In
many companies, the place to
start evaluating the support
function is through a formal
organizational definition.
Depending on the size of your
company, the formal definition
could be at the company,
division, department, group, or
team level. This process helps
you think through and gain
agreement on the fundamental
nature of your organization and
how the support function fits
within it. This process is very
valuable for new organizations.
It is also valuable for an
existing organization to sharpen
its focus and validate the work
that it is currently performing.
This information from the
organizational definition is
used to define a logical
organization. Once this
information is in place, you
will actually start to bring in
people to fill the various roles
and responsibilities. At that
point, you are building the
physical organization.
The
value of defining a logical
organization is twofold.
-
You gain clarity and
agreement on what you are
doing and why. This
definition should show the
value that you provide to
the business and why your
organization exists to begin
with. This information is
communicated to external
entities and your own staff.
-
The organization definition
provides a framework to
guide decision-making in the
future. For instance, you
would not want to undertake
any projects that did not
help achieve your
organizational goals and
objectives, major decisions
can be evaluated based on
whether they fit into your
strategy and the way you
deal with people can be
evaluated against your
organization principles.
Not
all of this information is
needed for all organizations.
Review the definitions and see
which ones are most appropriate
for your group. The definitions
are arranged from the high-level
to the low-level. Sometimes you
need to start at the top and go
down one level at a time. Other
times, you may have to jump
around. For instance, perhaps
there is a clear expectation for
the clients, products, and
services. Those could be defined
first, and then move up to
objectives, goals, etc.
It
is also very helpful if there
are other similar organization
definitions from other parts of
the company. For instance, if
you are starting up a support
department within a division, it
is helpful to know what the
division mission, vision, and
goals are. If they exist, they
can be used as input for the
definition of the new support
department. The mission, goals,
objectives, etc. of the support
group should align with similar
definitions from higher
organizational entities.
The
following areas can be used to
create a full logical
organization for the support
group.
Mission
The Mission Statement describes
what the organization does, how
it is done, and for whom. It is
a very general statement,
usually aligning the
organization to the value it
provides to
the business. It should tie
together the vision, strategy,
goals, etc. that fall under it.
At this point you are
only describing what is formally
or informally in place. If you
do not have an organizational
mission, note as such and
continue.
Vision
The Vision Statement describes a
state that the organization is
striving to achieve in the
future. It is very general, but
it gives a sense of what the
organization would be doing and
how it would look if it were
perfect and existed in a perfect
world. At this point you are
only describing what is formally
or informally in place. If you
do not have an organizational
mission, note as such and
continue.
Strategies
There may be many ways to
achieve your vision. A strategy
is a high-level set of
directives that articulate how
the organization will achieve
its mission and move toward its
vision. A strategic plan
provides guidance on the types
of projects and activities that
should be funded and executed
over the next three to five
years. Defining a strategy helps
get the entire organization
aligned in the same direction.
At this point you are only
describing what is formally or
informally in place. If you do
not have an organizational
mission, note as such and
continue.
Principles
Principles provide an
organization with rules of
behavior, and moral and ethical
statements for how it will
function. Usually, the
principles describe how people
within the organization will act,
and how they will interact with
other people inside and outside
the group. They provide guidance
on how to deal with people and
teams, especially when you
encounter problems. At this
point you are only describing
what is formally or informally
in place. If you do not have an
organizational mission, note as
such and continue.
Internal Clients / Customers
These are
the main
internal groups that request and
utilize the products and
services your organization
provides. While there may be
many stakeholders (below), it is
important to recognize who the
clients are. They are the ones
the support team should focus on.
The support team should meet the
client's support needs and help
the client achieve their
strategy, vision, mission, etc.
If you do not have a description
of your clients, develop a list
of them as part of the Current
State Assessment. Portfolio
management is based on providing
the most value to your clients
and to the entire organization.
You cannot proceed without
understanding who your clients
are.
For more
information on clients, see
section
123.0
Clients.
External Customers and Suppliers
Some
organizations, like IT, work
mostly with internal clients.
Other organizations, like Sales,
work directly with external
customers and suppliers. Just as
with internal customers, it is
important to identify who your
external customers are so that
you can be clear as to the work
that is of direct benefit to
them. In many organizations,
external customer needs are much
more important than internal
client needs. You also need to
know who your suppliers are so
that you understand when you are
doing work that impacts them as
well.
Stakeholders
These are
the specific people or groups
who have an interest or a
partial stake in the products
and services an organization
provides. Internal stakeholders
include management, other
employees, administrators, etc.
External stakeholders could
include suppliers, investors,
community groups and government
organizations. Clients /
customers are stakeholders as
well. However, most stakeholders
are not clients or customers. If
you do not have a description of
your stakeholders, develop a
list of them as part of the
Current State Assessment.
Stakeholder needs must be taken
into account when managing work
as a portfolio. However,
stakeholder needs are not as
important as client needs. You
cannot proceed without sorting
out which people and
organizations are clients and
customers and which ones are
stakeholders. .
For much
more information on stakeholders,
see section
123.0
Clients.
Goals
|
Goals are high-level
statements that provide
the overall context for
what the organization is
trying to accomplish in
the next one to three
years. The achievement
of goals helps the
organization accomplish
its mission and moves
the organization closer
to its vision. They
should be written in a
way that references
business benefit in
terms of cost, speed,
and/or quality. |
 |
Objectives
Objectives are specific
statements describing what the
organization is trying to
achieve, usually with a one-year
window. Objectives should be
written at a low enough level
that it is clear whether they
have been achieved within the
timeframe set. A well-worded
objective will be Specific,
Measurable, Attainable/Achievable,
Realistic, and Timebound (SMART).
Products / Services
Products are tangible items that
the organization produces. “Services”
refer to work done for clients
or stakeholders that does not
result in the creation of
tangible deliverables. Services
provide value by fulfilling the
needs of others through people
contact and interaction. The
support organization achieves
its objectives through the
creation of products and the
delivery of services. Your
organization may produce
internal and interim work
products. However, the term "product"
refers to the final product
delivered to a client or
stakeholder. Likewise, there are
many times that people within
the support function help each
other. However, the term "service"
refers to the delivery of value
to a client or stakeholder.
In general, the support
organization produces very few
deliverables. Your support group
may produce deliverables, but
when you do, you are typically
performing in an enhancement,
project, or management capacity.
In fact, it might be argued that
the support function actually
produces no deliverables.
However, SupportStep does not go
that far and assumes that the
support organization may produce
some deliverables. In general,
support services can include:
-
Responding to
emergencies
-
Answering questions /
assisting clients with
the application
-
Cross training on
production applications
-
Assisting with normal
weekly, monthly,
quarterly, yearly
processes (i.e.
financial closeout)
-
Responding to
environmental changes
-
Meeting that you attend
related to support and
business applications
-
Planning associated with
support
-
Ongoing small
administrative items
such as time reporting
and metrics capturing
-
Planning and executing
disaster recovery
exercises
-
Planning and executing
records retention
policies
(For
more information on services,
see the subsection
121.0 Support Activities
section)
Products that may be produced by
the support organization include:
-
Upgrading software and
hardware outside of a
project situation
-
Reporting status to the
clients and to your
management
-
Updating documentation
-
Reporting your time on
your timekeeping
application
-
Managing your software
components using
software change
management tools
-
Fixing application
errors
Roles, Responsibilities and
Skills
These describe the types of
people the organization needs to
build the products and provide
the services necessary to
achieve its objectives.
-
Roles refer to a person or
group that performs a
certain set of activities.
Roles are different that
titles. Roles refer
specifically to the work a
person is performing at any
given time. Titles refer to
the specific designation of
each employee that
recognizes their skills,
years of experience and
where they fit in the
organization chart. For
instance, a person could be
filling the role of a
Support Analyst, but their
title could be “Programmer
Analyst II”.
-
Responsibilities are the
specific end results that a
person in a role is expected
to achieve.
-
Skills are the personal
traits or internal knowledge
that a person uses to
perform the responsibilities
within his or her role.
There may be personal,
business, technical, and
professional skills required
for a person to complete his/her
responsibilities.
(For more
information on services, see the
124.0 Team
section)
Transitional Activities
Transitional activities are the
specific activities and projects
that are required to implement
the physical organization. If
the support organization is new,
these activities describe the
work required to build and staff
the new support function.
If the organization already
exists, these activities could
be the work required to move
from the current state to the
one that is defined in the
logical organization. This work
is needed to transition,
integrate, and stabilize the new
(or existing) organization. The
best way to understand these
transitional activities is to
spend the extra time to compare
the future organization you just
described (future state) with
the support function as it
exists today (current state).
Then, determine what has to
happen to transition the
organization from the current to
the future state (gap analysis).
Once you determine what the gap
is, you can identify activities
that are required to close the
gap.
