Outcome Gave delivery teams one shared Idea to Execution process for the 2021 investment cycle, built with 142 participants across 9 retrospectives.
My Role
Canada Post Lead and Facilitator.
Context
The purpose of the project to define Who does What When during the Idea to Execution(I2E) portion of the Delivery Operating Model(DOM) between Canada Post and Innovapost, the technology arm of the Canada Post Group of Companies. Below are the steps involved in the DOM process.
Process
1) 9 Retrospective sessions with scrum teams
- 142 Participants –Including the individual contributors, Canada Post and Innovapost stakeholders, Managers, Directors
- 647 Data Points
- 8 Cross-tower medium to large projects
- What’s working, what’s not working, what should we start doing
What we did well
What we did not do well
What we should start doing
Summary of issues:
- Not having clear business requirements
- Scope Creep
- Lack of engagement
- Not identifying dependencies
- Unrealistic timelines
- Overambitious Cost factor
- Predetermined set of requirements and timelines
- Missing representation
- Failure to identify impacts
- Unable to secure the required skillset
- I2E is not being prioritized
- Funnel process is not aligned between towers
- Not clearly defined scope and estimates
- Missing clarity on expected outputs
- Not understanding the fidelity and lack of depth
- Training
- Undefined process/strategy for I2E
- Miscommunication
2) Framed the opportunity statement think about what long-term effect you’d like this process to have.
How might we help the delivery team to deploy a product or a change with minimal roadblock?
3) List of things that needs to be true in order for an ideal I2E to happen.
- Deliver on time
- Deliver on budget
- Deliver within scope
- Provide a comprehensive solution
- Provide a clarity on solutions
- Provide visibility into the Architecture review board deck
- Plan of attack the solution
- Define how we are going to deliver
- Define why and what we are delivering
- Define MVP
- A playbook for I2E
4) Stakeholder mapping and defining who is the ultimate beneficiary of the I2E?
Map Version 1: To make things clear for everyone, mapped out the existing process step by step mentioning people and artifacts on every step.
Map Version 2: Cleaned up the map and mapped out the issues that were identified, artifacts and people(contributors) to the steps.
Map Version 3: After brainstorming on the issues and finding creative and implementable solutions, we arrived at the final map which incorporate stakeholder mapping(from step 4), lead and artifacts associated with each step in the to-be process. The final map was then examined against list of things that needs to be true in order for an ideal I2E to happen(from step 3).
Prototype: Process implementation. The prototype stage comprises execution of the to-be process. We rolled out the new process by conducting road shows with different teams and started a Team's channel where anyone can:
- Access templates, examples, and tools to help kickstart your I2E deliverables—such as the Project Planning Checklist, and COE Quick Guide.
- Post questions and get answers.
- Seek for further help and coaching.
Test: Process monitoring and controlling. We are testing the process with upcoming projects and keep the solution running, acquiring insights into how it could be improved.
Result
As we prepared for 2021 Investment and Operating projects, our mission was to Enable Delivery Teams to be able to navigate to execution as efficiently as possible.
- Accelerate IT Projects into Execution
- Build a more engaging and collaborative I2E employee experience
- Increase the effectiveness of the solution assessments to deliver strategic business objectives
We saw improvements in the following areas:
- Funding Model
- Roles and responsibilities
- Resource Prioritization
- Managing Expectations
- Alignment overall
- Duration
- Inputs and outputs
What are the teams saying about it?
