Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

Achieve ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

"Inconsistent processes and practices used across Agile teams is frequently cited as a challenge to adopting and scaling Agile within organizations. (VersionOne’s 13th Annual State of Agile Report [N=1,319]) Creating an Agile Center of Excellence (ACE) is a popular way to try to impose structure and improve performance. However, simply establishing an ACE does not guarantee you will be successful with Agile. When setting up an ACE you must: Define ACE services based on identified stakeholder needs. Staff the ACE with respected, “hands on” people, who deliver identifiable value to your Agile teams. Continuously evolve ACE service offerings to maximize stakeholder satisfaction and value delivered."

Alex Ciraco, Research Director, Applications Practice Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:

• A CIO who is looking for a way to optimize their Agile capabilities and ensure ongoing alignment with business objectives.
• An applications director who is looking for mechanisms to inject continuous improvement into organization-wide Agile practices.

This Research Will Help You:

• Align your Agile support structure with business objectives and the functional expectations of its users.
• Standardize the ways in which Agile teams develop and learn to create consistency in purpose and execution.
• Track and communicate successes to ensure the long-term viability of an Agile Center of Excellence (ACE).

This Research Will Also Assist

• Project managers who are tasked with managing Agile projects.
• Application development managers who are struggling with establishing consistency, transparency, and collaboration across their teams.

This Research Will Help Them:

• Provide service offerings to their team members that will help them personally and collectively to develop desired skills.
• Provide oversight and transparency into Agile projects and outcomes through ongoing monitoring.

Executive summary

Situation

• Your organization has had some success with Agile, but needs to drive consistency across Agile teams for better business results and alignment.
• You are seeking to organically grow Agile capabilities within the organization through a set of support services and facilitated through shared learning and capabilities.

Complication

• Organizational constraints, culture clash, and lack of continuous top-down support are hampering your Agile growth and maturity.
• Attempts to create consistency across Agile teams and processes fail to account for the expectations of users and stakeholders, leaving them detached from projects and creating resistance.

Resolution

• Align the service offerings of your ACE with both corporate objectives and the functional expectations of its stakeholders to ensure broad support and utilization of the invested resources.
• Understand some of the culture and process challenges you will face when forming an ACE, and address them using Info-Tech’s Agile adoption journey model.
• Track the progress of the ACE and your Agile teams. Use this data to find root causes for issues, and ideate to implement solutions for challenges as they arise over time.
• Effectively define and propagate improvements to your Agile teams in order to drive business-valued results.
• Communicate progress to interested stakeholders to ensure long-term viability of the Center of Excellence (CoE).

Info-Tech Insight

1. Define ACE services based on stakeholder needs.Don’t assume you know what your stakeholders need without talking to them.
2. Staff the ACE strategically. Choose those who are thought leaders and proven change agents.
3. Continuously improve based on metrics and feedback.Constantly monitor how your ACE is performing and adjust to feedback.

Info-Tech’s Agile Journey related Blueprints

1. Stabilize

Implement Agile Practices That Work

Begin your Agile transformation with a comprehensive readiness assessment and a pilot project to adopt Agile development practices and behaviors that fit.

2. Sustain

YOU ARE HERE

Spread Best Practices with an Agile Center of Excellence

Form an ACE to support Agile development at all levels of the organization with thought leadership, strategic development support & process innovation.

3. Scale

Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile

Extend the benefits of your Agile pilot project into your organization by strategically scaling Agile initiatives that will meet stakeholders’ needs.

4. Satisfy

Transition to Product Delivery Introduce product-centric delivery practices to drive greater benefits and better delivery outcomes.

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

2.1 Define an adoption plan for Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives

Supporting Capabilities and Practices

Modernize Your SDLC

Remodel the stages of your lifecycle to standardize your definition of a successful product.

Build a Strong Foundation for Quality

Instill quality assurance practices and principles in each stage of your software development lifecycle.

Implement DevOps Practices That Work

Fix, deploy, and support applications quicker though development and operations collaboration.

What is an Agile Center of Excellence?

NOTE: Organizational change is hard and prone to failure. Determine your organization’s level of readiness for Agile transformation (and recommended actions) by completing Info-Tech’s Agile Transformation Readiness Tool.

An ACE amplifies good practices that have been successfully employed within your organization, effectively allowing you to extend the benefits obtained from your Agile pilot(s) to a wider audience.

From the viewpoint of the business, members of the ACE provide expertise and insights to the entire organization in order to facilitate Agile transformation and ensure standard application of Agile good practices.

From the viewpoint of your Agile teams, it provides a community of individuals that share experiences and lessons learned, propagate new ideas, and raise questions or concerns so that delivering business value is always top of mind.

An ACE provides the following:

1. A mechanism to gather thought leadership to maximize the accessibility and reach of your Agile investment.
2. A mechanism to share innovations and ideas to facilitate knowledge transfer and ensure broadly applicable innovations do not go to waste.
3. Strategic alignment to ensure that Agile practices are driving value towards business objectives.
4. Purposeful good practices to ensure that the service offerings provided align with expectations of both your Agile practitioners and stakeholders.

SIDEBAR: What is a Community of Practice? (And how does it differ from a CoE?)

Some organizations prefer Communities of Practice (CoP) to Centers of Excellence (CoE). CoPs are different from CoEs:

“A CoP is an affiliation of people who share a common practice and who have a desire to further the practice itself … and of course to share knowledge, refine best practices, and introduce standards. CoPs are defined by their domain of interest, but the membership is a social structure comprised of volunteer practitioners”

– Wenger, E., R. A. McDermott, et al. (2002) Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge, Harvard Business Press.

“CoPs differ from a CoE mainly in that they tend to have no geographical boundaries, they hold no hierarchical power within a firm, and they definitely can never have structure determined by the company. However, one of the most obvious and telling differences lies in the stated motive of members – CoPs exist because they have active practitioner members who are passionate about a specific practice, and the goals of a CoP are to refine and improve their chosen domain of practice – and the members provide discretionary effort that is not paid for by the employer”

– Matthew Loxton (June 1, 2011) CoP vs CoE – What’s the difference, and Why Should You Care?, Wordpress.com

What to know about CoPs:

1. Less formal than a CoE
   • Loosely organized by volunteer practitioners who are interested in advancing the practice.
2. Not the Authoritative Voice
   • Stakeholders engage the CoP voluntarily, and are not bound by them.
3. Not funded by Organization
   • CoP members are typically volunteers who provide support in addition to their daily responsibilities.
4. Not covered in this Blueprint
   • In depth analysis on CoPs is outside the scope of this Blueprint.

What does an ACE do? Six main functions derived from Info-Tech’s CLAIM+G Framework

1. Learning

• Provide training and development and enable engagement based on identified interaction points to foster organizational growth.

• Promote the use of standardized tooling to improve efficiency and consistency throughout the organization.

• Enable your Agile teams to access subject-matter expertise by facilitating knowledge transfer and documenting good practices.

• Create operational boundaries for Agile teams, and monitor their progress and ability to meet business objectives within these boundaries.

• Demonstrate the value the CoE is providing through effective metric setting and ongoing monitoring of Agile’s effectiveness.

Many organizations encounter challenges to scaling Agile

Tackle the following barriers to Agile adoption with a business-aligned ACE.

List based on reported impediments from VersionOne’s 13th Annual State of Agile Report (N=1,319)

1. Organizational culture at odds with Agile values

• The ACE identifies and measures the value of Agile to build support from senior business leaders for shifting the organizational culture and achieving tangible business benefits.

• Resistance comes from a lack of trust. Optimized value delivery from Info-Tech’s Agile adoption model will build the necessary social capital to drive cultural change.

• Establishing an ACE will require senior management support and sponsorship. Its formation sends a strong signal to the organizational leadership that Agile is here to stay.

• The ACE provides a vehicle to absorb external training into an internal development program so that Agile capabilities can be grown organically within the organization.

• The ACE provides support to individual Agile teams and will guide them to adopt consistent processes and practices which have a proven track record in the organization.

Overcome your Agile scaling challenges with a business aligned ACE

An ACE drives consistency and transparency without sacrificing the ability to innovate. It can build on the success of your Agile pilot(s) by encouraging practices known to work in your organization.

Support Agile Teams

Provide services designed to inject evolving good practices into workflows and remove impediments or roadblocks from your Agile team’s ability to deliver value.

Maintain Business Alignment

Maintain alignment with corporate objectives without impeding business agility in the long term. The ACE functions as an interface layer so that changing expectations can be adapted without negatively impacting Agile teams.

Facilitate Learning Events

Avoid the risk of innovation and subject-matter expertise being lost or siloed by facilitating knowledge transfer and fostering a continuous learning environment.

Govern Improvements

Set baselines, monitor metrics, and run retrospectives to help govern process improvements and ensure that Agile teams are delivering expected benefits.

Shift Culture

Instill Agile thinking and behavior into the organization. The ACE must encourage innovation and be an effective agent for change.

Use your ACE to go from “doing” Agile to “being” Agile

Organizations that do Agile without embracing the changes in behavior will not reap the benefits.

Doing what was done before

• Processes and Tools
• Comprehensive Documentation
• Contract Negotiation
• Following a Plan

Being Prescriptive

Going through the motions

• Uses SCRUM and tools such as Jira
• Plans multiple sprints in detail
• Talks to stakeholders once in a release
• Works off a fixed scope BRD

Doing Agile

Living the principles

• Individuals and Interactions
• Working Software
• Customer Collaboration
• Responding to Change

Being Agile

“(‘Doing Agile’ is) just some rituals but without significant change to support the real Agile approach as end-to-end, business integration, value focus, and team empowerment.” - Arie van Bennekum

Establishing a CoE does not guarantee success

Simply establishing a Center of Excellence for any discipline does not guarantee its success:

The 2019 State of DevOps Report found that organizations which had established DevOps CoEs underperformed compared to organizations which adopted other approaches for driving DevOps transformation. (Accelerate State of DevOps Report 2019 [N=~1,000])

Still, Agile Centers of Excellence can and do successfully drive Agile adoption in organizations. So what sets the successful examples apart from the others? Here’s what some have to say:

“The ACE must be staffed with qualified people with delivery experience! … [It is] effectively a consulting practice, that can evolve and continuously improve its services … These services are collectively about ‘enablement’ as an output, more than pure training … and above all, the ability to empirically measure the progress” – Paul Blaney, TD Bank

“When leaders haven’t themselves understood and adopted Agile approaches, they may try to scale up Agile the way they have attacked other change initiatives: through top-down plans and directives. The track record is better when they behave like an Agile team. That means viewing various parts of the organization as their customers.” – HBR, “Agile at Scale”

“the Agile CoE… is truly meant to be measured by the success of all the other groups, not their own…[it] is meant to be serving the teams and helping them improve, not by telling them what to do, but rather by listening, understanding and helping them adapt.” - Bart Gerardi, PMI

“The CoE must also avoid becoming static, as it’s crucial the team can adjust as quickly as business and customer needs change, and evolve the technology as necessary to remain competitive.” – Forbes, “RPA CoE (what you need to know)”

"The best CoEs are formed from thought leaders and change agents within the CoE domain. They are the process and team innovators who will influence your CoE roadmap and success. Select individuals who feel passionate about Agile." – Hans Eckman, InfoTech

To be successful with your ACE, do the following…

Info-Tech Insight

Simply establishing an Agile Center of Excellence does not guarantee its success. When setting up your ACE, optimize its impact on the organization by doing the following 3 things:

1. Define ACE services based on stakeholder needs. Be sure to broadly survey your stakeholders and identify the ACE functions and services which will best meet their needs. ACE services must clearly deliver business value to the organization and the Agile teams it supports.
2. Staff the ACE strategically. Select ACE team members who have real world, hands-on delivery experience, and are well respected by the Agile teams they will serve. Where possible, select internal thought leaders in your organization who have the credibility needed to effect positive change.
3. Continuously improve ACE services based on metrics and feedback. The value your ACE brings to the organization must be clear and measurable, and do not assume that your functions and services will remain static. You must regularly monitor both your metrics and feedback from your Agile teams, and adjust ACE behavior to improve/maximize these over time.

Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

This blueprint will walk you through the steps needed to build the foundations for operational excellence within an Agile Center of Excellence.

Phase 1 - Strategically Align the CoE

Create strategic alignment between the CoE and the organization’s goals, objectives, and vision. This alignment translates into the CoE mandate intended to enhance the way Agile will enable teams to meet business objectives.

Phase 2 - Standardize the CoEs Service Offerings

Build an engagement plan based on a standardized adoption model to ensure your CoE service offerings are accessible and consistent across the organization. Create and consolidate key performance indicators to measure the CoEs utility and whether or not the expected value is being translated to tangible results.

Phase 3 - Operate the CoE

Operate the CoE to provide service offerings to Agile teams, identify improvements to optimize the function of your Agile teams, and effectively manage and communicate change so that teams can grow within the Agile adoption model and optimize value delivery both within your Agile environment and across functions.

Info-Tech’s Practice Adoption Journey

Use Info-Tech’s Practice Adoption Journey model to establish your ACE. Building social capital (stakeholders’ trust in your ability to deliver positive outcomes) incrementally is vital to ensure that everyone is aligned to new mindsets and culture as your Agile practices scale.

Trust & Competency ↓

DEFINE

Begin to document your development workflow or value chain, implement a tracking system for KPIs, and start gathering metrics and reporting them transparently to the appropriate stakeholders.

ITERATE

Use collected metrics and retrospectives to stabilize team performance by reducing areas of variability in your workflow and increasing the consistency at which targets are met.

COLLABORATE

Use information to support changes and adopt appropriate practices to make incremental improvements to the existing environment.

EMPOWER

Drive behavioral and cultural changes that will empower teams to be accountable for their own success and learning.

INNOVATE

Use your built-up trust and support practice innovation, driving the definition and adoption of new practices.

Align your ACE with your organization’s strategy

This research set will assist you with aligning your ACEs services to the objectives of the business in order to justify the resources and funding required by your Agile program.

Business Objectives → Alignment ←ACE Functions

Business justification to continue to fund a Center of Excellence can be a challenge, especially with traditional thinking and rigid stakeholders. Hit the ground running and show value to your key influencers through business alignment and metrics that will ensure that the ACE is worth continuous investment.

Alignment leads to competitive advantage

The pace of change in customer expectations, competitive landscapes, and business strategy is continuously increasing. It is critical to develop a method to facilitate ongoing alignment to shifting business and development expectations seamlessly and ensure that your Agile teams are able to deliver expected business value.

Use Info-Tech’s CoE Operating Model to define the service offerings of your ACE

Understand where your inputs and outputs lie to create an accessible set of service offerings for your Agile teams.

Continuously improve the ACE to ensure long-term viability

Improvement involves the continuous evaluation of the performance of your teams, using well-defined metrics and reasonable benchmarks that are supplemented by analogies and root-cause analysis in retrospectives.

Monitor

Monitor your metrics to ensure desired benefits are being realized. The ACE is responsible for ensuring that expected Agile benefits are achievable and on track. Monitor against your defined baselines to create transparency and accountability for desired outcomes.

Iterate

Run retrospectives to drive improvements and fixes into Agile projects and processes. Metrics falling short of expectations must be diagnosed and their root causes found, and fixes need to be communicated and injected back into the larger organization.

Define

Define metrics and set targets that align with the goals of the ACE. These metrics represent the ACEs expected value to the organization and must be measured against on a regular basis to demonstrate value to your key stakeholders.

Beware the common risks of implementing your ACE

Culture clash between Agile teams and larger organization

Agile leverages empowered teams, meritocracy, and broad collaboration for success, but typical organizations are siloed and hierarchical with top down decision making. There needs to be a plan to enable a smooth transition from the current state towards the Agile target state.

Persistence of tribal knowledge

Agile relies on easy and open knowledge sharing, but organizational knowledge can sit in siloes. Employees may also try to protect their expertise for job security. It is important to foster knowledge sharing to ensure that critical know-how is accessible and doesn’t leave the organization with the individual.

Rigid management structures

Rigidity in how managers operate (performance reviews, human resource management, etc.) can result in cultural rejection of Agile. People need to be assessed on how they enable their teams rather than as individual contributors. This can help ensure that they are given sufficient opportunities to succeed. More support and less strict governance is key.

Breakdown due to distributed teams

When face-to-face interactions are challenging, ensure that you invest in the right communication technologies and remove cultural and process impediments to facilitate organization-wide collaboration. Alternative approaches like using documentation or email will not provide the same experience and value as a face-to-face conversation.

The State of Maine used an ACE to foster positive cultural change

CASE STUDY

Industry - Government

Source - Cathy Novak, Agile Government Leadership

The State of Maine’s Agile Center of Excellence

“The Agile CoE in the State of Maine is completely focused on the discipline of the methodology. Every person who works with Agile, or wants to work with Agile, belongs to the CoE. Every member of the CoE tells the same story, approaches the methodology the same way, and uses the same tools. The CoE also functions as an Agile research lab, experimenting with different standards and tools.

The usual tools of project management – mission, goals, roles, and a high-level definition of done – can be found in Maine’s Agile CoE. For story mapping, teams use sticky notes on a large wall or whiteboard. Demonstrating progress this way provides for positive team dynamics and a psychological bang. The State of Maine uses a project management framework that serves as its single source of truth. Everyone knows what’s going on at all times and understands the purpose of what they are doing. The Agile team is continually looking for components that can be reused across other agencies and programs.”

Results:

• Realized positive culture change, leading to more collaborative and supportive teams.
• Increased visibility of Agile benefits across functional groups.
• Standardized methodology across Agile teams and increased innovation and experimentation with new standards and tools.
• Improved traceability of projects.
• Increased visibility and ability to determine root causes of problems and right the course when outcomes are not meeting expectations.

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

Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence – project overview

Workshop overview

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

Phase 1

Strategically Align the Center of Excellence

Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

Begin by strategically aligning your Center of Excellence

The first step to creating a high-functioning ACE is to create alignment and consensus amongst your key stakeholders regarding its purpose. Engage in a set of activities to drill down into the organization’s goals and objectives in order to create a set of high-level use cases that will evolve into the service offerings of the ACE.

Phase 1 - Strategically Align the CoE

Create strategic alignment between the CoE and the organization’s goals, objectives, and vision. This alignment translates into the CoE mandate intended to enhance the way Agile will enable teams to meet business objectives.

Phase 2 - Standardize the CoEs Service Offerings

Build an engagement plan based on a standardized adoption model to ensure your CoE service offerings are accessible and consistent across the organization. Create and consolidate key performance indicators to measure the CoEs utility and whether or not the expected value is being translated to tangible results.

Phase 3 - Operate the CoE

Operate the CoE to provide service offerings to Agile teams, identify improvements to optimize the function of your Agile teams, and effectively manage and communicate change so that teams can grow within the Agile adoption model and optimize value delivery both within your Agile environment and across functions.

Phase 1 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: Strategically align the ACE

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1

Step 1.1: Determine the vision of your ACE

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Align your ACE with the business.

Then complete these activities…

1.1.1 Optional: Baseline your ACE maturity.

1.1.2 Identify and prioritize organizational business objectives.

1.1.3 Form use cases for the points of alignment between your ACE and business objectives.

1.1.4 Prioritize your ACE stakeholders.

1.1.5 Select a centralized or decentralized model for your ACE.

1.1.6 Staff your ACE strategically.

Step 1.2: Define the service offerings of your ACE

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Align your ACE with its users.

Then complete these activities…

1.2.1 Form the Center of Excellence.

1.2.2 Gather and document your existing Agile practices for the CoE.

1.2.3 Interview stakeholders to align ACE requirements with functional expectations.

1.2.4 Form a solution matrix to organize your pain points and opportunities.

1.2.5 Refine your use cases to identify your ACE functions and services.

1.2.6 Visualize your ACE functions and service offerings with a capability map.

Phase 1 Results & Insights:

• Aligning your ACE with the functional expectations of its users is just as critical as aligning with the business. Invest the time to understand how the ACE fits at all levels of the organization to ensure its highest effectiveness.

Phase 1, Step 1: Determine the vision of your ACE

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Activities:

1.1.1 Optional: Baseline your ACE maturity.

1.1.2 Identify and prioritize organizational business objectives.

1.1.3 Form use cases for the points of alignment between your ACE and business objectives.

1.1.4 Prioritize your ACE stakeholders.

1.1.5 Select a centralized or decentralized model for your ACE.

1.1.6 Staff your ACE strategically.

Outcomes:

• Gather your leadership to position the ACE and align it with business priorities.
• Form a set of high-level use cases for services that will support the enablement of business priorities.
• Map the stakeholders of the ACE to visualize expected influence and current support levels for your initiative.

What does an ACE do? Six main functions derived from Info-Tech’s CLAIM+G Framework

1. Learning

• Provide training and development and enable engagement based on identified interaction points to foster organizational growth.

• Promote the use of standardized tooling to improve efficiency and consistency throughout the organization.

• Enable your Agile teams to access subject-matter expertise by facilitating knowledge transfer and documenting good practices.

• Create operational boundaries for Agile teams, and monitor their progress and ability to meet business objectives within these boundaries.

• Demonstrate the value the CoE is providing through effective metric setting and ongoing monitoring of Agile’s effectiveness.

OPTIONAL: If you have an existing ACE, use Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to baseline current practices

1.1.1 Existing CoE Maturity Assessment

Purpose

If you already have established an ACE, use Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to baseline its current maturity level (this will act as a baseline for comparison after you complete this Blueprint). Assessing your ACEs maturity lets you know where you currently are, and where to look for improvements.

Steps

1. Download the CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to assess the maturity of your ACE.
2. Complete the assessment tool with all members of your ACE team to determine your current Maturity score.
3. Document the results in the ACE Communications Deck.

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Download the CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool.

Get your Agile leadership together and position the ACE

Align your ACE with your organization’s strategy

This research set will assist you with aligning your ACEs services to the objectives of the business in order to justify the resources and funding required by your Agile program.

Business Objectives → Alignment ←ACE Functions

Business justification to continue to fund a Center of Excellence can be a challenge, especially with traditional thinking and rigid stakeholders. Hit the ground running and show value to your key influencers through business alignment and metrics that will ensure that the ACE is worth continuous investment.

Alignment leads to competitive advantage

The pace of change in customer expectations, competitive landscapes, and business strategy is continuously increasing. It is critical to develop a method to facilitate ongoing alignment to shifting business and development expectations seamlessly and ensure that your Agile teams are able to deliver expected business value.

Activity: Identify and prioritize organizational business objectives

1.1.2 2 Hours

Input

• Organizational business objectives

Output

• Prioritized business objectives

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• Agile leadership group

1. List the primary high-level business objectives that your organization aims to achieve over the course of the following year (focusing on those that ACE can impact/support).
2. Prioritize these business objectives while considering the following:

• Criticality of completion: How critical is the initiative in enabling the business to achieve its goals?
• Transformational impact: To what degree is the foundational structure of the business affected by the initiative (rationale: Agile can support impact on transformational issues)?

Sample Business Objectives:

• Increase customer satisfaction.
• Reduce time-to-market of product releases.
• Foster a strong organizational culture.
• Innovate new feature sets to differentiate product. Increase utilization rates of services.
• Reduce product delivery costs.
• Effectively integrate teams from a merger.
• Offer more training programs for personal development.
• Undergo a digital transformation.

Understand potential hurdles when attempting to align with business objectives

While there is tremendous pressure to align IT functions and the business due to the accelerating pace of change and technology innovation, you need to be aware that there are limitations in achieving this goal. Keep these challenges at the top of mind as you bring together your stakeholders to position the service offerings of your ACE. It is beneficial to make your stakeholders self-aware of these biases as well, so they come to the table with an open mind and are willing to find common ground.

The search for total alignment

There are a plethora of moving pieces within an organization and total alignment is not a plausible outcome.

The aim of a group should not be to achieve total alignment, but rather reframe and consider ways to ensure that stakeholders are content with the ways they interact and that misalignment does not occur due to transparency or communication issues.

“The business” implies unity

While it may seem like the business is one unified body, the reality is that the business can include individuals or groups (CEO, CFO, IT, etc.) with conflicting priorities. While there are shared business goals, these entities may all have competing visions of how to achieve them. Alignment means compromise and agreement more than it means accommodating all competing views.

Cost vs. reputation

There is a political component to alignment, and sometimes individual aspirations can impede collective gain.

While the business side may be concerned with cost, those on the IT side of things can be concerned with taking on career-defining projects to bolster their own credentials. This conflict can lead to serious breakdowns in alignment.

Panera Bread used Agile to adapt to changing business needs

CASE STUDY

Industry Food Services

Source Scott Ambler and Associates, Case Study

Challenge

Being in an industry with high competition, Panera Bread needed to improve its ability to quickly deliver desired features to end customers and adapt to changing business demands from high internal growth.

Solution

Panera Bread engaged in an Agile transformation through a mixture of Agile coaching and workshops, absorbing best practices from these engagements to drive Agile delivery frameworks across the enterprise.

Results

Adopting Agile delivery practices resulted in increased frequency of solution delivery, improving the relationship between IT and the business. Business satisfaction increased both with the development process and the outcomes from delivery.

The transparency that was needed to achieve alignment to rapidly changing business needs resulted in improved communication and broad-scale reduced risk for the organization.

"Agile delivery changed perception entirely by building a level of transparency and accountability into not just our software development projects, but also in our everyday working relationships with our business stakeholders. The credibility gains this has provided our IT team has been immeasurable and immediate."

– Mike Nettles, VP IT Process and Architecture, Panera Bread

Use Info-Tech’s CoE Operating Model to define the service offerings of your ACE

Understand where your inputs and outputs lie to create an accessible set of service offerings for your Agile teams.

Functional Input

• Application Development
• Project Management
• CIO
• Enterprise Architecture
• Data Management
• Security
• Infrastructure & Operations
• Who else?

Input arrows represent functional group needs, feedback from Agile teams, and collaboration with other CoEs and CoPs

Output arrows represent the services the CoE delivers and the benefits realized across the organization.

ACE Operating Model: Governance & Metrics

Governance & Metrics involves enabling success through the management of the ACEs resources and services, and ensuring that organizational structures evolve in concert with Agile growth and maturity. Your focus should be on governing, measuring, implementing, and empowering improvements.

Effective governance will function to ensure the long-term effectiveness and viability of your ACE. Changes and improvements will happen continuously and you need a way to decide which to adopt as best practices.

"Organizations have lengthy policies and procedures (e.g. code deployment, systems design, how requirements are gathered in a traditional setting) that need to be addressed when starting to implement an Agile Center of Excellence. Legacy ideas that end up having legacy policy are the ones that are going to create bottlenecks, waste resources, and disrupt your progress." – Doug Birgfeld, Senior Partner, Agile Wave

Governance & Metrics

• Manage organizational Agile standards, policies, and procedures.
• Define organizational boundaries based on regulatory, compliance, and cultural requirements.
• Ensure ongoing alignment of service offerings with business objectives.
• Adapt organizational change management policies to reflect Agile practices.
• CoE governance functions include:
  • Policy Management
  • Change Management
  • Risk Management
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Metrics/Feedback Monitoring

ACE Operating Model: Services

Services refers to the ability to deliver resourcing, guidance, and assistance across all Agile teams. By creating a set of shared services, you enable broad access to specialized resources, knowledge, and insights that will effectively scale to more teams and departments as Agile matures in your organization.

A Services model:

• Supports the organization by standardizing and centralizing service offerings, ensuring consistency of service delivery and accessibility across functional groups.
• Provides a mechanism for efficient knowledge transfer and on-demand support.
• Helps to drive productivity and project efficiencies through the organization by disseminating best practices.

Services

• Provide reference, support, and re-assurance to implement and adapt organizational best practices.
• Interface relevant parties and facilitate knowledge transfer through shared learning and communities of practice.
• Enable agreed-upon service levels through standardized support structures.
• Shared services functions include:
  • Engagement Planning
  • Knowledge Management
  • Subject-Matter Expertise
  • Agile Team Evaluation

ACE Operating Model: Technology

Technology refers to a broad range of supporting tools to enable employees to complete their day-to-day tasks and effectively report on their outcomes. The key to technological support is to strike the right balance between flexibility and control based on your organization's internal and external constraints (policy, equipment, people, regulatory, etc.).

"We sometimes forget the obvious truth that technology provides no value of its own; it is the application of technology to business opportunities that produces return on investment." – Robert McDowell, Author, In Search of Business Value

Technology

• Provide common software tools to enable alignment to organizational best practices.
• Enable access to locally desired tools while considering organizational, technical, and scaling constraints.
• Enable communication with a technical subject matter expert (SME).
• Enable reporting consistency through training and maintenance of reporting mechanisms.
• Technology functions can include:
  • Vendor Management
  • Application Support
  • Tooling Standards
  • Tooling Use Cases

ACE Operating Model: Staff

Staff is all about empowerment. The ACE should support and facilitate the sharing of ideas and knowledge sharing. Create processes and spaces where people are encouraged to come together, learn from, and share with each other. This setting will bring up new ideas to enhance productivity and efficiency in day-to-day activities while maintaining alignment with business objectives.

"An Agile CoE is legitimized by its ability to create a space where people can come together, share, and learn from one another. By empowering teams to grow by themselves and then re-connect with each other you allow the creativity of your employees to flow back into the CoE." – Anonymous, Founder, Agile consultancy group

Staff

• Develop and provide training and day-to-day coaching that are aligned with organizational engagement and growth plans.
• Include workflow change management to assist traditional roles with accommodating Agile practices.
• Support the facilitation of knowledge transfer from localized Agile teams into other areas of the organization.
• Achieve team buy-in and engagement with ACE services and capabilities. Provide a forum for collaboration and innovation.
• People functions can include:
  • Onboarding
  • Coaching
  • Learning Facilitation

Form use cases to align your ACE with business objectives

What is a use case?

A use case tells a story about how a system will be used to achieve a goal from the perspective of a user of that system. The people or other systems that interact with the use case are called “actors.” Use cases describe what a system must be able to do, not how it will do it.

How does a use case play a role in building your ACE?

Use cases are used to guide design by allowing you to highlight the intended function of a service provided by the Center of Excellence while maintaining a business focus. Jumping too quickly to a solution without fully understanding user and business needs leads to the loss of stakeholder buy-in and the Centers of Excellence rejection by teams.

Hypothesized ACE user needs →Use Case←Business objective

Activity: Form use cases for the points of alignment between your ACE and business objectives

1.1.3 2 Hours

Input

• Prioritized business objectives
• ACE functions

Output

• ACE use cases

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• Agile leadership group

1. Using your prioritized business objectives and the six functions of a CoE, create high-level use cases for each point of alignment that describe how the Center of Excellence will better facilitate the realization of that business objective.
2. For each use case, define the following:
   • Name: Generalized title for the use case.
   • Description: A high-level description of the expected CoE action.

Activity: Form use cases for the points of alignment between your ACE and business objectives (continued)

1.1.3 2 Hours

Your goal should be to keep these as high level and generally applicable as possible as they provide an initial framework to further develop your service offerings. Begin to talk about the ways in which the ACE can support the realization of your business objectives and what those interactions may look like to customers of the ACE.

Involve all relevant stakeholders to discuss the organizational goals and objectives of your ACE

Avoid the rifts in stakeholder representation by ensuring you involve the relevant parties. Without representation and buy-in from all interested parties, your ACE may omit and fail to meet long-term organizational goals.

By ensuring every group receives representation, your service offerings will speak for the broad organization and in turn meet the needs of the organization as a whole.

• Business Units: Any functional groups that will be expected to engage with the ACE in order to achieve their business objectives.
• Team Leads: Representation from the internal Agile community who is aware of the backgrounds, capabilities, and environments of their respective Agile teams.
• Executive Sponsors: Those expected to evangelize and set the tone and direction for the ACE within the executive ranks of the organization. These roles are critical in gaining buy-in and maintaining momentum for ACE initiatives.

Organization

• ACE
  • Executive Sponsors
  • Team Leads
  • Business Units

Activity: Prioritize your ACE stakeholders

1.1.4 1 Hour

Input

• Prioritized business objectives

Output

• Prioritized list of stakeholders

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• Agile leadership group

1. Using your prioritized business objectives, brainstorm, as a group, the potential list of stakeholders (representatives from business units, team leads, and executive sponsors) that would need to be involved in setting the tone and direction of your ACE.
2. Evaluate each stakeholder in terms of power, involvement, impact, and support.

• Power: How much influence does the stakeholder have? Enough to drive the CoE forward or into the ground?
• Involvement: How interested is the stakeholder? How involved is the stakeholder in the project already?
• Impact: To what degree will the stakeholder be impacted? Will this significantly change how they do their job?
• Support: Is the stakeholder a supporter of the project? Neutral? A resister?

Prioritize your ACE stakeholders (continued)

1.1.4 1 Hour

Should your ACE be Centralized or Decentralized?

An ACE can be organized differently depending on your organization’s specific needs and culture.

The SAFe Model:©

“For smaller enterprises, a single centralized [ACE] can balance speed with economies of scale. However, in larger enterprises—typically those with more than 500 – 1,000 practitioners—it’s useful to consider employing either a decentralized model or a hub-and-spoke model.”

© Scaled Agile, Inc.

The Spotify Model:

Spotify avoids using an ACE and instead spreads agile practices using Squads, Tribes, Chapters, Guilds, etc.

It can be a challenging model to adopt because it is constantly changing, and must be fundamentally supported by your organization’s culture. (Linders, Ben. “Don't Copy the Spotify Model.” InfoQ.com. 6 Oct. 2016.)

Detailed analysis of The Spotify Model is out of scope for this Blueprint.

Activity: Select a Centralized or Decentralized ACE Model

1.1.5 30 minutes

Input

• Prioritized business objectives
• Use Cases
• Organization qualities

Output

• Centralized or decentralized ACE model

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• Agile leadership group

1. Using your prioritized business objectives, your ACE use cases, your organization size, structure, and culture, brainstorm the relative pros and cons of a centralized vs decentralized ACE model.
2. Consider this: to improve understanding and acceptance, ask participants who prefer a centralized model to brainstorm the pros and cons of a decentralized model, and vice-versa.
3. Collectively decide whether your ACE should be centralized, decentralized or hub-and-spoke and document it.

SELECTED MODEL: Centralized ACE

Activity: Staff your ACE strategically

1.1.6 1 Hour

Input

• List of potential ACE staff

Output

• Rated list of ACE staff

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• Agile leadership group

1. Identify your list of potential ACE staff (this may be a combination of full time and contract staff).
2. Add/modify/delete the rating criteria to meet your specific needs.
3. Discuss and adjust the relative weightings of the rating criteria to best suit your organization’s needs.
4. Rate each potential staff member and compare results to determine the best suited staff for your ACE.

Phase 1, Step 2: Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Activities:

1.2.1 Form the Center of Excellence.

1.2.2 Gather and document your existing Agile practices for the CoE.

1.2.3 Interview stakeholders to align ACE requirements with functional expectations.

1.2.4 Form a solution matrix to organize your pain points and opportunities.

1.2.5 Refine your use cases to identify your ACE functions and services.

1.2.6 Visualize your ACE functions and service offerings with a capability map.

Outcomes:

• Collect data regarding the functional expectations of the Agile teams.
• Refine your business-aligned use cases with your collected data to achieve both business and functional alignment.
• Create a capability map that visualizes and prioritizes your key service offerings.

Structure your ACE with representation from all of your key stakeholders

Now that you have a prioritized list of stakeholders, use their influence to position the ACE to ensure maximum representation with minimal bottlenecks.

By operating within a group of your key players, you can legitimize your Center of Excellence by propagating the needs and interests of those who interface and evangelize the CoE within the larger organization.

The group of key stakeholders will extend the business alignment you achieved earlier by refining your service offerings to meet the needs of the ACEs customers. Multiple representations at the table will generate a wide arrangement of valuable insights and perspectives.

Info-Tech Insight

While holistic representation is necessary, ensure that the list is not too comprehensive and will not lead to progress roadblocks. The goal is to ensure that all factors relevant to the organization are represented; too many conflicting opinions may create an obstruction moving forward.

ACE

• Executive Sponsors
• Team Leads
• Business Units

Determine how you will fund your ACE

Choose the ACE funding model which is most aligned to your current system based on the scenarios provided below. Both models will offer the necessary support to ensure the success of your Agile program going forward.

Info-Tech Insight

Your funding model may add additional key influencers into the mix. After you choose your funding model, ensure that you review your stakeholder map and add anyone who will have a direct impact in the viability and stability of your ACE.

Determine how you will govern your ACE

An Agile Center of Excellence is unique in the way you must govern the actions of its customers. Enable “flexible governance” to ensure that Agile teams have the ability to locally optimize and innovate while still operating within expected boundaries.

ACE Governing Body

↑ Agile Team → ACE ← Agile Team ↑

Who should take on the governance role?

The governing body can be the existing executive or standing committees, or a newly formed committee involving your key ACE influencers and stakeholders.

Flexible governance means that your ACE set boundaries based on your cultural, regulatory, and compliance requirements, and your governance group monitors your Agile teams’ adherence to these boundaries.

Governing Body Responsibilities

• Review and approve ACE strategy annually and ensure that it is aligned with current business strategy.
• Provide detailed quality information for board members.
• Ensure that the ACE is adequately resourced and that the organization has the capacity to deliver the service offerings.
• Assure that the ACE is delivering benefits and achieving targets.
• Assure that the record keeping and reporting systems are capable of providing the information needed to properly assess the quality of service.

Modify your resourcing strategy based on organizational need

Your Agile Center of Excellence can be organized either in a dedicated or a virtual configuration, depending on your company’s organizational structure and complexity.

There is no right answer to how your Center of Excellence should be resourced. Consider your existing organizational structure and culture, the quality of relationships between functional groups, and the typical budgetary factors that would weigh on choosing between a virtual and dedicated CoE structure.

Staffing the ACE: Understand virtual versus dedicated ACE organizational models

Virtual CoE

• Responsibilities for CoE are split and distributed throughout departments on a part-time basis.
• CoE members from the PMO report to apps director who also functions as the CoE lead on a part-time basis.

• Requires re-organization and dedicated full-time staff to run the CoE with clear lines of responsibility and accountability.
• Hiring or developing highly skilled employees who have a sole function to facilitate and monitor quality best practices within the IT department may be necessary.

Activity: Form the Center of Excellence

1.2.1 1 Hour

Input

• N/A

Output

• ACE governance and resourcing plan

Materials

• Whiteboard

Participants

• Agile leadership group

1. As a group, discuss if there is an existing body that would be able to govern the Center of Excellence. This body will monitor progress on an ongoing basis and assess any change requests that would impact the CoEs operation or goals.

• List current governing bodies that are closely aligned with your current Agile environment and determine if the group could take on additional responsibilities.
• Alternatively, identify individuals who could form a new ACE governing body.

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

Leverage your existing Agile practices and SMEs when establishing the ACE

The synergy between Agile and CoE relies on its ability to build on existing best practices. Agile cannot grow without a solid foundation. ACE gives you the way to disseminate these practices and facilitate knowledge transfer from a centralized sharing environment. As part of defining your service offerings, engage with stakeholders across the organization to evaluate what is already documented so that it can be accommodated in the ACE.

Documentation

• Are there any existing templates that can be leveraged (e.g. resource planning, sprint planning)?
• Are there any existing process documents that can be leveraged (e.g. SIPOC, program frameworks)?
• Are there any existing standards documents the CoE can incorporate (e.g. policies, procedures, guidelines)?

SMEs

• Interview existing subject-matter experts that can give you an idea of your current pains and opportunities.
• You already have feedback from those in your workshop group, so think about the rest of the organization:
  • Agile practitioners
  • Business stakeholders
  • Operations
  • Any other parties not represented in the workshop group

Metrics

• What are the current metrics being used to measure the success of Agile teams?
• What metrics are currently being used to measure the completion of business objectives?
• What tools or mediums are currently used for recording and communicating metrics?

Info-Tech Insight

When considering existing practices, it is important to evaluate the level of adherence to these practices. If they have been efficiently utilized, injecting them into ACE becomes an obvious decision. If they have been underutilized, however, it is important to understand why this occurred and discuss how you can drive higher adherence.

Examples of existing documents to leverage

People

• Agile onboarding planning documents
• Agile training documents
• Organizational Agile manifesto
• Team performance metrics dashboard
• Stakeholder engagement and communication plan
• Development team engagement plan
• Organizational design and structure
• Roles and responsibilities chart (i.e. RACI)
• Compensation plan Resourcing plan

Process

• Tailored Scrum process
• Requirements gathering process
• Quality stage-gate checklist (including definitions of ready and done)
• Business requirements document
• Use case document
• Business process diagrams
• Entity relationship diagrams
• Data flow diagrams
• Solution or system architecture
• Application documentation for deployment
• Organizational and user change management plan
• Disaster recovery and rollback process
• Test case templates

Technology

• Code review policies and procedures
• Systems design policies
• Build, test, deploy, and rollback scripts
• Coding guidelines
• Data governance and management policies
• Data definition and glossary
• Request for proposals (RFPs)
• Development tool standards and licensing agreements
• Permission to development, testing, staging, and production environments
• Application, system, and data integration policies

Build upon the lessons learned from your Agile pilots

The success of your Center of Excellence relies on the ability to build sound best practices within your organization’s context. Use your previous lessons learned and growing pains as shared knowledge of past Agile implementations within the ACE.

Implement Agile Practices That Work

Draw on the experiences of your initial pilot where you learned how to adapt the Agile manifesto and practices to your specific context. These lessons will help onboard new teams to Agile since they will likely experience some of the same challenges.

Download

Documents for review include:

• Tailored Scrum Process
• Agile Pilot Metrics
• Info-Tech’s Agile Pilot Playbook

Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile

Draw on previous scaling Agile experiences to help understand how to interface, facilitate, and orchestrate cross-functional teams and stakeholders for large and complex projects. These lessons will help your ACE teams develop collaboration and problem-solving techniques involving roles with different priorities and lines of thinking.

Download

Documents for review include:

• Agile Program Framework
• Agile Pilot Program Metrics
• Scaled Agile Development Process
• Info-Tech’s Scaling Agile Playbook

Activity: Gather and document your existing Agile practices for the CoE

1.2.2 Variable time commitment based on current documentation state

Input

• Existing practices

Output

• Practices categorized within operating model

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• ACE team

1. Compile a list of existing practices that will be shared by the Center of Excellence. Consider any documents, templates, or tools that are used regularly by Agile teams.
2. Evaluate the level of adherence to use of the practices (whether the practice is complied with regularly or not) with a high, medium, or low. Low compliance will need a root-cause analysis to understand why and how to remedy the situation.
3. Determine the best fit for each practice under the ACE operational model.

Activity: Interview stakeholders to understand the ACE functional expectations

1.2.3 30-60 Minutes per interview

Interview Stakeholders (from both Agile teams and functional areas) on their needs from the ACE. Ensure you capture both pain points and opportunities. Capture these as either Common Agile needs or Functional needs. Document using the tables below:

PMO Needs

• Better understanding of Agile process
• Understanding role of PM in Agile
• Project status reports that determine current level of project risk
• How does project governance apply on Agile projects
• What deliverables/artifacts are produced by Agile projects and when are they completed

Operations Needs

• Alignment on approaches for doing releases
• Impact of Agile on change management and support desk processes
• How and when will installation and operation instructions be available in Agile

Activity: Form a solution matrix to organize your pain points and opportunities

1.2.4 Half day

Input

• Identified requirements

Output

• Classified pains and opportunities

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• ACE team

1. Review the listed pain points from the data gathering process. Sort the pain points on sticky notes into technology, governance, people, and shared services.
2. Consider opportunities under each defining element based on the identified business requirements.
3. Document your findings.
4. Discuss the results with the project team and prioritize the opportunities.
   • Where do the most pains occur?
   • What opportunities exist to alleviate pains?

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

Activity: Refine your use cases to identify your ACE functions and services

1.2.5 1 Hour

Input

• Use cases from activity 1.1.2

Output

• Refined use cases based on data collection

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• ACE team

1. Refine your initial use cases for the points of alignment between your ACE and business objectives using your classified pain points and opportunities.
2. Add use cases to address newly realized pain points.
3. Determine the functions and services the CoE can offer to address the identified requirements.
4. Evaluate the outputs in the form of realized benefits and extracted inefficiencies.

Possible ACE use cases:

• Policy Management
• Change Management
• Risk Management
• Stakeholder Management
• Engagement Planning
• Knowledge Management
• Subject-Matter Expertise
• Agile Team Evaluation
• Operations Support
• Onboarding
• Coaching
• Learning Facilitation
• Communications Training
• Vendor Management
• Application Support
• Tooling Standards

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

Activity: Visualize your ACE functions and service offerings with a capability map

1.2.6 1 Hour

Input

• Use cases from activity 1.2.4

Output

• ACE capability map

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• ACE team

1. Review the refined and categorized list of service offerings.
2. Determine how these new capabilities will add, remove, or enhance your existing service and capabilities.
3. Categorize the capabilities into the following groups:

• Governance and Metrics
• Services
• Staff
• Technology

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

Activity: Visualize your ACE functions and service offerings with a capability map (continued)

Governance

Policy Management (Medium Potential)

Change Management (High Potential)

Risk Management (High Potential)

Stakeholder Management (High Potential)

Metrics/Feedback Monitoring (High Potential)

Shared Services

Engagement Planning (High Potential)

Knowledge Management (High Potential)

Subject-Matter Expertise (High Potential)

Agile Team Evaluation (High Potential)

Operations Support (High Potential)

People

Onboarding (Medium Potential)

Coaching (High Potential)

Learning Facilitation (High Potential)

Internal Certification Program (Low Potential)

Communications Training (Medium Potential)

Technology

Vendor Management (Medium Potential)

Application Support (Low Potential)

Tooling Standards (High Potential)

Checkpoint: Are you ready to standardize your CoEs service offerings?

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Self-Auditing Guidelines

• Have you identified and prioritized the key business objectives for the upcoming year that the ACE will align with?
• Do you have a high-level set of use cases for points of alignment between your ACE and business objectives?
• Have you mapped your stakeholders and identified the key players that will have an influence over the future success of your ACE?
• Have you identified how your organization will fund, resource, and govern the ACE?
• Have you collected data to understand the functional expectations of the users the ACE is intended to serve?
• Have you refined your use cases to align with both business objectives and functional expectations?

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

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

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

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

1.1.2 Identify and prioritize organizational business objectives

Our analyst team will help you organize and prioritize your business objectives for the year in order to ensure that the service offerings the ACE offers are delivering consistent business value.

1.1.3 Form use cases for the points of alignment between your ACE and business objectives

Our analyst team will help you turn your prioritized business objectives into a set of high-level use cases that will provide the foundation for defining user-aligned services.

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:

1.1.4 Prioritize your ACE stakeholders

Our analysts will walk you through an exercise of mapping and prioritizing your Centers of Excellence stakeholders based on impact and power within so you can ensure appropriate presentation of interests within the organization.

1.2.4 Form a solution matrix to organize your pain points and opportunities

Our analyst team will help you solidify the direction of your Center of Excellence by overlaying your identified needs, pain points, and potential opportunities in a matrix guided by Info-Tech’s CoE operating model.

1.2.5 Refine your use cases to identify your ACE functions and services

Our analyst team will help you further refine your business-aligned use cases with the functional expectations from your Agile teams and stakeholders, ensuring the ACEs long-term utility.

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:

1.2.6 Visualize your ACE functions and service offerings with a capability map

Our analysts will walk you through creating your Agile Centers of Excellence capability map and help you to prioritize which service offerings are critical to the success of your Agile teams in meeting their objectives.

Phase 2

Standardize the Centers of Excellence Service Offerings

Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

The ACE needs to ensure consistency in service delivery

Now that you have aligned the CoE to the business and functional expectations, you need to ensure its service offerings are consistently accessible. To effectively ensure accessibility and delegation of shared services in an efficient way, the CoE needs to have a consistent framework to deliver its services.

Phase 1 - Strategically Align the CoE

Create strategic alignment between the CoE and the organization’s goals, objectives, and vision. This alignment translates into the CoE mandate intended to enhance the way Agile will enable teams to meet business objectives.

Phase 2 - Standardize the CoEs Service Offerings

Build an engagement plan based on a standardized adoption model to ensure your CoE service offerings are accessible and consistent across the organization. Create and consolidate key performance indicators to measure the CoEs utility and whether or not the expected value is being translated to tangible results.

Phase 3 - Operate the CoE

Operate the CoE to provide service offerings to Agile teams, identify improvements to optimize the function of your Agile teams, and effectively manage and communicate change so that teams can grow within the Agile adoption model and optimize value delivery both within your Agile environment and across functions.

Phase 2 outline

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

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

Guided Implementation 2: Standardize the CoEs Service Offerings

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2

Step 2.1: Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Dissect the key attributes of Agile adoption.

Then complete these activities…

2.1.1 Further categorize your use cases within the Agile adoption model.

Step 2.2: Create an ACE engagement plan

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Form engagement plans for your Agile teams.

Then complete these activities…

2.2.1 Create an engagement plan for each level of adoption.

Step 2.3: Define metrics to measure success

Finalize phase deliverable:

• Discuss effective ACE metrics.

Then complete these activities…

2.3.1 Collect existing team-level metrics.

2.3.2 Define metrics that align with your Agile business objectives.

2.3.3 Define target ACE performance metrics.

2.3.4 Define Agile adoption metrics.

2.3.5 Consolidate metrics for stakeholder impact.

2.3.6 Use Info-Tech’s ACE Benefits Tracking Tool to monitor, evaluate, refine, and ensure continued business value.

Phase 2 Results & Insights:

• Standardizing your service offerings allows you to have direct influence on the dissemination of best practices.

Phase 2, Step 1: Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Activities:

2.1.1 Further categorize your use cases within the Agile adoption model.

Outcomes:

• Refine your previously determined use cases within the Agile adoption model to ensure that teams can be assisted at any level of Agile adoption.
• Understand the key attributes of Agile adoption and how they impact success.

Understand the implementation challenges that the ACE may face

Culture clash between ACE and larger organization

It is important to carefully consider the compatibility between the current organizational culture and Agile moving forward. Agile compels empowered teams, meritocracy, and broad collaboration for success; while typical organizational structures are siloed and hierarchical and decisions are delegated from the top down.

This is not to say that the culture of the ACE has to match the larger organizational culture; part of the overarching aim of the ACE is to evolve the current organizational culture for the better. The point is to ensure you enable a smooth transition with sufficient management support and a team of Agile champions.

The changing role of middle management

Very similar to the culture clash challenge, cultural rigidity in how middle managers operate (performance review, human resource management, etc.) can cause cultural rejection. They need to become enablers for high performance and give their teams the sufficient tools, skills, and opportunities to succeed and excel.

What impedes Agile adoption?

Based on a global survey of Agile practitioners (N=1,319)*:

52% Organizational culture at odds with agile values

44% Inadequate management support and sponsorship

48% General organization resistance to change

*Respondents were able to make multiple selections

(13th Annual State of Agile Report, VersionOne, 2019)

Build competency and trust through a structured Agile adoption plan

The reality of cultural incompatibility between Agile and traditional organization structures necessitates a structured adoption plan. Systematically build competency so teams can consistently achieve project success and solidify trust in your teams’ ability to meet business needs with Agile.

By incrementally gaining the trust of management as you build up your Agile capabilities, you enable a smooth cultural transition to an environment where teams are empowered, adapt quickly to changing needs, and are trusted to innovate and make successes out of their failures.

Optimized value delivery occurs when there is a direct relationship between competency and trust. There will be unrealized value when competency or trust outweigh the other. That value loss increases as either dimension of adoption continues to grow faster than the other.

Use Info-Tech’s Practice Adoption Optimization Model to systematically increase your teams’ ability to deliver

Using Info-Tech’s Practice adoption optimization model will ensure you incrementally build competency and trust to optimize your value delivery.

Agile adoption at its core, is about building social capital. Your level of trust with key influencers increases as you continuously enhance your capabilities, enabling the necessary cultural changes away from traditional organizational structures.

Trust & Competency ↓

DEFINE

Begin to document your development workflow or value chain, implement a tracking system for KPIs, and start gathering metrics and reporting them transparently to the appropriate stakeholders.

ITERATE

Use collected metrics and retrospectives to stabilize team performance by reducing areas of variability in your workflow and increasing the consistency at which targets are met.

COLLABORATE

Use information to support changes and adopt appropriate practices to make incremental improvements to the existing environment.

EMPOWER

Drive behavioral and cultural changes that will empower teams to be accountable for their own success and learning.

INNOVATE

Use your built-up trust and support practice innovation, driving the definition and adoption of new practices.

Review these key attributes of Agile adoption

Agile adoption is unique to every organization. Consider these key attributes within your own organizational context when thinking about levels of Agile adoption.

Adoption Attributes

Team Organization

Considers the degree to which teams are able to self-organize based on internal organizational structures (hierarchy vs. meritocracy) and inter-team capabilities.

Team Coordination

Considers the degree to which teams can coordinate, both within and across functions.

Business Alignment

Considers the degree to which teams can understand and/or map to business objectives.

Coaching

Considers what kind of coaching/training is offered and how accessible the training is.

Empowerment

Considers the degree to which teams are able and capable to address project, process, and technical challenges without significant burden from process controls and bureaucracy.

Failure Tolerance

Considers the degree to which stakeholders are risk tolerant and if teams are capable of turning failures into learning outcomes.

Why are these important?

These key attributes function as qualities or characteristics that, when improved, will successively increase the degree to which the business trusts your Agile teams’ ability to meet their objectives.

Systematically improving these attributes as you graduate levels of the adoption model allows the business to acclimatize to the increased capability the Agile team is offering, and the risk of culture clash with the larger organization decreases.

Start to consider at what level of adoption each of your service offerings become useful. This will allow you to standardize the way your Agile teams interact with the CoE.

Activity: Further categorize your use cases within the Agile adoption model

2.1.1 1.5 Hours

Input

• List of service offerings

Output

• Service offerings categorized within adoption model

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Team

1. Gather the list of your categorized use cases.
2. Based on Info-Tech’s Agile adoption model, categorize which use cases would be useful to help the Agile team graduate to the next level of adoption.
   • Conceptualize: Begin to document your workflow or value chain, implement a tracking system for KPIs, and gather metrics and report them transparently to the appropriate stakeholders.
   • Iterate: Use collected metrics to stabilize team performance by reducing areas of variability in your workflow and increasing the consistency at which targets are met.
   • Collaborate: Use information to drive changes and adopt appropriate Agile practices to make incremental improvements to the existing environment.
   • Empower: Drive behavioral and cultural changes that will empower teams to be accountable for their own successes given the appropriate resources.
   • Innovate: Use your built-up trust to begin to make calculated risks and innovate more, driving new best practices into the CoE.

The same service offering could be offered at different levels of adoption. In these cases, you will need to re-visit the use case and differentiate how the service (if at all) will be delivered at different levels of adoption.

3. Use this opportunity to brainstorm alternative or new use cases for any gaps identified. It is the CoEs goal to assist teams at every level of adoption to meet their business objectives. Use a different colored sticky note for these so you can re-visit and map out their inputs, outputs, metrics, etc.

Activity: Further categorize your use cases within the Agile adoption model (continued)

2.1.1 1.5 Hours

Input

• List of service offerings

Output

• Service offerings categorized within adoption model

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Team

Example:

Learning Facilitation

Draw on the service offerings identified in activity 1.2.4

Phase 2, Step 2: Create an ACE engagement plan

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Activities:

2.2.1 Create an engagement plan for each level of adoption.

Outcomes:

• Understand the importance of aligning with the functional expectations of your ACE customers.
• Understand the relationship between engagement and continuous improvement.
• Create an engagement plan for each level of adoption to standardize the way customers interact with the ACE.

Enable Agile teams to interface with ACE service offerings to meet their business objectives

A Center of Excellence aligned with your service offerings is only valuable if your CoEs customers can effectively access those services. At this stage, you have invested in ensuring that your CoE aligns to your business objectives and that your service offerings align to its customers. Now you need to ensure that these services are accessible in the day-to-day operation of your Agile teams.

Engagement Process → Service Offering

Use backwards induction from your delivery method to the service offering. This is an effective method to determine the optimal engagement action for the CoE, as it considers the end customer as the driver for best action for every possible situation.

Info-Tech Insight

Your engagement process should be largely informed by your ACE users. Teams have constraints as well as in-the-trenches concerns and issues. If your service offerings don’t account for these, it can lead to rejection of the culture you are trying to inspire.

Show the way, do not dictate

Do not fix problems for your Agile teams, give them the tools and knowledge to fix the problems themselves.

Facilitate learning to drive success

A primary function of your ACE is to transfer knowledge to Agile teams to increase their capability to achieve desired outcomes.

While this can take the form of coaching, training sessions, libraries, and wikis, a critical component of ACE is creating interactions where individuals from Agile teams can come together and share their knowledge.

Ideas come from different experiences. By creating communities of practice (CoP) around topics that the ACE is tasked with supporting (e.g. Agile business analysts), you foster social learning and decrease the likelihood that change will result in some sort of cultural rejection.

Consider whether creating CoPs would be beneficial in your organization’s context.

"Communities of practice are a practical way to frame the task of managing knowledge. They provide a concrete organizational infrastructure for realizing the dream of a learning organization." – Etienne Wenger, Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities

A lack of top-down support will result in your ACE being underutilized

Top-down support is critical to validate the CoE to its customers and ensure they feel compelled to engage with its services. Relevancy is a real concern for the long-term viability of a CoE and championing its use from a position of authority will legitimize its function and deter its fading from relevancy of day-to-day use for Agile teams.

Although you are aligning your engagement processes to the customers of your Agile Center of Excellence, you still need your key influencers to champion its lasting organizational relevancy. Don’t let your employees think the ACE is just a coordinating body or a committee that is convenient but non-essential – make sure they know that it drives their own personal growth and makes everyone better as a collective.

"Even if a CoE is positioned to meet a real organizational need, without some measure of top-down support, it faces an uphill battle to remain relevant and avoid becoming simply one more committee in the eyes of the wider organization. Support from the highest levels of the organization help fight the tendency of the larger organization to view the CoE as a committee with no teeth and tip the scales toward relevancy for the CoE." – Joe Shepley, VP and Practice Lead, Doculabs

Info-Tech Insight

Stimulate top-down support with internal certifications. This allows your employees to gain accreditation while at the same time encouraging top-down support and creating a compliance check for the continual delivery and acknowledgement of your evolving best practices.

Ensure that best practices and lessons learned are injected back into the ACE

For your employees to continuously improve, so must the Center of Excellence. Ensure the ACE has the appropriate mechanisms to absorb and disseminate best practices that emerge from knowledge transfer facilitation events.

Facilitated Learning Session →Was the localized adaption well received by others in similar roles? →Document Localized Adaptation →Is there broad applicability and benefit to the proposed innovation? →CoE Absorbs as Best Practice

Continuous improvement starts with the CoE

While facilitating knowledge transfer is key, it is even more important that the Center of Excellence can take localized adaptations from Agile teams and standardize them as best practices when well received. If an individual were to leave without sharing their knowledge, the CoE and the larger organization will lose that knowledge and potential innovation opportunities.

Experience matters

To organically grow your ACE and be cost effective, you want your teams to continuously improve and to share that knowledge. As individual team members develop and climb the adoption model, they should participate as coaches and champions for less experienced groups so that their knowledge is reaching the widest audience possible.

Case study: Agile learning at Spotify

CASE STUDY

Industry Digital Media

Source Henrik Kniberg & Anders Ivarsson, 2012

Methods of Agile learning at Spotify

Spotify has continuously introduced innovative techniques to facilitate learning and ensure that that knowledge gets injected back into the organization. Some examples are the following:

• Hack days: Self-organizing teams, referred to as squads, come together, try new ideas, and share them with their co-workers. This facilitates a way to stay up to date with new tools and techniques and land new product innovations.
• Coaching: Every squad has access to an Agile coach to help inject best practices into their workflow – coaches run retrospectives, sprint planning meetings, facilitate one-on-one coaching, etc.
• Tribes: Collections of squads that hold regular gatherings to show the rest of the tribe what they’ve been working on so others can learn from what they are doing.
• Chapters: People with similar skills within a tribe come together to discuss their area of expertise and their specific challenges.
• Guilds: A wide-reaching community of interest where members from different tribes can come together to share knowledge, tools, and codes, and practice (e.g. a tester guild, an Agile coaching guild).

"As an example of guild work, we recently had a ‘Web Guild Unconference,’ an open space event where all web developers at Spotify gathered up in Stockholm to discuss challenges and solutions within their field."

Activity: Create an engagement plan for each level of adoption

2.2.1 30 Minutes per role

Input

• Categorized use cases

Output

• Role-based engagement plans

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Team

1. On the top bar, define the role you are developing the engagement plan for. This will give you the ability to standardize service delivery across all individuals in similar roles.
2. Import your categorized service offerings for each level of adoption that you think are applicable to the given role.
3. Using backwards induction, determine the engagement processes that will ensure that those service offerings are accessible and fit the day-to-day operations of the role.
4. Fill in the template available on the next slide with each role’s engagement plan.

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

Example engagement plan: Developer

2.2.1 30 Minutes per role

Example engagement plan: Tester

2.2.1 30 Minutes per role

Example engagement plan: Product Owner

2.2.1 30 Minutes per role

Phase 2, Step 3: Define metrics to measure success

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Activities:

2.3.1 Define existing team-level metrics.

2.3.2 Define metrics that align with your Agile business objectives.

2.3.3 Define target ACE performance metrics.

2.3.4 Define Agile adoption metrics.

2.3.5 Consolidate your metrics for stakeholder impact.

2.3.6 Use Info-Tech’s ACE Benefits Tracking Tool to monitor, evaluate, refine, and ensure continued business value.

Outcomes:

• Understand the importance of aligning with the functional expectations of your ACE customers.
• Understand the relationship between engagement and continuous improvement.
• Create an engagement plan for each level of adoption to standardize the way customers interact with the ACE.

Craft metrics that will measure the success of your Agile teams

Quantify measures that demonstrate the effectiveness of your ACE by establishing distinct metrics for each of your service offerings. This will ensure that you have full transparency over the outputs of your CoE and that your service offerings maintain relevance and are utilized.

Questions to Ask

1. What are leading indicators of improvements that directly affect the mandate of the CoE?
2. How do you measure process efficiency and effectiveness?

Creating meaningful metrics

Specific

Measureable

Achievable

Realistic

Time-bound

Follow the SMART framework when developing metrics for each service offering.

Adhering to this methodology is a key component of the lean management methodology. This framework will help you avoid establishing general metrics that aren’t relevant.

"It’s not about telling people what they are doing wrong. It’s about constantly steering everyone on the team in the direction of success, and never letting any individual compromise the progress of the team toward success." – Mary Poppendieck, qtd. in “Questioning Servant Leadership”

For important advice on how to avoid the many risks associated with metrics, refer to Info-Tech’s Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively.

Ensure your metrics are addressing criteria from different levels of stakeholders and enterprise context

There will be a degree of overlap between the metrics from your business objectives, service offerings, and existing Agile teams. This is a positive thing. If a metric can speak to multiple benefits it is that much more powerful in commuting successes to your key stakeholders.

Existing metrics

Business objective metrics

Service offering metrics

Agile adoption metrics

Finding points of overlap means that you have multiple stakeholders with a vested interest in the positive trend of a specific metric. These consolidated metrics will be fundamental for your CoE as they will help build consensus through communicating the success of the ACE in a common language for a diverse audience.

Activity: Define existing team-level metrics

2.3.1 1 Hour

Input

• Current metrics

Output

• Service offerings categorized within adoption model

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Team

1. Gather any metrics related documentation that you collected during your requirements gathering in Phase 1.
2. Collect team-level metrics for your existing Agile teams:
   • Examine outputs from any feedback mechanisms you have (satisfaction surveys, emails, existing SLAs, burndown charts, resourcing costs, licensing costs per sprint, etc.).
   • Look at historical trends and figures when available. Be careful of frequent anomalies as these may indicate a root cause that needs to be addressed.
   • Explore the definition of specific metrics across different functional teams to ensure consistency of measurement and reporting.

Activity: Define metrics that align with your Agile business objectives

2.3.2 1 Hour

Input

• Organizational business objectives from Phase 1

Output

• Metrics aligned to organizational business objectives

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• ACE

1. List the business objectives that you determined in 1.1.2.
2. Create a shortlist of expected benefits from those business objectives. These will help to drive metrics that align with the intended purpose of completing those business objectives, and affirm they are aligned to realizable benefits.
3. Define metrics that speak to the benefits of your business objectives. While engaging in this process, ensure to document the collection method for each metrics.

Activity: Define target ACE performance metrics

2.3.3 1 Hour

Input

• Service offerings
• Satisfaction surveys
• Usage rates

Output

• CoE performance metrics

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• ACE

1. Define metrics to measure the success of each of your service offerings.
2. Create a shortlist of expected benefits from those business objectives. These will help to drive metrics that align with the intended purpose of those service offerings, and affirm they are aligned to realizable benefits.
3. Define metrics that speak to the benefits of your service offerings.
4. Compare these to your team performance metrics.

Activity: Define Agile adoption metrics

2.3.4 1 Hour

Input

• Agile adoption model

Output

• Agile adoption metrics

1. Define metrics to measure the success of each of your service offerings.
2. Create a shortlist of expected benefits from those business objectives. These will help to drive metrics that align with the intended purpose of those service offerings, and affirm they are aligned to realizable benefits.
3. Define metrics that speak to the benefits of your service offerings.
4. It is possible that you will need to adjust these metrics after baselines are established when you begin to operate the ACE. Keep this in mind moving forward.

Activity: Consolidate your metrics for stakeholder impact

2.3.5 30 Minutes

Input

• New and existing Agile metrics

Output

• Consolidated Agile metrics

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• ACE

1. Take all the metrics defined from the previous activities and compare them as a group.
2. If there are overlapping metrics that are measuring similar outcomes or providing similar benefits, see if there is a way to merge them together so that a single metric can report outcomes to multiple stakeholders. This reduces the amount of resources invested in metrics gathering and helps to show consensus or alignment between multiple stakeholder interests.
3. Compare these to your existing Agile metrics, and explore ways to consolidate existing metrics that are established with some of your new metrics. Established metrics are trusted and if they can be continued it can be viewed as beneficial from a consensus and consistency perspective to your stakeholders.

Activity: Use Info-Tech’s ACE Benefits Tracking Tool to monitor, evaluate, refine, and ensure continued business value

2.3.6 1 Hour

Purpose

The CoE governance team can use this tool to take ownership of the project’s benefits, track progress, and act on any necessary changes to address gaps. In the long term, it can be used to identify whether the team is ahead, on track, or lagging in terms of benefits realization.

Steps

1. Enter your identified metrics from the following activities into the ACE Benefits Tracking Tool.
2. Input your baselines from your data collection (Phase 3) and a goal value for each metric.
3. Document the results at key intervals as defined by the tool.
4. Use the summary report to identify metrics that are not tracking well for root cause analysis and communicate with key stakeholders the outcomes of your Agile Center of Excellence based on your communication schedule from Phase 3, Step 3.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Download the ACE Benefits Tracking Tool.

Checkpoint: Are you ready to operate your ACE?

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

↓

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Self Auditing Guidelines

• Have you categorized your ACE service offerings within Info-Tech’s Agile adoption model?
• Have you formalized engagement plans to standardize the access to your service offerings?
• Do you understand the function of learning events and their criticality to the function of the ACE?
• Do you understand the key attributes of Agile adoption and how social capital leads to optimized value delivery?
• Have you defined metrics for different goals (adoption, effective service offerings, business objectives) of the ACE?
• Do your defined metrics align to the SMART framework?

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

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

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

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

2.1.1 Further categorize your use cases within the Agile adoption model

Our analyst team will help you categorize the Centers of Excellence service offerings within Info-Tech’s Agile adoption model to help standardize the way your organization engages with the Center of Excellence.

2.2.1 Create an engagement plan for each level of adoption

Our analyst team will help you structure engagement plans for each role within your Agile environment to provide a standardized pathway to personal development and consistency in practice.

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:

2.3.2 Define metrics that align with your Agile business objectives

Our analysts will walk you through defining a set of metrics that align with your Agile business objectives identified in Phase 1 of the blueprint so the CoEs monitoring function can ensure ongoing alignment during operation.

2.3.3 Define target ACE performance metrics

Our analysts will walk you through defining a set of metrics that monitors how successful the ACE has been at providing its services so that business and IT stakeholders can ensure the effectiveness of the ACE.

2.3.4 Define Agile adoption metrics

Our analyst team will help you through defining a set of metrics that aligns with your organization’s fit of the Agile adoption model in order to provide a mechanism to track the progress of Agile teams maturing in capability and organizational trust.

Phase 3

Operationalize Your Agile Center of Excellence

Spread Best Practices With an Agile Center of Excellence

Operate your ACE to drive optimized value from your Agile teams

The final step is to engage in monitoring of your metrics program to identify areas for improvement. Using metrics as a driver for operating your ACE will allow you to identify and effectively manage needed change, as well as provide you with the data necessary to promote outcomes to your stakeholders to ensure the long-term viability of the ACE within your organization.

Phase 1 - Strategically Align the CoE

Create strategic alignment between the CoE and the organization’s goals, objectives, and vision. This alignment translates into the CoE mandate intended to enhance the way Agile will enable teams to meet business objectives.

Phase 2 - Standardize the CoEs Service Offerings

Build an engagement plan based on a standardized adoption model to ensure your CoE service offerings are accessible and consistent across the organization. Create and consolidate key performance indicators to measure the CoEs utility and whether or not the expected value is being translated to tangible results.

Phase 3 - Operate the CoE

Operate the CoE to provide service offerings to Agile teams, identify improvements to optimize the function of your Agile teams, and effectively manage and communicate change so that teams can grow within the Agile adoption model and optimize value delivery both within your Agile environment and across functions.

Phase 3 outline

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

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

Guided Implementation 3: Operate the CoE

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): Variable depending on communication plan

Step 3.1: Optimize the success of your ACE

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Conduct a baseline assessment of your Agile environment.

Then complete these activities…

3.1.1 Use Info-Tech’s ACE Satisfaction Survey to help establish your baseline.

3.1.2 Use Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to measure the maturity level of your ACE.

3.1.3 Prioritize ACE actions by monitoring your metrics.

Step 3.2: Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Interface with the ACE with your change management function.

Then complete these activities…

3.2.1 Assess the interaction and communication points of your Agile teams.

3.2.2 Determine the root cause of each metric falling short of expectations.

3.2.3 Brainstorm solutions to identified issues.

3.2.4 Review your metrics program.

3.2.5 Create a communication plan for change.

Step 3.3: Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Finalize phase deliverable:

• Build a communications deck for key stakeholders.

Then complete these activities…

3.3.1 Use the outputs from your metrics tracking tool to communicate progress.

3.3.2 Summarize adjustments in areas where the ACE fell short.

3.3.3 Review the effectiveness of your service offerings.

3.3.4 Evaluate your ACE Maturity.

3.3.5 Use Info-Tech’s ACE Communications Deck to deliver your outcomes to the key stakeholders.

Phase 3 Results & Insights:

Inject improvements into your Agile environment with operational excellence. Plan changes and communicate them effectively, monitor outcomes on a regular basis, and keep stakeholders in the loop to ensure that their interests are being looked after to ensure long-term viability of the CoE.

Phase 3, Step 1: Optimize the success of your ACE

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Tools:

3.1.1 Use Info-Tech’s ACE Satisfaction Survey to help establish your baseline.

3.1.2 Use Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to measure the maturity level of your ACE.

3.1.3 Prioritize ACE actions by monitoring your metrics.

Outcomes:

• Conduct a baseline assessment of your ACE to measure against using a variety of data sources, including interviews, satisfaction surveys, and historical data.
• Use the Benefits Tracking Tool to start monitoring the outcomes of the ACE and to keep track of trends.

Ensure the CoE is able to collect the necessary data to measure success

Establish your collection process to ensure that the CoE has the necessary resources to collect metrics and monitor progress, that there is alignment on what data sources are to be used when collecting data, and that you know which stakeholder is interested in the outcomes of that metric.

Responsibility

• Does the CoE have enough manpower to collect the metrics and monitor them?
• If automated through technology, is it clear who is responsible for its function?

Source of metric

• Is the method of data collection standardized so that multiple people could collect the data in the same way?

Impacted stakeholder

• Do you know which stakeholder is interested in this metric?
• How often should the interested stakeholder be informed of progress?

Intended function

• What is the expected benefit of increasing this metric?
• What does the metric intend to communicate to the stakeholder?

Conduct a baseline assessment of your ACE to measure success

Establishing the baseline performance of the ACE allows you to have a reasonable understanding of the impact it is having on meeting business objectives. Use user satisfaction surveys, stakeholder interviews, and any current metrics to establish a concept of how you are performing now. Setting new metrics can be a difficult task so it is important to collect as much current data as possible. After the metrics have been established and monitored for a period of time, you can revisit the targets you have set to ensure they are realistic and usable.

Without a baseline, you cannot effectively:

• Establish reasonable target metrics that reflect the performance of your Center of Excellence.
• Identify, diagnose, and resolve any data that deviates from expected outcomes.
• Measure ongoing business satisfaction given the level of service.

Info-Tech Insight

Invest the needed time to baseline your activities. These data points are critical to diagnose successes and failures of the CoE moving forward, and you will need them to be able to refine your service offerings as business conditions or user expectations change. While it may seem like something you can breeze past, the investment is critical.

Use a variety of sources to get the best picture of your current state; a combination of methods provides the richest insight

Interviews

What to do:

• Conduct interviews (or focus groups) with key influencers and Agile team members.

Benefits:

• Data comes from key business decision makers.
• Identify what is top of mind for your top-level stakeholders.
• Ask follow-up questions for detail.

Challenges:

• This will only provide a very high-level view.
• Interviewer biases may skew the results.

Surveys

What to do:

• Distribute an Agile-specific stakeholder satisfaction survey. The survey should be specific to identify factors of your current environment.

Benefits:

• Every end user/business stakeholder will be able to provide feedback.
• The survey will be simple to develop and distribute.

Challenges:

• Response rates can be low if stakeholders do not understand the value in their opinions.

Historical Data

What to do:

• Collect and analyze existing Agile data such as past retrospectives, Agile team metrics, etc.

Benefits:

• Get a full overview of current service offerings, past issues, and current service delivery.
• Allows you to get an objective view of what is really going on within your Agile teams.

Challenges:

• Requires a significant time investment and analytical skills to analyze the data and generate insights on business satisfaction and needs.

Use Info-Tech’s ACE Satisfaction Survey to help establish your baseline

3.1.1 Baseline satisfaction survey

Purpose

Conduct a user satisfaction survey prior to setting your baseline for your ACE. This will include high-level questions addressing your overall Agile environment and questions addressing teams’ current satisfaction with their processes and technology.

Steps

1. Modify the satisfaction survey template to suit your organization and the service offerings you have defined for the Agile Center of Excellence.
2. Distribute the satisfaction survey to any users who are expected to interface with the ACE.
3. Document the results and communicate them with the relevant key stakeholders.
4. Combine these results with historical data points (if available) and stakeholder interviews to get a holistic picture of your current state.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Download the ACE Satisfaction Survey.

Use Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to measure the maturity level of your ACE

3.1.2 CoE maturity assessment

Purpose

Assessing your ACEs maturity lets you know where they currently are and what to track to get them to the next step. This will help ensure your ACE is following good practices and has the appropriate mechanisms in place to serve your stakeholders.

Steps

1. Download the CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to assess the maturity of your ACE.
2. Complete the assessment tool with all members of your ACE team to determine your maturity score.
3. Document the results and communicate them with the relevant key stakeholders.
4. Combine these results with historical data points (if available) and stakeholder interviews to get a holistic picture of your ACE maturity level.

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Download the CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool.

Activity: Prioritize ACE actions by monitoring your metrics

3.1.3 Variable time commitment

Input

• Metrics from ACE Benefits Tracking Tool

Output

• Prioritized actions for the ACE

Materials

• ACE Benefits Tracking Tool

Participants

• ACE team

1. Review your ACE Benefits Tracking Tool periodically (at the end of sprint cycles, quarterly, etc.) and document metrics that are trending or actively falling short of goals or expectations.
2. Take the documented list and have the ACE staff consider what actions or decisions can be prioritized to help mend the identified gaps. Look for any trends that could potentially speak to a larger problem or a specific aspect of the ACE or the organizational Agile environment that is not functioning as expected.
3. Take the opportunity to review metrics that are also tracking above expected value to see if there are any lessons learned that can be extended to other ACE service offerings (e.g. effective engagement or communication strategies) so that the organization can start to learn what is effective and what is not based on their internal struggles and challenges. Spreading successes is just as important as identifying challenges in a CoE model.

Phase 3, Step 2: Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Activities:

3.2.1 Assess the interaction and communication points of your Agile teams.

3.2.2 Determine the root cause of each metric falling short of expectations.

3.2.3 Brainstorm solutions to identified issues

3.2.4 Review your metrics program.

3.2.5 Create a communication plan for change.

Outcomes:

• Understand how your existing change management process interfaces with the Center of Excellence.
• Identify issues and ideate solutions to metrics falling short of expectations.
• Create a communication plan to prepare groups for any necessary change.

Manage the adaptation of teams as they adopt Agile capabilities

As Agile spreads, be cognizant of your cultural tolerance to change and its ability to deliver on such change. Change will happen more frequently and continuously, and there may be conceptual (change tolerance) or capability (delivery tolerance) roadblocks along the way that will need to be addressed.

The Agile adoption model will help to graduate both the tolerance to change and tolerance to deliver over time. As your level of competency to deliver change increases, organizational tolerance to change, especially amongst management, will increase as well. Remember that optimized value delivery comes from this careful balance of aptitude and trust.

Tolerance to change

Tolerance to change refers to the conceptual capacity of your people to consume and adopt change. Change tolerance may become a barrier to success because teams might be too engrained with current structures and processes and find any changes too disruptive and uncomfortable.

Tolerance to deliver

Tolerance to deliver refers to the capability to deliver on expected change. While teams may be tolerant, they may not have the necessary capacity, skills, or resources to deliver the necessary changes successfully. The ACE can help solve this problem with training and coaching, or possibly by obtaining outside help where necessary.

Understand how the ACE interfaces with your current change management process

As the ACE absorbs best practices and identifies areas for improvement, a change management process should be established to address the implementation and sustainability of change without introducing significant disruptions and costs.

To manage a continuously changing environment, your ACE will need to align and coordinate with organizational change management processes. This process should be capable of evaluating and incorporating multiple change initiatives continuously.

Desired changes will need to be validated, and localized adaptations will need to be disseminated to the larger organization, and current state policy and procedures will need to be amended as the adoption of Agile spreads and capabilities increase.

The goal here is to have the ACE governance group identify and interface with parties relevant to successfully implementing any specific change.

INFO-TECH RELATED RESEARCH:

Strategy and Leadership: Optimize Change Management

Optimize your stakeholder management process to identify, prioritize, and effectively manage key stakeholders.

Where should your Agile change requests come from?

Changes to the services, structure, or engagement model of your ACE can be triggered from various sources in your organization. You will see that proposed changes may be requested with the best intentions; however, the potential impacts they may have to other areas of the organization can be significant. Consult all sources of ACE change requests to obtain a consensus that your change requests will not deteriorate the ACEs performance and use.

ACE Governance

• Sources of ACE Change Requests
  • ACE Policies/Stakeholders
    • Triggers for Change:
      • Changes in business and functional group objectives.
      • Dependencies and legacy policies and procedures.
  • ACE Customers
    • Triggers for Change:
      • Retrospectives and post-mortems.
      • Poor fit of best practices to projects.
  • Metrics
    • Triggers for Change:
      • Performance falling short of expectations.
      • Lack of alignment with changing objectives.
  • Tools and Technologies
    • Triggers for Change:
      • New or enhanced tools and technologies.
      • Changes in development and technology standards.

Note: Each source of ACE change requests may require a different change management process to evaluate and implement the change.

Activity: Assess the interaction and communication points of your Agile teams

3.2.1 1.5 Hours

Input

• Understanding of team and organization structure

Output

• Current assessment of organizational design

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Development team

1. Identify everyone who is directly or indirectly involved in projects completed by Agile teams. This can include those that are:

• Informed of a project’s progress.
• Expected to interface with the Agile team for solution delivery (e.g. DevOps).
• Impacted by the success of the delivered solutions.
• Responsible for the removal of impediments faced by the Agile team.

Activity: Determine the root cause of each metric falling short of expectations

3.2.2 30 Minutes per metric

Input

• Metrics from Benefits Tracking Tool

Output

• Root causes to issues

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• ACE team

1. Take each metric from the ACE Benefits Tracking Tool that is lagging behind or has missed expectations and conduct an analysis of why it is performing that way.
2. Conduct individual webbing sessions to clarify the issues. The goal is to drive out the reasons why these issues are present or why scaling Agile may introduce additional challenges.
3. Share and discuss these findings with the entire team.

Example:

• Lack of best-practice documentation
  • Why?
    • Knowledge siloed within teams
    • No centralized repository for best practices
      • Why?
        • No mechanisms to share between teams
          • Why? Root causes
            • Teams are not sharing localized adaptations
            • CoE is not effectively monitoring team communications
        • Access issues at team level to wiki
          • Why? Root causes
            • Administration issues with best-practice wiki
            • Lack of ACE visibility into wiki access

Activity: Brainstorm solutions to identified issues

3.2.3 30 Minutes per metric

Input

• Root causes of issues

Output

• Fixes and solutions to scaling Agile issues

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

Participants

• Development team

1. Using the results from your root-cause analysis, brainstorm potential solutions to the identified problems. Frame your brainstorming within the following perspectives: people, process, and technology. Map these solutions using the matrix below.
2. Synthesize your ideas to create a consolidated list of initiatives.
   1. Highlight the solutions that can address multiple issues.
   2. Collaborate on how solutions can be consolidated into a single initiative.
3. Write your synthesized solutions on sticky notes.

Engage those teams affected by change early to ensure they are prepared

Strategically managing change is an essential component to ensure that the ACE achieves its desired function. If the change that comes with adopting Agile best practices is going to impact other functions and change their expected workflows, ensure they are well prepared and the benefits for said changes are clearly communicated to them.

Necessary change may be identified proactively (dependency assessments, system integrity, SME indicates need, etc.) or reactively (through retrospectives, discussions, completing root-cause analyses, etc.), but both types need to be handled the same way – through proper planning and communication with the affected parties.

Plan any necessary change

Understand the points where other groups will be affected by the adoption of Agile practices and recognize the potential challenges they may face. Plan changes to accommodate interactions between these groups without roadblocks or impediments.

Communicate the change

Structure a communication plan based on your identified challenges and proposed changes so that groups are well prepared to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate Agile workflows.

Review and modify your metrics and baselines to ensure they are achievable in changing environments

Consider the possible limitations that will exist from environmental complexities when measuring your Agile teams. Dependencies and legacy policies and procedures that pose a bottleneck to desired outcomes will need to be changed before teams can be measured justifiably. Take the time to ensure the metrics you crafted earlier are plausible in your current environment and there is not a need for transitional metrics.

Are your metrics achievable?

Specific

Measureable

Achievable

• Adopting Agile is a journey, not just a destination. Ensure that the metrics a team is measured against reflect expectations for the team’s current level of Agile adoption and consider external dependencies that may limit their ability to achieve intended results.

Realistic

Time-bound

Info-Tech Insight

Use metrics as diagnostics, not as motivation. Teams will find ways to meet metrics they are measured by making sacrifices and taking unneeded risk to do so. To avoid dysfunction in your monitoring, use metrics as analytical tools to inform decision making, not as a yardstick for judgement.

Activity: Review your metrics program

3.2.4 Variable time commitment

Input

• Identified gaps
• Agile team interaction points

Output

• ACE baselines
• Past measurements

Materials

• ACE Benefits Tracking Tool

Participants

• ACE

1. Now that you have identified gaps in your current state, see if those will have any impact on the achievability of your current metrics program.
2. Review your root-cause analyses and brainstormed solutions, and hypothesize whether or not they will have any downstream impact to goal attainment. It is possible that there is no impact, but as cross-functional collaboration increases, the likelihood that groups will act as bottlenecks or impediments to expected performance will increase.
3. Consider how any changes will impact the interaction points between teams based on the results from activity 3.2.1: Assess the interaction and communication points of your Agile teams. If there are too many negative impacts it may be a sign to re-consider the hypothesized solution to the problem and consider alternatives.
4. In any cases where a metric has been altered, adjust its goal measurement to reflect its changes in the ACE Benefits Tracking Tool.

Case study: Agile change at the GSA

CASE STUDY

Industry Government

Source Navin Vembar, Agile Government Leadership

Challenge

The GSA is tasked with completed management of the Integrated Award Environment (IAE).

• The IAE manages ten federal information technology systems that enable registering, searching, and applying for federal awards, as well as tracking them.
• The IAE also manages the Federal Service Desk.

The IAE staff had to find a way to break down the problem of modernization into manageable chunks that would demonstrate progress, but also had to be sure to capture a wide variety of user needs with the ability to respond to those needs throughout development.

Had to work out the logistics of executing Agile change within the GSA, an agency that relies heavily on telework. In the case of modernization, they had a product owner in Florida while the development team was spread across the metro Washington, DC area.

Solution

Agile provided the ability to build incremental successes that allowed teams successful releases and built enthusiasm around the potential of adopting Agile practices offered.

• GSA put in place an organization framework that allowed for planning of change at the portfolio level to enable the change necessary to allow for teams to execute tasks at the project level.
• A four-year plan with incremental integration points allowed for larger changes on a quarterly basis while maintaining a bi-weekly sprint cycle.
• They adopted IBM’s RTC tool for a Scrum board and on Adobe Connect for daily Scrum sessions to ensure transparency and effectiveness of outcomes across their collocated teams.

Create a clear, concise communication plan

Communication is key to avoid surprises and lost productivity created by the implementation of changes.

User groups and the business need to be given sufficient notice of an impending change. Be concise, be comprehensive, and ensure that the message is reaching the right audience so that no one is blindsided and unable to deliver what is needed. This will allow them to make appropriate plans to accept the change, minimizing the impact of the change on productivity.

Key Aspects of a Communication Plan

• The method of communication (email, meetings, workshops, etc.).
• The delivery strategy (who will deliver the message?).
• The communication responsibility structure.
• The communication frequency.
• A feedback mechanism that allows you to review the effectiveness of your plan.
• The message that you need to present.

Communicating change

• What is the change?
• Why are we doing it?
• How are we going to go about it?
• What are we trying to achieve?
• How often will we be updated?

(Cornelius & Associates, The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change)

Apply the following principles to enhance the clarity of your message

1. Be Consistent

• "This is important because..."
  • The core message must be consistent regardless of audience, channel, or medium.
  • Test your communication and obtain feedback before delivering your message.
  • A lack of consistency can be perceived as deception.

• "This means..."
  • Say what you mean and mean what you say.
  • Choice of language is important.
  • Don’t use jargon.

• "This affects you because..."
  • Talk about what matters to the audience.
  • Talk about what matters to the change initiative.
  • Tailor the details of the message to each audience’s specific concerns.
  • Communicate truthfully; do not make false promises or hide bad news.

Activity: Create a communication plan for change

3.2.5 1.5 Hours

Input

• Desired messages
• Stakeholder list

Output

• Communication plan

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• CoE

1. Define the audience(s) for your communications. Consider who needs to be the audience of your different communication events and how it will impact them.
2. Identify who the messenger will be to deliver the message.
3. Identify your communication methods. Decide on the methods you will use to deliver each communication event. Your delivery method may vary depending on the audience it is targeting.
4. Establish a timeline for communication releases. Set dates for your communication events. This can be recurring (weekly, monthly, etc.) or one-time events.
5. Determine what the content of the message must include. Use the guidelines on the following slide to ensure the message is concise and impactful.

Note: It is important to establish a feedback mechanism to ensure that the communication has been effective in communicating the change to the intended audiences. This can be incorporated into your ACE satisfaction surveys.

Phase 3, Step 3: Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Phase 1

1.1 Determine the vision of your ACE

1.2 Define the service offerings of your ACE

Phase 2

2.1 Define an adoption plan for your Agile teams

2.2 Create an ACE engagement plan

2.3 Define metrics to measure success

Phase 3

3.1 Optimize the success of your ACE

3.2 Plan change to enhance your Agile initiatives

3.3 Conduct ongoing retrospectives of your ACE

Activities/Tools:

3.3.1 Use the outputs from your metrics tracking tool to communicate progress.

3.3.2 Summarize adjustments in areas where the ACE fell short.

3.3.3 Re-conduct satisfaction surveys and compare against your baseline.

3.3.4 Use Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to baseline current practices

3.3.5 Use Info-Tech’s ACE Communications Deck to deliver your outcomes to the key stakeholders.

Outcomes:

• Conduct a retrospective of your ACE to enable the continuous improvement of your Agile program.
• Structure a communications deck to communicate with stakeholders the outcomes from introducing the ACE to the organization.

Reflect on your ACEs performance to lead the way to enterprise agility

After functioning for a period of time, it is imperative to review the function of your ACE to ensure its continual alignment and see in what ways it can improve.

At the end of the year, take the time to deliberately review and discuss:

1. The effectiveness and use of your ACEs service offerings.
2. What went well or wrong during the ACEs operation.
3. What can be done differently to improve reach, usability, and effectiveness.
4. Bring together Agile teams and discuss the processes they follow and inquire about suggestions for improvement.

What is involved?

• Use your metrics program to diagnose areas of issue and success. The diagnostic value of your metrics can help lead conversations with your Agile teams when attempting to inquire about suggestions for improvement.
• Leverage your satisfaction surveys from the creation of your ACE and compare them against satisfaction surveys run after a year of operation. What are the lessons learned between then and now?
• While it is primarily conducted by the ACE team, keep in mind it is a collaborative function and should involve all members, including Agile teams, product owners, Scrum masters, etc.

Communicating with your key influencers is vital to ensure long-term operation of the ACE

To ensure the long-term viability of your ACE and that your key influencers will continue funding, you need to demonstrate the ROI the Center of Excellence has provided.

The overlying purpose of your ACE is to effectively align your Agile teams with corporate objectives. This means that there have to be communicable benefits that point to the effort and resources invested being valuable to the organization. Re-visit your prioritized stakeholder list and get ready to show them the impact the ACE has had on business outcomes.

Communication with stakeholders is the primary method of building and developing a lasting relationship. Correct messaging can build bridges and tear down barriers, as well as soften opposition and bolster support.

This section will help you to prepare an effective communication piece that summarizes the metrics stakeholders are interested in, as well as some success stories or benefits that are not communicable through metrics to provide extra context to ongoing successes of the ACE.

INFO-TECH RELATED RESEARCH:

Strategy and Leadership: Manage Stakeholder Relations

Optimize your stakeholder management process to identify, prioritize, and effectively manage key stakeholders.

Involve key stakeholders in your retrospectives to justify the funding for your ACE

Those who fund the ACE have a large influence on the long-term success of your ACE. If you have not yet involved your stakeholders, you need to re-visit your organizational funding model for the ACE and ensure that your key stakeholders include the key decision makers for your funding. While they may have varying levels of interest and desires for granularity of data reporting, they need to at least be informed on a high level and kept as champions of the ACE so that there are no roadblocks to the long-term viability of this program.

Keep this in mind as the ACE begins to demonstrate success, as it is not uncommon to have additional members added to your funding model as your service scales, especially in the chargeback models.

As new key influencers are included, the ACEs governing group must ensure that collective interests may align and that more priorities don’t lead to derailment.

Use the outputs from your metrics tracking tool to communicate progress

3.3.1 1 Hour

Use the ACE Benefits Tracking Tool to track the progress of your Agile environment to monitor whether or not the ACE is having a positive impact on the business’ ability to meet its objectives. The outputs will allow you to communicate incremental benefits that have been realized and point towards positive trends that will ensure the long-term buy-in of your key influencers.

For communication purposes, use this tool to:

• Re-visit who the impacted or interested stakeholders are so you can tailor your communications to be as impactful as possible for each key influencer of the ACE.

• Collate the benefits of the current projects undertaken by the Center of Excellence to give an overall recap of the ACEs impact.

Communicate where the ACE fell short

Part of communicating the effectiveness of your ACE is to demonstrate that it is able to remedy projects and processes when they fall short of expectations and brainstorm solutions that effectively address these challenges. Take the opportunity to summarize where results were not as expected, and the ways in which the ACE used its influence or services to drive a positive outcome from a problem diagnosis. Stakeholders do not want a sugar-coated story – they want to see tangible results based on real scenarios.

Summarizing failures will demonstrate to key influencers that:

• You are not cherry-picking positive metrics to report and that the ACE faced challenges that it was able to overcome to drive positive business outcomes.
• You are being transparent with the successes and challenges faced by the ACE, fostering increased trust within your stakeholders regarding the capabilities of Agile.
• Resolution mechanisms are working as intended, successfully building failure tolerance and trust in change management policies and procedures.

Activity: Summarize adjustments in areas where the ACE fell short

3.3.2 15 Minutes per metric

Input

• Diagnosed problems from tracking tool
• Root-cause analyses

Output

• Summary of change management successes

Materials

• Whiteboard
• Markers

Participants

• ACE

1. Create a list of items from the ACE Benefits Tracking Tool that fell short of expectations or set goals.
2. For each point, create a brief synopsis of the root-cause analysis completed and summarize the brainstormed solution and its success in remedying the issue. If this process is not complete, create a to-date summary of any progress.
3. Choose two to three pointed success stories from this list that will communicate broad success to your set of stakeholders.

Re-conduct surveys with the ACE Satisfaction Survey to review the effectiveness of your service offerings

3.3.3 Re-conduct satisfaction surveys and compare against your baseline

Purpose

This satisfaction survey will give you a template to follow to monitor the effectiveness of your ACEs defined service offerings. The goal is to understand what worked, and what did not, so you can add, retract, or modify service offerings where necessary.

Steps

1. Re-use the satisfaction survey to measure the effectiveness of the service offerings. Add questions regarding specific service offerings where necessary.
2. Cross-analyze your satisfaction survey with metrics tied to your service offerings to help understand the root cause of the issues.
3. Use the root-cause analysis exercises from step 3.2 to find the root causes of issues.
4. Create a set of recommendations to add, amend, or improve any existing service offerings.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Download the ACE Satisfaction Survey.

Use Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to baseline current practices

3.3.4 ACE Maturity Assessment

Purpose

Assess your ACEs maturity by using Info-Tech’s CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool. Assessing your ACEs maturity lets you know where you currently are, and where to look for improvements. Note that your optimal Maturity Level will depend on organizational specifics (e.g. a small organization with a handful of Agile Teams can be less mature than a large organization with hundreds of Agile Teams).

Steps

1. Download the CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool to assess the maturity of your ACE.
2. Complete the assessment tool with all members of your ACE team to determine your current Maturity score.
3. Document the results in the ACE Communications Deck.

Document results in the ACE Communications Deck.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Download the CoE Maturity Diagnostic Tool.

Use Info-Tech’s ACE Communications Deck to deliver your outcomes to the key stakeholders

3.3.5 Structure communications to each of your key stakeholders

Purpose

The ACE Communications Deck will give you a template to follow to effectively communicate with your stakeholders and ensure the long-term viability of your Agile Center of Excellence. Fill in the slides as instructed and provide each stakeholder with a targeted view of the successes of the ACE.

Steps

1. Determine who your target audience is for the Communications Deck – you may desire to create one for each of your key stakeholders as they may have different sets of interests.
2. Fill out the ACE Communications Deck with the suggested inputs from the exercises you have completed during this research set.
3. Review communications with members of the ACE to ensure that there are no communicable benefits that have been missed or omitted in the deck.

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

Download the ACE Communications Deck.

Summary of accomplishment

Knowledge Gained

• An understanding of social capital as the key driver for organizational Agile success, and how it optimizes the value delivery of your Agile teams.
• Importance of flexible governance to balance the benefits of localized adaptation and centralized control.
• Alignment of service offerings with both business objectives and functional expectations as critical to ensuring long-term engagement with service offerings.

Processes Optimized

• Knowledge management and transfer of Agile best practices to new or existing Agile teams.
• Optimization of service offerings for Agile teams based on organizational culture and objectives.
• Change request optimization via interfacing ACE functions with existing change management processes.
• Communication planning to ensure transparency during cross-functional collaboration.

Deliverables Completed

• A set of service offerings offered by the Center of Excellence that are aligned with the business, Agile teams, and related stakeholders.
• Engagement plans for Agile team members based on a standardized adoption model to access the ACEs service offerings.
• A suite of Agile metrics to measure effectiveness of Agile teams, the ACE itself, and its ability to deliver positive outcomes.
• A communications plan to help create cross-functional transparency over pending changes as Agile spreads.
• A communications deck to communicate Agile goals, actions, and outcomes to key stakeholders to ensure long-term viability of the CoE.

Research contributors and experts

Paul Blaney, Technology Delivery Executive, Thought Leader and passionate Agile Advocate

Paul has been an Agile practitioner since the manifesto emerged some 20 years ago, applying and refining his views through real life experience at several organizations from startups to large enterprises. He has recently completed the successful build out of the inaugural Agile Delivery Centre of Excellence at TD bank in Toronto.

John Munro, President Scrum Masters Inc.

John Munro is the President of Scrum Masters Inc., a software optimization professional services firm using Agile, Scrum, and Lean to help North American firms “up skill” their software delivery people and processes. Scrum Masters’ unique, highly collaborative “Master Mind” consulting model leverages Agile/Lean experts on a biweekly basis to solve clients’ technical and process challenges.

Doug Birgfeld, Senior Partner Agile Wave

Doug has been a leader in building great teams, Agile project management, and business process innovation for over 20 years. As Senior Partner and Chief Evangelist at Agile Wave, his mission is to educate and to learn from all those who care about effective government delivery, nationally.

Related Info-Tech research

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Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile

Execute a disciplined approach to rolling out Agile methods in the organization.

Improve Application Development Throughput

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

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Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program

Be proactive; it costs exponentially more to fix a problem the longer it goes unnoticed.

Optimize the Change Management Process

Right-size your change management process.

Improve Requirements Gathering

Back to basics: great products are built on great requirements.

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Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop

Strengthen product management in your organization through effective executive leadership by focusing on product teams, core capabilities, and proper alignment.

Objective of this workshop

To develop a common understanding and foundation for product management so we, as leaders, better understand how to lead product owners, product managers, and their teams.

Enable Product Delivery - Executive Leadership Workshop

Learn how enterprise agility can provide lasting value to the organization

Clarify your role in supporting your teams to deliver lasting value to stakeholders and customers

1. Understanding Your Top Challenges
   • Define your challenges, goals, and opportunities Agile and product management will impact.
2. Transitioning from Projects to Product-centric Delivery
   • Understand the shift from fixed delivery to continuous improvement and delivery of value.
3. Enterprise Agility and the Value of Change
   • Organizations need to embrace change and leverage smaller delivery cycles.
4. Defining Your "Products" and Product Management
   • Define products in your culture and how to empower product delivery teams.
5. Connecting Product Management to Agile Practices
   • Use product ownership to drive increased ROI into your product delivery teams and lifecycles.
6. Commit to Empowering Agile Product Teams
   • Define the actions and changes you must make for this transformation to be successful.

Your Product Transformation Journey

1. Make the Case for Product Delivery
   • Align your organization with the practices to deliver what matters most
2. Enable Product Delivery – Executive Workshop
   • One-day executive workshop – align and prepare your leadership
   • Audience: Senior executives and IT leadership.
     Size: 8-16 people
     Time: 6 hours
3. Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
   • Enhance product backlogs, roadmapping, and strategic alignment
   • Audience: Product Owners/Mangers
     Size: 10-20 people
     Time: 3-4 days
4. Deliver Your Digital Products at Scale
   • Scale Product Families to Align Enterprise Goals
   • Audience: Product Owners/Mangers
     Size: 10-20 people
     Time: 3-4 days
5. Mature and Scale Product Ownership
   • Align and mature your product owners
   • Audience: Product Owners/Mangers
     Size: 8-16 people
     Time: 2-4 days

Repeat workshops with different companies, operating units, departments, or teams as needed.

What is a workshop?

We WILL ENGAGE in discussions and activities:

• Flexible, to accommodate the needs of the group.
• Open forum for discussion and questions.
• Share your knowledge, expertise, and experiences (roadblocks and success stories).
• Everyone is part of the process.
• Builds upon itself.

This workshop will NOT be:

• A lecture or class.
• A monologue that never ends.
• Technical training.
• A presentation.
• Us making all the decisions.

Roles within the workshop

We each have a role to play to make our workshop successful!

Facilitators

• Introduce the best practice framework used by Info-Tech.
• Ask questions about processes, procedures, and assumptions.
• Guide for the methodology.
• Liaison for any other relevant Info-Tech research or services.

Participants

• Contribute and speak out as much as needed.
• Provide expertise on the current processes and technology.
• Ask questions.
• Provide feedback.
• Collaborate and work together to produce solutions.

Understanding Your Top Challenges

• Understanding Your Top Challenges
• Transitioning From Projects to Product-Centric Delivery
• Enterprise Agility and the Value of Change
• Defining Your Products and Product Management
• Connecting Product Management to Agile Practices
• Commit to Empowering Agile Product Teams
• Wrap-Up and Retrospective

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

• Products are the lifeblood of an organization. They deliver the capabilities needed to deliver value to customers, internal users, and stakeholders.
• The shift to becoming a product organization is intended to continually increase the value you provide to the broader organization as you grow and evolve.
• You need to clearly convey the direction and strategy of your product portfolio to gain alignment, support, and funding from your organization.

Common Obstacles

• IT organizations are traditionally organized to deliver initiatives in specific periods of time. This conflicts with product delivery, which continuously delivers value over the lifetime of a product.
• Delivering multiple products together creates additional challenges because each product has its own pedigree, history, and goals.
• Product owners struggle to prioritize changes to deliver product value. This creates a gap and conflict between product and enterprise goals.

Info-Tech's Approach

Info-Tech's approach will guide you through:

• Understanding the top challenges driving your product initiative.
• Improving your transitioning from projects to product-centric delivery.
• Enhancing enterprise agility and the value of change.
• Defining products and product management in your context.
• Connecting product management to Agile practices.
• Committing to empowering Agile Product teams.

What is driving your organization to become product focused?

30 minutes

• Team introductions:
  • Share your name and role
  • What are the key challenges you are looking to solve around product management?
  • What blockers or challenges will we need to overcome?

Capture in the Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop Outcomes and Next Steps.

Input

• Organizational knowledge
• Goals and challenges

Output

• List of key challenges
• List of workshop expectations
• Parking lot items

Transitioning From Projects to Product-Centric Delivery

• Understanding Your Top Challenges
• Transitioning From Projects to Product-Centric Delivery
• Enterprise Agility and the Value of Change
• Defining Your Products and Product Management
• Connecting Product Management to Agile Practices
• Commit to Empowering Agile Product Teams
• Wrap-Up and Retrospective

Define the differences between projects and product delivery

30 minutes

• Consider project delivery and product delivery.
• Discussion:
  • What are some differences between the two?

Capture in the Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop Outcomes and Next Steps.

Input

• Organizational knowledge
• Internal terms and definitions

Output

• List of differences between projects and product delivery

Define the differences between projects and product delivery

15 minutes

Input

• Organizational knowledge
• Internal terms and definitions

Output

• List of differences between projects and product delivery

Capture in the Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop Outcomes and Next Steps.

Identify the differences between a project-centric and a product-centric organization

Info-Tech Insight

Product delivery requires significant shifts in the way you complete development work and deliver value to your users. Make the changes that support improving end user value and enterprise alignment.

Projects can be a mechanism for funding product changes and improvements

Projects within products

Regardless of whether you recognize yourself as a "product-based" or "project-based" shop, the same basic principles should apply.

You go through a period or periods of project-like development to build a version of an application or product.

You also have parallel services along with your project development, which encompass the more product-based view. These may range from basic support and maintenance to full-fledged strategy teams or services like sales and marketing.

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

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

Product roadmaps guide delivery and communicate your strategy

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

Adapted from: Pichler, "What Is Product Management?"

Info-Tech Insight

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

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