Establish Data Governance

Deliver measurable business value.

Executive Brief

Analyst Perspective

Establish a data governance program that brings value to your organization.

Data governance does not sit as an island on its own in the organization – it must align with and be driven by your enterprise governance. As you build out data governance in your organization, it’s important to keep in mind that this program is meant to be an enabling framework of oversight and accountabilities for managing, handling, and protecting your company’s data assets. It should never be perceived as bureaucratic or inhibiting to your data users. It should deliver agreed-upon models that are conducive to your organization’s operating culture, offering clarity on who can do what with the data and via what means. Data governance is the key enabler for bringing high-quality, trusted, secure, and discoverable data to the right users across your organization. Promote and drive the responsible and ethical use of data while helping to build and foster an organizational culture of data excellence.

Crystal Singh

Director, Research & Advisory, Data & Analytics Practice

Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

The amount of data within organizations is growing at an exponential rate, creating a need to adopt a formal approach to governing data. However, many organizations remain uninformed on how to effectively govern their data. Comprehensive data governance should define leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling and be supported by a well-oiled operating model and relevant policies and procedures. This will help ensure the right data gets to the right people at the right time, using the right mechanisms.

Common Obstacles

Organizations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, and changing and maturing user landscape and demand for data. Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, organizations miss the mark when their data governance efforts are not directly aligned to delivering measurable business value. Initiatives should support key strategic initiatives, as well as value streams and their underlying business capabilities.

Info-Tech’s Approach

Info-Tech’s approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organizational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. Organizations should:

• Align their data governance with enterprise governance, business strategy and value streams to ensure the program delivers measurable business value.
• Understand their current data governance capabilities so as to build out a future state that is right-sized and relevant.
• Define data leadership, accountability, and responsibility. Support these with an operating model that effectively manages change and communication and fosters a culture of data excellence.

Info-Tech Insight

Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operating costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and increased business risk.

Your challenge

This research is designed to help organizations build and sustain an effective data governance program.

• Your organization has recognized the need to treat data as a corporate asset for generating business value and/or managing and mitigating risk.
• This has brought data governance to the forefront and highlighted the need to build a performance-driven enterprise program for delivering quality, trusted, and readily consumable data to users.
• An effective data governance program is one that defines leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling. It’s supported by a well-oiled operating model and relevant policies and procedures, all of which help build and foster a culture of data excellence where the right users get access to the right data at the right time via the right mechanisms.

As you embark on establishing data governance in your organization, it’s vital to ensure from the get-go that you define the drivers and business context for the program. Data governance should never be attempted without direction on how the program will yield measurable business value.

“Data processing and cleanup can consume more than half of an analytics team’s time, including that of highly paid data scientists, which limits scalability and frustrates employees.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

“The productivity of employees across the organization can suffer.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

Respondents to McKinsey’s 2019 Global Data Transformation Survey reported that an average of 30% of their total enterprise time was spent on non-value-added tasks because of poor data quality and availability. – Petzold, et al., 2020

Common obstacles

Some of the barriers that make data governance difficult to address for many organizations include:

• Gaps in communicating the strategic value of data and data governance to the organization. This is vital for securing senior leadership buy-in and support, which, in turn, is crucial for sustained success of the data governance program.
• Misinterpretation or a lack of understanding about data governance, including what it means for the organization and the individual data user.
• A perception that data governance is inhibiting or an added layer of bureaucracy or complication rather than an enabling and empowering framework for stakeholders in their use and handling of data.
• Embarking on data governance without firmly substantiating and understanding the organizational drivers for doing so. How is data governance going to support the organization’s value streams and their various business capabilities?
• Neglecting to define and measure success and performance. Just as in any other enterprise initiative, you have to be able to demonstrate an ROI for time, resources and funding. These metrics must demonstrate the measurable business value that data governance brings to the organization.
• Failure to align data governance with enterprise governance.

78% of companies (and 92% of top-tier companies) have a corporate initiative to become more data-driven. – Alation, 2020

But despite these ambitions, there appears to be a “data culture disconnect” – 58% of leaders overestimate the current data culture of their enterprises, giving a grade higher than the one produced by the study. – Fregoni, 2020

The strategic value of data

Power intelligent and transformative organizational performance through leveraging data.

Respond to industry disruptors

Optimize the way you serve your stakeholders and customers

Develop products and services to meet ever-evolving needs

Manage operations and mitigate risk

Harness the value of your data

The journey to being data-driven

The journey to declaring that you are a data-driven organization requires a pit stop at data enablement.

The Data Economy

Data Disengaged

You have a low appetite for data and rarely use data for decision making.

Data Enabled

Technology, data architecture, and people and processes are optimized and supported by data governance.

Data Driven

You are differentiating and competing on data and analytics; described as a “data first” organization. You’re collaborating through data. Data is an asset.

Data governance is essential for any organization that makes decisions about how it uses its data.

Data governance is an enabling framework of decision rights, responsibilities, and accountabilities for data assets across the enterprise.

Data governance is:

• Executed according to agreed-upon models that describe who can take what actions with what information, when, and using what methods (Olavsrud, 2021).
• True business-IT collaboration that will lead to increased consistency and confidence in data to support decision making. This, in turn, helps fuel innovation and growth.

If done correctly, data governance is not:

• An annoying, finger-waving roadblock in the way of getting things done.
• Meant to solve all data-related business or IT problems in an organization.
• An inhibitor or impediment to using and sharing data.

Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

Create impactful data governance by embedding it within enterprise governance

Organizational drivers for data governance

Data governance personas:

Conformance: Establishing data governance to meet regulations and compliance requirements.

Performance: Establishing data governance to fuel data-driven decision making for driving business value and managing and mitigating business risk.

Data Governance is not a one-person show

• Data governance needs a leader and a home. Define who is going to be leading, driving, and steering data governance in your organization.
• Senior executive leaders play a crucial role in championing and bringing visibility to the value of data and data governance. This is vital for building and fostering a culture of data excellence.
• Effective data governance comes with business and IT alignment, collaboration, and formally defined roles around data leadership, ownership, and stewardship.

Traditional data governance organizational structure

A traditional structure includes committees and roles that span across strategic, tactical, and operational duties. There is no one-size-fits-all data governance structure. However, most organizations follow a similar pattern when establishing committees, councils, and cross-functional groups. Most organizations strive to identify roles and responsibilities at a strategic and operational level. Several factors will influence the structure of the program, such as the focus of the data governance project and the maturity and size of the organization.

A healthy data culture is key to amplifying the power of your data.

“Albert Einstein is said to have remarked, ‘The world cannot be changed without changing our thinking.’ What is clear is that the greatest barrier to data success today is business culture, not lagging technology. “– Randy Bean, 2020

What does it look like?

• Everybody knows the data.
• Everybody trusts the data.
• Everybody talks about the data.

“It is not enough for companies to embrace modern data architectures, agile methodologies, and integrated business-data teams, or to establish centers of excellence to accelerate data initiatives, when only about 1 in 4 executives reported that their organization has successfully forged a data culture.”– Randy Bean, 2020

Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture

• In a data-driven culture, decisions are made based on data evidence, not on gut instinct.
• Data often has untapped potential. A data-driven culture builds tools and skills, builds users’ trust in the condition and sources of data, and raises the data skills and understanding among their people on the front lines.
• Building a data culture takes an ongoing investment of time, effort, and money. This investment will not achieve the transformation you want without data literacy at the grassroots level.

Data-driven culture = “data matters to our company”

Despite investments in data initiative, organizations are carrying high levels of data debt

Data debt is “the accumulated cost that is associated with the sub-optimal governance of data assets in an enterprise, like technical debt.”

Data debt is a problem for 78% of organizations.

40% of organizations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.

66% of organizations say a backlog of data debt is impacting new data management initiatives.

33% of organizations are not able to get value from a new system or technology investment.

30% of organizations are unable to become data-driven.

Source: Experian, 2020

Absent or sub-optimal data governance leads to data debt

Only 3% of companies’ data meets basic quality standards. (Source: Nagle, et al., 2017)

Organizations suspect 28% of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way. (Source: Experian, 2020)

Only 51% of organizations consider the current state of their CRM or ERP data to be clean, allowing them to fully leverage it. (Source: Experian, 2020)

35% of organizations say they’re not able to see a ROI for data management initiatives. (Source: Experian, 2020)

Embrace the technology

Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:

• Data catalog
• Business data glossary
• Data lineage
• Metadata management

While data governance tools and technologies are no panacea, leverage their automated and AI-enabled capabilities to augment your data governance program.

Measure success to demonstrate tangible business value

Put data governance into the context of the business:

• Tie the value of data governance and its initiatives back to the business capabilities that are enabled.
• Leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with senior leadership.

Don’t let measurement be an afterthought:

Start substantiating early on how you are going to measure success as your data governance program evolves.

Build a right-sized roadmap

Formulate an actionable roadmap that is right-sized to deliver value in your organization.

Key considerations:

• When building your data governance roadmap, ensure you do so through an enterprise lens. Be cognizant of other initiatives that might be coming down the pipeline that may require you to align your data governance milestones accordingly.
• Apart from doing your planning with consideration for other big projects or launches that might be in-flight and require the time and attention of your data governance partners, also be mindful of the more routine yet still demanding initiatives.
• When doing your roadmapping, consider factors like the organization’s fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolize the time and focus of personnel key to delivering on your data governance milestones.

Sample milestones:

Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition

Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.

Data Governance Charter and Policies

Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.

Data Culture Diagnostic

Understand the organization’s current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

Use Case Build and Prioritization

Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritize accordingly.

Business Data Glossary

Build and/or refresh the business’ glossary for addressing data definitions and standardization issues.

Tools & Technology

Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).

Key takeaways for effective business-driven data governance

Data governance leadership and sponsorship is key.

Ensure strategic business alignment.

Build and foster a culture of data excellence.

Evolve along the data journey.

Make data governance an enabler, not a hindrance.

Insight summary

Overarching insight

Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the impact of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

Insight 1

Data governance should not sit as an island in your organization. It must continuously align with the organization’s enterprise governance function. It shouldn’t be perceived as a pet project of IT, but rather as an enterprise-wide, business-driven initiative.

Insight 2

Ensure your data governance program delivers measurable business value by aligning the associated data governance initiatives with the business architecture. Leverage the measures of success or KPIs of the underlying business capabilities to demonstrate the value data governance has yielded for the organization.

Insight 3

Data governance remains the foundation of all forms of reporting and analytics. Advanced capabilities such as AI and machine learning require effectively governed data to fuel their success.

Tactical insight

Tailor your data literacy program to meet your organization’s needs, filling your range of knowledge gaps and catering to your different levels of stakeholders. When it comes to rolling out a data literacy program, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your data literacy program is intended to fill the knowledge gaps about data, as they exist in your organization. It should be targeted across the board – from your executive leadership and management through to the subject matter experts across different lines of the business in your organization.

Info-Tech’s methodology for establishing data governance

Blueprint deliverables

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

Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

Use the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook as you plan, build, roll-out, and scale data governance in your organization.

Data Use Case Framework Template

This template takes you through a business needs gathering activity to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organization’s data-related problems and opportunities.

Business Data Glossary

Use this template to document the key data assets that are to be governed and create a data flow diagram for your organization.

Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard

Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to understand how your organization scores across 10 areas relating to data culture.

Key deliverable:

Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

Measure the value of this blueprint

Leverage this blueprint’s approach to ensure your data governance initiatives align and support your key value streams and their business capabilities.

• Aligning your data governance program and its initiatives to your organization’s business capabilities is vital for tracing and demonstrating measurable business value for the program.
• This alignment of data governance with value streams and business capabilities enables you to use business-defined KPIs and demonstrate tangible value.

In phases 1 and 2 of this blueprint, we will help you establish the business context, define your business drivers and KPIs, and understand your current data governance capabilities and strengths.

In phase 3, we will help you develop a plan and a roadmap for addressing any gaps and improving the relevant data governance capabilities so that data is well positioned to deliver on those defined business metrics.

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 keeps 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 are used throughout all four options.

Establish Data Governance project overview

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

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

Workshop overview

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

Phase 1

Build Business and User Context

“When business users are invited to participate in the conversation around data with data users and IT, it adds a fundamental dimension — business context. Without a real understanding of how data ties back to the business, the value of analysis and insights can get lost.” – Jason Lim, Alation

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

• Identify Your Business Capabilities
• Define your Organization’s Key Business Capabilities
• Develop a Strategy Map that Aligns Business Capabilities to Your Strategic Focus

This phase involves the following participants:

• Data Governance Leader/Data Leader (CDO)
• Senior Business Leaders
• Business SMEs
• Data Leadership, Data Owners, Data Stewards and Custodians

Step 1.1

Substantiate Business Drivers

Activities

1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities

1.1.2 Categorize Your Organization’s Key Business Capabilities

1.1.3 Develop a Strategy Map Tied to Data Governance

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Leverage your organization’s existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map, guided by info-Tech’s approach
• Determine which business capabilities are considered high priority by your organization
• Map your organization’s strategic objectives to value streams and capabilities to communicate how objectives are realized with the support of data

Outcomes of this step

• A foundation for data governance initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

Info-Tech Insight

Gaining a sound understanding of your business architecture (value streams and business capabilities) is a critical foundation for establishing and sustaining a data governance program that delivers measurable business value.

1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities

Confirm your organization's existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map:

• If you have an existing business capability map, meet with the relevant business owners/stakeholders to confirm that the content is accurate and up to date. Confirm the value streams (how your organization creates and captures value) and their business capabilities are reflective of the organization’s current business environment.
• If you do not have an existing business capability map, follow this activity to initiate the formulation of a map (value streams and related business capabilities):
  1. Define the organization’s value streams. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define how your organization creates and captures value.
  2. Define the relevant business capabilities. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define the business capabilities.

Note: A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities are business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.” They represent stable business functions, are unique and independent of each other, and typically will have a defined business outcome.

Input

• List of confirmed value streams and their related business capabilities

Output

• Business capability map with value streams for your organization

Materials

• Your existing business capability map or the template provided in the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook accompanying this blueprint

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Data stewards
• Data custodians
• Data Governance Working Group

For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

Define or validate the organization’s value streams

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. These value realization activities, in turn, depend on data.

If the organization does not have a business architecture function to conduct and guide Activity 1.1.1, you can leverage the following approach:

• Meet with key stakeholders regarding this topic, then discuss and document your findings.
• When trying to identify the right stakeholders, consider: Who are the decision makers and key influencers? Who will impact this piece of business architecture related work? Who has the relevant skills, competencies, experience, and knowledge about the organization?
• Engage with these stakeholders to define and validate how the organization creates value.
• Consider:
  • Who are your main stakeholders? This will depend on the industry in which you operate. For example, customers, residents, citizens, constituents, students, patients.
  • What are your stakeholders looking to accomplish?
  • How does your organization’s products and/or services help them accomplish that?
  • What are the benefits your organization delivers to them and how does your organization deliver those benefits?
  • How do your stakeholders receive those benefits?

Align data governance to the organization's value realization activities.

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

Info-Tech Insight

Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the possibilities of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, negative impact to reputation and brand, and/or increased exposure to business risk.

Example of value streams – Retail Banking

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Retail Banking

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

Example of value streams – Higher Education

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Higher Education

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

Example of value streams – Local Government

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Local Government

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

Example of value streams – Manufacturing

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Manufacturing

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

Example of value streams – Retail

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Retail

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

Define the organization’s business capabilities in a business capability map

A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities represent stable business functions and typically will have a defined business outcome.

Business capabilities can be thought of as business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.”

If your organization doesn’t already have a business capability map, you can leverage the following approach to build one. This initiative requires a good understanding of the business. By working with the right stakeholders, you can develop a business capability map that speaks a common language and accurately depicts your business.

Working with the stakeholders as described above:

• Analyze the value streams to identify and describe the organization’s capabilities that support them.
• Consider: What is the objective of your value stream? (This can highlight which capabilities support which value stream.)
• As you initiate your engagement with your stakeholders, don’t start a blank page. Leverage the examples on the next slides as a starting point for your business capability map.
• When using these examples, consider: What are the activities that make up your particular business? Keep the ones that apply to your organization, remove the ones that don’t, and add any needed.

Align data governance to the organization's value realization activities.

Info-Tech Insight

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

Example business capability map – Retail Banking

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip:

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

Example business capability map for: Retail Banking

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

Example business capability map – Higher Education

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip:

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

Example business capability map for: Higher Education

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

Example business capability map – Local Government

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip:

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

Example business capability map for: Local Government

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

Example business capability map – Manufacturing

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip:

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

Example business capability map for: Manufacturing

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

Example business capability map - Retail

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip:

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.

Example business capability map for: Retail

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

1.1.2 Categorize Your Organization’s Key Capabilities

Determine which capabilities are considered high priority in your organization.

1. Categorize or heatmap the organization’s key capabilities. Consult with senior and other key business stakeholders to categorize and prioritize the business’ capabilities. This will aid in ensuring your data governance future state planning is aligned with the mandate of the business. One approach to prioritizing capabilities with business stakeholders is to examine them through the lens of cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, and/or by high value/high risk.
2. Identify cost advantage creators. Focus on capabilities that drive a cost advantage for your organization. Highlight these capabilities and prioritize programs that support them.
3. Identify competitive advantage differentiators. Focus on capabilities that give your organization an edge over rivals or other players in your industry.

This categorization/prioritization exercise helps highlight prime areas of opportunity for building use cases, determining prioritization, and the overall optimization of data and data governance.

Input

• Strategic insight from senior business stakeholders on the business capabilities that drive value for the organization

Output

• Business capabilities categorized and prioritized (e.g. cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, high value/high risk)

Materials

• Your existing business capability map or the business capability map derived in the previous activity

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Data stewards
• Data custodians
• Data Governance Working Group

For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

Example of business capabilities categorization or heatmapping – Retail

This exercise is useful in ensuring the data governance program is focused and aligned to support the priorities and direction of the business.

• Depending on the mandate from the business, priority may be on developing cost advantage. Hence the capabilities that deliver efficiency gains are the ones considered to be cost advantage creators.
• The business’ priority may be on maintaining or gaining a competitive advantage over its industry counterparts. Differentiation might be achieved in delivering unique or enhanced products, services, and/or experiences, and the focus will tend to be on the capabilities that are more end-stakeholder-facing (e.g. customer-, student-, patient,- and/or constituent-facing). These are the organization’s competitive advantage creators.

Example: Retail

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

1.1.3 Develop a Strategy Map Tied to Data Governance

Identify the strategic objectives for the business. Knowing the key strategic objectives will drive business-data governance alignment. It’s important to make sure the right strategic objectives of the organization have been identified and are well understood.

1. Meet with senior business leaders and other relevant stakeholders to help identify and document the key strategic objectives for the business.
2. Leverage their knowledge of the organization’s business strategy and strategic priorities to visually represent how these map to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to data and data governance needs and initiatives. Tip: Your map is one way to visually communicate and link the business strategy to other levels of the organization.
3. Confirm the strategy mapping with other relevant stakeholders.

Guide to creating your map: Starting with strategic objectives, map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance to initiatives that support those capabilities. This is one approach to help you prioritize the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

Input

• Strategic objectives as outlined by the organization’s business strategy and confirmed by senior leaders

Output

• A strategy map that maps your organizational strategic objectives to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to data program

Materials

• Your existing business capability map or the one created in the previous step
• The strategy map template provided in the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook
• Business strategy

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Data stewards
• Data custodians
• Data Governance Working Group

Download Info-Tech’s Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

Example of a strategy map tied to data governance

• Strategic objectives are the outcomes that the organization is looking to achieve.
• Value streams enable an organization to create and capture value in the market through interconnected activities that support strategic objectives.
• Business capabilities define what a business does to enable value creation in value streams.
• Data capabilities and initiatives are descriptions of action items on the data and data governance roadmap and which will enable one or multiple business capabilities in its desired target state.

Info-Tech Tip:

Start with the strategic objectives, then map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance initiatives that support those capabilities. This process will help you prioritize the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

Example: Retail

For this strategy map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

Step 1.2

Build High-Value Use Cases for Data Governance

Activities

1.2.1 Build High-Value Use Cases

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Leveraging your categorized business capability map to conduct deep-dive sessions with key business stakeholders for creating high-value uses cases
• Discussing current challenges, risks, and opportunities associated with the use of data across the lines of business
• Exploring which other business capabilities, stakeholder groups, and business units will be impacted

Outcomes of this step

• Relevant use cases that articulate the data-related challenges, needs, or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed ,will deliver value to the organization

Info-Tech Tip

One of the most important aspects when building use cases is to ensure you include KPIs or measures of success. You have to be able to demonstrate how the use case ties back to the organizational priorities or delivers measurable business value. Leverage the KPIs and success factors of the business capabilities tied to each particular use case.

1.2.1 Build High-Value Use Cases

This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owner, stewards, SMEs) from a particular line of business as well as the relevant data custodian(s) to build cases for their units. Leverage the business capability map you created for facilitating this act.
2. Leverage Info-Tech’s framework for data requirements and methodology for creating use cases, as outlined in the Data Use Case Framework Template and seen on the next slide.
3. Have the stakeholders move through each breakout session outlined in the Use Case Worksheet. Use flip charts or a whiteboard to brainstorm and document their thoughts.
4. Debrief and document results in the Data Use Case Framework Template
5. Repeat this exercise with as many lines of the business as possible, leveraging your business capability map to guide your progress and align with business value.

Tip: Don’t conclude these use case discussions without substantiating what measures of success will be used to demonstrate the business value of the effort to produce the desired future state, as relevant to each particular use case.

Input

• Value streams and business capabilities as defined by business leaders
• Business stakeholders’ subject area expertise
• Data custodian systems, integration, and data knowledge

Output

• Use cases that articulate data-related challenges, needs or opportunities that are tied to defined business capabilities and hence if addressed will deliver measurable value to the organization.

Materials

• Your business capability map from activity 1.1.1
• Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template
• Whiteboard or flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
• Markers/pens

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Data stewards and business SMEs
• Data custodians
• Data Governance Working Group

Download Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template

Info-Tech’s Framework for Building Use Cases

Objective: This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

Leveraging your business capability map, build use cases that align with the organization’s key business capabilities.

Consider:

• Is the business capability a cost advantage creator or an industry differentiator?
• Is the business capability currently underserved by data?
• Does this need to be addressed? If so, is this risk- or value-driven?

Info-Tech’s Data Requirements and Mapping Methodology for Creating Use Cases

1. What business capability (or capabilities) is this use case tied to for your business area(s)?
2. What are your data-related challenges in performing this today?
3. What are the steps in this process/activity today?
4. What are the applications/systems used at each step today?
5. What data domains are involved, created, used, and/or transformed at each step today?
6. What does an ideal or improved state look like?
7. What other business units, business capabilities, activities, and/or processes will be impacted or improved if this issue was solved?
8. Who are the stakeholders impacted by these changes? Who needs to be consulted?
9. What are the risks to the organization (business capability, revenue, reputation, customer loyalty, etc.) if this is not addressed?
10. What compliance, regulatory, and/or policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?
11. What measures of success or change should we use to prove the value of the effort (such as KPIs, ROI)? What is the measurable business value of doing this?

The resulting use cases are to be prioritized and leveraged for informing the business case and the data governance capabilities optimization plan.

Taken from Info-Tech’s Data Use Case Framework Template

Phase 2

Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

• Understand the Key Components of Data Governance
• Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

This phase involves the following participants:

• Data Leadership
• Data Ownership & Stewardship
• Policies & Procedures
• Data Literacy & Culture
• Operating Model
• Data Management
• Data Privacy & Security
• Enterprise Projects & Services

Step 2.1

Understand the Key Components of Data Governance

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Understanding the core components of an effective data governance program and determining your organization’s current capabilities in these areas:
  • Data Leadership
  • Data Ownership & Stewardship
  • Policies & Procedures
  • Data Literacy & Culture
  • Operating Model
  • Data Management
  • Data Privacy & Security
  • Enterprise Projects & Services

Outcomes of this step

• An understanding the core components of an effective data governance program
• An understanding your organization’s current data governance capabilities

Review: Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

Key components of data governance

A well-defined data governance program will deliver:

• Defined accountability and responsibility for data.
• Improved knowledge and common understanding of the organization’s data assets.
• Elevated trust and confidence in traceable data.
• Improved data ROI and reduced data debt.
• An enabling framework for supporting the ethical use and handling of data.
• A foundation for building and fostering a data-driven and data-literate organizational culture.

The key components of establishing sustainable enterprise data governance, taken from Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework:

• Data Leadership
• Data Ownership & Stewardship
• Operating Model
• Policies & Procedures
• Data Literacy & Culture
• Data Management
• Data Privacy & Security
• Enterprise Projects & Services

Data Leadership

• Data governance needs a dedicated head or leader to steer the organization’s data governance program.
• For organizations that do have a chief data officer (CDO), their office is the ideal and effective home for data governance.
• Heads of data governance also have titles such as director of data governance, director of data quality, and director of analytics.
• The head of your data governance program works with all stakeholders and partners to ensure there is continuous enterprise governance alignment and oversight and to drive the program’s direction.
• While key stakeholders from the business and IT will play vital data governance roles, the head of data governance steers the various components, stakeholders, and initiatives, and provides oversight of the overall program.
• Vital data governance roles include: data owners, data stewards, data custodians, data governance steering committee (or your organization’s equivalent), and any data governance working group(s).

The role of the CDO: the voice of data

The office of the chief data officer (CDO):

• Has a cross-organizational vision and strategy for data.
• Owns and drives the data strategy; ensures it supports the overall organizational strategic direction and business goals.
• Leads the organizational data initiatives, including data governance
• Is accountable for the policy, strategy, data standards, and data literacy necessary for the organization to operate effectively.
• Educates users and leaders about what it means to be “data-driven.”
• Builds and fosters a culture of data excellence.

“Compared to most of their C-suite colleagues, the CDO is faced with a unique set of problems. The role is still being defined. The chief data officer is bringing a new dimension and focus to the organization: ‘data.’ ”

– Carruthers and Jackson, 2020

Who does the CDO report to?

• The CDO should be a true C- level executive.
• Where the organization places the CDO role in the structure sends an important signal to the business about how much it values data.

“The title matters. In my opinion, you can’t have a CDO without executive authority. Otherwise no one will listen.”

– Anonymous European CDO

“The reporting structure depends on who’s the ‘glue’ that ties together all these uniquely skilled individuals.”

– John Kemp, Senior Director, Executive Services, Info-Tech Research Group

Data Ownership & Stewardship

Who are best suited to be data owners?

• Wherever they may sit in your organization, data owners will typically have the highest stake in that data.
• Data owners need to be suitably senior and have the necessary decision-making power.
• They have the highest interest in the related business data domain, whether they are the head of a business unit or the head of a line of business that produces data or consumes data (or both).
• If they are neither of these, it’s unlikely they will have the interest in the data (in terms of its quality, protection, ethical use, and handling, for instance) necessary to undertake and adopt the role effectively.

Data owners are typically senior business leaders with the following characteristics:

• Positioned to accept accountability for their data domain.
• Hold authority and influence to affect change, including across business processes and systems, needed to improve data quality, use, handling, integration, etc.
• Have access to a budget and resources for data initiatives such as resolving data quality issues, data cleansing initiatives, business data catalog build, related tools and technology, policy management, etc.
• Hold the influence needed to drive change in behavior and culture.
• Act as ambassadors of data and its value as an organizational strategic asset.

Right-size your data governance organizational structure

• Most organizations strive to identify roles and responsibilities at a strategic and operational level. Several factors will influence the structure of the program such as the focus of the data governance project as well as the maturity and size of the organization.
• Your data governance structure has to work for your organization, and it has to evolve as the organization evolves.
• Formulate your blend of data governance roles, committees, councils, and cross-functional groups, that make sense for your organization.
• Your data governance organizational structure should not add complexity or bureaucracy to your organization’s data landscape; it should support and enable your principle of treating data as an asset.

There is no one-size-fits-all data governance organizational structure.

Critical roles and responsibilities for data governance

Data Governance Working Groups

Data governance working groups:

• Are cross-functional teams
• Deliver on data governance projects, initiatives, and ad hoc review committees.

Data Stewards

Traditionally, data stewards:

• Serve on an operational level addressing issues related to adherence to standards/procedures, monitoring data quality, raising issues identified, etc.
• Are responsible for managing access, quality, escalating issues, etc.

Data Custodians

• Traditionally, data custodians:

• Serve on an operational level addressing issues related to data and database administration.
• Support the management of access, data quality, escalating issues, etc.
• Are SMEs from IT and database administration.

Example: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

Info-Tech Insight

Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

Enabling business capabilities with data governance role definitions

Operating Model

Your operating model is the key to designing and operationalizing a form of data governance that delivers measurable business value to your organization.

“Generate excitement for data: When people are excited and committed to the vision of data enablement, they’re more likely to help ensure that data is high quality and safe.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

Operating Model

Defining your data governance operating model will help create a well-oiled program that sustainably delivers value to the organization and manages risks while building and fostering a culture of data excellence along the way. Some organizations are able to establish a formal data governance office, whether independent or attached to the office of the chief data officer. Regardless of how you are organized, data governance requires a home, a leader, and an operating model to ensure its sustainability and evolution.

Examples of focus areas for your operating model:

• Delivery: While there are core tenets to every data governance program, there is a level of variability in the implementation of data governance programs across organizations, sectors, and industries. Every organization has its own particular drivers and mandates, so the level and rigor applied will also vary.

The key is to determine what style will work best in your organization, taking into consideration your organizational culture, executive leadership support (present and ongoing), catalysts such as other enterprise-wide transformative and modernization initiatives, and/or regulatory and compliances drivers.

• Communication: Communication is vital across all levels and stakeholder groups. For instance, there needs to be communication from the data governance office up to senior leadership, as well as communication within the data governance organization, which is typically made up of the data governance steering committee, data governance council, executive sponsor/champion, data stewards, and data custodians and working groups.

Furthermore, communication with the wider organization of data producers, users, and consumers is one of the core elements of the overall data governance communications plan.

Communication is vital for ensuring acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users as well as for sharing success stories of the program.

Operating Model

Tie the value of data governance and its initiatives back to the business capabilities that are enabled.

“Leading organizations invest in change management to build data supporters and convert the skeptics. This can be the most difficult part of the program, as it requires motivating employees to use data and encouraging producers to share it (and ideally improve its quality at the source)[.]” – Petzold, et al., 2020

Operating Model

Examples of focus areas for your operating model (continued):

• Change management and issue resolution: Data governance initiatives will very likely bring about a level of organizational disruption, with governance recommendations and future state requiring potentially significant business change. This may include a redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units, which will require tweaking the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data.

Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the steps necessary to adapt and reduce potential confrontation. By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

• Performance measuring, monitoring and reporting: Measuring and reporting on performance, successes, and realization of tangible business value are a must for sustaining, growing, and scaling your data governance program.

Aligning your data governance to the organization's value realization activities enables you to leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with your senior business leadership.

Info-Tech Tip:

Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

Policies, Procedures & Standards

“Data standards are the rules by which data are described and recorded. In order to share, exchange, and understand data, we must standardize the format as well as the meaning.” – U.S. Geological Survey

Policies, Procedures & Standards

• When defining, updating, or refreshing your data policies, procedures, and standards, ensure they are relevant, serve a purpose, and/or support the use of data in the organization.
• Avoid the common pitfall of building out a host of policies, procedures, and standards that are never used or followed by users and therefore don’t bring value or serve to mitigate risk for the organization.
• Data policies can be thought of as formal statements and are typically created, approved, and updated by the organization’s data decision-making body (such as a data governance steering committee).
• Data standards and procedures function as actions, or rules, that support the policies and their statements.
• Standards and procedures are designed to standardize the processes during the overall data lifecycle. Procedures are instructions to achieve the objectives of the policies. The procedures are iterative and will be updated with approval from your data governance committee as needed.
• Your organization’s data policies, standards, and procedures should not bog down or inhibit users; rather, they should enable confident data use and handling across the overall data lifecycle. They should support more effective and seamless data capture, integration, aggregation, sharing, and retention of data in the organization.

Examples of data policies:

• Data Classification Policy
• Data Retention Policy
• Data Entry Policy
• Data Backup Policy
• Data Provenance Policy
• Data Management Policy

Data Domain Documentation

Select the correct granularity for your business need

Sources: Dataversity; Atlan; Analytics8

Data Domain Documentation Examples

Data Culture

“Organizational culture can accelerate the application of analytics, amplify its power, and steer companies away from risky outcomes.” – Petzold, et al., 2020

A healthy data culture is key to amplifying the power of your data and to building and sustaining an effective data governance program.

What does a healthy data culture look like?

• Everybody knows the data.
• Everybody trusts the data.
• Everybody talks about the data.

Building a culture of data excellence.

Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to understand your organization’s culture around data.

Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for more information on the Data Culture Diagnostic

Cultivating a data-driven culture is not easy

“People are at the heart of every culture, and one of the biggest challenges to creating a data culture is bringing everyone into the fold.” – Lim, Alation

It cannot be purchased or manufactured,

It must be nurtured and developed,

And it must evolve as the business, user, and data landscapes evolve.

“Companies that have succeeded in their data-driven efforts understand that forging a data culture is a relentless pursuit, and magic bullets and bromides do not deliver results.” – Randy Bean, 2020

Hallmarks of a data-driven culture

There is a trusted, single source of data the whole company can draw from.

There’s a business glossary and data catalog and users know what the data fields mean.

Users have access to data and analytics tools. Employees can leverage data immediately to resolve a situation, perform an activity, or make a decision – including frontline workers.

Data literacy, the ability to collect, manage, evaluate, and apply data in a critical manner, is high.

Data is used for decision making. The company encourages decisions based on objective data and the intelligent application of it.

A data-driven culture requires a number of elements:

• High-quality data
• Broad access and data literacy
• Data-driven decision-making processes
• Effective communication

Data Literacy

Data literacy is an essential part of a data-driven culture.

• Building a data-driven culture takes an ongoing investment of time, effort, and money.
• This investment will not realize its full return without building up the organization’s data literacy.
• Data literacy is about filling data knowledge gaps across all levels of the organization.
• It’s about ensuring all users – senior leadership right through to core users – are equipped with appropriate levels of training, skills, understanding, and awareness around the organization’s data and the use of associated tools and technologies. Data literacy ensures users have the data they need and they know how to interpret and leverage it.
• Data literacy drives the appetite, demand, and consumption for data.
• A data-literate culture is one where the users feel confident and skilled in their use of data, leveraging it for making informed or evidence-based decisions and generating insights for the organization.

Data Management

• Data governance serves as an enabler to all of the core components that make up data management:
  • Data quality management
  • Data architecture management
  • Data platform
  • Data integration
  • Data operations management
  • Data risk management
  • Reference and master data management (MDM)
  • Document and content management
  • Metadata management
  • Business intelligence (BI), reporting, analytics and advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML)
• Key tools such as the business data glossary and data catalog are vital for operationalizing data governance and in supporting data management disciplines such as data quality management, metadata management, and MDM as well as BI, reporting, and analytics.

Enterprise Projects & Services

• Data governance serves as an enabler to enterprise projects and services that require, use, share, sell, and/or rely on data for their viability and, ultimately, their success.
• Folding or embedding data governance into the organization’s project management function or project management office (PMO) serves to ensure that, for any initiative, suitable consideration is given to how data is treated.
• This may include defining parameters, following standards and procedures around bringing in new sources of data, integrating that data into the organization’s data ecosystem, using and sharing that data, and retaining that data post-project completion.
• The data governance function helps to identify and manage any ethical issues, whether at the start of the project and/or throughout.
• It provides a foundation for asking relevant questions as it relates to the use or incorporation of data in delivering the specific project or service. Do we know where the data obtained from? Do we have rights to use that data? Are there legislations, policies, or regulations that guide or dictate how that data can be used? What are the positive effects, negative impacts, and/or risks associated with our intended use of that data? Are we positioned to mitigate those risks?
• Mature data governance creates organizations where the above considerations around data management and the ethical use and handling of data is routinely implemented across the business and in the rollout and delivery of projects and services.

Data Privacy & Security

• Data governance supports the organization’s data privacy and security functions.
• Key tools include the data classification policy and standards and defined roles around data ownership and data stewardship. These are vital for operationalizing data governance and supporting data privacy, security, and the ethical use and handling of data.
• While some organizations may have a dedicated data security and privacy group, data governance provides an added level of oversight in this regard.
• Some of the typical checks and balances include ensuring:
  • There are policies and procedures in place to restrict and monitor staff’s access to data (one common way this is done is according to job descriptions and responsibilities) and that these comply with relevant laws and regulations.
  • There’s a data classification scheme in place where data has been classified on a hierarchy of sensitivity (e.g. top secret, confidential, internal, limited, public).
  • The organization has a comprehensive data security framework, including administrative, physical, and technical procedures for addressing data security issues (e.g. password management and regular training).
  • Risk assessments are conducted, including an evaluation of risks and vulnerabilities related to intentional and unintentional misuse of data.
  • Policies and procedures are in place to mitigate the risks associated with incidents such as data breaches.
  • The organization regularly audits and monitors its data security.

Ethical Use & Handling of Data

Data governance will support your organization’s ethical use and handling of data by facilitating definition around important factors, such as:

• What are the various data assets in the organization and what purpose(s) can they be used for? Are there any limitations?
• Who is the related data owner? Who holds accountability for that data? Who will be answerable?
• Where was the data obtained from? What is the intended use of that data? Do you have rights to use that data? Are there legislations, policies, or regulations that guide or dictate how that data can be used?
• What are the positive effects, negative impacts, and/or risks associated with the use of that data?

Ethical Use & Handling of Data

• Data governance serves as an enabler to the ethical use and handling of an organization’s data.
• The Open Data Institute (ODI) defines data ethics as: “A branch of ethics that evaluates data practices with the potential to adversely impact on people and society – in data collection, sharing and use.”
• Data ethics relates to good practice around how data is collected, used and shared. It’s especially relevant when data activities have the potential to impact people and society, whether directly or indirectly (Open Data Institute, 2019).
• A failure to handle and use data ethically can negatively impact an organization’s direct stakeholders and/or the public at large, lead to a loss of trust and confidence in the organization's products and services, lead to financial loss, and impact the organization’s brand, reputation, and legal standing.
• Data governance plays a vital role in building and managing your data assets, knowing what data you have, and knowing the limitations of that data. Data ownership, data stewardship, and your data governance decision-making body are key tenets and foundational components of your data governance. They enable an organization to define, categorize, and confidently make decisions about its data.

Step 2.2

Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

Activities

2.2.1 Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Conduct a data culture survey or leverage Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic to increase your understanding of your organization’s data culture

Outcomes of this step

• An understanding of your organizational data culture

2.2.1 Gauge Your Organization’s Current Data Culture

Conduct a Data Culture Survey or Diagnostic

The objectives of conducting a data culture survey are to increase the understanding of the organization's data culture, your users’ appetite for data, and their appreciation for data in terms of governance, quality, accessibility, ownership, and stewardship. To perform a data culture survey:

1. Identify members of the data user base, data consumers, and other key stakeholders for surveying.
2. Conduct an information session to introduce Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic survey. Explain the objective and importance of the survey and its role in helping to understand the organization’s current data culture and inform the improvement of that culture.
3. Roll out the Info-Tech Data Culture Diagnostic survey to the identified users and stakeholders.
4. Debrief and document the results and scorecard in the Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings document.

Input

• Email addresses of participants in your organization who should receive the survey

Output

• Your organization’s Data Culture Scorecard for understanding current data culture as it relates to the use and consumption of data
• An understanding of whether data is currently perceived to be an asset to the organization

Materials

• Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic service

Participants

• Participants include those at the senior leadership level through to middle management, as well as other business stakeholders at varying levels across the organization
• Data owners, stewards, and custodians
• Core data users and consumers

Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for details on launching a Data Culture Diagnostic.

Phase 3

Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan

“Achieving data success is a journey, not a sprint.” Companies that set a clear course, with reasonable expectations and phased results over a period of time, get to the destination faster.” – Randy Bean, 2020

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

• Build your Data Governance Roadmap
• Develop a target state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

This phase involves the following participants:

• Data Governance Leadership
• Data Owners/Data Stewards
• Data Custodians
• Data Governance Working Group(s)

Step 3.1

Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Build your data governance roadmap
• Develop a target state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

Outcomes of this step

• A foundation for data governance initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

Build a right-sized roadmap

Formulate an actionable roadmap that is right sized to deliver value in your organization.

Key considerations:

• When building your data governance roadmap, ensure you do so through an enterprise lens. Be cognizant of other initiatives that might be coming down the pipeline that may require you to align your data governance milestones accordingly.
• Apart from doing your planning with consideration for other big projects or launches that might be in-flight and require the time and attention of your data governance partners, also be mindful of the more routine yet still demanding initiatives.
• When doing your roadmapping, consider factors like the organization’s fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolize the time and focus of personnel key to delivering on your data governance milestones.

Sample milestones:

Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition

Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.

Data Governance Charter and Policies

Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.

Data Culture Diagnostic

Understand the organization’s current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

Use Case Build and Prioritization

Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritize accordingly.

Business Data Glossary/Catalog

Build and/or refresh the business’ glossary for addressing data definitions and standardization issues.

Tools & Technology

Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).

Recall: Info-Tech’s Data Governance Framework

Build an actionable roadmap

Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Division

Define key roles for getting started.

Use Case Build & Prioritization

Start small and then scale – deliver early wins.

Literacy Program

Start understanding data knowledge gaps, building the program, and delivering.

Tools & Technology

Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you.

Key components of your data governance roadmap

By now, you have assessed current data governance environment and capabilities. Use this assessment, coupled with the driving needs of your business, to plot your data Governance roadmap accordingly.

Sample data governance roadmap milestones:

• Define data governance leadership.
• Define and formalize data ownership and stewardship (as well as the role IT/data management will play as data custodians).
• Build/confirm your business capability map and data domains.
• Build business data use cases specific to business capabilities.
• Define business measures/KPIs for the data governance program (i.e. metrics by use case that are relevant to business capabilities).
• Data management:
  • Build your data glossary or catalog starting with identified and prioritized terms.
  • Define data domains.
• Design and define the data governance operating model (oversight model definition, communication plan, internal marketing such as townhalls, formulate change management plan, RFP of data governance tool and technology options for supporting data governance and its administration).
• Data policies and procedures:
  • Formulate, update, refresh, consolidate, rationalize, and/or retire data policies and procedures.
  • Define policy management and administration framework (i.e. roll-out, maintenance, updates, adherence, system to be used).
• Conduct Info-Tech’s Data Culture Diagnostic or survey (across all levels of the organization).
• Define and formalize the data literacy program (build modules, incorporate into LMS, plan lunch and learn sessions).
• Data privacy and security: build data classification policy, define classification standards.
• Enterprise projects and services: embed data governance in the organization’s PMO, conduct “Data Governance 101” for the PMO.

Defining data governance roles and organizational structure at Organization

The approach employed for defining the data governance roles and supporting organizational structure for .

Key Considerations:

• The data owner and data steward roles are formally defined and documented within the organization. Their involvement is clear, well-defined, and repeatable.
• There are data owners and data stewards for each data domain within the organization. The data steward role is given to someone with a high degree of subject matter expertise.
• Data owners and data stewards are effective in their roles by ensuring that their data domain is clean and free of errors and that they protect the organization against data loss.
• Data owners and data stewards have the authority to make final decisions on data definitions, formats, and standard processes that apply to their respective data sets. Data owners and data stewards have authority regarding who has access to certain data.
• Data owners and data stewards are not from the IT side of the organization. They understand the lifecycle of the data (how it is created, curated, retrieved, used, archived, and destroyed) and they are well-versed in any compliance requirements as it relates to their data.
• The data custodian role is formally defined and is given to the relevant IT expert. This is an individual with technical administrative and/or operational responsibility over data (e.g. a DBA).
• A data governance steering committee exists and is comprised of well-defined roles, responsibilities, executive sponsors, business representatives, and IT experts.
• The data governance steering committee works to provide oversight and enforce policies, procedures, and standards for governing data.
• The data governance working group has cross-functional representation. This comprises business and IT representation, as well as project management and change management where applicable: data stewards, data custodians, business subject matter experts, PM, etc.).
• Data governance meetings are coordinated and communicated about. The meeting agenda is always clear and concise, and meetings review pressing data-related issues. Meeting minutes are consistently documented and communicated.

Sample: Business capabilities to data owner and data stewards mapping for a selected data domain

Info-Tech Insight

Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.

Enable business capabilities with data governance role definitions.

Consider your technology options:

Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:

• Data catalog
• Business data glossary
• Data lineage
• Metadata management

These are some of the data governance tools and technology players. Check out SoftwareReviews for help making better software decisions.

Make the data steward the catalyst for organizational change and driving data culture

The data steward must be empowered and backed politically with decision-making authority, or the role becomes stale and powerless.

Ensuring compliance can be difficult. Data stewards may experience pushback from stakeholders who must deliver on the policies, procedures, and processes that the data steward enforces.

Because the data steward must enforce data processes and liaise with so many different people and departments within the organization, the data steward role should be their primary full-time job function – where possible.

However, in circumstances where budget doesn’t allow a full-time data steward role, develop these skills within the organization by adding data steward responsibilities to individuals who are already managing data sets for their department or line of business.

Info-Tech Tip

A stewardship role is generally more about managing the cultural change that data governance brings. This requires the steward to have exceptional interpersonal skills that will assist in building relationships across departmental boundaries and ensuring that all stakeholders within the organization believe in the initiative, understand the anticipated outcomes, and take some level of responsibility for its success.

Changes to organizational data processes are inevitable; have a communication plan in place to manage change

Create awareness of your data governance program. Use knowledge transfer to get as many people on board as possible.

Data governance initiatives must contain a strong organizational disruption component. A clear and concise communication strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.

By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.

Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organization, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.

Attempting to implement change without an effective communication plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

Info-Tech Insight

Launching a data governance initiative is guaranteed to disrupt the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

Create a common data governance vision that is consistently communicated to the organization

A data governance program should be an enterprise-wide initiative.

To create a strong vision for data governance, there must be participation from the business and IT. A common vision will articulate the state the organization wishes to achieve and how it will reach that state. Visioning helps to develop long-term goals and direction.

Once the vision is established, it must be effectively communicated to everyone, especially those who are involved in creating, managing, disposing, or archiving data.

The data governance program should be periodically refined. This will ensure the organization continues to incorporate best methods and practices as the organization grows and data needs evolve.

Info-Tech Tips

• Use information from the stakeholder interviews to derive business goals and objectives.
• Work to integrate different opinions and perspectives into the overall vision for data governance.
• Brainstorm guiding principles for data and understand the overall value to the organization.

Develop a compelling data governance communications plan to get all departmental lines of business on board

A data governance program will impact all data-driven business units within the organization.

A successful data governance communications plan involves making the initiative visible and promoting staff awareness. Educate the team on how data is collected, distributed, and used, what internal processes use data, and how that data is used across departmental boundaries.

By demonstrating how data governance will affect staff directly, you create a deeper level of understanding across lines of business, and ultimately, a higher level of acceptance for new processes, rules, and guidelines.

A clear and concise communications strategy will raise the profile of data governance within the organization, and staff will understand how the program will benefit them and how they can share in the success of the initiative. This will end up providing support for the initiative across the board.

A proactive communications plan will:

• Assist in overcoming issues with data control, stalemates between stakeholder units, and staff resistance.
• Provide a formalized process for implementing new policies, rules, guidelines, and technologies, and managing organizational data.
• Detail data ownership and accountability for decision making, and identify and resolve data issues throughout the organization.
• Encourage acceptance and support of the initiative.

Info-Tech Tip

Focus on literacy and communication: include training in the communication plan. Providing training for data users on the correct procedures for updating and verifying the accuracy of data, data quality, and standardized data policies will help validate how data governance will benefit them and the organization.

Leverage the data governance program to communicate and promote the value of data within the organization

The data governance program is responsible for continuously promoting the value of data to the organization. The data governance program should seek a variety of ways to educate the organization and data stakeholders on the benefit of data management.

Even if data policies and procedures are created, they will be highly ineffective if they are not properly communicated to the data producers and users alike.

There needs to be a communication plan that highlights how the data producer and user will be affected, what their new responsibilities are, and the value of that change.

To learn how to manage organizational change, refer to Info-Tech’s Master Organizational Change Management Practices.

Understand what makes for an effective policy for data governance

It can be difficult to understand what a policy is, and what it is not. Start by identifying the differences between a policy and standards, guidelines, and procedures.

The following are key elements of a good policy:

Leverage myPolicies, Info-Tech’s web-based application for managing your policies and procedures

Most organizations have problems with policy management. These include:

1. Policies are absent or out of date
2. Employees largely unaware of policies in effect
3. Policies are unmonitored and unenforced
4. Policies are in multiple locations
5. Multiple versions of the same policy exist
6. Policies managed inconsistently across different silos
7. Policies are written poorly by untrained authors
8. Inadequate policy training program
9. Draft policies stall and lose momentum
10. Weak policy support from senior management

Technology should be used as a means to solve these problems and effectively monitor, enforce, and communicate policies.

Product Overview

myPolicies is a web-based solution to create, distribute, and manage corporate policies, procedures, and forms. Our solution provides policy managers with the tools they need to mitigate the risk of sanctions and reduce the administrative burden of policy management. It also enables employees to find the documents relevant to them and build a culture of compliance.

Some key success factors for policy management include:

• Store policies in a central location that is well known and easy to find and access. A key way that technology can help communicate policies is by having them published on a centralized website.
• Link this repository to other policies’ taxonomies of your organization. E.g. HR policies to provide a single interface for employees to access guidance across the organization.
• Reassess policies annually at a minimum. myPolicies can remind you to update the organization’s policies at the appropriate time.
• Make the repository searchable and easily navigable.
• myPolicies helps you do all this and more.

Enforce data policies to promote consistency of business processes

Data policies are short statements that seek to manage the creation, acquisition, integrity, security, compliance, and quality of data. These policies vary amongst organizations, depending on your specific data needs.

• Policies describe what to do, while standards and procedures describe how to do something.
• There should be few data policies, and they should be brief and direct. Policies are living documents and should be continuously updated to respond to the organization’s data needs.
• The data policies should highlight who is responsible for the data under various scenarios and rules around how to manage it effectively.

Examples of Data Policies

Trust

• Data Cleansing and Quality Policy
• Data Entry Policy

Availability

• Acceptable Use Policy
• Data Backup Policy

Security

• Data Security Policy
• Password Policy Template
• User Authorization, Identification, and Authentication Policy Template
• Data Protection Policy

Compliance

• Archiving Policy
• Data Classification Policy
• Data Retention Policy

Leverage data management-related policies to standardize your data management practices

Info-Tech’s Data Management Policy:

This policy establishes uniform data management standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of the organization. This policy applies to all critical data and to all staff who may be creators and/or users of such data.

Info-Tech’s Data Entry Policy:

The integrity and quality of data and evidence used to inform decision making is central to both the short-term and long-term health of an organization. It is essential that required data be sourced appropriately and entered into databases and applications in an accurate and complete manner to ensure the reliability and validity of the data and decisions made based on the data.

Info-Tech’s Data Provenance Policy:

Create policies to keep your data's value, such as:

• Only allow entry of data from reliable sources.
• Employees entering and accessing data must observe requirements for capturing/maintaining provenance metadata.
• Provenance metadata will be used to track the lifecycle of data from creation through to disposal.

Info-Tech’s Data Integration and Virtualization Policy:

This policy aims to assure the organization, staff, and other interested parties that data integration, replication, and virtualization risks are taken seriously. Staff must use the policy (and supporting guidelines) when deciding whether to integrate, replicate, or virtualize data sets.

Select the right mix of metrics to successfully supervise data policies and processes

Policies are only as good as your level of compliance. Ensure supervision controls exist to oversee adherence to policies and procedures.

Although they can be highly subjective, metrics are extremely important to data governance success.

• Establishing metrics that measure the performance of a specific process or data set will:
  • Create a greater degree of ownership from data stewards and data owners.
  • Help identify underperforming individuals.
  • Allow the steering committee to easily communicate tailored objectives to individual data stewards and owners.
• Be cautious when establishing metrics. The wrong metrics can have negative repercussions.
  • They will likely draw attention to an aspect of the process that doesn’t align with the initial strategy.
  • Employees will work hard and grow frustrated as their successes aren’t accurately captured.

Policies are great to have from a legal perspective, but unless they are followed, they will not benefit the organization.

• One of the most useful metrics for policies is currency. This tracks how up to date the policy is and how often employees are informed about the policy. Often, a policy will be introduced and then ignored. Policies must be continuously reviewed by management and employees.
• Some other metrics include adherence (including performance in tests for adherence) and impacts from non-adherence.

Review metrics on an ongoing basis with those data owners/stewards who are accountable, the data governance steering committee, and the executive sponsors.

Establish data standards and procedures for use across all organizational lines of business

A data governance program will impact all data-driven business units within the organization.

• Data management procedures are the methods, techniques, and steps to accomplish a specific data objective. Creating standard data definitions should be one of the first tasks for a data governance steering committee.
• Data moves across all departmental boundaries and lines of business within the organization. These definitions must be developed as a common set of standards that can be accepted and used enterprise wide.
• Consistent data standards and definitions will improve data flow across departmental boundaries and between lines of business.
• Ensure these standards and definitions are used uniformly throughout the organization to maintain reliable and useful data.

Data standards and procedural guidelines will vary from company to company.

Examples include:

• Data modeling and architecture standards.
• Metadata integration and usage procedures.
• Data security standards and procedures.
• Business intelligence standards and procedures.

Info-Tech Tip

Have a fundamental data definition model for the entire business to adhere to. Those in the positions that generate and produce data must follow the common set of standards developed by the steering committee and be accountable for the creation of valid, clean data.

Changes to organizational data processes are inevitable; have a communications plan in place to manage change

Create awareness of your data governance program, using knowledge transfer to get as many people on board as possible.

By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.

Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organization’s culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.

Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organization, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.

Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.

Data governance initiatives will very likely bring about a level of organizational disruption. A clear and concise communications strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.

Info-Tech Tip

Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organization. That disruption doesn’t have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

Additional Support

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

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.

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

Build Your Business and User Context

Work with your core team of stakeholders to build out your data governance strategy map, aligning data governance initiatives with business capabilities, value streams, and, ultimately, your strategic priorities.

Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State

Develop a data governance future state roadmap and plan based on an understanding of your current data governance capabilities, your operating environment, and the driving needs of your business.

Related Info-Tech Research

Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

Create a Data Management Roadmap

Streamline your data management program with our simplified framework.

The First 100 Days as CDO

Be the voice of data in a time of transformation.

Research Contributors

Bibliography

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Allott, Joseph, et al. “Data: The next wave in forestry productivity.” McKinsey & Company, 27 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Bean, Randy. “Why Culture Is the Greatest Barrier to Data Success.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 30 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Brence, Thomas. “Overcoming the Operationalization Challenge with Data Governance at New York Life.” Informatica, 18 March 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Bullmore, Simon, and Stuart Coleman. “ODI Inside Business – a checklist for leaders.” Open Data Institute, 19 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Canadian Institute for Health Information. “Developing and implementing accurate national standards for Canadian health care information.” Canadian Institute for Health Information. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Carruthers, Caroline, and Peter Jackson. “The Secret Ingredients of the Successful CDO.” IRM UK Connects, 23 Feb. 2017.

Dashboards. “Useful KPIs for Healthy Hospital Quality Management.” Dashboards. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Dashboards. “Why (and How) You Should Improve Data Literacy in Your Organization Today.” Dashboards. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Datapine. “Healthcare Key Performance Indicators and Metrics.” Datapine. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Datapine. “KPI Examples & Templates: Measure what matters the most and really impacts your success.” Datapine. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Diaz, Alejandro, et al. “Why data culture matters.” McKinsey Quarterly, Sept. 2018. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Everett, Dan. “Chief Data Officer (CDO): One Job, Four Roles.” Informatica, 9 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Experian. “10 signs you are sitting on a pile of data debt.” Experian. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Fregoni, Silvia. “New Research Reveals Why Some Business Leaders Still Ignore the Data.” Silicon Angle, 1 Oct. 2020.

Informatica. Holistic Data Governance: A Framework for Competitive Advantage. Informatica, 2017. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Knight, Michelle. “What Is a Data Catalog?” Dataversity, 28 Dec. 2017. Web.

Lim, Jason. “Alation 2020.3: Getting Business Users in the Game.” Alation, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

McDonagh, Mariann. “Automating Data Governance.” Erwin, 29 Oct. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

NewVantage Partners. Data-Driven Business Transformation: Connecting Data/AI Investment to Business Outcomes. NewVantage Partners, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Olavsrud, Thor. “What is data governance? A best practices framework for managing data assets.” CIO.com, 18 March 2021. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Open Data Institute. “Introduction to data ethics and the data ethics canvas.” Open Data Institute, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Open Data Institute. “The UK National Data Strategy 2020: doing data ethically.” Open Data Institute, 17 Nov. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Open Data Institute. “What is the Data Ethics Canvas?” Open Data Institute, 3 July 2019. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Pathak, Rahul. “Becoming a Data-Driven Enterprise: Meeting the Challenges, Changing the Culture.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 28 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Redman, Thomas, et al. “Only 3% of Companies’ Data Meets Basic Quality Standards.” Harvard Business Review. 11 Sept 2017.

Petzold, Bryan, et al. “Designing data governance that delivers value.” McKinsey & Company, 26 June 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Smaje, Kate. “How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves.” McKinsey & Company, 12 Aug. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Talend. “The Definitive Guide to Data Governance.” Talend. Accessed 25 June 2021.

“The Powerfully Simple Modern Data Catalog.” Atlan, 2021. Web.

U.S. Geological Survey. “Data Management: Data Standards.” U.S. Geological Survey. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Waller, David. “10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven Culture.” Harvard Business Review, 6 Feb. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

“What is the Difference Between A Business Glossary, A Data Dictionary, and A Data Catalog, and How Do They Play A Role In Modern Data Management?” Analytics8, 23 June 2021. Web.

Wikipedia. “RFM (market research).” Wikipedia. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Windheuser, Christoph, and Nina Wainwright. “Data in a Modern Digital Business.” Thoughtworks, 12 May 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Wright, Tom. “Digital Marketing KPIs - The 12 Key Metrics You Should Be Tracking.” Cascade, 3 March 2021. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing

Reduce costly downtime with a right-sized testing program that improves IT resilience.

Analyst Perspective

Reduce costly downtime with a right-sized testing program that improves IT resilience.

Most businesses make significant investments in disaster recovery and technology resilience. Redundant sites and systems, monitoring, intrusion prevention, backups, training, documentation: it all costs time and money.

But does this investment deliver expected value? Specifically, can you deliver service continuity in a way that meets business requirements?

You can’t know the answer without regularly testing recovery processes and systems. And more than just validation, testing helps you deliver service continuity by finding and addressing gaps in your plans and training your staff on recovery procedures.

Use the insights, tools, and templates in this research to create a streamlined and effective resilience testing program that helps validate recovery capabilities and enhance service reliability, availability, and continuity.

Andrew Sharp

Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

If you treat testing as a pass/fail exercise, you aren’t meeting the end goal of improving organizational resilience. Focus on identifying gaps and risks so you can address them before a real disaster hits.

Process and Outputs

This research is accompanied by templates to help you achieve your goals faster.

1 - Establish the business rationale for DR testing.
2 - Review a range of options for testing.
3 - Prioritize tests that are most valuable to your business.
4 - Create a disaster recovery test plan.
5 - Establish a Test Program to support a regular testing cycle.

Outputs:

Orange activity slides like the one on the left provide directions to help you make key decisions.

Key Deliverable:

Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

Build a plan for your first disaster recovery test.

This document provides a complete example you can use to quickly build your own plan, including goals, milestones, participants, the test-day schedule, and findings from the after-action review.

Why test?

Testing helps you avoid costly downtime

• In a disaster scenario, speed matters. Immediately after an outage, the impact on the organization is small, but impact increases rapidly the longer the outage continues.
• A quick and reliable response and recovery can protect the organization from significant losses.
• A DRP testing and maintenance program helps ensure you’re ready to recover when you need to, rather than figuring it out as you go.

“Routine testing is vital to survive a disaster… that’s when muscle memory sets in. If you don’t test your DR plan it falls [in importance], and you never see how routine changes impact it.”

– Jennifer Goshorn
Chief Administrative Officer
Gunderson Dettmer LLP

Info-Tech members estimated even one day of system downtime could lead to significant revenue losses.

Average estimated potential loss* in thousands of USD due to a 24-hour outage (N=41)

*Data aggregated from 41 business impact analyses (BIAs) conducted with Info-Tech advisory assistance. BIAs evaluate potential revenue loss due to a full day of system downtime, at the worst possible time.

Run tests to enhance disaster recovery plans

Testing improves organizational resilience

• Identify and address gaps in your plans before a real disaster strikes.
• Cross-train staff on systems recovery.
• Go beyond testing technology to test recovery processes.
• Establish a culture that centers resilience in everyday decision-making.

Testing keeps DR documentation ready for action

• Update documentation ahead of tests to prepare for the testing exercise.
• Update documentation after testing to incorporate any lessons learned.

Testing validates that investments in resilience deliver value

• Confirm your organization can meet defined recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs).
• Provide proof of testing for auditors, prospective customers, and insurance applications

Overcome testing challenges

Despite the value of effective recovery testing, most IT organizations struggle to test recovery plans

Common challenges

• Key resources don’t have time for testing exercises.
• You don’t have the technology to support live recovery testing.
• Tests are done ad hoc and lessons learned are lost.
• A lack of business support for test exercises as the value isn’t understood.
• Tests are always artificially simple because RTOs and RPOs must be met to satisfy customer or auditor inquiries

Overcome challenges with a realistic approach:

• Start small with tabletop and recovery tests for specific systems.
• Include recovery tests in operational tasks (e.g. restore systems when you have a maintenance window).
• Create testing plans for larger testing exercises.
• Build on successful tests to streamline testing exercises in the future.
• Don’t make testing a pass-fail exercise. Focus on identifying gaps and risks so you can address them before a real disaster hits.

Go beyond traditional testing

Different test techniques help validate recovery against different threats

• There are many threats to service continuity, including ransomware, severe weather events, geopolitical conflict, legacy systems, staff turnover, and day-to-day outages caused by human error, software updates, hardware failures, or network outages.
• At its core, disaster recovery planning is about recovery. A plan for service recovery will help you mitigate against many threats at once. The testing approaches on the right will help you validate different aspects of that recovery process.
• This research will provide an overview of the approaches outlined on the right and help you prioritize tests that are most valuable to your organization.

00 Identify a working group

30 minutes

Identify a group of participants who can fill the following roles and inform the discussions around testing in this research. A single person could fill multiple roles and some roles could be filled by multiple people. Many participants will be drawn from the larger DRP team.

Start by updating your disaster recovery plan (DRP)

Use Info-Tech’s Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan research to identify recovery objectives based on business impact and outline recovery processes. Both are tremendously valuable inputs to your test plans.

Overall Business Continuity Plan

01 Confirm: why test at all?

15-30 minutes

Identify the value recovery testing for your organization. Use language appropriate for a nontechnical audience. Start with the list below and add, modify, or delete bullet points to reflect your own organization.

Drivers for testing – Examples:

• Improve service continuity.
• Identify and address gaps in recovery plans before a real disaster strikes.
• Cross-train staff on systems recovery to minimize single points of failure.
• Identify how we coordinate across teams during a major systems outage.
• Exercise both recovery processes and technology.
• Support a culture that centers system resilience in everyday decision-making.
• Keep recovery documentation up-to-date and ready for action.
• Confirm that our stated recovery objectives can be met.
• Provide proof of testing for auditors, prospective customers, and insurance applications.
• We require proof of testing to pass audits and renew cybersecurity insurance.

Info-Tech Insight

Time-strapped technical staff will sometimes push back on planning and testing, objecting that the team will “figure it out” in a disaster. But the question isn’t whether recovery is possible – it’s whether the recovery aligns with business needs. If your plan is to “MacGyver” a solution on the fly, you can’t know if it’s the right solution for your organization.

Think about what and how you test

Find gaps and risks with tabletop testing

In a tabletop planning exercise, the team walks through a disaster scenario to outline the recovery workflow, and risks or gaps that could disrupt that workflow.

Tabletops are particularly effective because:

• It enables you to play out a wider range of scenarios than technology-based testing (e.g. full-scale, parallel) due to cost and complexity factors.
• It is non-intrusive, so it can be executed more easily than other testing methodologies.
• The exercise translates into recovery documentation: you create a workflow as you go.
• A major site or service recovery scenario will review all aspects of the recovery process and create the backbone of your recovery plan.

02 Run a tabletop exercise

2 hours

Tabletop testing is part of our core DRP methodology, Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan. This exercise can be run using cue cards, sticky notes, or on a whiteboard; many of our facilitators find building the workflow directly in flowchart software to be very effective.

Use our Recovery Workflow Template as a starting point.

Some tips for running your first tabletop exercise:

1. Ahead of the exercise, decide on a scenario, identify participants, and book a meeting time.
   • For your first walkthrough of a DR scenario, we often recommend a scenario that considers a site failure requiring failover to a DR site.
   • For the first exercise, focus on technical aspects of recovery before bringing in members of the business. The technical team may need space to discuss the appropriate steps in the recovery process before you bring in business liaisons to discuss user acceptance testing (UAT).
   • A complete failover considers all systems, the viability of your second site, and can help identify parts of the process that require additional exercises.
2. Review the scenario with participants. Then, discuss and document the recovery process, starting with initial notification of an event.
   • Record steps in the process on white cards or boxes.
   • On yellow and red cards, document gaps and risks in people process and technology requirements.
3. Once you’ve walked through the process, return to the start.
   • Record the time required to complete each step. Consider identifying who is responsible for key steps. Identify any additional gaps and risks.
4. Clean up and record the results of the workflow. Save a copy with your DRP documentation.

Move from tabletop testing to functional exercises

See how your plans fare in the real world

In live exercises, some portion of your recovery plans are executed in a way that mimics a real recovery scenario. Some advantages of live testing:

• See how standby systems behave. A tabletop exercise can miss small issues that can make or break the recovery process. For example, connectivity or integration issues on a new subnet might be difficult to predict prior to actually running services in that environment.
• Hands-on practice: Familiarize the team with the steps, commands, and interfaces of your recovery toolset.
• Manage the pressure of the DR scenario: Nothing’s quite like the real thing, but a live exercise may be the closest your team can get to a disaster situation without experiencing it firsthand.

Examples of live exercises

Run local tests ahead of releases

Think small

Most unacceptable downtime is caused by localized issues, such as hardware or software failures, rather than widespread destructive events. Regular local testing can help validate the recovery plan for local issues and improve overall service continuity.

Make local testing a standard step in maintenance work and new deployments to embed resilience considerations in day-to-day activities. Run the same tests in both your primary and your DR environment.

Some examples of localized tests:

• Review backup logs and check for errors.
• Restore files or whole systems from backup.
• Run application-based tests as part of release management, including unit, regression, and performance tests.
  • Ensure application tests are run for both the primary and DR environment.
  • For a deep-dive on application testing, see Info-Tech’s research Automate Testing to Get More Done.

Info-Tech Insight

Local tests will vary between different services, and local test design is usually best left to the system SMEs. At the same time, centralize reporting to understand where tests are being done.

Investigate whether your IT Service Management or ticketing system can create recurring tasks or work orders to schedule, document, and track test exercises. Tasks can be pre-populated with checklists and documentation to support the test and provide a record of completed tests to support oversight and reporting.

Have the business validate recovery

If your business doesn’t think a system’s recovered, it’s not recovered.

User acceptance testing (UAT) after system recovery is a key step in the recovery process. Like any step in the process, there’s value in testing it before it actually needs to be done. Assign responsibility for building UATs to the person who will be responsible for executing them.

An acceptance test script might look something like the checklist below.

• Does the application open?
• Does the interface look right?
• Do you see any unusual notifications or warnings?
• Can you conduct a key transaction with dummy data?
• Can you run key reports?

“I cannot stress how important it is to assign ownership of responsibilities in a test; this is the only way to truly mitigate against issues in a test.”

– Robert Nardella
IT Service Management
Certified z/OS Mainframe Professional

Info-Tech Insight

Build test scripts and test transactions ahead of time to minimize the amount of new work required during a recovery scenario.

Beyond the Basics: Full Failover Testing

• A failover test – a full failover of your production environment to a secondary environment – is what many IT and businesspeople think about when they think of disaster recovery testing.
• A full test can validate previous local or tabletop tests, identify additional gaps and risks, and provide hands-on training experience with recovery processes and technologies.
• Setting a date for failover testing can also inject some urgency into otherwise low-priority (but high importance) disaster recovery planning and documentation exercises, which need to be completed prior to the test.
• Despite these benefits, full failover tests carry significant risk and require a great deal of effort and cost. Typically, only businesses that already have an active-active environment capable of supporting in-scope production systems are able to run a full environment failover.
• This is especially true the first time you test. While in theory a DR plan should be ready to go at any time, there will be documents to update, gaps to address, and risks to mitigate before you go ahead with the test.

Full Failover Testing

What you get:

• Provide hands-on experience with recovery processes and technology.
• Confirm that site failover works in practice as you assumed in tabletop or local testing exercises.
• Identify critical gaps you might have missed without a full failover test.

What you need:

• An active-active secondary site, with sufficient standby equipment, data, and licensed standby software to support production.
• A completed tabletop exercise and documented recovery workflow.
• A documented test plan, backout plan, and formal sign-off.
• An off-hours downtime window.
• Time from technical SMEs and business resources, both for creating the plan and executing the test.

Beyond the Basics: Site Reliability Engineering

• Site reliability engineering (SRE) is an application of skills and approaches from software engineering to improve system resilience.
• SRE is focused on “availability, latency, performance, efficiency, change management, monitoring, emergency response, and capacity planning” across a set portfolio of services (Sloss, 2017).
• In many organizations, SRE is implemented as a team that supports separate applications teams.
• Applications must have defined and granular resilience requirements, translated into service objectives. The SRE team and applications teams will work together to meet these objectives.
• Site reliability engineers (the folks that do SRE, and often also abbreviated as SREs) are expected to build solutions and processes to ensure services remain stable and performant, not just respond when they fail. For example, Google allows their SREs to spend just half their time on incident response, with the rest of their time focused on development and automation tasks.

Site Reliability Testing

What you get:

• Improved reliability and reduced frequency and impact of downtime.
• Increased use of automation to address problems before they cause an incident.
• Granular resilience objectives.

What you need:

• Systems running on software-defined infrastructure.
• Specialized skills in programming, infrastructure-as-code.
• Business & product owners able to define and fund acceptable and appropriate resilience objectives.
• Technical experts able to translate product requirements into technical design requirements.

Beyond the Basics: Chaos Engineering

• Chaos engineering, a term and approach first popularized by the team at Netflix, aims to improve the resilience of particularly large and distributed systems by simulating system failures and evaluating performance against a baseline.
• Experiments simulate a variety of real-world events that could cause outages (e.g. network slowdowns or server failures). Experiments run continuously, and the recommendation is to run them in production where feasible while minimizing the impact on customers.
• Tools to help you run chaos testing exist, including open-source toolkits like Chaos Monkey or Mangle and paid software as a service (SaaS) solutions like Gremlin.
• Deciding whether the long-term benefits of tests that can degrade production are worth the potential risk of system slowdowns or outages is a business or product decision. Technical considerations aside, if the business owner of a particular system doesn’t see the value of continuous testing outweighing the introduced risk, this approach to testing isn’t going to happen.

Chaos Engineering

What you get:

• Confidence that systems can weather volatile and unpredictable conditions in a production environment.
• An embedded resilience culture.

What you need:

• High-maturity IT incident, monitoring and event practices.
• Standby/resilient systems to minimize downtime impact.
• Business buy-in for introducing risk into the production environment.
• Specialized skills to identify, develop, and run tests that degrade production performance in a controlled way.
• Budget and time to act on issues identified through testing.

Beyond the Basics: Security Event Simulations

• Ransomware is driving demands for proof of recovery testing from customers, executives, auditors, and insurance companies. Systems recovery is part of ransomware recovery, but recovering from a breach includes detection, analysis, containment, and eradication of the attack vector before systems recovery can begin.
• Beyond technical recovery, internal legal and communications teams will have a role, as will your insurance provider, consultants specialized in ransomware recovery, or professional ransom negotiators.
• A tabletop exercise focused on ransomware incident response is a key first step. You can find Info-Tech’s methodology for a ransomware tabletop in Phase 3 of Build Resilience Against Ransomware Attacks.
• Live testing approaches can offer hands-on experience and further insight into how your systems are vulnerable to malware. A variety of open source and proprietary tools can simulate ransomware and help you identify problems, though it’s important to understand the limitations of different simulators (Allon, 2022).
• A “red team” exercise simulates an adversarial attack against your processes and systems. A specialized penetration tester will often take on the role of the red team and provide a report of identified gaps and risks after the engagement.

Security Event Simulation

What you get:

• Hands-on experience managing and recovering from a ransomware attack in a controlled environment.
• A better understanding of gaps in your response process.

What you need:

• A completed ransomware tabletop exercise and mature security incident response processes.
• For Ransomware Simulators: An air-gapped sandbox environment hosting a copy of your production systems and security tools, and time from your technical SMEs.
• For Red Team Exercises: A trusted provider, scope for your testing plans, and time from your security incident response team.

Prioritize tests by asking these three questions

1. Will the scope of this test deliver sufficient value?

• Yes, these are critical systems with low tolerance for downtime or data loss.
• Yes, major changes or new systems require validation of DR capabilities.
• Yes, there’s high probability of an outage, or recent experience of an outage.
• •Yes, we have audit requirements or customer demands for testing.

2. Are we ready for this test?

• Yes, recovery plans and recovery objectives are documented.
• Yes, key technical and business resources have time to commit to testing exercises.
• Yes, technology is currently able to support proposed tests.

3. Is it easy to do?

• Yes, effort required to complete the test is low (i.e. minimal work, few participants).
• Yes, the risks related to testing are low.
• Yes, it won’t cost much.

Info-Tech Insight

More complex, challenging, risky, or costly tests, such as full failover tests, can deliver value. But do the high-value, low-effort stuff first!

03 Brainstorm and prioritize test ideas

30-60 minutes

Even if you have an idea of what you need to test and how you want to run those tests, this brainstorming exercise can generate useful ideas for testing that might otherwise have been missed.

1. Review the slides above to develop ideas on how and what you want to test. These slides may be enough to kickstart a brainstorming process. Don’t debate or discount ideas at this point. Write down these ideas in a space where all participants can see them (e.g. whiteboard or shared screen).

The next steps will help you prioritize the list – if needed – to tests that are highest value and lowest effort.

1. Discuss where you have the greatest need to test. Assign a score of 0 – 3 for each test, with a score of 3 being high-need and a score of zero being low-need. Consider whether:
   • These applications have a low tolerance for downtime.
   • There’s a high chance of an outage, or recent experience with an outage.
   • There’s a need to train or cross-train staff on recovery for the system(s) in question.
   • Major changes require a review or validation of DR capabilities.
   • Audit requirements or customer/executive demands can be met via testing.
2. Discuss which tests will require the least effort to complete – where readiness is high and tests are easier to do. Assign a score between 0 and 3 for each test, with a score of 3 being least effort and a score of 0 being high effort. Consider whether:
   • Recovery plans and recovery objectives are documented for these systems.
   • Technical experts are available to work on testing exercises.
   • For active testing, standby/sandbox systems are available and capable of supporting proposed tests.
   • The effort required to complete the test is low (e.g. minimal new work, few participants).
   • The risks related to testing are low.
   • You will need to secure additional funding.
3. Sum together the assigned scores for each test. Higher scores should be the highest priority, but of course use your judgement to validate the results and select one or two tests to execute in the coming year.

“There are different levels of testing and it is very progressive. I do not recommend my clients to do anything, unless they do it in a progressive fashion. Don’t try to do a live failover test with your users, right out of the box.”

– Steve Tower
Principal Consultant
Prompta Consulting Group

04 Build a test plan

3-5 days

Building a test plan helps the test run smoothly and can uncover issues with the underlying DRP as you dig into the details.

The test coordinator will own the plan document but will rely on the sponsor to confirm scope and goals, technical SMEs to develop system recovery plans, and business liaisons to create UAT scripts.

Download Info-Tech’s Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template. Use the structure of the template to build your own document, deleting example data as you go. Consider saving a separate copy of this document as an example and working from a second copy.

Key sections of the document include:

• Goals, scenario, and scope of the test.
• Assumptions, constraints, risks, and mitigation strategies.
• Test participants.
• Key pre-test milestones, and test-day schedule.
• After-action review.

Download the Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

05 Run an after-action review

30-60 minutes

Take time after test exercises – especially large-scale tests with many participants – to consider what went well, what didn’t, and where you can improve future testing exercises. Track lessons learned and next steps at the bottom of your test plan.

1. Start with a short (5-10 minute) debrief of the test and allow participants to ask questions. Confirm:
   • Did we meet the goals we set for the exercise, including RTOs and RPOs?
   • What was done well? What issues, gaps, and risks were identified?
2. Work through variations of the following questions:
   • Was the test plan effective, and was the test well organized?
   • Was the documentation effective? Where did we follow the plan as documented, and where did we deviate from the plan?
   • Was our communication/collaboration during the test effective?
   • Have gaps and issues found during the test been reported to the testing coordinator? Could some of the issues uncovered apply more broadly to other IT services as well?
   • What could we test next, based on what was discovered?
   • Are there other tools or approaches that could be useful?

Follow a testing cycle

All tests are expected to drive actions to improve resilience, as appropriate. Experience from previous tests will be applied to future testing exercises.

Use your experience to simplify testing

The fifth testing exercise should be easier than the first

Outputs and lessons learned from testing should help you run future tests.

• With past experience under their belt, participants should have a better understanding of their role, and of their peers’ roles, and the goal of the exercise.
• Facilitators will be more comfortable facilitating the exercise, and everyone should be more confident in the steps required to recover their systems.
• Gather feedback from participants through after-action reviews to identify what worked and what didn’t.
• Documentation from previous tests can provide a template for future tests.
• Gaps identified in previous tests can provide ideas for future tests.

Info-Tech Insight

Testing should get easier over time. But if you’re easily passing every test, it’s a sign that you’re ready to run more challenging tests.

06 Create a test program summary

2-4 hours

Regular testing allows you to build on prior tests and helps keep plans current despite changes to your environment.

Keeping a regular testing schedule requires expertise, a process to coordinate your efforts, and a level of governance to provide oversight and ensure testing continues to deliver value. Create a call to action using Info-Tech’s Disaster Recovery Testing Program Summary Template.

The result is a summary document that:

• Identifies key takeaways and testing goals
• Presents key elements of the testing program
• Outlines the testing cycle
• Lists expected milestones for the next year
• Identifies participants
• Recommends next steps

“It is extremely important in the early stages of development to concentrate the focus on actual recoverability and data protection, enhancing these capabilities over time into a fully matured program that can truly test the recovery, and not simply focusing on the testing process itself.”

– Joe Starzyk
Senior Business Development Executive
IBM Global Services

Research Contributors and Experts

• Bernard A. Jones, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Expert
• Robert Nardella, IT Service Management, Certified z/OS Mainframe Professional
• Larry Liss, Chief Technology Officer, Blank Rome LLP
• Jennifer Goshorn, Chief Administrative and Chief Compliance Officer, Gunderson Dettmer LLP
• Paul Kirvan, FBCI, CISA, Independent IT Consultant/Auditor, Paul Kirvan Associates
• Steve Tower, Principal Consultant, Prompta Consulting Group
• Joe Starzyk, Senior Business Development Executive, IBM Global Services
• Thomas Bronack, Enterprise Resiliency and Corporate Certification Consultant, DCAG
• Paul S. Randal, CEO & Owner, SQLskills.com
• Tom Baumgartner, Disaster Recovery Analyst, Catholic Health

Bibliography

Alton, Yoni. “Ransomware simulators – reality or a bluff?” Palo Alto Blog, 2 May 2022. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/security-operations/ransomware-simulators-reality-or-a-bluff/

Brathwaite, Shimon. “How to Test your Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan,” Security Made Simple, 13 Nov 2022. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
https://www.securitymadesimple.org/cybersecurity-blog/how-to-test-your-business-continuity-and-disaster-recovery-plan

The Business Continuity Institute. Good Practice Guidelines: 2018 Edition. The Business Continuity Institute, 2017.

Emigh, Jacqueline. “Disaster Recovery Testing: Ensuring Your DR Plan Works,” Enterprise Storage Forum, 28 May 2019. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
Disaster Recovery Testing: Ensuring Your DR Plan Works | Enterprise Storage Forum

Gardner, Dana. "Case Study: Strategic Approach to Disaster Recovery and Data Lifecycle Management Pays off for Australia's SAI Global." ZDNet. BriefingsDirect, 26 Apr 2012. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/case-study-strategic-approach-to-disaster-recovery-and-data-lifecycle-management-pays-off-for-australias-sai-global/.

IBM. “Section 11. Testing the Disaster Recovery Plan.” IBM, 2 Aug 2021. Accessed 31 Jan 2023. Section 11. Testing the disaster recovery plan - IBM Documentation Lutkevich, Ben and Alexander Gillis. “Chaos Engineering”. TechTarget, Jun 2021. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/chaos-engineering

Monperrus, Martin. “Principles of Antifragility.” Arxiv Forum, 7 June 2017. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1404/1404.3056.pdf

“Principles of Chaos Engineering.” Principles of Chaos Engineering, 2019 March. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
https://principlesofchaos.org/

Sloss, Benjamin Treynor. “Introduction.” Site Reliability Engineering. Ed. Betsy Beyer. O’Reilly Media, 2017. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
https://sre.google/sre-book/introduction/

Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in Your Organization

View your task management, project management, and project portfolio management options through the lens of M365.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Microsoft Project is an enigma

Microsoft Project has dominated its market since being introduced in the 1980s, yet the level of adoption and usage per license is incredibly low.

The software is ubiquitous, mostly considered to represent its category for “Project Management.” Yet, the software is conflated with its “Portfolio Management” offerings as organizations make platform decisions with Microsoft Project as the incorrectly identified incumbent.

And incredibly, Microsoft has dominated the next era of productivity software with the “365” offerings. Yet, it froze the “Project” family of offerings and introduced the not-yet-functional “Project for the web.”

Having a difficult time understanding what to do with, and about, Microsoft Project? You’re hardly alone. It’s not simply a question of tolerating, embracing, or rejecting the product: many who choose a competitor find they’re still paying for Microsoft Project-related licensing for years to come.

If you’re in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, use this research to understand your rapidly shifting landscape of options.

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

You use Microsoft (MS) tools to manage your work, projects, and/or project portfolio.

Their latest offering, Project for the web, is new and you’re not sure what to make of it. Microsoft says it will soon replace Microsoft Project and Project Online, but the new software doesn’t seem to do what the old software did.

The organization has adopted M365 for collaboration and work management. Meetings happen on Teams, projects are scoped a bit with Planner, and the operations group uses Azure Boards to keep track of what they need to get done.

Despite your reservations about the new project management software, Microsoft software has become even more ubiquitous.

Common Obstacles

M365 provides the basic components for managing tasks, projects, and project portfolios, but there is no instruction manual for making those parts work together.

M365 isn’t the only set of tools at play. Business units and teams across the organization have procured other non-Microsoft tools for work management without involving IT.

Microsoft’s latest project offering, Project for the web, is still evolving and you’re never sure if it is stable or ready for prime time. The missing function seems to involve the more sophisticated project planning disciplines, which are still important to larger, longer, and costlier projects.

Common Obstacles

Follow Info-Tech’s path in this blueprint to:

• Perform a tool audit to trim your work management tool landscape.
• Navigate the MS Project and M365 licensing landscape.
• Make sense of what to do with Project for the web and take the right approach to rolling it out (i.e. DIY or MS Gold Partner driven) for your needs.
• Create an action plan to inform next steps.

After following the program in this blueprint, you will be prepared to advise the organization on how to best leverage the rapidly shifting work management options within M365 and the place of MS Project within it.

M365 and, within it, O365 are taking over

Accelerated partly by the pandemic and the move to remote work, Microsoft’s market share in the work productivity space has grown exponentially in the last two years.

70% of Fortune 500 companies purchased 365 from Sept. 2019 to Sept. 2020. (Thexyz blog, 2020)

In its FY21 Q2 report, Microsoft reported 47.5 million M365 consumer subscribers – an 11.2% increase from its FY20 Q4 reporting. (Office 365 for IT Pros, 2021)

As of September 2020, there were 258,000,000 licensed O365 users. (Thexyz blog, 2020)

In this blueprint, we’ll look at what the what the phenomenal growth of M365 means for PMOs and project portfolio practitioners who identify as Microsoft shops

The market share of M365 warrants a fresh look at Microsoft’s suite of project offerings

For many PMO and project portfolio practitioners, the footprint of M365 in their organizations’ work management cultures is forcing a renewed look at Microsoft’s suite of project offerings.

The complicating factor is this renewed look comes at a transitional time in Microsoft’s suite of project and portfolio offerings.

• The market dominance of MS Project Server and Project Online are wanning, with Microsoft promising the end-of-life for Online sometime in the coming years.
• Project Online’s replacement, Project for the web, is a viable task management and lightweight project management tool, but its viability as a replacement for the rigor of Project Online is at present largely a question mark.
• Related to the uncertainty and promise around Project for the web, the Dataverse and the Power Platform offer a glimpse into a democratized future of work management tools but anything specific about that future has yet to solidify.

Microsoft Project has 66% market share in the project management tool space. (Celoxis, 2018)

A copy of MS project is sold or licensed every 20 seconds. (Integent, 2013)

MS Project is evolving to meet new work management realities

It also evolved to not meet the old project management realities.

• The lines between traditional project management and operational task management solutions are blurring as organizations struggle to keep up with demands.
• To make the software easier to use, modern work management doesn’t involve the complexities from days past. You won’t find anywhere to introduce complex predecessor-successor relationships, unbalanced assignments with front-loading or back-loading, early-start/late-finish, critical path, etc.
• “Work management” is among the latest buzzwords in IT consulting. With Project for the web (PFTW), Azure Boards, and Planner, Microsoft is attempting to compete with lighter and better-adopted tools like Trello, Basecamp, Asana, Wrike, and Monday.com.
• Buyers of project and work management software have struggled to understand how PFTW will still be usable if it gets the missing project management function from MS Project.

Info-Tech Insight

Beware of the Software Granularity Paradox.

Common opinion 1: “Plans and estimates that are granular enough to be believable are too detailed to manage and maintain.”

Common opinion 2: “Plans simple enough to publish aren’t detailed enough to produce believable estimates.”

In other words, software simple enough to get widely adopted doesn’t produce believable plans. Software that can produce believable plans is too complex to use at scale.

A viable task and project management option must walk the line between these dichotomies.

M365 gives you the pieces, but it’s on PMO users to piece them together in a viable way

With the new MS Project and M365, it’s on PMOs to avoid the granularity paradox and produce a functioning solution that fits with the organization’s ways of working.

Common perception still sees Microsoft Project as a rich software tool. Thus, when we consider the next generation of Microsoft Project, it’s easy to expect a newer and friendlier version of what we knew before.

In truth, the new solution is a collection of partially integrated but largely disparate tools that each satisfy a portion of the market’s needs. While it looks like a rich collection of function when viewed through high-level requirements, users will find:

• Overlaps, where multiple tools satisfy the same functional requirement (e.g. “assign a task”)
• Gaps, where a tool doesn’t quite do enough and you’re forced to incorporate another tool (e.g. reverting back to Microsoft Project for advanced resource planning)
• Islands, where tools don’t fluently talk to each other (e.g. Planner data integrated in real-time with portfolio data, which requires clunky, unstable, decentralized end-user integrations with Microsoft Power Automate)

Info-Tech's approach

Use our framework to best leverage the right MS Project offerings and M365 components for your organization’s work management needs.

The Info-Tech difference:

1. A simple to follow framework to help you make sense of a chaotic landscape.
2. Practical and tactical tools that will help you save time.
3. Leverage industry best practices and practitioner-based insights.

Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in Your Organization

View your task, project, and portfolio management options through the lens of Microsoft 365.

1. Background

• Analyze Content
• Assess Constraints
• Determine Goals and Needs

2. Approaches

• DIY – Are you ready to do it yourself?
• Info-Tech – Can our analysts help?
• MS Gold Partner – Are you better off with a third party?

3. Deployments

Task Management

• Personal Task Management
  • Who does it? Knowledge workers
  • What is it? To-do lists
  • Common Approaches
    • Paper list and sticky notes
    • Light task tools
  • Applications
    • Planner
    • To Do
  • Level of Rigor 1/5
  • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Person
• Team Task Management
  • Who does it? Groups of knowledge workers
  • What is it? Collaborative to-do lists
  • Common Approaches
    • Kanban boards
    • Spreadsheets
    • Light task tools
  • Applications
    • Planner
    • Azure Boards
    • Teams
  • Level of Rigor 2/5
  • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Team

Project Management

• Project Portfolio Management
  • Who does it? PMO Directors, Portfolio Managers
  • What is it?
    • Centralized list of projects
    • Request and intake handling
    • Aggregating reporting
  • Common Approaches
    • Spreadsheets
    • PPM software
    • Roadmaps
  • Applications
    • Project for the Web
    • Power Platform
  • Level of Rigor 3/5
  • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Project
• Project Management
  • Who does it? Project Managers
  • What is it? Deterministic scheduling of related tasks
  • Common Approaches
    • Spreadsheets
    • Lists
    • PM software
    • PPM software
  • Applications
    • Project Desktop Client
  • Level of Rigor 4/5
  • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Functionally Incomplete

Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management

• Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management
  • Who does it? PMO and ePMO Directors, Portfolio Managers, Project Managers
  • What is it?
    • Centralized request and intake handling
    • Resource capacity management
    • Deterministic scheduling of related tasks
  • Common Approaches
    • PPM software
  • Applications
    • Project Online
    • Project Desktop Client
    • Project Server
  • Level of Rigor 5/5
  • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Underadopted

4. Portfolio Outcomes

• Informed Steering Committee
• Increased Project Throughput
• Improved Portfolio Responsiveness
• Optimized Resource Utilization
• Reduced Monetary Waste

Info-Tech's methodology for Determine the Future of MS Project for Your Organization

Insight Summary

Overarching blueprint insight: Microsoft Parts Sold Separately. Assembly required.

The various MS Project offerings (but most notably the latest, Project for the web) hold the promise of integrating with the rest of M365 into a unified work management solution. However, out of the box, Project for the web and the various platforms within M365 are all disparate utilities that need to be pieced together in a purpose-built manner to make use of them for holistic work management purposes.

If you’re looking for a cohesive product out of the box, look elsewhere. If you’re looking to assemble a wide array of work, project, and portfolio management functions across different functions and departments, you may have found what you seek

Phase 1 insight: Align your tool choice to your process maturity level.

Rather than choosing tools based on your gaps, make sure to assess your current maturity level so that you optimize your investment in the Microsoft landscape.

Phase 2 insight: Weigh your options before jumping into Microsoft’s new tech.

Microsoft’s new Project plans (P1, P3, and P5) suggest there is a meaningful connection out of the box between its old tech (Project desktop, Project Server, and Project Online) and its new tech (Project for the web).

However, the offerings are not always interoperable.

Phase 3 insight: Keep the iterations small as you move ahead with trials and implementations.

Organizations are changing as fast as the software we use to run them.

If you’re implementing parts of this platform, keep the changes small as you monitor the vendors for new software versions and integrations.

Blueprint deliverables

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

Key deliverable: Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

The Action Plan will help culminate and present:

• Context and Constraints
• DIY Implementation Approach

• MS Partner Implementation Approach
• Future-State Vision and Goals

Tool Audit Workbook

Assess your organization's current work management tool landscape and determine what tools drive value for individual users and teams and which ones can be rationalized.

Force Field Analysis

Document the driving and resisting forces for making a change to your work management tools.

Maturity Assessments

Use these assessments to identify gaps in project management and project portfolio management processes. The results will help guide process improvement efforts and measure success and progress.

Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

Determine the best licensing options and approaches for your implementation of Microsoft Project.

Curate your work management tools to harness valuable portfolio outcomes

• Increase Project Throughput

  Do more projects by ensuring the right projects and the right amount of projects are approved and executed.

• Support an Informed Steering Committee

  Easily compare progress of projects across the portfolio and enable the leadership team to make decisions.

• Improve portfolio responsiveness

  Make the portfolio responsive to executive steering when new projects and changing priorities need rapid action.

• Optimize Resource Utilization

  Assign the right resources to approved projects and minimize the chronic over-allocation of resources that leads to burnout.

• Reduce Monetary Waste

  Terminate low-value projects early and avoid sinking additional funds into unsuccessful ventures.

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

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 6 to 8 calls over the course of 3 to 4 months.

Introduction

• Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.

Phase 1

• Call #2: Explore the M365 work management landscape.
• Call #3: Discuss Microsoft Project Plans and their capabilities.
• Call #4: Assess current-state maturity.

Phase 2

• Call #5: Get familiar with extending Project for the web using Power Apps.
• Call #6: Assess the MS Gold Partner Community.

Phase 3

• Call #7: Determine approach and deployment.
• Call #8: Discuss action plan.

Workshop Overview

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

Determine the Future of Microsoft Project for Your Organization

Phase 1: Determine Your Tool Needs

Phase Outcomes

• Tool Audit
• Microsoft Project Licensing Analysis
• Project Management Maturity Assessment
• Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessments

Step 1.1

Survey the M365 Work Management Landscape

Activities

• 1.1.1 Distinguish between task, project, and portfolio capabilities
• 1.1.2 Review Microsoft’s offering for task, project, and portfolio management needs
• 1.1.4 Assess your organizational context and constraints
• 1.1.3 Explore typical deployment options

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Assessing your organization’s context for project and project portfolio management
• Documenting the organization’s constraints
• Establishing the organization’s goals and needs

This step involves the following participants:

• PMO Director
• Resource Managers
• Project Managers
• Knowledge Workers

Outcomes of Step

• Knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem as it relates to task, project, and portfolio management
• Current organizational context and constraints

Don’t underestimate the value of interoperability

The whole Microsoft suite is worth more than the sum of its parts … if you know how to put it together.

38% of the worldwide office suite market belongs to Microsoft. (Source: Statistica, 2021)

1 in 3 small to mid-sized organizations moving to Microsoft Project say they are doing so because it integrates well with Office 365. (Source: CBT Nuggets, 2018)

There’s a gravity to the Microsoft ecosystem.

And while there is no argument that there are standalone task management tools, project management tools, or portfolio management tools that are likely more robust, feature-rich, and easier to adopt, it’s rare that you find an ecosystem that can do it all, to an acceptable level.

That is the value proposition of Microsoft: the ubiquity, familiarity, and versatility. It’s the Swiss army knife of software products.

The work management landscape is evolving

With M365, Microsoft is angling to become the industry leader, and your organization’s hub, for work management.

Workers lose up to 40% of their time multi-tasking and switching between applications. (Bluescape, 2018)

25 Context switches – On average, workers switch between 10 apps, 25 times a day. (Asana, 2021)

“Work management” is among the latest buzzwords in IT consulting.

What is work management? It was born of a blurring of the traditional lines between operational or day-to-day tasks and project management tasks, as organizations struggle to keep up with both operational and project demands.

To make the software easier to use, modern work management doesn’t involve the complexities from days past. You won’t find anywhere to introduce complex predecessor-successor relationships, unbalanced assignments with front-loading or back-loading, early-start/late-finish, critical path, etc.

Indeed, with Project for the web, Azure Boards, Planner, and other M365 utilities, Microsoft is attempting to compete with lighter and better-adopted tools (e.g. Trello, Wike, Monday.com).

The Microsoft world of work management can be understood across three broad categories

1. Task Management

   Task management is essentially the same as keeping track of a to-do list. While you can have a project-related task, you can also have a non-project-related task. The sum of project and non-project tasks make up the work that you need to complete.

2. Project Management

   Project management (PM) is a methodical approach to planning and guiding project processes from start to finish. Implementing PM processes helps establish repeatable steps and controls that enable project success. Documentation of PM processes leads to consistent results and dependable delivery on expectations.

3. Portfolio Management

   Project portfolio management (PPM) is a strategic approach to approving, prioritizing, resourcing, and reporting on project. In addition, effective PPM should nurture the completion of projects in the portfolio in the most efficient way and track the extent to which the organization is realizing the intended benefits from completed projects.

The slides ahead explain each of these modes of working in the Microsoft ecosystem in turn. Further, Info-Tech’s Task, Project, and Project Portfolio Management Tool Guides explain these areas in more detail.

Use Info-Tech’s Tool Guides assess your MS Project and M365 work management options

Lean on Info-Tech’s Tool Guides as you navigate Microsoft’s tasks management, project management, and project portfolio management options.

• The slides ahead take you through a bird’s-eye view of what your MS Project and M365 work management options look like across Info-Tech’s three broad categories
• In addition to these slides, Info-Tech has three in-depth tool guides that take you through your operational task management, project management, and project portfolio management options in MS Project and M365.
• These tool guides can be leveraged as you determine whether Microsoft has the required toolset for your organization’s task, project, and project portfolio management needs.

Download Info-Tech’s Task Management, Project Management, and Project Portfolio Management Tool Guides

Task Management Overview

What is task management?

• It is essentially the same as keeping track of a to-do list. While you can have a project-related task, you can also have a non-project-related task. The sum of project and non-project tasks make up the work that you need to complete.

What are the benefits of task management using applications within the MS suite?

• Many organizations already own the tools and don't have to go out and buy something separately.
• There is easy integration with other MS applications.

What is personal task management?

• Tools that allow you to structure work that is visible only to you. This can include work from tasks you are going to be completing for yourself and tasks you are completing as part of a larger work effort.

What is team task management?

• Tools that allow users to structure work that is visible to a group. When something is moved or changed, it affects what the group is seeing because it is a shared platform.

Get familiar with the Microsoft product offerings for task management

Download the M365 Task Management Tool Guide

Personal Task Management

The To-Do list

• Who does it?
  • Knowledge workers
• What is it?
  • How each knowledge worker organizes their individual work tasks in M365
• When is it done?
  • As needed throughout the day
• Where is it done?
  • Paper
  • Digital location
• How is it done?
  • DIY and self-developed
  • Usually not repeatable and evolves depending on work location and tools available
  • Not governed

Microsoft differentiator:

Utilities like Planner and To-Do make it easier to turn what are often ad hoc approaches into a more repeatable process.

Team Task Management

The SharedTo-Do list

• Who does it?
  • Groups of knowledge workers
• What is it?
  • Temporary and permanent collections of knowledge workers
• When is it done?
  • As needed or on a pre-determined cadence
• Where is it done?
  • Paper
  • Digital location
• How is it done?
  • User norms are established organically and adapted based upon the needs of the team.
  • To whatever extent processes are repeatable in the first place, they remain repeatable only if the team is a collective.
  • Usually governed within the team and not subject to wider visibility.

Microsoft differentiator:

Teams has opened personal task management tactics up to more collaborative approaches.

Project Management Overview

2003

Project Server: This product serves many large enterprise clients, but Microsoft has stated that it is at end of life. It is appealing to industries and organizations where privacy is paramount. This is an on-premises system that combines servers like SharePoint, SQL, and BI to report on information from Project Desktop Client. To realize the value of this product, there must be adoption across the organization and engagement at the project-task level for all projects within the portfolio.

2013

Project Online: This product serves many medium enterprise clients. It is appealing for IT departments who want to get a rich set of features that can be used to intake projects, assign resources, and report on project portfolio health. It is a cloud solution built on the SharePoint platform, which provides many users a sense of familiarity. However, due to the bottom-up reporting nature of this product, again, adoption across the organization and engagement at the project task level for all projects within the portfolio is critical.

2020

Project for the web: This product is the newest on the market and is quickly being evolved. Many O365 enthusiasts have been early adopters of Project for the web despite its limited features when compared to Project Online. It is also a cloud solution that encourages citizen developers by being built on the MS Power Platform. This positions the product well to integrate with Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps. It is, so far, the only MS product that lends itself to abstracted portfolio management, which means it doesn’t rely on project task level engagement to produce portfolio reports. The portfolio can also run with a mixed methodology by funneling Project, Azure Boards, and Planner boards into its roadmap function.

Get familiar with the Microsoft product offerings for project management

Download the M365 Project Management Tool Guide

Project Management

Orchestrating the delivery of project work

• Who does it?
  • Project managers
• What is it?
  • Individual project managers developing project plans and schedules in the MS Project Desktop Client
• When is it done?
  • Throughout the lifecycle of the project
• Where is it done?
  • Digital location
• How is it done?
  • Used by individual project managers to develop and manage project plans.
  • Common approaches may or may not involve reconciliation of resource capacity through integration with Active Directory.
  • Sometimes usage norms are established by organizational project management governance standards, though individual use of the desktop client is largely ungoverned.

Microsoft differentiator:

For better or worse, Microsoft’s core solution is veritably synonymous with project management itself and has formally contributed to the definition of the project management space.

Project Portfolio Management Overview

Optimize what you’re already using and get familiar with the Power Platform.

What does PPM look like within M365?

• The Office suite in the Microsoft 365 suite boasts the world’s most widely used application for the purposes of abstracted and strategic PPM: Excel. For the purposes of PPM, Excel is largely implemented in a suboptimal fashion, and as a result, organizations fail to gain PPM adoption and maturation through its use.
• Until very recently, Microsoft toolset did not explicitly address abstracted PPM needs.
• However, with the latest version of M365 and Project for the web, Microsoft is boasting of renewed PPM capabilities from its toolset. These capabilities are largely facilitated through what Microsoft is calling its Power Platform (i.e. a suite of products that includes Power, Power Apps, and Power Automate).

Explore the Microsoft product offering for abstracted project portfolio management

Download the M365 Project Portfolio Management Tool Guide

Project Portfolio Management

Doing the right projects, at the right time, with the right resources

• Who does it?
  • PMO directors; portfolio managers
• What is it?
  A strategic approach to approving, prioritizing, resourcing, and reporting on projects using applications in M365 and Project for the web. In distinction to enterprise PPM, a top-down or abstracted approach is applied, meaning PPM data is not tied to project task details.
• Where is it done?
  • Digital tool, either homegrown or commercial
• How is it done?
  • Currently in M365, PPM approaches are largely self-developed, though Microsoft Gold Partners are commonly involved.
  • User norms are still evolving, along with the software’s (Project for the web) function.

Microsoft differentiator:

Integration between Project for the web and Power Apps allows for custom approaches.

Project Portfolio Management Overview

Microsoft’s legacy project management toolset has contributed to the definition of traditional or enterprise PPM space.

A robust and intensive bottom-up approach that requires task level roll-ups from projects to inform portfolio level data. For this model to work, reconciliation of individual resource capacity must be universal and perpetually current.

If your organization has low or no maturity with PPM, this approach will be tough to make successful.

In fact, most organizations under adopt the tools required to effectively operate with the traditional project portfolio management. Once adopted and operationalized, this combination of tools gives the executives the most precise view of the current state of projects within the portfolio.

Explore the Microsoft product offering for enterprise project portfolio management

Download the M365 Project Portfolio Management Tool Guide

Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management

Bottom-up approach to managing the project portfolio

• Who does it?
  • PMO and ePMO directors; portfolio managers
  • Project managers
• What is it?
  • A strategic approach to approving, prioritizing, resourcing, and reporting on projects using applications in M365 and Project for the web. In distinction to enterprise PPM, a top-down or abstracted approach is applied, meaning PPM data is not tied to project task details.
• Where is it done?
  • Digital tool that is usually commercial.
• How is it done?
  • Microsoft Gold Partner involvement is highly likely in successful implementations.
  • Usage norms are long established and customized solutions are prevalent.
  • To be successful, use must be highly governed.
  • Reconciliation of individual resource capacity must be universal and perpetually current.

Microsoft differentiator:

Microsoft’s established network of Gold Partners helps to make this deployment a viable option.

Assess your current tool ecosystem across work management categories

Use Info-Tech’s Tool Audit Workbook to assess the value and satisfaction for the work management tools currently in use.

• With the modes of working in mind that have been addressed in the previous slides and in Info-Tech’s Tool Guides, the activity slides ahead encourage you to engage your wider organization to determine all of the ways of working across individuals and teams.
• Depending on the scope of your work management optimization, these engagements may be limited to IT or may extend to the business.
• Use Info-Tech’s Tool Audit Workbook to help you gather and make sense of the tool data you collect. The result of this activity is to gain insight into the tools that drive value and fail to drive value across your work management categories with a view to streamline the organization’s tool ecosystem.

Download Info-Tech’s Tool Audit Workbook

1.2.1 Compile list of tools

Input: Information on tools used to complete task, project, and portfolio tasks

Output: Analyzed list of tools

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Tool Audit Workbook

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers, Business Stakeholders

1. Identify the stakeholder groups that are in scope. For each group that you’ve identified, brainstorm the different tools and artifacts that are necessary to get the task, project, and project portfolio management functions done.
2. Make sure to record the tool name and specify its category (standard document, artifact, homegrown solution, or commercial solution).
3. Think about and discuss how often the tool is being used for each use case across the organization. Document whether its use is required. Then assess reporting functionality, data accuracy, and cost.
4. Lastly, give a satisfaction rating for each use case.

Excerpt from the Tool Audit Workbook

1.2.1 Review dashboard

1-3 hours

Input: List of key PPM decision points, List of who is accountable for PPM decisions, List of who has PPM decision-making authority

Output: Prioritized list of PPM decision-making support needs

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Tool Audit Workbook

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, CIO

Discuss the outputs of the Dashboards tab to inform your decision maker on whether to pass or fail the tool for each use case.

1.2.1 Execute final audit

1 hour

Input: List of key PPM decision points, List of who is accountable for PPM decisions, List of who has PPM decision-making authority

Output: Prioritized list of PPM decision-making support needs

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Tool Audit Workbook

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, CIO

1. Using the information available, schedule time with the leadership team to present the results.
2. Identify the accountable party to make the final decision on what current tools pass or fail the final audit.
3. Mind the gap presented by the failed tools and look to possibilities within the M365 and Microsoft Project suite. For each tool that is deemed unsatisfactory for the future state, mark it as “Fail” in column O on tab 2 of the Tool Audit Workbook. This will ensure the item shows in the “Fail” column on tab 4 of the tool when you refresh the data.
4. For each of the tools that “fail” your audit and that you’re going to make recommendations to rationalize in a future state, try to capture the annual total current-state spending on licenses, and the work modes the tool currently supports (i.e. task, project, and/or portfolio management).
5. Additionally, start to think about future-state replacements for each tool within or outside of the M365/MS Project platforms. As we move forward to finalize your action plan in the last phase of this blueprint, we will capture and present this information to key stakeholders.

Document your goals, needs, and constraints before proceeding

Use Info-Tech’s Force Field Analysis Tool to help weigh goals and needs against risks and constraints associated with a work management change.

• Now that you have discussed the organization’s ways of working and assessed its tool landscape – and made some initial decisions on some tool options that might need to change across that landscape – gather key stakeholders to define (a) why a change is needed at this time and (b) to document some of the risks and constraints associated with changing.
• Info-Tech’s Force Field Analysis Tool can be used to capture these data points. It takes an organizational change management approach and asks you to consider the positive and negative forces associated with a work management tool change at this time.
• The slides ahead walk you through a force field analysis activity and help you to navigate the relevant tabs in the Tool.

Download Info-Tech's Force Field Analysis Tool

1.2.1 Identify goals and needs (1 of 2)

Use tab 1 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook to assess goals and needs.

Input: Opportunities associated with determining the use case for Microsoft Project and M365 in your organization

Output: Plotted opportunities based on probability and impact

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Force Field Analysis Tool

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers

1. Brainstorm opportunities associated with exploring and/or implementing Microsoft Project and the Microsoft 365 suite of products for task, project, and project portfolio management.
2. Document relevant opportunities in tab 1 of the Force Field Analysis Tool. For each driving force for the change (note: a driving force can include goals and needs) that is identified, provide a category that explains why the driving force is a concern (i.e. with this force is the organization looking to mature, integrate, scape, or accelerate?).
3. In addition, assess the ease of achieving or realizing each goal or need and the impact of realizing them on the PMO and/or the organization.
4. See the next slide for a screenshot that helps you navigate tab 1 of the Tool.

Download the Force Field Analysis Tool

1.2.1 Identify goals and needs (2 of 2)

Screenshot of tab 1 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook.

In column B on tab 1, note the specific opportunities the group would like to call out.

In column C, categorize the goal or need being articulated by the list of drop-down options: will it accelerate the time to benefit? Will it help to integrate systems and data sources? Will it mature processes and the organization overall? Will it help to scale across the organization? Choose the option that best aligns with the opportunity.

In column D, categorize the source of the goal or need as internal or external.

In column E, use the drop-down menus to indicate the ease of realizing each goal or need for the organization. Will it be relatively easy to manifest or will there be complexities to implementing it?

In column F, use the drop-down menus to indicate the positive impact of realizing or achieving each need on the PMO and/or the organization.

On tab 3 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook, your inputs on tab 1 are summarized in graphical form from columns B to G. On tab 3, these goals and needs results are contrasted with your inputs on tab 2 (see next slide).

1.2.2 Identify risk and constraints (1 of 2)

Use tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook to assess opposing forces to change.

30 minutes

Input: Risks associated with determining the use case for Microsoft Project and M365 in your organization

Output: Plotted risks based on probability and impact

Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Force Field Analysis Tool

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers

1. With the same working group from 1.2.1, brainstorm risks, constraints, and other opposing forces pertaining to your potential future state.
2. Document relevant opposing forces in tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Tool. For each opposing force for the change (note: a driving force can include goals and needs) that is identified, provide a category that explains why the opposing force is a concern (i.e. will it impact or is it impacted by time, resources, maturity, budget, or culture?).
3. In addition, assess the likelihood of the risk or constraint coming to light and the negative impact of it coming to light for your proposed change.
4. See the next slide for a screenshot that helps you navigate tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Tool.

Download the Force Field Analysis Tool

1.2.2 Identify risk and constraints (2 of 2)

Screenshot of tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook.

In column B on tab 2, note the specific risks and constraints the group would like to call out.

In column C, categorize the risk or constraint being articulated by the list of drop-down options: will it impact or is it impacted by time, resources, budget, culture or maturity?

In column D, categorize the source of the goal or need as internal or external.

In column E, use the drop-down menus to indicate the likelihood of each risk or constraint materializing during your implementation. Will it definitely occur or is there just a small chance it could come to light?

In column F, use the drop-down menus to indicate the negative impact of the risk or constraint to achieving your goals and needs.

On tab 3 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook, your inputs on tab 2 are summarized in graphical form from columns I to N. On tab 3, your risk and constraint results are contrasted with your inputs on tab 1 to help you gauge the relative weight of driving vs. opposing forces.

Step 1.2

Explore the Microsoft Project Plans and their capabilities

Activities

• 1.1.1 Review the Microsoft 365 licensing features
• 1.1.2 Explore the Microsoft Project Plan licenses
• 1.1.3 Prepare a needs assessment for Microsoft 365 and Project Plan licenses

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Review the suite of task management, project management, and project portfolio management options available in Microsoft 365.
• Prepare a preliminary checklist of required M365 apps for your stakeholders.

This step usually involves the following participants:

• PMO/Portfolio Manager
• Project Managers
• CIO and other executive stakeholders
• Other project portfolio stakeholders (project and IT workers)

Outcomes of Step

• Preliminary requirements for an M365 project management and project portfolio management tool implementation

Microsoft recently revamped its project plans to balance its old and new tech

Access to the new tech, Project for the web, comes with all license types, while Project Online Professional and Premium licenses have been revamped as P3 and P5.

Navigating Microsoft licensing is never easy, and Project for the web has further complicated licensing needs for project professionals.

As we’ll cover in step 2.1 of this blueprint, Project for the web can be extended beyond its base lightweight work management functionality using the Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI). Depending on the scope of your implementation, this can require additional Power Platform licensing.

• In this step, we will help you understand the basics of what’s already included in your enterprise M365 licensing as well as what’s new in Microsoft’s recent Project licensing plans (P1, P3, and P5).
• As we cover toward the end of this step, you can use Info-Tech’s MS Project and M365 Licensing Tool to help you understand your plan and licensing needs. Further assistance on licensing can be found in the Task, Project, and Portfolio Management Tool Guides that accompany this blueprint and Info-Tech’s Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era.

Download Info-Tech’s Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era

Licensing features for knowledge workers

Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up-to-date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

Bundles are extremely common and can be more cost effective than à la carte options for the Microsoft products.

The biggest differentiator between M365 and O365 is that the M365 product also includes Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility and Security.

The color coding in the diagram indicates that the same platform/application suite is available.

Get familiar with Microsoft Project Plan 1

Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up to date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

Who is a good fit?

• New project managers
• Zero-allocation project managers
• Individuals and organizations who want to move out of Excel into something less fragile (easily breaking formulas)

What does it include?

• Access to Project Home, a landing page to access all project plans you’ve created or have been assigned to.
• Access to Grid View, Board View, and Timeline (Gantt) View to plan and manage your projects with Project for the web
• Sharing Project for the web plans across Microsoft Teams channels
• Co-authoring on project plans

When does it make sense?

• Lightweight project management
• No process to use bottom-up approach for resourcing data
• Critical-path analysis is not required
• Organization does not have an appetite for project management rigor

Get familiar with Microsoft Project Plan 3

Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up to date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

Who is a good fit?

• Experienced and dedicated project managers
• Organizations with complex projects
• Large project teams are required to complete project work
• Organizations have experience using project management software

What does it include?

Everything in Project Plan 1 plus the following:

• Reporting through Power BI Report template apps (note that there are no pre-built reports for Project for the web)
• Access to build a Roadmap of projects from Project for the web and Azure DevOps with key milestones, statuses, and deadlines
• Project Online to submit and track timesheets for project teams
• MS Project Desktop Client to support resource management

When does it make sense?

• Project management is an established discipline at the organization
• Critical-path analysis is commonly used
• Organization has some appetite for project management rigor
• Resources are expected to submit timesheets to allow for more precise resource management data

Get familiar with Microsoft Project Plan 5

Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up to date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

Who is a good fit?

• Experienced and dedicated project managers
• Experienced and dedicated PMO directors
• Dedicated portfolio managers
• Organizations proficient at sustaining data in a standard tool

What does it include?

Everything in Project Plan 3 plus the following:

• Portfolio selection and optimization
• Demand management
• Enterprise resource planning and management through deterministic task and resource scheduling
• MS Project Desktop Client to support resource management

When does it make sense?

• Project management is a key success factor at the organization
• Organization employs a bottom-up approach for resourcing data
• Critical-path analysis is required
• Formal project portfolio management processes are well established
• The organization is willing to either put in the time, energy, and resources to learn to configure the system through DIY or is willing to leverage a Microsoft Partner to help them do so

What’s included in each plan (1 of 2)

Plan details are up to date as of September 2021. Plans and pricing can change often. Visit the Microsoft website to validate plan options and get pricing details.

X - Functionality Included in Plan

O - Functionality Not Included in Plan

What’s included in each plan (2 of 2)

Plan details are up to date as of September 2021. Plans and pricing can change often. Visit the Microsoft website to validate plan options and get pricing details.

X - Functionality Included in Plan

O - Functionality Not Included in Plan

Use Info-Tech’s MS Project and M365 Licensing Tool

Leverage the analysis in Info-Tech’s MS Project & M365 Licensing Tool to help inform your initial assumptions about what you need and how much to budget for it.

• The Licensing Tool can help you determine what Project Plan licensing different user groups might need as well as additional Power Platform licensing that may be required.
• It consists of four main tabs: two set-up tabs where you can validate the plan and pricing information for M365 and MS Project; an analysis tab where you set up your user groups and follow a survey to assess their Project Plan needs; and another analysis tab where you can document your Power Platform licensing needs across your user groups.
• There is also a business case tab that breaks down your total licensing needs. The outputs of this tab can be used in your MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template, which we will help you develop in phase three of this blueprint.

Download Info-Tech's Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

1.2.1 Conduct a needs assessment

1-2 hours

Input: List of key user groups/profiles, Number of users and current licenses

Output: List of Microsoft applications/capabilities included with each license, Analysis of user group needs for Microsoft Project Plan licenses

Materials: Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers

1. As a group, analyze the applications included in your current or desired 365 license and calculate any additional Power Platform licensing needs.

2. Within the same group, use the drop-down menus to analyze your high-level MS Project requirements by selecting whether each capability is necessary or not.
3. Your inputs to the needs assessment will determine the figures in the Business Case tab. Consider exporting this information to PDF or other format to distribute to stakeholders.

Download Info-Tech's Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

Step 1.3

Assess the maturity of your current PM & PPM capabilities

Activities

• Assess current state project and project portfolio management processes and tools
• Determine target state project and project portfolio management processes and tools

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Assess current state project and project portfolio management processes and tools
• Determine target state project and project portfolio management processes and tools

This step usually involves the following participants:

• PMO/Portfolio Manager
• Project Managers
• CIO and other executive stakeholders
• Other project portfolio stakeholders (project and IT workers)

Outcomes of Step

• Current and target state maturity for project management and project portfolio management processes

Project portfolio management and project management are more than tools

Implementing commercial tools without a matching level of process discipline is a futile exercise, leaving organizations frustrated at the wasted time and money.

• The tool is only as good as the data that is input. There is often a misunderstanding that a tool will be “automatic.” While it is true that a tool can help make certain processes easier and more convenient by aggregating information, enhancing reporting, and coauthoring, it will not make up the data. If data becomes stale, the tool is no longer valid for accurate decision making.
• Getting people onboard and establishing a clear process is often the hardest part. As IT folk, it can be easy to get wrapped up in the technology. All too often excitement around tools can drown out the important requisites around people and process. The reality is people and process are a necessary condition for a tool to be successful. Having a tool will not be sufficient to overcome obstacles like poor stakeholder buy-in, inadequate governance, and the absence of a standard operating procedure.


• Slow is the way to go. When deciding what tools to purchase, start small and scale up rather than going all in and all too often ending up with many unused features and fees.

"There's been a chicken-egg debate raging in the PPM world for decades: What comes first, the tool or the process? It seems reasonable to say, ‘We don't have a process now, so we'll just adopt the one in the tool.’ But you'll soon find out that the tool doesn't have a process, and you needed to do more planning and analysis before buying the tool." (Barry Cousins, Practice Lead, Project Portfolio Management)

Assess your process maturity to determine the right tool approach

Take the time to consider and reflect on the current and target state of the processes for project portfolio management and project management.

Project Portfolio Management

• Status and Progress Reporting

  1. Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

     PPM is the practice of selecting the right projects and ensuring the organization has the necessary resources to complete them. PPM should enable executive decision makers to make sense of the excess of demand and give IT the ability to prioritize those projects that are most valuable to the business.

  2. Resource Management

  3. Project Management

     1. Initiation
     2. Planning
     3. Execution
     4. Monitoring and Controlling
     5. Closing
     Tailor a project management framework to fit your organization. Formal methodologies aren’t always the best fit. Take what you can use from formal frameworks and define a right-sized approach to your project management processes.

  4. Project Closure

  5. Benefits Tracking

Info-Tech’s maturity assessment tools can help you match your tools to your maturity level

Use Info-Tech’s Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool and Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool.

• The next few slides in this step take you through using our maturity assessment tools to help gauge your current-state and target-state maturity levels for project management (PM) and project portfolio management (PPM).
• In addition to the process maturity assessments, these workbooks also help you document current-state support tools and desired target-state tools.
• The outputs of these workbooks can be used in your MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template, which we will help you develop in phase three of this blueprint.

Download Info-Tech’s Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool and Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool

Conduct a gap analysis survey for both project and project portfolio management.

• Review the category and activity statements: For each gap analysis tab in the maturity assessments, use the comprehensive activity statements to identify gaps for the organization.
• Assess the current state: To assess the current state, evaluate whether the statement should be labeled as:
  • Absent: There is no evidence of any activities supporting this process.
  • Initial: Activity is ad hoc and not well defined.
  • Defined: Activity is established and there is moderate adherence to its execution.
  • Repeatable: Activity is established, documented, repeatable, and integrated with other phases of the process.
  • Managed: Activity execution is tracked by gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback

Once this is documented, take some time to describe the type of tool being used to do this (commercial, home-grown, standardized document) and provide additional details, where applicable.

Define the target state: Repeat the assessment of activity statements for the target state. Then gauge the organizational impact and complexity of improving each capability on a scale of very low to very high.

Analyze survey results for project and project portfolio management maturity

Take stock of the gap between current state and target state.

• What process areas have the biggest gap between current and target state?
• What areas are aligned across current and target state?

Identify what areas are currently the least and most mature.

• What process area causes the most pain in the organization?
• What process area is the organization’s lowest priority?

Note the overall current process maturity.

• After having done this exercise, does the overall maturity come as a surprise?
• If so, what are some of the areas that were previously overlooked?

• Identify process areas with low levels of maturity
• Spot areas of inconsistency between current and target state.
• Assess the overall gap to get a sense of the magnitude of the effort required to get to the target state.
• 100% doesn’t need to be the goal. Set a goal that is sustainable and always consider the value to effort ratio.

Screenshot your results and put them into the MS Project and M365 Action Plan Template.

Review the tool overview and plan to address gaps (tabs 3 & 4)

Tool Overview:

Analyze the applications used to support your project management and project portfolio management processes.

Look for:

• Tools that help with processes across the entire PM or PPM lifecycle.
• Tools that are only used for one specific process.

Reflect on the overlap between process areas with pain points and the current tools being used to complete this process.

Consider the sustainability of the target-state tool choice

You have the option to create an action plan for each of the areas of improvement coming out of your maturity assessment.

This can include:

• Tactical Optimization Action: What is the main action needed to improve capability?
• Related Actions: Is there a cross-over with any actions for other capabilities?
• Timeframe: Is this near-term, mid-term, or long-term?
• Proposed Start Date
• Proposed Go-Live Date
• RACI: Who will be responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed?
• Status: What is the status of this action item over time?

Determine the Future of Microsoft Project for Your Organization

Phase 2: Weigh Your Implementation Options

Phase Outcomes

• A decision on how best to proceed (or not proceed) with Project for the web
• A Partner outreach plan

Step 2.1

Get familiar with extending Project for the web using Power Apps

Activities

• Get familiar with Project for the web: how it differs from Microsoft’s traditional project offerings and where it is going
• Understand the basics of how to extend Project for the web in Power Apps
• Perform a feasibility test

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Get familiar with Project for the web
• Understand the basics of how to extend Project for the web in Power Apps
• Perform a feasibility test to determine if taking a DIY approach to extending Project for the web is right for your organization currently

This step usually involves the following participants:

• Portfolio Manager (PMO Director)
• Project Managers
• Other relevant PMO stakeholders

Outcomes of Step

• A decision on how best to proceed (or not proceed) with Project for the web

Project for the web is the latest of Microsoft’s project management offerings

What is Project for the web?

• First introduced in 2019 as Project Service, Project for the web (PFTW) is Microsoft’s entry into the world of cloud-based work management and lightweight project management options.
• Built on the Power Platform and leveraging the Dataverse for data storage, PFTW integrates with the many applications that M365 users are already employing in their day-to-day work management and collaboration activities.
• It is available as a part of your M365 subscription with the minimum activation of P1 license – it comes with P3 and P5 licenses as well.
• From a functionality and user experience perspective, PFTW is closer to applications like Planner or Azure Boards than it is to traditional MS Project options.

What does it do?

• PFTW allows for task and dependency tracking and basic timeline creation and scheduling and offers board and grid view options. It also allows real-time coauthoring of tasks among team members scheduled to the same project.
• PFTW also comes with a product/functionality Microsoft calls Roadmap, which allows users to aggregate multiple project timelines into a single view for reporting purposes.

What doesn't it do?

• With PFTW, Microsoft is offering noticeably less traditional project management functionality than its existing solutions. Absent are table stakes project management capabilities like critical path, baselining, resource load balancing, etc.

Who is it for?

• Currently, in its base lightweight project management option, PFTW is targeted toward occasional or part-time project managers (not the PMP-certified set) tasked with overseeing and/or collaborating on small to mid-sized initiatives and projects.

Put Project for the web in perspective

Out of the box, PFTW occupies a liminal space when it comes to work management options

• More than a task management tool, but not quite a full project management tool
• Not exactly a portfolio management tool, yet some PPM reporting functionality is inherent in the PFTW through Roadmap

The table to the right shows some of the functionality in PFTW in relation to the task management functionality of Planner and the enterprise project and portfolio management functionality of Project Online.

Project for the web will eventually replace Project Online

• As early as 2018 Microsoft has been foreshadowing a transition away from the SharePoint-backed Project environments of Server and Online toward something based in Common Data Service (CDS) – now rebranded as the Dataverse.
• Indeed, as recently as the spring of 2021, at its Reimagine Project Management online event, Microsoft reiterated its plans to sunset Project Online and transition existing Online users to the new environment of Project for the web – though it provided no firm dates when this might occur.
  • The reason for this move away from Online appears to be an acknowledgment that the rigidity of the tool is awkward in our current dynamic, collaborative, and overhead-adverse work management paradigm.
  • To paraphrase a point made by George Bullock, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, for Microsoft at the Reimagine Project Management event, teams want to manage work as they see fit, but the rigidity of legacy solutions doesn’t allow for this, leading to a proliferation of tools and data sprawl. (This comment was made during the “Overview of Microsoft Project” session during the Reimagine event.)

PFTW is Microsoft’s proposed future-state antidote to this challenge. Its success will depend on how well users are able to integrate the solution into a wider M365 work management setting.

"We are committed to supporting our customers on Project Online and helping them transition to Project for the Web. No end-of-support has been set for Project Online, but when the time comes, we will communicate our plans on the transition path and give you plenty of advance notice." (Heather Heide, Program Manager, Microsoft Planner and Project. This comment was made during the “Overview of Microsoft Project” session during the Reimagine event.)

Project for the web can be extended beyond its base lightweight functionality

Project for the web can be extended to add more traditional and robust project and project portfolio management functionality using the Power Platform.

Microsoft plans to sunset Project Online in favor of PFTW will at first be a head-scratcher for those familiar with the extensive PPM functionality in Project Online and underwhelmed by the project and portfolio management in PFTW.

However, having built the solution upon the Power Platform, Microsoft has made it possible to take the base functionality in PFTW and extend it to create a more custom, organizationally specific user experience.

• With a little taste of what can be done with PFTW by leveraging the Power Platform – and, in particular, Power Apps – it becomes more obvious how we, as users, can begin to evolve the base tool toward a more traditional PPM solution and how, in time, Microsoft’s developers may develop the next iteration of PFTW into something more closely resembling Project Online.

Before users get too excited about using these tools to build a custom PPM approach, we should consider the time, effort, and skills required. The slides ahead will take you through a series of considerations to help you gauge whether your PMO is ready to go it alone in extending the solution.

Extending the tool enhances functionality

Table 2.1a in this step displayed the functionality in PFTW in relation to the task management tool Planner and the robust PPM functionality in Online.

The table to the right shows how the functionality in PFTW can differ from the base solution and Project Online when it is extended using the model-driven app option in Power Apps.

Caveat: The list of functionality and processes in this table is sample data.

This functionality is not inherent in the solution as soon as you integrate with Power Apps. Rather it must be built – and your success in developing these functions will depend upon the time and skills you have available.

Get familiar with the basics of Power Apps before you decide to go it alone

While the concept of being able to customize and grow a commercial PPM tool is enticing, the reality of low-code development and application maintenance may be too much for resource-constrained PMOs.

Long story short: Extending PFTW in Power Apps is time consuming and can be frustrating for the novice to intermediate user.

It can take days, even weeks, just to find your feet in Power Apps, let alone to determine requirements to start building out a custom model-driven app. The latter activity can entail creating custom columns and tables, determining relationships between tables to get required outputs, in addition to basic design activities.

Time-strapped and resource-constrained practitioners should pause before committing to this deployment approach. To help better understand the commitment, the slides ahead cover the basics of extending PFTW in Power Apps:

1. Dataverse environments.
2. Navigating Power App Designer and Sitemap Designer
3. Customizing tables and forms in the Dataverse

See Info-Tech’s M365 Project Portfolio Management Tool Guide for more information on Power Apps in general.

Get familiar with Power Apps licensing

Power Apps for 365 comes with E1 through E5 M365 licenses (and F3 and F5 licenses), though additional functionality can be purchased if required.

While extending Project for the web with Power Apps does not at this time, in normal deployments, require additional licensing from what is included in a E3 or E5 license, it is not out of the realm of possibility that a more complex deployment could incur costs not included in the Power Apps for 365 that comes with your enterprise agreement.

The table to the right shows current additional licensing options.

For more on Power Apps licensing, refer to Info-Tech’s Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era for more information.

What needs to be configured?

Extending Project for the web requires working with your IT peers to get the right environments configured based upon your needs.

• PFTW data is stored in the Microsoft Dataverse (formerly Common Data Service or CDS).
• The organization’s Dataverse can be made up of one to many environments based upon its needs. Environments are individual databases with unique proprieties in terms of who can access them and what applications can store data in them.
• Project for the web supports three different types of environments: default, production, and sandbox.
• You can have multiple instances of a custom PFTW app deployed across these environments and across different users – and the environment you choose depends upon the use case of each instance.

Types of Environments

• Default Environment

  • It is the easiest to deploy and get started with the PFTW Power App in the default environment. However, it is also the most restricted environment with the least room for configuration.
  • Microsoft recommends this environment for simple deployments or for projects that span the organization. This is because everyone in the organization is by default a member of this environment – and, with the least room for configuration, the app is relatively straightforward.
  • At minimum, you need one project license to deploy PFTW in the default environment.

• Production Environment

  • This environment affords more flexibility for how a custom app can be configured and deployed. Unlike the default environment, deploying a production environment is a manual process (through the Power Platform Admin Center) and security roles need to be set to limit users who can access the environment.
  • Because users can be limited, production environments can be used to support more advanced deployments and can support diverse processes for different teams.
  • At present, you need at least five Project licenses to deploy to production environments.

• Sandbox Environment

  • This environment is for users who are responsible for the creation of custom apps. It offers the same functionality as a production environment but allows users to make changes without jeopardizing a production environment.

Resources to provide your IT colleagues with to help in your PFTW deployment:

1. Project for the web admin help (Product Documentation, Microsoft)
2. Advanced deployment for Project for the web (Video, Microsoft)
3. Get Started with Project Power App (Product Support Documentation, Microsoft)
4. Project for the Web Security Roles (Product Support Documentation, Microsoft)

Get started creating or customizing a model-driven app

With the proper environments procured, you can now start extending Project for the web.

• Navigate to the environment you would like to extend PFTW within. For the purposes of the slides ahead, we’ll be using a sandbox environment for an example. Ensure you have the right access set up for production and sandbox environments of your own (see links on previous slide for more assistance).
• To begin extending PFTW, the two core features you need to be familiar with before you start in Power Apps are (1) Tables/Entities and (2) the Power Apps Designer – and in particular the Site Map.

From the Power Apps main page in 365, you can change your environment by selecting from the options in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Screenshot of the Power Apps “Apps” page in a sandbox environment. The Project App will appear as “Project” when the application is installed, though it is also easy to create an app from scratch.

Model-driven apps are built around tables

In Power Apps, tables (formerly called entities and still referred to as entities in the Power Apps Designer) function much like tables in Excel: they are containers of columns of data for tracking purposes. Tables define the data for your app, and you build your app around them.

In general, there are three types of tables:

• Standard: These are out-of-the box tables included with a Dataverse environment. Most standard tables can be customized.
• Managed: These are tables that get imported into an environment as part of a managed solution. Managed tables cannot be customized.
• Custom: These types of tables can either be imported from another solution or created directly in the Dataverse environment. To create custom tables, users need to have System Administrator or System Customizer security roles within the Dataverse.

Tables can be accessed under Data banner on the left-hand panel of your Power Apps screen.

The below is a list of standard tables that can be used to customize your Project App.

App layouts are designed in the Power App Designer

You configure tables with a view to using them in the design of your app in the Power Apps Designer.

• If you’re customizing a Project for the web app manually installed into your production or sandbox environment, you can access Designer by highlighting the app from your list of apps on the Apps page and clicking “Edit” in the ribbon above.
  • If you’re creating a model-driven app from scratch, Designer will open past the “Create a New App” intro screen.
  • If you need to create separate apps in your environment for different PMOs or business units, it is as easy to create an app from scratch as it is to customize the manual install.
• The App Designer is where you can design the layout of your model-driven app and employ the right data tables.

The Site Map determines the navigation for your app, i.e. it is where you establish the links and pages users will navigate. We will review the basics of the sitemap on the next few slides.

The tables that come loaded into your Project Power App environment (at this time, 37) via the manual install will appear in the Power Apps Designer in the Entity View pane at the bottom of the page. You do not have to use all of them in your design.

Navigate the Sitemap Designer

With the components of the previous two slides in mind, let’s walk through how to use them together in the development of a Project app.

As addressed in the previous slide, the sitemap determines the navigation for your app, i.e. it is where you establish the links and the pages that users will navigate.

To get to the Sitemap Designer, highlight the Project App from your list of apps on the Apps page and click “Edit” in the ribbon above. If you’re creating a model-driven app from scratch, Designer will open past the “Create a New App” intro screen.

• To start designing your app layout, click the pencil icon beside the Site Map logo on the App Designer screen.
• This will take you into the Sitemap Designer (see screenshot to the right). This is where you determine the layout of your app and the relevant data points (and related tables from within the Dataverse) that will factor into your Project App.
• In the Sitemap Designer, you simply drag and drop the areas, groups, and subareas you want to see in your app’s user interface (see next slide for more details).

Use Areas, Groups, and Subareas as building blocks for your App

Drag and drop the relevant components from the panel on the right-hand side of the screen into the main window to design the core pieces that will be present within your user interface.

For each subarea in your design, use the pop-up panel on the right-hand side of the screen to connect your component the relevant table from within your Dataverse environment.

How do Areas, Groups, and Subareas translate into an app?

The names or titles for your Areas and Groups can be customized within the Sitemap Designer.

The names or titles for your Subareas is dependent upon your table name within the Dataverse.

Area: App users can toggle the arrows to switch between Areas.

Group: These will change to reflect the chosen Area.

Subarea: The tables and forms associated with each subarea.

How to properly save and publish your changes made in the Sitemap Designer and Power Apps Designer:

1. When you are done making changes to your components within the Sitemap Designer, and want your changes to go live, hit the “Publish” button in the top right corner; when it has successfully published, select “Save and Close.”
2. You will be taken back to the Power App Designer homepage. Hit “Save,” then “Publish,” and then finally “Play,” to go to your app or “Save and Close.”

How to find the right tables in the Dataverse

While you determine which tables will play into your app in the Sitemap Designer, you use the Tables link to customize tables and forms.

The Tables page under the Data banner in Power Apps houses all of the tables available in your Dataverse environment. Do not be overwhelmed or get too excited. Only a small portion of the tables in the Tables folder in Power Apps will be relevant when it comes to extending PFTW.

Find the table you would like to customize and/or employ in your app and select it. The next slides will look at customizing the table (if you need to) and designing an app based upon the table.

To access all the tables in your environment, you’ll need to ensure your filter is set correctly on the top right-hand corner of the screen, otherwise you will only see a small portion of the tables in your Dataverse environment.

If you’re a novice, it will take you some time to get familiar with the table structure in the Dataverse.

We recommend you start with the list of tables listed on slide. You can likely find something there that you can use or build from for most PPM purposes.

How to customize a table (1 of 3)

You won’t necessarily need to customize a table, but if you do here are some steps to help you get familiar with the basics.

In this screenshot, we are clicked into the msdyn_project (display name: Project) table. As you can see, there are a series of tabs below the name of the table, and we are clicked into the Columns tab. This is where you can see all of the data points included in the table.

You are not able to customize all columns. If a column that you are not able to customize does not meet your needs, you will need to create a custom column from the “+Add column” option.

“Required” or “Optional” status pertains to when the column or field is used within your app. For customizable or custom columns this status can be set when you click into each column.

How to customize a table (2 of 3)

Create a custom “Status” column.

By way of illustrating how you might need to customize a table, we’ll highlight the “msdyn_project_statecode” (display name: Project Status) column that comes preloaded in the Project (msdyn_project) table.

• The Project Status column only gives you a binary choice. While you are able to customize what that binary choice is (it comes preloaded with “Active” and “Inactive” as the options) you cannot add additional choices – so you cannot set it to red/yellow/green, the most universally adopted options for status in the project portfolio management world.
• Because of this, let’s look at the effort involved in creating a choice and adding a custom column to your table based upon that choice.

From within the Choices tab, click “+New choice” option to create a custom choice.

A pane will appear to the right of your screen. From there you can give your choice a name, and under the “Items” header, add your list of options.

Click save. Your custom choice is now saved to the Choices tab in the Dataverse environment and can be used in your table. Further customizations can be made to your choice if need be.

How to customize a table (3 of 3)

Back in the Tables tab, you can put your new choice to work by adding a column to a table and selecting your custom choice.

Start by selecting “+ Add Column” at the top left-hand side of your table. A window will appear on the right-hand side of the page, and you will have options to name your column and choose the data type.

As you can see in this screenshot to the left, data type options include text, number and date types, and many more. Because we are looking to use our custom choice for this example, we are going to choose “Choice.”

When you select “Choice” as your data type, all of the choice options available or created in your Dataverse environment will appear. Find your custom choice – in this example the one name “RYG Status” – and click done. When the window closes, be sure to select “Save Table.”

How to develop a Form based upon your table (1 of 3 – open the form editor)

A form is the interface users will engage with when using your Project app.

When the Project app is first installed in your environment, the main user form will be lacking, with only a few basic data options.

This form can be customized and additional tabs can be added to your user interface.

1. To do this, go to the table you want to customize.
2. In the horizontal series of tabs at the top of the screen, below the table title select the “Forms” option.
3. Click on the main information option or select Edit Form for the form with “Main” under its form type. A new window will open where you can customize your form.

Select the Forms tab.

Start with the form that has “Main” as its Format Type.

How to develop a Form based upon your table (2 of 3 – add a component)

You can add element like columns or sections to your form by selecting the Components window.

In this example, we are adding a 1-Column section. When you select that option from the menu options on the left of the screen, a window will open to the right of the screen where you can name and format the section.

Choose the component you would like to add from the layout options. Depending on the table element you are looking to use, you can also add input options like number inputs and star ratings and pull in related data elements like a project timeline.

How to develop a Form based upon your table (3 of 3 – add table columns)

If you click on the “Table Columns” option on the left-hand pane, all of the column options from within your table will appear in alphabetical order.

When clicked within the form section you would like to add the new column to, select the column from the list of option in the left-hand pane. The new data point will appear within the section. You can order and format section elements as you would like.

When you are done editing the form, click the “Save” icon in the top right-hand corner. If you are ready for your changes to go live within your Project App, select the “Publish” icon in the top right-hand corner. Your updated form will go live within all of the apps that use it.

The good and the bad of extending Project for the web

The content in this step has not instructed users how to extend PFTW; rather, it has covered three basic core pieces of Power Apps that those interesting in PFTW need to be aware of: Dataverse environments, the Power Apps and Sitemaps Designers, and Tables and associated Forms.

Because we have only covered the very tip of the iceberg, those interested in going further and taking a DIY approach to extending PFTW will need to build upon these basics to unlock further functionality. Indeed, it takes work to develop the product into something that begins to resemble a viable enterprise project and portfolio management solution. Here are some of the good and the bad elements associated with that work:

The Good:

• You can right-size and purpose build: add as much or as little project management rigor as your process requires. Related, you can customize the solution in multiple ways to suit the needs of specific business units or portfolios.
• Speed to market: it is possible to get up and running quickly with a minimum-viable product.

The Bad:

• Work required: to build anything beyond MVP requires independent research and trial and error.
• Time required: to build anything beyond MVP requires time and skills that many PMOs don’t have.
• Shadow support costs: ungoverned app creation could have negative support and maintenance impacts across IT.

"The move to Power Platform and low code development will […increase] maintenance overhead. Will low code solution hit problems at scale? [H]ow easy will it be to support hundreds or thousands of small applications?

I can hear the IT support desks already complaining at the thought of this. This part of the puzzle is yet to hit real world realities of support because non developers are busy creating lots of low code applications." (Ben Hosking, Software Developer and Blogger, "Why low code software development is eating the world")

Quick start your extension with the Accelerator

For those starting out, there is a pre-built app you can import into your environment to extend the Project for the web app without any custom development.

• If the DIY approach in the previous slides was overwhelming, and you don’t have the budget for a MS Partner route in the near-term, this doesn’t mean that evolving your Project for the web app is unattainable.
• Thanks to a partnership between OnePlan (one of the MS Gold Partners we detail in the next step) and Microsoft, Project for the web users have access to a free resource to help them evolve the base Project app. It’s called the “Project for the web Accelerator” (commonly referred to as “the Accelerator” for short).
• Users interested in learning more about, and accessing, this free resource should refer to the links below:
  1. The Future of Microsoft Project Online (source: OnePlan).
  2. Introducing the Project Accelerator (source: Microsoft).
  3. Project for the web Accelerator (source: GitHub)

2.1.1 Perform a feasibility test (1 of 2)

As we’ve suggested, and as the material in this step indicates, extending PFTW in a DIY fashion is not small task. You need a knowledge of the Dataverse and Power Apps, and access to the requisite skills, time, and resources to develop the solution.

To determine whether your PMO and organization are ready to go it alone in extending PFTW, perform the following activity:

1. Convene a collection of portfolio, project, and PMO staff.
2. Using the six-question survey on tab 5 of the Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool (see screenshot to the right) as a jumping off point for a discussion, consider the readiness of your PMO or project organization to undertake a DIY approach to extending and implementing PFTW at this time.
3. You can use the recommendations on tab 5 of the Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool to inform your next steps, and input the gauge graphic in section 4 of the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template.

Go to tab 5 of the Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

See next slide for additional activity details

2.1.1 Perform a feasibility test (2 of 2)

Input: The contents of this step, The Project for the Web Extensibility Feasibility Test (tab 5 in the Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool)

Output: Initial recommendations on whether to proceed and how to proceed with a DIY approach to extending Project for the web

Materials: The Project for the Web Extensibility Feasibility Test (tab 5 in the Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool)

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), Project Managers, Other relevant PMO stakeholders

Step 2.2

Assess the Microsoft Gold Partner Community

Activities

• Review what to look for in a Microsoft Partner
• Determine whether your needs would benefit from reaching out to a Microsoft Partner
• Review three key Partners from the North American market
• Create a Partner outreach plan

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Review what to look for in a Microsoft Partner.
• Determine whether your needs would benefit from reaching out to a Microsoft Partner.
• Review three key Partners from the North American market.

This step usually involves the following participants:

• Portfolio Manager (PMO Director)
• Project Managers
• Other relevant PMO stakeholders

Outcomes of Step

• A better understanding of MS Partners
• A Partner outreach plan

You don’t have to go it alone

Microsoft has an established community of Partners who can help in your customizations and implementations of Project for the web and other MS Project offerings.

If the content in the previous step seemed too technical or overly complex in a way that scared you away from a DIY approach to extending Microsoft’s latest project offering (and at some point in the near future, soon to be its only project offering), Project for the web, fear not.

You do not have to wade into the waters of extending Project for the web alone, or for that matter, in implementing any other MS Project solution.

Instead, Microsoft nurtures a community of Silver and Gold partners who offer hands-on technical assistance and tool implementation services. While the specific services provided vary from partner to partner, all can assist in the customization and implementation of any of Microsoft’s Project offerings.

In this step we will cover what to look for in a Partner and how to assess whether you are a good candidate for the services of a Partner. We will also highlight three Partners from within the North American market.

The basics of the Partner community

What is a Microsoft Partner?

Simply put, an MS Gold Partner is a software or professional services organization that provides sales and services related to Microsoft products.

They’re resellers, implementors, integrators, software manufacturers, trainers, and virtually any other technology-related business service.

• Microsoft has for decades opted out of being a professional services organization, outside of its very “leading edge” offerings from MCS (Microsoft Consulting Services) for only those technologies that are so new that they aren’t yet supported by MS Partners.
• As you can see in the chart on the next slide, to become a silver or gold certified partner, firms must demonstrate expertise in specific areas of business and technology in 18 competency areas that are divided into four categories: applications and infrastructure, business applications, data and AI, and modern workplace and security.

More information on what it takes to become a Microsoft Partner:

1. Partner Center (Document Center, Microsoft)
2. Differentiate your business by attaining Microsoft competencies (Document Center, Microsoft)
3. Partner Network Homepage (Webpage, Microsoft)
4. See which partner offer is right for you (Webpage, Microsoft)

Types of partnerships and qualifications

When would a MS Partner be helpful?

• Project management and portfolio management practitioners might look into procuring the services of a Microsoft Partner for a variety of reasons.
• Because services vary from partner to partner (help to extend Project for the web, implement Project Server or Project Online, augment PMO staffing, etc.) we won’t comment on specific needs here.
• Instead, the three most common conditions that trigger the need are listed to the right.

Speed

When you need to get results faster than your staff can grow the needed capabilities.

Cost

When the complexity of the purchase decision, implementation, communication, training, configuration, and/or customization cannot be cost-justified for internal staff, often because you’ll only do it once.

Expertise & Skills

When your needs cannot be met by the core Microsoft technology without significant extension or customization.

Canadian Microsoft Partners Spotlight

As part of our research process for this blueprint, Info-Tech asked Microsoft Canada for referrals and introductions to leading Microsoft Partners. We spent six months collaborating with them on fresh research into the underlying platform.

These vendors are listed below and are highlighted in subsequent slides.

Spotlighted Partners:

Please Note: While these vendors were referred to us by Microsoft Canada and have a footprint in the Canadian market, their footprints extend beyond this to the North American and global markets.

A word about our approach

Barry Cousins
Project Portfolio Management Practice Lead
Info-Tech Research Group

Our researchers have been working with Microsoft Project Online and Microsoft Project Server clients for years, and it’s fair to say that most of these clients (at some point) used a Microsoft Partner in their deployment. They’re not really software products, per se; they’re platforms. As a Microsoft Partner in 2003 when Project Server got its first big push, I heard it loud and clear: “Some assembly required. You might only make 7% on the licensing, but the world’s your oyster for services.”

In the past few years, Microsoft froze the market for major Microsoft Project decisions by making it clear that the existing offering is not getting updates while the new offering (Project for the web) doesn’t do what the old one did. And in a fascinating timing coincidence, the market substantially adopted Microsoft 365 during that period, which enables access to Project for the web.

Many of Info-Tech’s clients are justifiably curious, confused, and concerned, while the Microsoft Partners have persisted in their knowledge and capability. So, we asked Microsoft Canada for referrals and introductions to leading Microsoft Partners and spent six months collaborating with them on fresh research into the underlying platform.

Disclosure: Info-Tech conducted collaborative research with the partners listed on the previous slide to produce this publication. Market trends and reactions were studied, but the only clients identified were in case studies provided by the Microsoft Partners. Info-Tech’s customers have been, and remain, anonymous. (Barry Cousins, Project Portfolio Management Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group)

MS Gold Partner Spotlight:

OnePlan

Headquarters: San Marcos, California, and Toronto, Ontario
Number of Employees: ~80
Active Since: 2007 (as EPMLive)
Website: www.oneplan.ai

Who are they?

• While the OnePlan brand has only been the marketplace for a few years, the company has been a major player in MS Gold Partner space for well over a decade.
• Born out of EPMLive in the mid-aughts, OnePlan Solutions has evolved through a series of acquisitions, including Upland, Tivitie, and most recently Wicresoft.

What do they do?

• Software: Its recent rebranding is largely because OnePlan Solutions is as much a software company as it is a professional services firm. The OnePlan software product is an impressive solution that can be used on its own to facilitate the portfolio approaches outlined on the next slide and that can also integrate with the tools your organization is already using to manage tasks (see here for a full rundown of the solutions within the Microsoft stack and beyond OnePlan can integrate with).

Beyond its ability to integrate with existing solutions, as a software product, OnePlan has modules for resource planning, strategic portfolio planning, financial planning, time tracking, and more.

• PPM Consulting Services: The OnePlan team also offers portfolio management consulting services. See the next slide for a list of its approaches to project portfolio management.

Markets served

• US, Canada, Europe, and Australia

Channel Differentiation

• OnePlan scales to all the PPM needs of all industry types.
• Additionally, OnePlan offers insights and functionality specific to the needs of BioTech-Pharma.

What differentiates OnePlan?

• OnePlan co-developed the Project Accelerator for Project for the web with Microsoft. The OnePlan team’s involvement in developing the Accelerator and making it free for users to access suggests it is aligned to and has expertise in the purpose-built and collaborative vision behind Microsoft’s move away from Project Online and toward the Power Platform and Teams collaboration.
• 2021 MS Gold Partner of the Year. At Microsoft’s recent Microsoft Inspire event, OnePlan was recognized as the Gold Partner of the Year for Project and Portfolio Management as well as a finalist for Power Apps and Power Automate.
• OnePlan Approaches: Below is a list of the services or approaches to project portfolio management that OnePlan provides. See its website for more details.
  • Strategic Portfolio Management: Align work to objectives and business outcomes. Track performance against the proposed objectives outcomes.
  • Agile Portfolio Management: Implement Agile practices across the organization, both at the team and executive level.
  • Adaptive Portfolio Management: Allow teams to use the project methodology and tools that best suit the work/team. Maintain visibility and decision making across the entire portfolio.
  • Professional Services Automation: Use automation to operate with greater efficiency.

"OnePlan offers a strategic portfolio, financial and resource management solution that fits the needs of every PMO. Optimize your portfolio, financials and resources enterprise wide." (Paul Estabrooks, Vice President at OnePlan)

OnePlan Case Study

This case study was provided to Info-Tech by OnePlan.

Brambles

INDUSTRY: Supply Chain & Logistics
SOURCE: OnePlan

Overview: Brambles plays a key role in the delivery or return of products amongst global trading partners such as manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

Challenge

Brambles had a variety of Project Management tools with no easy way of consolidating project management data. The proliferation of project management solutions was hindering the execution of a long-term business transformation strategy. Brambles needed certain common and strategic project management processes and enterprise project reporting while still allowing individual project management solutions to be used as part of the PPM platform.

Solution

As part of the PMO-driven business transformation strategy, Brambles implemented a project management “operating system” acting as a foundation for core processes such as project intake, portfolio management, resource, and financial planning and reporting while providing integration capability for a variety of tools used for project execution.

OnePlan’s new Adaptive PPM platform, combining the use of PowerApps and OnePlan, gives Brambles the desired PPM operating system while allowing for tool flexibility at the execution level.

Results

• Comprehensive picture of progress across the portfolio.
• Greater adoption by allowing flexibility of work management tools.
• Modern portfolio management solution that enables leadership to make confident decision.

Solution Details

• OnePlan
• Project
• Power Apps
• Power Automate
• Power BI
• Teams

Contacting OnePlan Solutions

www.oneplan.ai

Joe Larscheid: jlarscheid@oneplan.ai
Paul Estabrooks: pestabrooks@oneplan.ai
Contact Us: contact@oneplan.ai
Partners: partner@oneplan.ai

Partner Resources. OnePlan facilitates regular ongoing live webinars on PPM topics that anyone can sign up for on the OnePlan website.

For more information on upcoming webinars, or to access recordings of past webinars, see here.

Additional OnePlan Resources

1. How to Extend Microsoft Teams into a Collaborative Project, Portfolio and Work Management Solution (on-demand webinar, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)
2. What Does Agile PPM Mean To The Modern PMO (on-demand webinar, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)
3. OnePlan is fused with the Microsoft User Experience (blog article, OnePlan)
4. Adaptive Portfolio Management Demo – Bringing Order to the Tool Chaos with OnePlan (product demo, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)
5. How OnePlan is aligning with Microsoft’s Project and Portfolio Management Vision (blog article, OnePlan)
6. Accelerating Office 365 Value with a Hybrid Project Portfolio Management Solution (product demo, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)

MS Gold Partner Spotlight:

PMO Outsource Ltd.

Headquarters: Calgary, Alberta, and Mississauga, Ontario
Website: www.pmooutsource.com

Who are they?

• PMO Outsource Ltd. is a Microsoft Gold Partner and PMI certified professional services firm based in Alberta and Ontario, Canada.
• It offers comprehensive project and portfolio management offerings with a specific focus on project lifecycle management, including demand management, resource management, and governance and communication practices.

What do they do?

• Project Online and Power Platform Expertise. The PMO Outsource Ltd. team has extensive knowledge in both Microsoft’s old tech (Project Server and Desktop) and in its newer, cloud-based technologies (Project Online, Project for the web, the Power Platform, and Dynamics 365). As the case study in two slides demonstrates, PMO Outsource Ltd. Uses its in-depth knowledge of the Microsoft suite to help organizations automate project and portfolio data collection process, create efficiencies, and encourage cloud adoption.
• PPM Consulting Services: In addition to its Microsoft platform expertise, the PMO Outsource Ltd. team also offers project and portfolio management consulting services, helping organizations evolve their process and governance structures as well as their approaches to PPM tooling.

Markets served

• Global

Channel Differentiation

• PMO Outsource Ltd. scales to all the PPM needs of all industry types.

What differentiates PMO Outsource Ltd.?

• PMO Staff Augmentation. In addition to its technology and consulting services, PMO Outsource Ltd. offers PMO staff augmentation services. As advertised on its website, it offers “scalable PMO staffing solutions. Whether you require Project Managers, Business Analysts, Admins or Coordinators, [PMO Outsource Ltd.] can fulfill your talent search requirements from a skilled pool of resources.”
• Multiple and easy-to-understand service contract packages. PMO Outsource Ltd. offers many prepackaged service offerings to suit PMOs’ needs. Those packages include “PMO Management, Admin, and Support,” “PPM Solution, Site and Workflow Configuration,” and “Add-Ons.” For full details of what’s included in these services packages, see the PMO Outsource Ltd. website.
• PMO Outsource Ltd. Services: Below is a list of the services or approaches to project portfolio management that PMO Outsource Ltd. Provides. See its website for more details.
  • Process Automation, Workflows, and Tools. Facilitate line of sight by tailoring Microsoft’s technology to your organization’s needs and creating custom workflows.
  • PMO Management Framework. Receive a professionally managed PPM methodology as well as governance standardization of processes, tools, and templates.
  • Custom BI Reports. Leverage its expertise in reporting and dashboarding to create the visibility your organization needs.

"While selecting an appropriate PPM tool, the PMO should not only evaluate the standard industry tools but also analyze which tool will best fit the organization’s strategy, budget, and culture in the long run." (Neeta Manghnani, PMO Strategist, PMO Outsource Ltd.)

PMO Outsource Ltd. Case Study

This case study was provided to Info-Tech by PMO Outsource Ltd.

SAMUEL

INDUSTRY: Manufacturing
SOURCE: PMO Outsource Ltd.

Challenge

• MS Project 2013 Server (Legacy/OnPrem)
• Out-of-support application and compliance with Office 365
• Out-of-support third-party application for workflows
• No capability for resource management
• Too many manual processes for data maintenance and server administration

Solution

• Migrate project data to MS Project Online
• Recreate workflows using Power Automate solution
• Configure Power BI content packs for Portfolio reporting and resource management dashboards
• Recreate OLAP reports from legacy environment using Power BI
• Cut down nearly 50% of administrative time by automating PMO/PPM processes
• Save costs on Server hardware/application maintenance by nearly 75%

Full Case Study Link

• For full details about how PMO Outsource Ltd. assisted Samuel in modernizing its solution and creating efficiencies, visit the Microsoft website where this case study is highlighted.

Contacting PMO Outsource Ltd.

www.pmooutsource.com

700 8th Ave SW, #108
Calgary, AB T2P 1H2
Telephone : +1 (587) 355-3745

6045 Creditview Road, #169
Mississauga, ON L5V 0B1
Telephone : +1 (289) 334-1228

Information: info@pmooutsource.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pmo-outsource/

Partner Resources. PMO Outsource Ltd.’s approach is rooted within a robust and comprehensive PPM framework that is focused on driving strategic outcomes and business success.

For a full overview of its PPM framework, see here.

Additional PMO Outsource Ltd. Resources

1. 5 Benefits of PPM tools and PMO process automation (blog article, PMO Outsource Ltd.)
2. Importance of PMO (blog article, PMO Outsource Ltd.)
3. Meet the Powerful and Reimagined PPM tool for Everyone! (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)
4. MS Project Tips: How to add #Sprints to an existing Project? (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)
5. MS Project Tips: How to add a milestone to your project? (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)
6. 5 Benefits of implementing Project Online Tools (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)

MS Gold Partner Spotlight:

Western Principles

Headquarters: Vancouver, British Columbia
Years Active: 16 Years
Website: www.westernprinciples.com

Who are they?

• Western Principles is a Microsoft Gold Partner and UMT 360 PPM software provider based in British Columbia with a network of consultants across Canada.
• In the last sixteen years, it has successfully conducted over 150 PPM implementations, helping in the implementation, training, and support of Microsoft Project offerings as well as UMT360 – a software solution provider that, much like OnePlan, enhances the PPM capabilities of the Microsoft platform.

What do they do?

• Technology expertise. The Western Principles team helps organizations maximize the value they are getting form the Microsoft Platform. Not only does it offer expertise in all the solutions in the MS Project ecosystem, it also helps organizations optimize their use and understanding of Teams, SharePoint, the Power Platform, and more. In addition to the Microsoft platform, Western Principles is partnered with many other technology providers, including UMT360 for strategic portfolio management, the Simplex Group for project document controls, HMS for time sheets, and FluentPro for integration, back-ups, and migrations.
• PPM Consulting Services: In addition to its technical services and solutions, Western Principles offers PPM consulting and staff augmentation services.

Markets served

• Canada

Channel Differentiation

• Western Principles scales to all the PPM needs of all industry types, public and private sector.
• In addition, its website offers persona-specific information based on the PPM needs of engineering and construction, new product development, marketing, and more.

What differentiates Western Principles?

• Gold-certified UMT 360 partner. In addition to being a Microsoft Gold Partner, Western Principles is a gold-certified UMT 360 partner. UMT 360 is a strategic portfolio management tool that integrates with many other work management solutions to offer holistic line of sight into the organization’s supply-demand pain points and strategic portfolio management needs. Some of the solutions UMT 360 integrates with include Project Online and Project for the web, Azure DevOps, Jira, and many more. See here for more information on the impressive functionality in UMT360.
• Sustainment Services. Adoption can be the bane of most PPM tool implementations. Among the many services Western Principles offers, its “sustainment services” stand out. According to Western Principles’ website, these services are addressed to those who require “continual maintenance, change, and repair activities” to keep PPM systems in “good working order” to help maximize ROI.
• Western Principles Services: In addition to the above, below is a list of some of the services that Western Principles offers. See its website for a full list of services.
  • Process Optimization: Determine your requirements and process needs.
  • Integration: Create a single source of truth.
  • Training: Ensure your team knows how to use the systems you implement.
  • Staff Augmentation: Provide experienced project team members based upon your needs.

"One of our principles is to begin with the end in mind. This means that we will work with you to define a roadmap to help you advance your strategic portfolio … and project management capabilities. The roadmap for each customer is different and based on where you are today, and where you need to get to." (Western Principles, “Your Strategic Portfolio Management roadmap,” Whitepaper)

Contacting Western Principles

www.westernprinciples.com

610 – 700 West Pender St.
Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8
+1 (800) 578-4155

Information: info@westernprinciples.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/western-principle...

Partner Resources. Western Principles provides a multitude of current case studies on its home page. These case studies let you know what the firm is working on this year and the type of support it provides to its clientele.

To access these case studies, see here.

Additional Western Principles Resources

1. Program and Portfolio Roll ups with Microsoft Project and Power BI (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
2. Dump the Spreadsheets for Microsoft Project Online (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
3. Power BI for Project for the web (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
4. How to do Capacity Planning and Resource Management in Microsoft Project Online [Part 1 & Part 2] (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
5. Extend & Integrate Microsoft Project (whitepaper, Western Principles)
6. Your COVID-19 Return-to-Work Plan (whitepaper, Western Principles)

Watch Info-Tech’s Analyst-Partner Briefing Videos to lean more

Info-Tech was able to sit down with the partners spotlighted in this step to discuss the current state of the PPM market and Microsoft’s place within it.

• All three partners spotlighted in this step contributed to Info-Tech’s research process for this publication.
• For two of the partners, OnePlan and PMO Outsource Ltd., Info-Tech was able to record a conversation where our analysts and the partners discuss Microsoft’s current MS Project offerings, the current state of the PPM tool market, and the services and the approaches of each respective partner.
• A third video briefing with Western Principles has not happened yet due to logistical reasons. We are hoping we can include a video chat with our peers at Western Principles in the near future.

Download Info-Tech’s Analyst-Partner Briefing Videos (OnePlan & PMO Outsource Ltd.)

2.2.1 Create a partner outreach plan

Input: Contents of this step, List of additional MS Gold Partners

Output: A completed partner outreach program

Materials: MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers, CIO

1. With an understanding of the partner ecosystem, compile a working group of PMO peers and stakeholders to produce a gameplan for engaging the MS Gold Partner ecosystem.
   • For additional partner options see Microsoft’s Partner Page.
2. Using slide 20 in Info-Tech’s MS Project and M365 Action Plan Template, document the Partners you would want or have scheduled briefings with.
   • As you go through the briefings and research process, document the pros and cons and areas of specialized associated with each vendor for your particular work management implementation.

Download the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

2.2.2 Document your PM and PPM requirements

1-3 hours

Input: Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment, Project Management Maturity Assessment

Output: MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template

Materials: Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment, Project Management Maturity Assessment, MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template

Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers, CIO

1. As you prepare to engage the Partner Community, you should have a sense of where your project management and project portfolio management gaps are to better communicate your tooling needs.
2. Leverage tab 4 from both your Project Portfolio Management Assessment and Project Management Assessment from step 1.3 of this blueprint to help document and communicate your requirements. Those tabs prioritize your project and portfolio management needs by highest impact for the organization.
3. You can use the outputs of the tab to inform your inputs on slide 23 of the MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template to present to organizational stakeholders and share with the Partners you are briefing with.

Download the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

Determine the Future of Microsoft Project for Your Organization

Phase 3: Finalize Your Implementation Approach

Phase Outcomes

An action plan concerning what to do with MS Project and M365 for your PMO or project organization.

Step 3.1

Prepare an action plan

Activities

• Compile the current state results
• Prepare an Implementation Roadmap
• Complete your presentation deck

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Assess the impact of organizational change for the project
• Develop your vision for stakeholders
• Compile the current state results and document the implementation approach
• Create clarity through a RACI and proposed implementation timeline

This step usually involves the following participants:

• Portfolio Manager (PMO Director)
• PMO Admin Team
• Business Analysts
• Project Managers

Outcomes of Step

• Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan

Assess the impact of organizational change

Be prepared to answer: “What’s in it for me?”

Before jumping into licensing and third-party negotiations, ensure you’ve clearly assessed the impact of change.

Tailor the work effort involved in each step, as necessary:

1. Assess the impact
   • Use the impact assessment questions to identify change impacts.
2. Plan for change
   • Document the impact on each stakeholder group.
   • Anticipate their response.
   • Curate a compelling message for each stakeholder group.
   • Develop a communication plan.
3. Act according to plan
   • Identify your executive sponsor.
   • Enable the sponsor to drive change communication.
   • Coach managers on how they can drive change at the individual level.

Impact Assessment Questions

• Will the change impact how our clients/customers receive, consume, or engage with our products/services?
• Will there be a price increase?
• Will there be a change to compensation and/or rewards?
• Will the vision or mission of the job change?
• Will the change span multiple locations/time zones?
• Are multiple products/services impacted by this change?
• Will staffing levels change?
• Will this change increase the workload?
• Will the tools of the job be substantially different?
• Will a new or different set of skills be needed?
• Will there be a change in reporting relationships?
• Will the workflow and approvals be changed?
• Will there be a substantial change to scheduling and logistics?

Master Organizational Change Management Practices blueprint

Develop your vision for stakeholders

After careful analysis and planning, it’s time to synthesize your findings to those most impacted by the change.

Executive Brief

• Prepare a compelling message about the current situation.
• Outline the considerations the working group took into account when developing the action plan.
• Succinctly describe the recommendations proposed by the working group.

Goals

• Identify the goals for the project.
• Explain the details for each goal to develop the organizational rationale for the project.
• These goals are the building blocks for the change communication that the executive sponsor will use to build a coalition of sponsors.

Future State Vision

• Quantify the high-level costs and benefits of moving forward with this project.
• Articulate the future- state maturity level for both the project and project portfolio management process.
• Reiterate the organizational rationale and drivers for change.

"In failed transformations, you often find plenty of plans, directives, and programs, but no vision…A useful rule of thumb: If you can’t communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are not yet done…" (John P. Kotter, Leading Change)

Get ready to compile the analysis completed throughout this blueprint in the subsequent activities. The outputs will come together in your Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan.

Use the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template to help communicate your vision

Our boardroom-ready presentation and communication template can be customized using the outputs of this blueprint.

• Getting stakeholders to understand why you are recommending specific work management changes and then communicating exactly what those changes are and what they will cost is key to the success of your work management implementation.
• To that end, the slides ahead walk you through how to customize the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template.
• Many of the current-state analysis activities you completed during phase 1 of this blueprint can be directly made use of within the template as can the decisions you made and requirements you documented during phase 2.
• By the end of this step, you will have a boardroom-ready presentation that will help you communicate your future-state vision.

Download Info-Tech’s Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

3.1.1 Compile current state results

1-3 hours

Input: Force Field Analysis Tool, Tool Audit Workbook, Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool, Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool

Output: Section 1: Executive Brief, Section 2: Context and Constraints

Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

1. As a group, review the results of the tools introduced throughout this blueprint. Use this information along with organizational knowledge to document the business context and current state.
2. Update the driving forces for change and risks and constraints slides using your outputs from the Force Field Analysis Tool.
3. Update the current tool landscape, tool satisfaction, and tool audit results slides using your outputs from the Tool Audit Workbook.
4. Update the gap analysis results slides using your outputs from the Project Management and Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tools.

Download the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

3.2.1 Option A: Prepare a DIY roadmap

Input: List of key PPM decision points, List of who is accountable for PPM decisions, List of who has PPM decision-making authority

Output: Section 3: DIY Implementation Approach

Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

1. As a group, review the results of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Use this information along with organizational knowledge and discussion with the working group to complete Section 3: DIY Implementation Approach.
2. Copy and paste your results from tab 5 of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Update the Implementation Approach slide to detail the rationale for selecting this option.
3. Update the Action Plan to articulate the details for total and annual costs of the proposed licensing solution.
4. Facilitate a discussion to determine roles and responsibilities for the implementation. Based on the size, risk, and complexity of the implementation, create a reasonable timeline.

Download the Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

3.2.1 Option b: Prepare a Partner roadmap

1-3 hours; Note: This is only applicable if you have chosen the Partner route

Input: Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool, Information on Microsoft Partners

Output: Section 4: Microsoft Partner Implementation Route

Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

1. As a group, review the results of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Use this information along with organizational knowledge and discussion with the working group to complete Section 4: Microsoft Partner Implementation Route.
2. Copy and paste your results from tab 5 of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Update the Implementation Approach slide to detail the rationale for selecting this option.
3. Develop an outreach plan for the Microsoft Partners you are planning to survey. Set targets for briefing dates and assign an individual to own any back-and-forth communication. Document the pros and cons of each Partner and gauge interest in continuing to analyze the vendor as a possible solution.
4. Facilitate a discussion to determine roles and responsibilities for the implementation. Based on the size, risk, and complexity of the implementation, create a reasonable timeline.

Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

3.1.2 Complete your presentation deck

1-2 hours

Input: Outputs from the exercises in this blueprint

Output: Section 5: Future-State Vision and Goals

Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

1. Put the finishing touches on your presentation deck by documenting your future- state vision and goals.
2. Prepare to present to your stakeholders.
   • Understand your audience, their needs and priorities, and their degree of knowledge and experiences with technology. This informs what to include in your presentation and how to position the message and goal.
3. Review the deck beginning to end and check for spelling, grammar, and vertical logic.
4. Practice delivering the vision for the project through several practice sessions.

Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

Pitch your vision to key stakeholders

There are multiple audiences for your pitch, and each audience requires a different level of detail when addressed. Depending on the outcomes expected from each audience, a suitable approach must be chosen. The format and information presented will vary significantly from group to group.

Summary of Accomplishment

Problem Solved

Knowledge Gained

• How you work: Work management and the various ways of working (personal and team task management, strategic project portfolio management, formal project management, and enterprise project and portfolio management).
• Where you need to go: Project portfolio management and project management current- and target-state maturity levels.
• What you need: Microsoft Project Plans and requisite M365 licensing.
• The skills you need: Extending Project for the web.
• Who you need to work with: Get to know the Microsoft Gold Partner community.

Deliverables Completed

• M365 Tool Guides
• Tool Audit Workbook
• Force Field Analysis Tool
• Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool
• Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool
• Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

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.

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

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.

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

Perform a work management tool audit

Gain insight into the tools that drive value or fail to drive value across your work management landscape with a view to streamline the organization’s tool ecosystem.

Prepare an action plan for your tool needs

Prepare the right work management tool recommendations for your IT teams and/or business units and develop a boardroom-ready presentation to communicate needs and next steps.

Research Contributors and Experts

Neeta Manghnani
PMO Strategist
PMO Outsource Ltd.

• Innovative, performance-driven executive with significant experience managing Portfolios, Programs & Projects, and technical systems for international corporations with complex requirements. A hands-on, dynamic leader with over 20 years of experience guiding and motivating cross-functional teams. Highly creative and brings a blend of business acumen and expertise in multiple IT disciplines, to maximize the corporate benefit from capital investments.
• Successfully deploys inventive solutions to automate processes and improve the functionality, scalability and security of critical business systems and applications. Leverages PMO/PPM management and leadership skills to meet the strategic goals and business initiatives.

Robert Strickland
Principal Consultant & Owner
PMO Outsource Ltd.

• Successful entrepreneur, leader, and technologist for over 15 years, is passionate about helping organizations leverage the value of SharePoint, O365, Project Online, Teams and the Power Platform. Expertise in implementing portals, workflows and collaboration experiences that create business value. Strategic manager with years of successful experience building businesses, developing custom solutions, delivering projects, and managing budgets. Strong transformational leader on large implementations with a technical pedigree.
• A digital transformation leader helping clients move to the cloud, collaborate, automate their business processes and eliminate paper forms, spreadsheets and other manual practices.

Related Info-Tech Research

• Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy
  Time is money; spend it wisely.
• Establish Realistic IT Resource Management Practices
  Holistically balance IT supply and demand to avoid overallocation.
• Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects
  Spend less time managing processes and more time delivering results

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Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework

Focus on process standardization, repeatability, and sustainability.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

"Enterprise architecture is not a technology concept, rather it is the foundation on which businesses orient themselves to create and capture value in the marketplace. Designing architecture is not a simple task and creating organizations for the future requires forward thinking and rigorous planning.

Architecture processes that are supposed to help facilitate discussions and drive option analysis are often seen as an unnecessary overhead. The negative perception is due to enterprise architecture groups being overly prescriptive rather than providing a set of options that guide and constrain solutions at the same time.

EA groups should do away with the direct and control mindset and change to a collaborate and mentor mindset. As part of the architecture governance, EA teams should provide an option set that constrains design choices, and also be open to changes to standards or best practices. "

Gopi Bheemavarapu, Sr. Manager, CIO Advisory Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:

• CIO
• IT Leaders
• Business Leaders
• Head of Enterprise Architecture
• Enterprise Architects
• Domain Architects
• Solution Architects

This Research Will Help You:

• Understand the importance of enterprise architecture (EA) governance and how to apply it to guide architectural decisions.
• Enhance your understanding of the organization’s current EA governance and identify areas for improvement.
• Optimize your EA engagement model to maximize value creation.
• Learn how to set up the optimal number of governance bodies in order to avoid bureaucratizing the organization.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• Business Relationship Managers
• Business Analysts
• IT Managers
• Project Managers
• IT Analysts
• Quality Assurance Leads
• Software Developers

This Research Will Help Them:

• Give an overview of enterprise architecture governance
• Clarity on the role of enterprise architecture team

Executive summary

Situation

• Deployed solutions do not meet business objectives resulting in expensive and extensive rework.
• Each department acts independently without any regular EA touchpoints.
• Organizations practice project-level architecture as opposed to enterprise architecture.

Complication

• EA governance is perceived as an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy because business benefits are poorly communicated.
• The organization doesn’t have a formalized EA practice.
• Where an EA practice exists, employees are unsure of EA’s roles and responsibilities.

Resolution

• Value-focused. Focus EA governance on helping the organization achieve business benefits. Promote EA’s contribution in realizing business value.
• Right-sized. Re-use existing process checkpoints, rather than creating new ones. Clearly define EA governance inclusion criteria for projects.
• Defined and measured process. Define metrics to measure EA’s performance and integrate EA governance with other governance processes such as project governance. Also clearly define the EA governing bodies’ composition, domain, inputs, and outputs.
• Strike the right balance. Adopt architecture principles that strikes the right balance between business and technology imperatives.

Info-Tech Insight

Enterprise architecture is critical to ensuring that an organization has the solid IT foundation it needs to efficiently enable the achievement of its current and future strategic goals rather than focusing on short-term tactical gains.

What is enterprise architecture governance?

An architecture governance process is the set of activities an organization executes to ensure that decisions are made and accountability is enforced during the execution of its architecture strategy. (Hopkins, “The Essential EA Toolkit.”)

EA governance includes the following:

• Implement a system of controls over the creation and monitoring of all architectural components.
• Ensure effective introduction, implementation, and evolution of architectures within the organization.
• Implement a system to ensure compliance with internal and external standards and regulatory obligations.
• Develop practices that ensure accountability to a clearly identified stakeholder community, both inside and outside the organization.

(TOGAF)

IT governance sets direction through prioritization and decision making, and monitors overall IT performance.

EA governance ensures that optimal architectural design choices are being made that focus on long-term value creation.

Harness the benefits of an optimized EA governance

Core benefits of EA governance are seen through:

Value creation

Effective EA governance ensures alignment between organizational investments and corporate strategic goals and objectives.

Cost reduction

Architecture standards provide guidance to identify opportunities for reuse and eliminate redundancies in an organization.

Risk optimization

Architecture review processes and assessment checklists ensure that solutions are within the acceptable risk levels of the organization.

EA governance is difficult to structure appropriately, but having an effective structure will allow you to:

• Achieve business strategy through faster time-to-market innovations and capabilities.
• Reduced transaction costs with more consistent business processes and information across business units.
• Lower IT costs due to better traceability, faster design, and lower risk.
• Link IT investments to organizational strategies and objectives
• Integrate and institutionalizes IT best practices.
• Enable the organization to take full advantage of its information, infrastructure, and hardware and software assets.
• Support regulatory as well as best practice requirements such as auditability, security, responsibility, and accountability.

Organizations that have implemented EA governance realize greater benefits from their EA programs

Modern day CIOs of high-performing organizations use EA as a strategic planning discipline to improve business-IT alignment, enable innovation, and link business and IT strategies to execution.

Recent Info-Tech research found that organizations that establish EA governance realize greater benefits from their EA initiatives.

(Info-Tech Research Group, N=89)

Measure EA governance implementation effectiveness

Define key operational measures for internal use by IT and EA practitioners. Also, define business value measures that communicate and demonstrate the value of EA as an “enabler” of business outcomes to senior executives.

Enterprise Architecture Management

• Number of months since the last review of target state EA blueprints.

IT Investment Portfolio Management

• Percentage of projects that were identified and proposed by EA.

Solution Development

• Number of projects that passed EA reviews.
• Number of building blocks reused.

Operations Management

• Reduction in the number of applications with overlapping functionality.

Business Value

• Lower non-discretionary IT spend.
• Decreased time to production.
• Higher satisfaction of IT-enabled services.

An insurance provider adopts a value-focused, right-sized EA governance program

CASE STUDY

Industry Insurance

Source Info-Tech

Situation

The insurance sector has been undergoing major changes, and as a reaction, businesses within the sector have been embracing technology to provide innovative solutions.

The head of EA in a major insurance provider (henceforth to be referred to as “INSPRO01”) was given the mandate to ensure that solutions are architected right the first time to maximize reuse and reduce technology debt. The EA group was at a critical point – to demonstrate business value or become irrelevant.

Complication

The project management office had been accountable for solution architecture and had placed emphasis on short-term project cost savings at the expense of long term durability.

There was a lack of awareness of the Enterprise Architecture group within INSPRO01, and people misunderstood the roles and responsibilities of the EA team.

Result

Info-Tech helped define the responsibilities of the EA team and clarify the differences between the role of a Solution Architect vs. Enterprise Architect.

The EA team was able to make the case for change in the project management practices to ensure architectures are reviewed and approved prior to implementation.

As a result, INSPRO01 saw substantial increases in reuse opportunities and thereby derived more value from its technology investments.

Success factors for EA governance

The success of any EA governance initiative revolves around adopting best practices, setting up repeatable processes, and establishing appropriate controls.

1. Develop best practices for managing architecture policies, procedures, roles, skills, and organizational structures.
2. Establish organizational responsibilities and structures to support the architecture governance processes.
3. Management of criteria for the control of the architecture governance processes, dispensations, compliance assessments, and SLAs.

Info-Tech’s approach to EA governance

Our best-practice approach is grounded in TOGAF and enhanced by the insights and guidance from our analysts, industry experts, and our clients.

Value-focused. Focus EA governance on helping the organization achieve business benefits. Promote EA’s contribution in realizing business value.

Right-sized. Insert EA governance into existing process checkpoints rather than creating new ones. Clearly define EA governance inclusion criteria for projects.

Measured. Define metrics to measure EA’s performance, and integrate EA governance with other governance processes such as project governance. Also clearly define the EA governing bodies’ composition, domain, inputs, and outputs.

Balanced. Adopt architecture principles that strikes the right balance between business and technology.

Info-Tech’s EA governance framework

Info-Tech’s architectural governance framework provides a value-focused, right-sized approach with a strong emphasis on process standardization, repeatability, and sustainability.

1. Current state of EA governance
2. EA fundamentals
3. Engagement model
4. EA governing bodies
5. EA policy
6. Architectural standards
7. Communication Plan

Use Info-Tech’s templates to complete this project

1. Current state of EA governance
   • EA Capability - Risk and Complexity Assessment Tool
   • EA Governance Assessment Tool
2. EA fundamentals
   • EA Vision and Mission Template
   • EA Goals and Measures Template
   • EA Principles Template
3. Engagement model
   • EA Engagement Model Template
4. EA governing bodies
   • Architecture Board Charter Template
   • Architecture Review Process Template
5. EA policy
   • EA Policy Template
   • Architecture Assessment Checklist Template
   • Compliance Waiver Process Template
   • Compliance Waiver Form Template
6. Architectural standards
   • Architecture Standards Update Process Template
7. Communication Plan
   • EA Governance Communication Plan Template
   • EA Governance Framework Template

As you move through the project, capture your progress with a summary in the EA Governance Framework Template.

Download the EA Governance Framework Template document for use throughout this project.

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

EA governance framework – phase-by-phase outline (1/2)

EA governance framework – phase-by-phase outline (2/2)

Workshop overview

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

Phase 1

Current State of EA Governance

Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework

Current State of EA Governance

1. Current State of EA Governance
2. EA Fundamentals
3. Engagement Model
4. EA Governing Bodies
5. EA Policy
6. Architectural Standards
7. Communication Plan

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Determine organizational complexity
• Conduct an assessment of the EA governance components
• Identify and prioritize gaps

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leaders
• Business Leaders
• Head of Enterprise Architecture
• Enterprise Architects
• Domain Architects
• Solution Architects

Outcomes of this step

• Prioritized list of gaps

Info-Tech Insight

Correlation is not causation – an apparent problem might be a symptom rather than a cause. Assess the organization’s current EA governance to discover the root cause and go beyond the symptoms.

Phase 1 guided implementation outline

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

Guided Implementation 1: Current State of EA Governance

Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

Step 1.1: Determine organizational complexity

Start with an analyst kick-off call:

• Discuss how to use Info-Tech’s EA Capability – Risk and Complexity Assessment Tool.
• Discuss how to complete the inputs on the EA Governance Assessment Tool.

Then complete these activities…

• Conduct an assessment of your organization to determine its complexity.
• Assess the state of EA governance within your organization.

With these tools & templates:

• EA Capability – Risk and Complexity Assessment Tool
• EA Governance Assessment Tool

Step 1.2: Assess current state of EA governance

Start with an analyst kick-off call:

• Review the output of the EA governance assessment and gather feedback on your goals for the EA practice.

Then complete these activities…

• Discuss whether you are ready to proceed with the project.
• Review the list of tasks and plan your next steps.

With these tools & templates:

• EA Governance Assessment Tool

Right-size EA governance based on organizational complexity

Determining organizational complexity is not rocket science. Use Info-Tech’s tool to quantify the complexity and use it, along with common sense, to determine the appropriate level of architecture governance.

Info-Tech’s methodology uses six factors to determine the complexity of the organization:

1. The size of the organization, which can often be denoted by the revenue, headcount, number of applications in use, and geographical diversity.
2. The solution alignment factor helps indicate the degree to which various projects map to the organization’s strategy.
3. The size and complexity of the IT infrastructure and networks.
4. The portfolio of applications maintained by the IT organization.
5. Key changes within the organization such as M&A, regulatory changes, or a change in business or technology leadership.
6. Other negative influences that can adversely affect the organization.

Determine your organization’s level of complexity

1.1 2 hours

Input

• Group consensus on the current state of EA competencies.

Output

• A list of gaps that need to be addressed for EA governance competencies.

Materials

• Info-Tech’s EA assessment tool, a computer, and/or a whiteboard and marker.

Participants

• EA team, business line leads, IT department leads.

Step 1 - Facilitate

Download the EA Capability – Risk and Complexity Assessment Tool to facilitate a session on determining your organization’s complexity.

Download EA Organizational - Risk and Complexity Assessment Tool

Step 2 - Summarize

Summarize the results in the EA governance framework document.

Update the EA Governance Framework Template

Understand the components of effective EA governance

EA governance is multi-faceted and it facilitates effective use of resources to meet organizational strategic objectives through well-defined structural elements.

EA Governance

• Fundamentals
• Engagement Model
• Policy
• Governing Bodies
• Architectural Standards

Components of architecture governance

1. EA vision, mission, goals, metrics, and principles that provide a direction for the EA practice.
2. An engagement model showing where and in what fashion EA is engaged in the IT operating model.
3. An architecture policy formulated and enforced by the architectural governing bodies to guide and constrain architectural choices in pursuit of strategic goals.
4. Governing bodies to assess projects for compliance and provide feedback.
5. Architectural standards that codify the EA work products to ensure consistent development of architecture.

Next Step: Based on the organization’s complexity, conduct a current state assessment of EA governance using Info-Tech’s EA Governance Assessment Tool.

Assess the components of EA governance in your organization

1.2 2 hrs

Input

• Group consensus on the current state of EA competencies.

Output

• A list of gaps that need to be addressed for EA governance competencies.

Materials

• Info-Tech’s EA assessment tool, a computer, and/or a whiteboard and marker.

Participants

• EA team, business line leads, IT department leads.

Step 1 - Facilitate

Download the “EA Governance Assessment Tool” to facilitate a session on identifying the best practices to be applied in your organization.

Download Info-Tech’s EA Governance Assessment Tool

Step 2 - Summarize

Summarize the identified best practices in the EA governance framework document.

Update the EA Governance Framework Template

Conduct a current state assessment to identify limitations of the existing EA governance framework

CASE STUDY

Industry Insurance

Source Info-Tech

Situation

INSPRO01 was planning a major transformation initiative. The organization determined that EA is a strategic function.

The CIO had pledged support to the EA group and had given them a mandate to deliver long-term strategic architecture.

The business leaders did not trust the EA team and believed that lack of business skills in the group put the business transformation at risk.

Complication

The EA group had been traditionally seen as a technology organization that helps with software design.

The EA team lacked understanding of the business and hence there had been no common language between business and technology.

Result

Info-Tech helped the EA team create a set of 10 architectural principles that are business-value driven rather than technical statements.

The team socialized the principles with the business and technology stakeholders and got their approvals.

By applying the business focused architectural principles, the EA team was able to connect with the business leaders and gain their support.

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

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

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

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

Key Activities

• Determine organizational complexity.
• Conduct an assessment of the EA governance components.
• Identify and prioritize gaps.

Outcomes

• Organizational complexity assessment
• EA governance capability assessment
• A prioritized list of capability gaps

Phase 2

EA Fundamentals

Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework

EA Fundamentals

1. Current State of EA Governance
2. EA Fundamentals
3. Engagement Model
4. EA Governing Bodies
5. EA Policy
6. Architectural Standards
7. Communication Plan

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Craft the EA vision and mission
• Develop the EA principles.
• Identify the EA goals

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leaders
• Business Leaders
• Head of Enterprise Architecture
• Enterprise Architects
• Domain Architects
• Solution Architects

Outcomes of this step

• Refined set of EA fundamentals to support the building of EA governance

Info-Tech Insight

A house divided against itself cannot stand – ensure that the EA fundamentals are aligned with the organization’s goals and objectives.

Phase 2 guided implementation outline

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

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

Guided Implementation 2: EA Fundamentals

Proposed Time to Completion: 3 weeks

Step 2.1: Develop the EA fundamentals

Review findings with analyst:

• Discuss the importance of the EA fundamentals – vision, mission, goals, measures, and principles.
• Understand how to align the EA vision, mission, goals, and measures to your organization’s vision, mission, goals, measures, and principles.

Then complete these activities…

• Develop the EA vision statements.
• Craft the EA mission statements.
• Define EA goals and measures.
• Adopt EA principles.

With these tools & templates:

• EA Vision and Mission Template
• EA Principles Template
• EA Goals and Measures Template

Step 2.2: Review the EA fundamentals

Review findings with analyst:

• Review the EA fundamentals in conjunction with the results of the EA governance assessment tool and gather feedback.

Then complete these activities…

• Refine the EA vision, mission, goals, measures, and principles.
• Review the list of tasks and plan your next steps.

With these tools & templates:

• EA Vision and Mission Template
• EA Principles Template
• EA Goals and Measures Template

Fundamentals of an EA organization

Vision, mission, goals and measures, and principles form the foundation of the EA function.

Factors to consider when developing the vision and mission statements

The vision and mission statements provide strategic direction to the EA team. These statements should be created based on the business and technology drivers in the organization.

Business Drivers

• Business drivers are factors that determine, or cause, an increase in value or major improvement of a business.
• Examples of business drivers include:
  • Increased revenue
  • Customer retention
  • Salesforce effectiveness
  • Innovation

Technology Drivers

• Technology drivers are factors that are vital for the continued success and growth of a business using effective technologies.
• Examples of technology drivers include:
  • Enterprise integration
  • Information security
  • Portability
  • Interoperability

"The very essence of leadership is [that] you have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet." – Theodore Hesburgh

Develop vision, mission, goals, measures, and principles to define the EA capability direction and purpose

EA capability vision statement

Articulates the desired future state of EA capability expressed in the present tense.

• What will be the role of EA capability?
• How will EA capability be perceived?

Example: To be recognized by both the business and IT as a trusted partner that drives [Company Name]’s effectiveness, efficiency, and agility.

EA capability mission statement

Articulates the fundamental purpose of the EA capability.

• Why does EA capability exist?
• What does EA capability do to realize its vision?
• Who are the key customers of the EA capability?

Example: Define target enterprise architecture for [Company Name], identify solution opportunities, inform IT investment management, and direct solution development, acquisition, and operation compliance.

EA capability goals and measures

EA capability goals define specific desired outcomes of an EA management process execution. EA capability measures define how to validate the achievement of the EA capability goals.

Example:

Goal: Improve reuse of IT assets at [Company Name].

Measures:

• The number of building blocks available for reuse.
• Percent of projects that utilized existing building blocks.
• Estimated efficiency gain (= effort to create a building block * reuse count).

EA principles

EA principles are shared, long-lasting beliefs that guide the use of IT in constructing, transforming, and operating the enterprise by informing and restricting target-state enterprise architecture design, solution development, and procurement decisions.

Example:

• EA principle name: Reuse.
• Statement: Maximize reuse of existing assets.
• Rationale: Reuse prevents duplication of development and support efforts, increasing efficiency, and agility.
• Implications: Define architecture and solution building blocks and ensure their consistent application.

EA principles guide decision making

Policies can be seen as “the letter of the law,” whereas EA principles summarize “the spirit of the law.”

Define EA capability goals and related measures that resonate with EA capability stakeholders

EA capability goals, i.e. specific desired outcomes of an EA management process execution. Use COBIT 5, APO03 process goals, and metrics as a starting point.

Define relevant business value measures to collect indirect evidence of EA’s contribution to business benefits

Define key operational measures for internal use by IT and EA practitioners. Also, define business value measures that communicate and demonstrate the value of EA as an enabler of business outcomes to senior executives.

Enterprise Architecture Management

• Number of months since the last review of target state EA blueprints.

IT Investment Portfolio Management

• Percentage of projects that were identified and proposed by EA.

Solution Development

• Number of projects that passed EA reviews.
• Number of building blocks reused.

Operations Management

• Reduction in the number of applications with overlapping functionality.

Business Value

• Lower non-discretionary IT spend.
• Decreased time to production.
• Higher satisfaction of IT-enabled services.

Refine the organization’s EA fundamentals

2.1 2 hrs

Input

• Group consensus on the current state of EA competencies.

Output

• A list of gaps that need to be addressed for EA governance competencies.

Materials

• Info-Tech’s EA assessment tool, a computer, and/or a whiteboard and marker.

Participants

• EA team, business line leads, IT department leads.

Step 1 - Facilitate

Download the three templates and hold a working session to facilitate a session on creating EA fundamentals.

Download the EA Vision and Mission Template, the EA Principles Template, and the EA Goals and Measures Template

Step 2 - Summarize

Document the final vision, mission, principles, goals, and measures within the EA Governance Framework.

Update the EA Governance Framework Template

Ensure that the EA fundamentals are aligned to the organizational needs

CASE STUDY

Industry Insurance

Source Info-Tech

Situation

The EA group at INSPRO01 was being pulled in multiple directions with requests ranging from architecture review to solution design to code reviews.

Project level architecture was being practiced with no clarity on the end goal. This led to EA being viewed as just another IT function without any added benefits.

Info-Tech recommended that the EA team ensure that the fundamentals (vision, mission, principles, goals, and measures) reflect what the team aspired to achieve before fixing any of the process concerns.

Complication

The EA team was mostly comprised of technical people and hence the best practices outlined were not driven by business value.

The team had no documented vision and mission statements in place. In addition, the existing goals and measures were not tied to the business strategic objectives.

The team had architectural principles documented, but there were too many and they were very technical in nature.

Result

With Info-Tech’s guidance, the team developed a vision and mission statement to succinctly communicate the purpose of the EA function.

The team also reduced and simplified the EA principles to make sure they were value driven and communicated in business terms.

Finally, the team proposed goals and measures to track the performance of the EA team.

With the fundamentals in place, the team was able to show the value of EA and gain organization-wide acceptance.

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

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

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

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

Key Activities

• Craft the EA vision and mission.
• Develop the EA principles.
• Identify the EA goals.

Outcomes

• Refined set of EA fundamentals to support the building of EA governance.

Phase 3

Engagement Model

Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework

Engagement Model

1. Current state of EA governance
2. EA fundamentals
3. Engagement model
4. EA governing bodies
5. EA policy
6. Architectural standards
7. Communication Plan

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Build the case for EA engagement
• Engagement touchpoints within the IT operating model

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leaders
• Business Leaders
• Head of Enterprise Architecture
• Enterprise Architects
• Domain Architects
• Solution Architects

Outcomes of this step

• Summary of the assessment of the current EA engagement model
• Target EA engagement model

Info-Tech Insight

Perform due diligence prior to decision making. Use the EA Engagement Model to promote conversations between stage gate meetings as opposed to having the conversation during the stage gate meetings.

Phase 3 guided implementation outline

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

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

Guided Implementation 3: EA engagement model

Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

Step 3.1 Review the current IT operating model

Start with an analyst kick-off call:

• Review Info-Tech’s IT operating model.
• Understand how to document your organization’s IT operating model.
• Document EA’s current role and responsibility at each stage of the IT operating model.

Then complete these activities…

• Document your organization’s IT operating model.

With these tools & templates:

• EA Engagement Model Template

Step 3.2: Determine the target engagement model

Review findings with analyst:

• Review your organization’s current state IT operating model.
• Review your EA’s role and responsibility at each stage of the IT operating model.
• Document the role and responsibility of EA in the future state.

Then complete these activities…

• Document EA’s future role within each stage of your organization’s IT operating model.

With these tools & templates:

• EA Engagement Model Template.

The three pillars of EA Engagement

Effective EA engagement revolves around three basic principles – generating business benefits, creating adaptable models, and being able to replicate the process across the organization.

Business Value Driven

Focus on generating business value from organizational investments.

Repeatable

Process should be standardized, transparent, and repeatable so that it can be consistently applied across the organization.

Flexible

Accommodate the varying needs of projects of different sizes.

Where these pillars meet: Advocates long-term strategic vs. short-term tactical solutions.

EA interaction points within the IT operating model

EA’s engagement in each stage within the plan, build, and run phases should be clearly defined and communicated.

Document the organization’s current IT operating model

3.1 2-3 hr

Input

• IT project lifecycle

Output

• Organization’s current IT operating model.

Materials

• A computer, and/or a whiteboard and marker.

Participants

• EA team, IT department leads, business leaders.

Instructions:

Hold a working session with the participants to document the current IT operating model. Facilitate the activity using the following steps:

1. Map out the IT operating model.

1. Find a project that was just deployed within the organization and backtrack every step of the way to the strategy development that resulted in the conception of the project.
2. Interview the personnel involved with each step of the process to get a sense of whether or not projects usually move to deployment going through these steps.
3. Review Info-Tech’s best-practice IT operating model presented in the EA Engagement Model Template, and add or remove any steps to the existing organization’s IT operating model as necessary. Document the finalized steps of the IT operating model.

2. Determine EA’s current role in the operating model.

1. Interview EA personnel through each step of the process and ask them their role. This is to get a sense of the type of input that EA is having into each step of the process.
2. Using the EA Engagement Model Template, document the current role of EA in each step of the organization’s IT operation as you complete the interviews.

Download the EA Engagement Model Template to document the organization’s current IT operating model.

Define RACI in every stage of the IT operating model (e.g. EA role in strategy development phase of the IT operating model is presented below)

Strategy Development

Also known as strategic planning, strategy development is fundamental to creating and running a business. It involves the creation of a longer-term game plan or vision that sets specific goals and objectives for a business.

Next Step: Similarly define the RACI for each stage of the IT operating model; refer to the activity slide for prompts.

Best practices on the role of EA within the IT operating model

Next Step: Define the role of EA in each stage of the IT operating model; refer to the activity slide for prompts.

Define EA’s target role in each step of the IT operating model

3.2 2 hrs

Input

• Organization’s IT operating model.

Output

• Organization’s EA engagement model.

Materials

• A computer, and/or a whiteboard and marker.

Participants

• EA team, CIO, business leaders, IT department leaders.

Step 1 - Facilitate

Download the EA Engagement Model Template and hold a working session to define EA’s target role in each step of the IT operating model.

Download the EA Engagement Model Template

Step 2 - Summarize

Document the target state role of EA within the EA Governance Framework document.

Update the EA Governance Framework Template

Design an EA engagement model to formalize EA’s role within the IT operating model

CASE STUDY

Industry Insurance

Source Info-Tech

Situation

INSPRO01 had a high IT cost structure with looming technology debt due to a preference for short-term tactical gains over long-term solutions.

The business satisfaction with IT was at an all-time low due to expensive solutions that did not meet business needs.

INSPRO01’s technology landscape was in disarray with many overlapping systems and interoperability issues.

Complication

No single team within the organization had an end-to-end perspective all the way from strategy to project execution. A lot of information was being lost in handoffs between different teams.

This led to inconsistent design/solution patterns being applied. Investment decisions had not been grounded in reality and this often led to cost overruns.

Result

Info-Tech helped INSPRO01 identify opportunities for EA team engagement at different stages of the IT operating model. EA’s role within each stage was clearly defined and documented.

With Info-Tech’s help, the EA team successfully made the case for engagement upfront during strategy development rather than during project execution.

The increased transparency enabled the EA team to ensure that investments were aligned to organizational strategic goals and objectives.

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

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

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

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

Key Activities

• Build the case for EA engagement.
• Identify engagement touchpoints within the IT operating model.

Outcomes

• Summary of the assessment of the current EA engagement model
• Target EA engagement model

Phase 4

EA Governing Bodies

Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework

EA Governing Bodies

1. Current state of EA governance
2. EA fundamentals
3. Engagement model
4. EA governing bodies
5. EA policy
6. Architectural standards
7. Communication Plan

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Identify the number of governing bodies
• Define the game plan to initialize the governing bodies
• Define the architecture review process

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT Leaders
• Business Leaders
• Head of Enterprise Architecture
• Enterprise Architects
• Domain Architects
• Solution Architects

Outcomes of this step

• Charter definition for each EA governance board

Info-Tech Insight

Use architecture governance like a scalpel rather than a hatchet. Implement governing bodies to provide guidance rather than act as a police force.

Phase 4 guided implementation

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

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

Guided Implementation 4: Create or identify EA governing bodies

Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

Step 4.1: Identify architecture boards and develop charters

Start with an analyst kick-off call:

• Understand the factors influencing the number of governing bodies required for an organization.
• Understand the components of a governing body charter.

Then complete these activities…

• Identify how many governing bodies are needed.
• Define EA governing body composition, meeting frequency, and domain of coverage.
• Define the inputs and outputs of each EA governing body.
• Identify mandatory inclusion criteria.

With these tools & templates:

• Architecture Board Charter Template

Step 4.2: Develop an architecture review process

Follow-up with an analyst call:

• Review the number of boards identified for your organization and gather feedback.
• Review the charters developed for each governing body and gather feedback.
• Understand the various factors that impact the architecture review process.
• Review Info-Tech’s best-practice architecture review process.

Then complete these activities…

• Refine the charters for governing bodies.
• Develop the architecture review process for your organization.

With these tools & templates:

• Architecture Review Process Template

Factors that determine the number of architectural boards required

The primary purpose of architecture boards is to ensure that business benefits are maximized and solution design is within the options set forth by the architectural reference models without introducing additional layers of bureaucracy.

The optimal number of architecture boards required in an organization is a function of the following factors:

• EA organization model
  • Distributed
  • Federated
  • Centralized
• Architecture domains Maturity of architecture domains
• Project throughput

Commonly observed architecture boards:

• Architecture Review Board
• Technical Architecture Committee
• Data Architecture Review Board
• Infrastructure Architecture Review Board
• Security Architecture Review Board

Info-Tech Insight

Before building out a new governance board, start small by repurposing existing forums by adding architecture as an agenda item. As the items for review increase consider introducing dedicated governing bodies.

EA organization model drives the architecture governance structure

EA teams can be organized in three ways – distributed, federated, and centralized. Each model has its own strengths and weaknesses. EA governance must be structured in a way such that the strengths are harvested and the weaknesses are mitigated.

Architecture domains influences the number of architecture boards required

• An architecture review board (ARB) provides direction for domain-specific boards and acts as an escalation point. The ARB must have the right mix of both business and technology stakeholders.
• Domain-specific boards provide a platform to have focused discussions on items specific to that domain.
• Based on project throughput and the maturity of each domain, organizations would have to pick the optimal number of boards.
• Architecture working groups provide a platform for cross-domain conversations to establish organization wide standards.

Create a game plan for the architecture boards

• Start with a single board for each level – an architecture review board (ARB), a technical architecture committee (TAC), and architecture working groups.
• As the organization matures and the number of requests to the TAC increase, consider creating domain-specific boards – such as business architecture, data architecture, application architecture, etc. – to handle architecture decisions pertaining to that domain.

Start with this:

Change to this:

Architecture boards have different objectives and activities

The boards at each level should be set up with the correct agenda – ensure that the boards’ composition and activities reflect their objective. Use the entry criteria to communicate the agenda for their meetings.

Identify the number of governing bodies

4.1 2 hrs

Input

• EA Vision and Mission
• EA Engagement Model

Output

• A list of EA governing bodies.

Materials

• A computer, and/or a whiteboard and marker.

Participants

• EA team, CIO, business line leads, IT department leads.

Instructions:

Hold a working session with the participants to identify the number of governing bodies. Facilitate the activity using the following steps:

1. Examine the EA organization models mentioned previously. Assess how your organization is structured, and identify whether your organization has a federated, distributed or centralized EA organization model.
2. Reference the “Game plan for the architecture boards” slide. Assess the architecture domains, and define how many there are in the organization.
3. Architecture domains:
   1. If no defined architecture domains exist, model the number of governing bodies in the organization based on the “Start with this” scenario in the “Game plan for the architecture boards” slide.
   2. If defined architecture domains do exist, model the number of governing bodies based on the “Change to this” scenario in the “Game plan for the architecture boards” slide.
4. Name each governing body you have defined in the previous step. Download Info-Tech’s Architecture Board Charter Template for each domain you have named. Input the names into the title of each downloaded template.

Download the Architecture Board Charter Template to document this activity.

Defining the governing body charter

The charter represents the agreement between the governing body and its stakeholders about the value proposition and obligations to the organization.

1. Purpose: The reason for the existence of the governing body and its goals and objectives.
2. Composition: The members who make up the committee and their roles and responsibilities in it.
3. Frequency of meetings: The frequency at which the committee gathers to discuss items and make decisions.
4. Entry/Exit Criteria: The criteria by which the committee selects items for review and items for which decisions can be taken.
5. Inputs: Materials that are provided as inputs for review and decision making by the committee.
6. Outputs: Materials that are provided by the committee after an item has been reviewed and the decision made.
7. Activities: Actions undertaken by the committee to arrive at its decision.

Define EA’s target role in each step of the IT operating model

4.2 3 hrs

Input

• A list of all identified EA governing bodies.

Output

• Charters for each EA governing bodies.