How to improve your IT. Part 7 – Process and Intranet
IT Process
A series of posts on how to improve the performance of your IT
Process
Process maxim: If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.
The best practice standard is the use of a document management system, a process-driven environment, (wherever feasible, for all work practices) and the use of a standard, common document template for the process, how-to guidelines, and other documentation. The template must adhere to documentation management principles and all document types are to be stored on an Intranet.
IT lends itself perfectly to the use of process due to the repetitive nature of IT work. Process is necessary because it describes how things are done and then provides the focus for making them better, it brings consistency, increased quality, cost-effectiveness, reduced task and project timeframes and fewer errors. It also locks down the operational environment and reduces the number of operational resources required (by reducing the incidence of rework). It provides repeatable consistent outcomes, reduces the incidence of failures which reduces cost. Process (and other working documents) need to be based on a common template to aid learning and usability.
Usual problems
Multiple templates in use.
Broken or incomplete processes in use.
Poor staff training.
No Document Management System.
Work standards and compliance requirements not being met.
Increased risk.
Low staff satisfaction levels.
Inconsistent work quality.
Decreased productivity.
A Process Performance Housekeeping review is the largest in terms of effort and time. It requires one or two dedicated resources to complete with assistance from all team members. It usually takes two steps to achieve the Best practice IT Standard.
Step 1. Baselined.
Three rules are introduced to govern the use and control of all documentation.
1. Rule 1, If it is not baselined then it does not exist. All process, how-to guidelines and other documentation must be formally documented and baselined (finalised, ready for use).
2. Rule 2, The use of baselined process, how-to guidelines and other documentation is mandatory.
3. Rule 3, Only baselined documents are held on the Intranet.
Step 2. CMM Level 2.
This step accepts that existing documentation templates may vary. This Step includes the Rules from Step 1, adding a single, common documentation template and approach based on the Capability Maturity Model Level 2, (CMM Level 2). This is a process and documentation methodology applied to software development, infrastructure projects and business project planning. The model describes a five-level evolutionary path of increasingly organized and systematically more mature processes.
1. Initial level: - processes are disorganized, even chaotic. Success is likely to depend on individual efforts and is not considered to be repeatable, because processes would not be sufficiently defined and documented to allow them to be replicated.
2. Repeatable level: - basic project management techniques are established, and successes could be repeated, because the requisite processes would have been made established, defined, and documented.
3. Defined level: - an organization has developed its own standard software process through greater attention to documentation, standardization, and integration.
4. Managed level: - an organization monitors and controls its own processes through data collection and analysis.
5. Optimizing level: - processes are constantly being improved through monitoring feedback from current processes and introducing innovative processes to better serve the organization's needs.
One of the most significant benefits of using CMM level 2 is that a standard template is used for all process, how-to guidelines and other documentation. The template has a common look and feel, includes complete instructions for the user and complies with documentation management principles. Accordingly, all staff and especially new staff quickly learn how to use a process and other documentation in the most optimum fashion. It brings consistency of approach, improves project quality, reduces cost by reducing the need for rework, improves estimates, scheduling and business outcomes.
Actions to take
Record on a spreadsheet under Intranet and non-Intranet-based, these document types
1. Processes in use.
2. How-to guidelines or similar in use.
3. Methodologies in use.
4. Scripts in use.
5. Technical processes in use.
6. Project processes in use.
7. Gating processes in use.
8. Work management processes in use.
9. Reporting processes in use.
10. All other IT related documentation.
Add spreadsheet columns to record against each document type, documents that are
1. Duplicated.
2. Redundant, old or dead.
3. Ad-hoc, not formalised.
4. Incomplete.
5. Drafts.
6. Not baselined. (not finalised, not ready for use.)
7. Candidates for automation. (a manual process that could be automated).
Next steps
1. Determine actions to be taken against each document type as to its suitability to be a baselined Intranet version.
2. Create a Task List suitable for loading into a Project Schedule.
3. Submit the Task List as recommendations for improvement.
Sample Tasklist
1. Appoint (as a role or position) and train a document administrator in document management principles.
2. Investigate a Document Management System.
3. Determine which documents will be kept and used for baselining.
4. What work is required to baseline the documents?
5. Determine which documents can be disposed of?
6. Determine an ‘owner’ and the duties of the owner for each process.
7. Which manual processes can be automated?
8. What work is required to create a standard, common documentation template.
9. Review all documents, rework as required and mark each as baselined when complete.
10. Identify umbrella processes that involve inter-team workflows, (activities where multiple teams are involved with the same task) and clearly define the end-to-end process, including hand-off points and deliverables.
11. Create a single version of each baselined document.
12. Convert baselined documents to the common template.
13. Load baselined documents onto the intranet.
14. Investigate moving to CMM Level 2.
15. Determine further works required and scope out.
16. Breakdown the scope of works to the task level, ready for loading into the change management project schedule.
Usual outcomes
Introduction of due process.
Reduced costs resulting from reduced failures and incidence of rework.
All work is process-driven.
Higher levels of staff satisfaction.
Consistent work quality.
Process training for staff.
Intranet
Intranet maxim: The single source of truth.
It is not possible to have a high-performing IT department without a fully functioning and managed Intranet. As with Process, it is an essential requirement that acts as the IT single source of truth. Most Intranets fall into disrepair, they become full of outdated processes and other working documents and often have an unfriendly user interface. For example, for a process to work well it must be quick and easy to find, be based on a common template, be baselined and be the only version available.
Usual problems
Multiple sources of documentation.
Multiple versions of documentation.
Lack of a full-time Intranet appointed owner.
Lack of a Document Management System.
Redundant process, how-to guidelines and other documentation in use.
The best practice standard is that all Process, how-to guidelines and other documentation are sourced only from an Intranet. The Intranet is the repository of IT work practices and IT memory. Team-based repositories are not allowed as they introduce the risk of duplication, lack of version control and non-adherence to process and documentation rules.
(An Intranet is a network internal to an enterprise that uses the same methodology and techniques as the internet but is accessible only to employees).
For reasonably sized IT departments (min 100 staff), a dedicated Intranet Administrator trained in document management and preferably CMM level 2 is required. Having a library with documentation examples within the intranet is required. Processes and other documentation under development need to be held under separate cover and not on the production Intranet. The Intranet needs to act just as a production environment acts and meet the test of being the ‘single source of truth.’
Actions to take
Record on a spreadsheet all the following Intranet-based document types.
1. Processes in use.
2. Guidelines or similar in use.
3. Methodologies in use.
4. Scripts in use.
5. Technical processes in use.
6. Project processes in use.
7. Gating processes.
8. Work management processes.
9. Technical processes.
10. IT Policies.
11. IT Other.
Add spreadsheet columns to record against each document type, if it is
1. Duplicated.
2. Redundant, old or dead.
3. Ad-hoc, not formalised.
4. Incomplete.
5. Drafts.
6. Not baselined. (finalised, ready for use.)
7. Candidates for automation. (a manual process that could be automated).
Next steps
1. Compile responses to the actions.
2. Create a Task List suitable for loading into a Project Schedule.
3. Submit the Task List as recommendations for improvement.
Sample Tasklist
1. Compare the ‘Process and other Documentation’ spreadsheet with the ‘Intranet’ spreadsheet. Determine which documents are to be kept for baselining and which are to be disposed of.
2. Identify umbrella processes that involve inter-team workflows, (activities where multiple teams are involved with the same task) and clearly define the end-to-end process that binds the teams.
3. What work is required to baseline the documents?
4. Which manual processes can be automated?
Usual outcomes
Single source of all documentation.
Process and how-to guidelines are single versions baselined.
An Intranet owner.
Introduction of a Document Management System.