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ZachEvans

Believer. Husband. Dad. Coach. Healthcare Thought-Leader. All-Around Good Guy.

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Project Governance

Governance, Change Control & Communication

December 1, 2015 by Zach Evans

One of the first things I examine when I take on a new team are the existing processes (or lack thereof) that are used to manage their work. Some think that processes and governance are unnecessary bureaucracy that slow teams down and add little value. Most leaders, however, understand that they help drive efficiency, account for exceptions, set prioritization, and promote repeatable outcomes.

When working with a technology team, one of the first processes I review is change control governance and implementation. For software systems specifically, I recommend a governance process similar to this:

Governance Process

This process takes a feature or enhancement request through a month-long due diligence process intended to inform, and gain consent from, business owners and then, assuming the agreement of those business owners, pass along the request to the governance committee for review and vote. Why so many steps between request submission and governance? The due diligence process should eliminate clutter from ever reaching the governance committee.

Once a feature or enhancement request has successfully gone through the governance process, the request enters a software development life-cycle as described below:

Software Developmen t Lifecycle

The requirements gathering and development-testing processes may both need to be completed multiple times prior to acceptance but teams that skip any of these steps put themselves at risk for developing solutions that fall well short of the desired functionality.

As the development effort nears the implementation state, having a robust communication plan becomes critical. End users need to be educated on the change or enhancement coming their way but this communication plan serves another purpose as well: To showcase the work that the technology team is engaged in. Below is an example of a communication plan that I have used successfully:

Change Control Communication Plan

This basic communication plan takes two (2) weeks to implement once the message(s) have been developed and approved. Some plans may take longer to complete due to training requirements or the scope of the changes being implemented.

As an aside, why, as a technology leader, should you be concerned with the visibility of the work that your team is successfully doing? Three reasons immediately come to mind:

  1. Communicating effectively minimizes the risk that the end-users are “surprised” by the enhancement or new feature that is being implemented.
  2. Communicating effectively highlights the work that the team is doing that supports the work of the organization as a whole, contributing to the view that the team is a strategic, valuable part of the larger team.
  3. Communicating effectively highlights the work that the team is doing that supports the engagement of the team, contributing to higher levels of job satisfaction.

I believe that good processes are the foundation for team success and should be ignored at the peril of an organization. New leaders should not simply scrap existing processes but, at the same time, all processes should be reviewed from time-to-time to ensure that they are still relevant and operating as expected, or are candidates for review, revision and improvement.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: Change Control, Communication, Process, Project Governance

Project Initiation & Closure

April 27, 2015 by Zach Evans

Project governance is neither a fun nor a simple concept to implement. Some organizations do this very well and have elaborate, multi-level, processes that ensure proper vetting, prioritization, oversight and funding. Other organizations have little-to-no governance and do everything by the seat of their pants with varying levels of success. Most IT professionals will tell you that some level of governance is necessary and those same professionals will be happy to share at least one (or perhaps many) examples of a time where the governance process ground their project to a halt for no viable reason.

I am one of those that believe some level of governance is needed for successful project implementation and have developed a short-form Project Initiation and Project Closure document that I have found useful when organizations do not have (or do not want) a full-scale governance process.

Project Initiation Document – A two-page template that lays out the very basics of the project: details, team members, objectives, success metrics, scope, and a signature block. The template does not include assumptions, risks and mitigation plans, project plans, or resource plans. It is assumed that those are being handled in other forms or may not be deemed necessary.

Project Closure Document – A two-page template that lays out the same basics as the Project Initiation Document but adds options to identify if objectives and success metrics have been met by the project.

No project documentation should be used as a club to beat a colleague or client over the head with (although some project managers do just that) but, rather, should signify a meeting of the minds and an agreement on how to define and measure the success or failure of a project. Neither should project governance be viewed as red tape that adds no value to the operations of an organization.

Related files: Project Initiation Document; Project Closure Document

Filed Under: Business, Miscellany Tagged With: Project Governance, project management, project prioritization

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