By Lynne
Wardell
It is essential to remember that for any IT project, an
environment or infrastructure needs to be created to implement
the technology. People must be brought together into project
teams that consist of users, developers, support people,
training, process communications, marketing, sales and
many others. These teams must create whatever is necessary
(processes, training materials, rollout strategies) to
successfully introduce the technology into production.
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Problems tend to arise when this essential environment
is not extended beyond the life of the project. Not sustaining
the environment is as silly as building a house, pulling
the foundation out and expecting the house to continue
standing. Hence, once the project is over and the team
disassembles, the erosion process begins because the foundation
has been removed.
A Real-life Project Example
If an organization hopes to achieve strategic or business
results from deploying technology, it must provide ongoing
user support. This involves putting business and technical
support infrastructure in place (people, process, training
and tools) to solicit, act on and refine on user feedback
over time to improve technology usability and supportability.
I once managed a project that involved rolling out call
center environment software to better service customers.
Prior to taking over the project, I learned that the application
was having serious problems getting off the ground.
When we arrived, users were abandoning the system and
going back to using mainframe screens. They complained
about how they had to navigate the system and were frustrated
by its inconsistent performance. This left them to wonder,
with each call, whether they would be able to service
the customer.
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Our approach to the problem focused on creating an environment
where users owned the application and built an infrastructure
to support that ownership. Specifically, we built local
center teams at each location, comprised of users and
local technical support staff that included the following
components:
- Forums
where user and local support staff feedback
was processed by an application support team,
business proponents, training department and
application developers on a monthly basis, even
once the project was complete.
- A
self-maintaining process for local center teams
to stay intact as members moved onto new positions.
- The
local center teams were given the power to reject
new releases if applications did not perform
to expectations that were clearly defined using
specific metrics and thresholds.
- Users
were trained to be subject matter experts, trainers
and coaches of their own systems.
- Users
were asked to provide feedback on both the training
material and training strategy.
- Users
were brought in to train support teams on how
the system is used and why.
- Local
center teams were asked to prioritize functionality
to be included in new releases based on their
needs and the direction of the business.
- Technical
support teams (local support staff, help desk
staff, server operations staff, application
support staff, etc.) were trained across the
organization on: a) The importance of the application
to the business; b) Who uses the application
and how; c) The application architecture; d)
Troubleshooting tips, tricks and tools; e) Documentation
and escalation procedures Preventing or Reversing
Environmental Erosion To prevent or reverse
environmental erosion, which leads to application
erosion, all levels of management must support
the ongoing infrastructure that is required
to help users become owners of the technology.
While it sounds simple, the execution is complex,
requiring a philosophical commitment on the
part of top management that is often missing.
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To minimize environmental erosion, management needs to
commit to the sustained and improved usage of technology
over time. They must believe that this commitment will
result in empowering users and establishing the infrastructure
to support that empowerment. The following are ways to
create that environment:
- User
Ownership. Create local teams comprised of users
who are the owners of the tool. Make sure there
is a process in place so that these local teams
are self-maintaining. When turnover occurs,
the teams take care of replenishing themselves.
-
User Empowerment. Give users the power of the
technology. This can be done in many ways, such
as allowing users to a) prioritize future modifications,
b) provide feedback on issues and challenges
that directs support teams where to focus, c)
train other users and d) give direction as to
how the training should be done. As part of
empowering users, foster thinking and change
to ensure they steer the technology in the same
direction as the business.
- Support
Infrastructure. Build the business and technical
support infrastructure to support users and
usage of the technology once the technology
is in production. This means identifying and
putting in place the people, process, training
and tools to hear, process and act on direction
from the user community.
- Sustained
Empowerment and Infrastructure. Make sure that
there is a process to measure the effectiveness
of the technology and how it is implemented,
including metrics that measure training approaches,
usability and supportability. Be sure to use
both quantitative and qualitative data.
- Acknowledgement.
Acknowledge and reward users, support staff,
developers, trainers and anyone else involved
in sustaining and improving the usage and supportability
over time!
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Conclusion
Bottom line: focusing on the environment, not the tool,
delivers ongoing returns on an organization's original
investment that exponentially exceeds expectations.
Unfortunately, failing to address environmental causes
of system degeneration can have an equal, opposite effect
that brings bottom line returns on investment much less
than expected. Those who understand that applications
erode, only because we let the environment erode, have
a tremendous competitive advantage over rivals who will
be left in the dust, spending and re-spending precious
budget dollars trying to push a square peg into a round
hole.
About the Author:
Lynne
Wardell is the president of Haddon Group Inc, a project
and program management firm leading large cross-functional
teams to deliver projects that meet business objectives,
delivering long term returns on an organization's investment
for Fortune 1000 companies. Through Haddon Group's ProjectLeap
IT project advisory line, project and program managers
can receive advice and ongoing coaching from seasoned
professionals to improve project results.
e-mail:
lynne@haddongroup.com
webstite: http://www.haddongroup.com/
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