waterfall, a team of experts in specific disciplines hand off different aspects of the lifecycle.
• Document sign-offs are required to ensure integration between silos (Business, Development, and Operations) and individuals.
• A separate change-request process lays over the entire lifecycle to prevent changes from disrupting delivery.
• Tools are deployed to support a specific role (e.g. BA) and seldom integrated (usually requirements <-> test).

Wagile/Agifall/WaterScrumFall SDLC

Valuable product delivered in multiple releases

• Business is more closely integrated by a business product owner, who is accountable for day-to-day delivery of value for users.
• The team collaborates and develops cross-functional skills as they define, design, build, and test code over time.
• Sign-offs are reduced but documentation is still focused on satisfying project delivery and operations policy requirements.
• Change is built into the process to allow the team to respond to change dynamically.
• Tools start to be integrated to streamline delivery (usually requirements and Agile work management tools).

Agile SDLC

Valuable product delivered iteratively: frequency depends Ops' capacity

• Business users are closely integrated through regularly scheduled demos (e.g. every two weeks).
• Team is fully cross-functional and collaborates to plan, define, design, build, and test the code, supported by specialists.
• Documentation is focused on future development and operations needs.
• Change is built into the process to allow the team to respond to change dynamically.
• Automation is explored for application development (e.g. automated regression testing).

Agile With DevOps SDLC

High frequency iterative delivery of valuable product (e.g. every two weeks)

• Business users are closely integrated through regularly scheduled demos.
• Development and operations teams collaborate to plan, define, design, build, test, and deploy code, supported by automation.
• Documentation is focused on supporting users, future changes, and operational support.
• Change is built into the process to allow the team to respond to change dynamically.
• Test, build, deploy process is fully automated. (Service desk is still separated.)

DevOps SDLC

Continuous integration and delivery

• Business users are closely integrated through regularly scheduled demos.
• Fully integrated DevOps team collaborates to plan, define, design, build, test, deploy, and maintain code.
• Documentation is focused on future development and use adoption.
• Change is built into the process to allow the team to respond to change dynamically.
• Development and operations toolchain are fully integrated.

Fully integrated product SDLC

Agile + DevOps + continuous delivery of valuable product on demand

• Business users are fully integrated with the teams through dedicated business product owner.
• Cross-functional teams collaborate across the business and technical life of the product.
• Documentation supports internal and external needs (business, users, operations).
• Change is built into the process to allow the team to respond to change dynamically.
• Toolchain is fully integrated (including service desk).

Appendix C: Understanding Agile Scrum Practices and Ceremonies

Cultural advantages of Agile

Agile* SDLC

With shared ownership instead of silos, we are able to deliver value at the end of every iteration (aka sprint)

Key Elements of the Agile SDLC

• You are not "one and done." There are many short iterations with constant feedback.
• There is an empowered product owner. This is a single authoritative voice who represents stakeholders.
• There is a fluid product backlog. This enables prioritization of requirements "just-in-time."
• There is a cross-functional, self-managing team. This team makes commitments and is empowered by the organization to do so.
• There is working, tested code at the end of each sprint: Value becomes more deterministic along sprint boundaries.
• Stakeholders are allowed to see and use the functionality and provide necessary feedback.
• Feedback is being continuously injected back into the product backlog. This shapes the future of the solution.
• There is continuous improvement through sprint retrospectives.
• The virtuous cycle of sprint-demo-feedback is internally governed when done right.

* There are many Agile methodologies to choose from, but Scrum is by far the most widely used (and is shown above).

Understand the Scrum process

The scrum process coordinates multiple stakeholders to deliver on business priorities.

Understand the ceremonies part of the scrum process

Scrum vs. Kanban: Key differences

Scrum vs. Kanban: When to use each

Scrum

Related or grouped changes are delivered in fixed time intervals.

Use when:

• Coordinating the development or release of related items
• Maturing a product or service
• Coordinating interdependencies between work items

Kanban

Independent items are delivered as soon as each is ready.

Use when:

• Completing work items from ticketing or individual requests
• Completing independent changes
• Releasing changes as soon as possible

Appendix D: Improving Product Management

Product delivery realizes value for your product family

While planning and analysis are done at the family level, work and delivery are done at the individual product level.

Manage and communicate key milestones

Successful product-delivery managers understand and define key milestones in their product-delivery lifecycles. These milestones need to be managed along with the product backlog and roadmap.

Info-Tech Best Practice
Product management is not just about managing the product backlog and development cycles. Teams need to manage key milestones, such as learning milestones, test releases, product releases, phase gates, and other organizational checkpoints.

A backlog stores and organizes product backlog items (PBIs) at various stages of readiness

A well-formed backlog can be thought of as a DEEP backlog:

Detailed Appropriately: PBIs are broken down and refined as necessary.

Emergent: The backlog grows and evolves over time as PBIs are added and removed.

Estimated: The effort that a PBI requires is estimated at each tier.

Prioritized: A PBI's value and priority are determined at each tier.

Source: Perforce, 2018

Backlog tiers facilitate product planning steps

Ranging from the intake of an idea to a PBI ready for development; to enter the backlog, each PBI must pass through a given quality filter.

Each activity is a variation of measuring value and estimating effort in order to validate and prioritize a PBI.

A PBI successfully completes an activity and moves to the next backlog tier when it meets the appropriate criteria. Quality filters should exist between each tier.

Use quality filters to ensure focus on the most important PBIs

Expand the concepts of defining "ready" and "done" to include the other stages of a PBI's journey through product planning.

Info-Tech Best Practice
A quality filter ensures that quality is met and the appropriate teams are armed with the correct information to work more efficiently and improve throughput.

Define product value by aligning backlog delivery with roadmap goals

In each product plan, the backlogs show what you will deliver. Roadmaps identify when and in what order you will deliver value, capabilities, and goals.

Product roadmaps guide delivery and communicate your strategy

In "Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision," we demonstrate how a product roadmap is core to value realization. The product roadmap is your communicated path. As a product owner, you use it to align teams and changes to your defined goals, as well as your product to enterprise goals and strategy.

Info-Tech Insight
The quality of your product backlog - and your ability to realize business value from your delivery pipeline - is directly related to the input, content, and prioritization of items in your product roadmap.

Info-Tech's approach

Operationally align product delivery to enterprise goals

The Info-Tech Difference

Create a common definition of what a product is and identify the products in your inventory.

Use scaling patterns to build operationally aligned product families.

Develop a roadmap strategy to align families and products to enterprise goals and priorities.

Use products and families to assess value realization.