IT annual planning process transformation
A large, internal IT department of a Fortune 500 company was making some big changes after bringing in a new CIO. They were transforming themselves into a true services organization, following ITIL best practices. They had appointed line CIOs to manage each business unit’s relationship and individual needs. A new architecture organization was focusing first on demand management, laying out their enterprise roadmap and managing the portfolio of projects to deliver on business unit specific needs.
These three major initiatives: service design, account management and portfolio planning were underway with plans to change organizational management, including processes, meetings, roles, and supporting documentation, but without central coordination they were at risk of process breakdowns, role confusion, meeting and documentation fatigue and communication breakdowns within and outside of their organization.
We were hired by their CIO to work with her senior leadership team to integrate all of these processes, clarify roles and responsibilities across the organization and communicate the changes within and outside of the IT organization. They were initially focused on identifying the connectors between these various processes, understanding the inputs and outputs between them. As we worked through the project, we were able to simplify to one overall annual planning process and another ongoing management process. We consolidated all of the artifacts required to support these processes to a minimal set and helped them develop their templates.
We re-defined the leadership roles across their organization to clearly lay out not only the roles and responsibilities but also the new capabilities required. Finally, we developed communications to help them train their directors and communicate the transition to business leadership. Our focus was simplification: clearly identifying dependencies, consolidating the annual planning and ongoing management processes to one page, clearly defining roles, tightening supporting artifacts, minimizing and clearly defining supporting meetings.
In this case, most of the work we did was behind the scenes. We worked one on one and in small teams with the senior leadership members to understand their individual processes. We also facilitated short, focused sessions with the senior leadership team to work through overlaps and gaps. We brought forward thoughts, ideas, and frameworks to minimize the time they had to spend. We clearly documented the results and then provided them the tools they needed to communicate and support the process.
Our work with this organization was short and focused. The project was launched over a few weeks in the spring, as they were beginning to integrate and test out these new processes within their organization. We came back for a few weeks in the fall to finalize their annual planning process and formalize their ongoing management processes and all the supporting materials. Unlike some of our strategy projects which may be a fully focused 8-12 week effort, the work we did for this client was extremely targeted to when they needed the support in “connecting the dots” of the strategic programs they had underway.
Note*: The details of the industry and size have been changed, but the kinds of deliverables created and the results are real.