Improved business changes in BAU
1. Background/ Challenges:
Tier 2 Operator; adjusting to major reorganization - switched to a new supplier for CRM/ Billing solution and transferred applications to a new managed services partner.
Challenges faced include
No reference point for business requests coming into IT change- release pipeline
Increasing customization: Bespoke development had reduced IT configurability and slowed down completion times
Rework: Inconsistent requirements and communication gaps with supplier’s offshore teams often resulted in failed changes
No bandwidth: Staff had no time to learn new skills; There was no budget to introduce new tools or training;
2. Approach:
Desired outcome was to understand the consequence of business proposed changes in IT in the most efficient way possible. The solution had to be:
Prioritized Address problem areas that affected most; areas where visible/ tangible benefits could be achieved
Fast: (weeks, not months). Work in sync with change control board, architecture, supplier capacity/ development schedule, testing and release cycle
The solution provided a visual change dashboard that enabled all open changes / new incoming requests (projects, defects and incidents included) to be seen in terms of IT supply (application, data, integration & infrastructure).
The dashboard outputs were used by business, architecture, supplier and SDLC teams for the regular monthly releases. With iterative feedback and improvements, the impact analysis from the change dashboard can now be traced to visual business process model with 22 steps supporting business-IT sessions.
Traceability was also developed to 70 sub processes, 700 line requirements and 400+ navigable screens from customer care & billing application; test cases and business scenarios that supported business acceptance.
3. Deployment and Results:
Work with existing procedures: The solution outputs supported existing change control board practices
Dev. optimization
Supplier’s dispersed / offshore development facilities were able to trace change impact to specific application functions, screens, interfaces and test cases
