• How an Architect Helped Accelerate Adoption of New Ways of Working (Delivery Documentary)

    Posted 4 months ago
    by David M. Meltzer}

    Delivery Documentaries are a behind the scenes look at how our Architects in the field perform Value Realization activities for customers. The documentaries are raw and real, and the purpose is to share what actually happens on the ground. They are always a learning opportunity, and we hope that over time we can help bridge the state of the art with the state of the practice, and continue to move the ball forward.

    How can a business mitigate risk when considering transformational initiatives, and then accelerate the widespread adoption of new tools and technology? This example, provided by Luanne Middleton-Cross, an Architect, describes how she and her team helped a business evaluate initiatives and promote adoption of new ways of working among employees.

    Executive Summary

    This is a Delivery Documentary of an engagement led by the Microsoft Enterprise Strategy Program (ESP), which provides services to help customers realize the most value from their technology investments. In this engagement, an Architect helped a company assess business and IT strategy for several initiatives, and then designed training and conducted road shows to promote the adoption of new devices, applications, and new ways of working.

    Introduction

    In this engagement, employees and management alike had been hampered by old technology when considering a vision for the future and deciding how best to perform work. The vision was constrained by obsolete assumptions. We demonstrated new possibilities to the business users, showing real changes in work techniques. Employees quickly became enthusiastic when seeing the technology come to life and understanding the options for transforming the way they work.

    We began our work during a time when management changes were occurring. Consequently, our first efforts to promote our engagement stalled until new management was in place.

    It soon became clear that the previous focus of our proposed initiatives did not resonate with the goals of the new CIO. We had originally considered methods for using a shared service model to build out and scale services so that the business could expand in the region.

    The new CIO, who had experience transforming business services, was less interested than the prior CIO in our strategic guidance along these lines. To address the interests of the new management, we changed the focus of our participation. We began having conversations with the CIO about his prior successes, in which our products had played a role, and offered to help make the new strategy successful by first ensuring that it aligned with licenses held and could proceed from the state of technology currently in place. Then we focused on minimizing risk and accelerating adoption.

    Teaming up

    During this engagement, I worked as part of a very effective team that included an Architect (consulting services), an Account Technology Specialist (sales), and a Technical Account Manager (support). We worked closely together, though I was the single point of contact with the CIO. When the CIO needed something, I was able to relay the information to the correct side of our organization while presenting “One Microsoft” to the customer.

    Assessing Streams of Strategy

    Compared to a typical assessment using the Value Realization Framework, which supports strategy development, this was a short piece that transitioned more into a validation of the various streams of strategy, such as:

    • Improving communication and collaboration
    • Ensuring data sovereignty compliance for effective cloud adoption
    • Improving information security and modernizing risk assessment
    • Enabling mobility through remote access to increase worker productivity
    • Data center outsourcing
    • Desktop transformation

    We created several position papers assessing the business and IT strategy of the proposed initiatives, which included topics such as the transformation of the document management systems, data center transformation, upgrading desktops, enabling communication/collaboration, remote access, improving security, and adding more cloud-enabled features.

    We engaged with a variety of stakeholders to validate the positioning. We met with HR and the Change Management team with regard to new ways of working; and we met with the Chief Security Officer about preparing for cloud migration.

    Creating RFPs and Reviewing Proposals

    Some of the technology streams were already running: for these our focus was on helping accelerate and remove risk from the initiatives. For others, rather than conduct the work ourselves, we participated in helping with the initiative planning phases. For example, we helped create an RFP to select a partner to use to implement communication and collaboration initiatives. We then participated in doing Technical Quality Assurance (TQA) reviews of the submitted proposals.

    Promoting Adoption

    Although we are often only involved in initiative planning and delivery, we worked on a number of adoption and change management projects to help the business understand the new technology, prepare for deployment, and support the success of the initiatives. We performed this additional work during the value realization phase of the initiatives.

    One of our first objectives was to counter obsolete assumptions held by employees and management when considering a vision for the future and deciding how best to perform work. Employees became enthusiastic when we demonstrated new possibilities and helped them understand their options for transforming the way they work.

    Creating Custom Training Materials

    We conducted persona analysis to identify and provide the most effective training for different roles at the business. We designed and delivered materials for presentation in a variety of local and remote settings, including face-to-face, online, videos, and self-service training. We also worked with our internal WorkSmart training team to provide useful “Tips and Tricks” sessions to the customer.

    Using Apps as Incentive

    One effective driver for employees was the collection of available tools and apps (such as currency conversion, mapping, and so on) that users could run on their new devices. We provided several team members from Premier and Microsoft Consulting Services to discuss, implement, and deploy a company app store that made available a number of approved apps from the Windows App Marketplace, as well as custom apps.

    Presenting Road Shows

    We worked with our customer’s Business Engagement leads to develop and conduct a series of road shows about the new technologies being introduced, since our primary goal was to help ensure that people didn't have a negative experience when first using the new tools.

    To this end, we created a “road show” that we held at each of the regional offices. A hardware vendor supplied a variety of devices configured with the new software from which employees could choose. During the road shows, we guided employees in trying out the new technology, and showed employees how to take advantage of new features, including communications and collaboration.

    Having worked in an environment that previously restricted the types of devices available, employees were very excited to be able to have a choice of computers, and we assisted employees in understanding the benefits of different devices, and the tools to use to increase productivity.

    The road shows were focused on making people comfortable with the new technology, and aware of how to best to get value out of it. For example, if a user was concerned about a new ribbon in the interface, we highlighted how to accomplish tasks with it, provided helpful tips for using the new applications, demonstrated how to get around, and even showed how to use shortcut controls that were customized for the business.

    After only a few minutes of hands on tutoring, with just a few pointers about using line-of-business applications in the new environment, employees gained confidence and enthusiasm for the changes.

    Summary

    Some aspects of this engagement that were particularly noteworthy, and from which I learned, were:

    • Bringing together the Architect, Account Technology Specialist, and Technical Account Manager delivered a more cohesive service to the customer and was crucial in achieving our success.
    • Directly engaging with the CIO was important in understanding the best way to deliver value. Our close involvement with the CIO also allowed us to represent the impact of our services on a day-to-day basis, rather than only through monthly status reports.
    • Because the real measure of our impact can be felt during Value Realization activities, it was refreshing to be able to deliver services during this phase, in addition to participating in the Assessment and Initiative Planning phases.

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  • How an Enterprise Architect Helped a Rural University Meet Value Metrics (Delivery Documentary)

    Posted 4 months ago
    by David M. Meltzer}

    Delivery Documentaries are a behind the scenes look at how our Enterprise Architects (EAs) in the field perform Value Realization activities for customers. The documentaries are raw and real, and the purpose is to share what actually happens on the ground. They are always a learning opportunity, and we hope that over time we can help bridge the state of the art with the state of the practice, and continue to move the ball forward.

    What steps does a rural university take to begin meeting begin serving a more widely dispersed and larger student body? This example, provided by Nashreen Hofmeester, describes how a Microsoft Architect helped the university assess capabilities and develop a roadmap for their journey into 21st century learning. 

    Executive Summary

    This is a Delivery Documentary of an engagement led by the Microsoft Enterprise Strategy Program (ESP), which provides services to help customers realize the most value from their technology investments. In this engagement, an Enterprise Architect helped a university create a roadmap for improving capabilities necessary to expand educational opportunities to a broader community. Work supporting the roadmap included researching global trends in higher education; assessing existing challenges, drivers, capabilities; and aligning business objectives and technology enablers.

    Introduction

    I recently participated in an engagement with a rural university that sought to provide higher education to a widespread student body. I was part of a Microsoft Consulting Services team, and was brought in to help assess IT service capabilities and maturities, align business objectives with technology, and help ensure that the university achieve value from current initiatives, as well as chart the way forward to place the university at the forefront of rural higher education.

    Learning about Existing Challenges

    To learn about the existing challenges and objectives of the university, we held a series of discovery meetings. Some of the meetings used the Value Discovery Workshop approach we have established in our Value Realization Framework. Other meetings were focused group interviews.

    The main objective of the university was to transform from traditional offerings and infrastructure to a "comprehensive university" that enabled a broad range of educational opportunities for a larger and widespread student body. The transformation has two phases, of which we are currently helping with the first.

    • Phase 1. Enable digital inclusion. While keeping some features and data on-premises, become ready to adopt digital-based technologies, improving connectivity, implementing cloud-based email, transforming and migrating data centers, and enabling cloud-based productivity tools.
    • Phase 2. Using the technologies and capabilities from the first phase to enable a range of online and hybrid classroom experiences, gaining many more students, and increasing tuition revenue from the increased student population and government subsidies.

    As we continued our discovery, we quickly found that the existing infrastructure was out of date, many components were obsolete and no longer supported, existing services were not stable, and users experienced connectivity issues.

    There was no simple path to migrating infrastructure, services, and data. In addition, the university was finding it very difficult, due to their location, to get access to people with the kinds of skills needed to transform and operate the infrastructure.

    Understanding Business Drivers

    The university needed to improve the quality of services delivered to comply with government guidelines, attract and accommodate more students, and obtain more funding from students and the government.

    We participated in many conversations about making the university more accessible to the surrounding communities, offering online education along with other forms of education, making the university more attractive to prospective students, and increasing enrollment.

    In the national educational context in which this university operates, the government is encouraging traditional universities to expand offerings to include more technically-enabled education. The goal is especially pertinent to this university, which operates in a rural area where there is a need to contribute to regional economic growth.

    The university was not geared up to interact with students using modern channels and infrastructure. The drivers for change were commonly understood and accepted at the university, but the means to reach them had not been identified.

    Identifying Value Propositions

    The primary transformational goal of the university is to change to a “Smart University” in order to make teaching accessible to students attending online classes, as well as students that attended classes in person.

    The value of this change is reflected not only in expanding the influence and availability of the university, but in the associated increase in revenue from government, students, and businesses.

    Operational value is defined and measured differently in the domain of higher education than in a purely business environment, although increasing revenue is significant driver in both areas.

    The university receives government funding based on student headcount, as well as tuition fees from students. In addition, the university receives funding to perform Research and Development work on behalf of local industries.

    The university’s overriding business objective for modernizing infrastructure is to drive up the number of students, resulting in increased support from the government, and driving the agenda for Research and Development.

    Aligning with Existing Strategy

    One of the most important activities we performed during this engagement was ensuring that we aligned business and technology goals early in the process.

    Right from the start of the engagement, we focused on business objectives and mapped them to technology enablers. We used Benefits Dependency Networks (BDNs) to map from business drivers to investment objectives, and to help identify the benefits that would be achieved for various scenarios.

    We also needed to determine how we would measure the success of initiatives, identifying quantifiable metrics that were meaningful to the university. We used many performance indicators identified by the university itself in a comprehensive business strategy document.

    Unlike some public sector environments, we were able to work with hard metrics, such as:

    • Increase government funding by 10% year on year for the next 3 years
    • Increase student numbers by 20% year on year for the next 3 years
    • Increase graduation rate by 15% within three years
    • Decrease total cost of ownership for data centers by 25% over the next five years

    To validate that we were correctly aligning business and technology goals, we identified primary stakeholders to review the documented alignment, as well as conducted face-to-face review validation meetings with executives.

    Obtaining Support from Leaders by Accelerating Value

    One of the first steps on the road to meeting business objectives, prior to enabling a full set of innovative features, was to establish a new baseline infrastructure and solve connectivity issues. We gained the support of many sponsors, including the Vice Chancellor Operations of the university, by speaking about making it unnecessary to acquire updated hardware and support personnel by moving productivity applications to the cloud.

    To better understand and evaluate the transformation plans from an operational point of view, the university was very dependent on the Dean of Information Technology.

    The Vice Chancellor pulled the Dean into our work, and from the beginning he was open to engaging with us. In the end, the Dean was a strong advocate for our initiatives and played important roles in adoption and change management.

    The Vice Chancellor was also instrumental in helping us identify and work with the relevant stakeholders for research and planning. We were fortunate that the university had, through resources in the business school, a good understanding of the value of business planning.

    Assisting with Remediation

    A great deal of remediation was necessary to support connectivity, communications, and collaboration. Even with enthusiastic support, we found the university did not have mature enough capabilities to conduct remediation themselves, or even to plan remediating initiatives. We realized that simply giving the IT department a remediation checklist was not enough – we had to find another mechanism to help ensure success at the end of the day.

    Devices to support were seemingly endless. The university had hundreds of devices, and though many students still used the computer labs on campus to perform work, more technologically saavy students were rapidly introducing new and remote devices.

    We had an existing Premier support agreement with the university, under which we actively helped drive remediation, including sending skilled personnel to the campus and IT facilities, and to assess and automate remediation.

    Assessing Maturity before Transformation

    After performing remediation to ensure that the infrastructure was capable of supporting the more innovative initiatives, we began assessing the capabilities of the data center to determine maturity, gaps, and needed changes.

    To evaluate maturity and perform the assessment, we formed a multidisciplinary team that included an enterprise architect and a solution architect with a specialty in modern data centers, in addition to members of the Microsoft Global Practice for modern data centers, and Premier.

    As I conducted the maturity assessment, I determined where the client was with capabilities, what workloads needed to be supported, and what levels of maturity were required to support the workloads.

    We held a number of workshops and provided questionnaires to gather the background information necessary to understand the environment. During the process, I helped guide our team and the participants from the university, I facilitated workshops and interviews, and helped validate information among stakeholders and sponsors.

    To validate our assessment, we prepared detailed review materials, with a strong emphasis on semantics, and provided information in a form that was familiar to our sponsors.

    Creating Deliverables to Support Transformation

    Prior to creating the planned deliverables relating to a transformation roadmap, we found that our sponsors and stakeholders had few clear cut ideas about the architectural principles that would guide them in making decisions about planning and solution delivery. I helped them identify their objectives by explaining the benefits of pertinent principles that have been useful in my experience. For example:

    • Systems need to be robust and secure.
    • Data is an asset to the university.
    • Systems need to adapt to a wide range of users' technological literacy.
    • Solutions need to amplify learning and help reimagine learning experiences.
    • To deliver as quickly as possible, use standard components and promote reuse.

    The primary deliverable we created was a roadmap that identified the components in place, the changes necessary, the investments for the next three years, and ongoing value realization activities. In addition, the roadmap points the way to future opportunities for leveraging the cloud, such as enhanced mobility and device support.

    The roadmap is supported by a reference architecture from the perspective of the business (higher education), and a reference architecture from a technology perspective.

    To encourage sharing and discussing the roadmap, we created poster size versions of it for displaying in strategic locations. These posters attracted a lot of attention, furthered discussion about the projects, helped us refine our deliverables, and supported adoption and change activities.

    Delivering Value during Transformation

    One of our main goals was to rapidly deliver value in terms of useful features and connectivity, even prior to data center transformation and migrating activities.

    We first enabled the university to stay in touch with staff, students, and alumni by creating mailboxes and a collaborative environment supported in the cloud. With these tools, teachers can work online with students, and students can work online with each other. Students can also prepare projects for delivery, and can carry on discussions around topics of interest.

    All of these features were delivered prior to sorting out the on premise data centers, modernizing, migrating, or refactoring applications – tasks that the university is still carrying out.

    Summary

    Several aspects of this engagement were notable, including:

    The considerable value of a fully engaged client executive sponsor:  Having the wholehearted support and active participation of the executive sponsor was key to our success for opening doors and decreasing the barriers to engagement from a business side, particularly with the academic staff of the university.

    Remediation challenges:  It was important for us to understand the skill set, capability level, and maturity of IT service delivery for the university. We knew we should be prepared to provide actual remediation assistance in those cases where there was not sufficient skill. The initial position of the project team was that the client would be responsible for remediation, but it became evident at an early stage that this would delay the project.

    Multiplier effect of embedded Enterprise Services Program (ESP):  Embedding the Enterprise Services Program in a Microsoft Consulting Services project has provided us the opportunity to accelerate value realization, as well as identify additional opportunities for value realization for the university.

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  • How an Enterprise Architect Measures Value Realization in the Public Sector (Trends and Insights)

    Posted 5 months ago
    by David M. Meltzer}

    How do we measure value and value realization in the public sector? Public projects are typically conducted for the benefit of social welfare, quality of life, citizen safety, or other dimensions that can be difficult to quantify in the traditional sense of ROI.

    This post, drawn from a paper by Stephen Kell, presents ideas about considering social value while comparing the impacts of various initiatives.

    Applying Social Value Metrics

    Social value metrics are often useful for representing the performance of a government or the social impact of an organization. Social impact may also be an important consideration when an Enterprise Architect compares the value and risk of an array of initiatives. Some examples of the practical situations that social value modeling can apply to include:

    Evaluating Impact for Upgrading Metropolitan Digital Capabilities

    Applying social value metrics to work done to date for the digital on such initiatives can be used to provide a basis for prioritizing and calculating the return on investment for future digital initiatives.

    Choosing Between Initiatives of Change

    In one engagement, business leaders compared the relative merits of spending money to upgrade hospital computer systems vs. spending money on a new hospital wing. Though expanding the hospital at first seemed the best option for expanding care, the quality of care was more impacted by improving physician access to patient information. This increase in efficiency reduced the length of patient stays and increased hospital capacity. Improving quality of care was a more important dimension than the capacity of the hospital. A detailed social analysis gave a different picture than an initial impression based on traditional ROI.

    Representing Performance of Social Enterprises and Charities

    Social Enterprises in this context are enterprises set up for reasons other than purely profit. They tend to have objectives such as reducing unemployment or employing people with certain disabilities or a marginalized section of the community, therefore their value needs to be expressed in term of the social impact as well as the P&L.

    Charities are set up with specific social aims in mind so that the value add has to be in terms of social impact and not the P&L. Indeed, for a well-run charity the P&L will be close to zero.

    Generating Corporate Citizenship Reports

    Many companies such as Microsoft, now publish citizenship reports that are intended to represent the positive social impact of the company. Social value modeling can be used to assess such impact and the citizenship agenda of these companies.

    Planning for Extreme Events

    Extreme value theory, a type of mathematical analysis, can be used when considering the social value of implementing various initiatives to see how each of a set of proposed initiatives affects the risks associated with extreme events. The benefit will be the difference between the current Value at Risk and the Value at Risk after the initiative has been implemented.

    Characterizing Full Value of Consulting Services

    The value of consulting services has largely been assessed on the basis cost savings or risk reduction. Using a social value model, value can additionally be expressed in terms of social impact.

    Determining Value Dimensions

    Value dimensions are, like beauty, very much in the eye of the beholder. Dimensions that are well-defined for the commercial sector are often more difficult to define or less relevant when applied to the public sector.

    Often the main driver in the public sector is not money, but a desired social impact. Many government departments and charities have to balance budgets, while still achieving the social outcomes they pursue. To identify the most important value dimensions for a project, we need to understand how an organization is measured, how it is judged, and what it wants to achieve.

    Increasingly, commercial companies are looking at their corporate citizenship and therefore are starting to have value dimensions other than financial. The techniques and methods outlined here are applicable to those situations as well.

    Some value dimensions typically applied in the commercial sector include:

    • Financial –the financial measures that need to be met
    • Business strategy – alignment with current business strategy
    • Market and industry trends – level of response to trends
    • Regulatory changes – regulatory changes to which an organization needs to adhere
    • People – values of the organization that will attract, retain and engage staff
    • Social responsibility – alignment to the social responsibility and ethical business agenda of the organization
    • Business Decision Maker’s personal drivers – Revenue, margin, market penetration, expanding to new markets, acquiring new companies, changing the demographics of the customer base, and so on.
    • Ability to execute – ability of organization to make necessary changes to realize value
    • Time to value – time required before the value starts being realized

    For the public sector, we need to consider additional value dimensions, such as:

    • Alignment to government policy
    • Alignment to social aims of a charity
    • Economic Impact
    • Social Impact
    • Environmental Impact

    These value dimensions are often obtained by consolidating multiple KPIs according to a social value model.

    Using Consolidated KPIs

    Many models exist defining KPIs for government regarding social impact investing and performance. Though some models attempt to be general, no model is definitive or correct for all governments and all initiatives, as social values vary. Corporations have also defined KPIs to reflect corporate citizenship, demonstrating how social modeling can be applied to corporations as well as government departments and charities.

    Consolidating KPIs into Core Value Dimensions

    To aid in comparison, the KPIs for public initiatives can be consolidated into the following core value dimensions:

    • Economic impact
    • Social Impact
    • Environmental impact
    • Alignment to government policy
    • Alignment to strategy (IT/Business)

    Other dimensions to consider for core value include:

    • Cost of implementation and running, including any additional costs to users
    • Time to value
    • Ability to Execute
    • Number of citizens affected (indirect)
    • Number of clients (direct users)

    One of the issues when creating consolidated dimensions is that KPIs are measuring different units using different scales, so some way of normalizing them to a common unit and range needs to be used.

    One method of doing this is to use an intermediate value (T-Value) as proposed by Charles Taylor (“Composite Indicators: Reporting KRIs to Senior Management.” The RMAJournal, 16-20. April, 2006). T-values are calculated by identifying thresholds for strongly positive, positive, neutral, negative, and strongly negative ranges within a KPI, normalizing the values among KPIs, and then averaging them.

    Using this method, the T-Value can take values from -2 to +2, which can then be visualized using Spider diagrams.

    Visualizing Value Dimensions Using Spider Diagrams

    The traditional Spider diagram, or more accurately the Kiviat chart, normally has a scale from 0 to 5. In the case of the value dimensions we are talking about, they can be both positive and negative. Therefore we use a scale from -2 to +2. 

    clip_image001_thumb

    Anything outside the circle is positive; anything within the circle is detrimental to the value dimension. For example, a large construction project might produce the following chart, showing that the economic impact is very positive but the environmental impact is very negative.

    clip_image002_thumb

    In order to compare different investment initiatives, we can produce Spider diagrams for each initiative and then place them on a grid of costs against risks, as shown in the following figure. This helps us compare and analyze the relative benefits of the initiatives in order to make investment decisions.

    clip_image003_thumb

    Mathematical Modeling of Social Value

    A social value model has two parts: the Financial Benefits and the Social Impact. We mathematically model social value to enable us to evaluate, in a pseudo financial way, different initiatives or investment opportunities. We can apply analytical techniques to investments in social value in a similar way as commercial companies assess investments in increased revenue or productivity.

    The basic social value model is a way of including non-financial benefits into the ROI and IRR calculations in order to do a comparison of investment opportunities where the main objective is not financial.

    The benefits to consider are:

    • Financial benefits in terms of cost savings to the social department/organization and to the client of the service.
    • Risk reduction, which can provide a benefit in terms of reducing the value at risk, or in terms of reducing risks which have a social impact. It is also possible that an initiative will increase some risks.
    • Social Impact benefits in terms of the economic, social, and environmental impacts.

    Financial Benefits

    The purely financial benefits for an initiative form one side of the picture. The financial benefits need to be identified, weighted and then added up. Such benefits are generally in terms of cost savings or more efficient collection of revenue (taxes).

    The steps to quantify the financial benefits are:

    1. Identify a benefit.
    2. Weight the benefit in terms of priority to the government or organization.
    3. Add the weighted benefit to the other benefits identified.

    These benefits can be spread out over time and be represented by a series of time-related value measurements. We can work out the value per time interval (monthly, quarterly or yearly) and then apply discounted cash flow analysis.

    Note also that some “benefits” may be negative because the effect of implementing the initiative may be to derive benefits in one area at the cost of benefits in another area.

    Social Impact

    The social impact is much more difficult to put a figure on, as well as being more emotive. The approach taken is as follows:

    1. Identify and quantify the economic benefits using either financial figures or an index of values relating to impact.
    2. Identify the social benefits and quantify.
    3. Identify the environmental benefits and quantify.
    4. Put a political weighting on each of the benefits.
    5. Convert any financial benefits into an index.
    6. Sum the weighted benefits to form the Social Impact figure.

    In the same way as the Financial Impact can be spread out over time, the Social Impact benefits can also be spread out over time. We can calculate the benefits per period, monthly, quarterly or yearly, and then apply techniques such as discounted cash flow.

    Note also that some “benefits” may be negative because the effect of implementing the initiative may be to derive benefits in one area at the cost of another area. For instance there may be initiatives that have large economic benefits at the cost of the environment.

    Calculating ROI and IRR

    The methodology for calculating both ROI and IRR or indeed other financial measures uses a combination of the above Financial Benefits and Social Impacts in order to take into account the social impact of the investment or initiative. The process follows for the index values we use in our calculations, based on US dollars (other currencies would produce different scaling).

    1. Convert the Financial Impact value to an index at the rate of US $1 = 1 unit and then add it to the Social Impact. This gives the benefits side of the equation as an index, spread out over periods as appropriate.
    2. Convert the cost side of the equation to an index at the rate of US $1 = 1 unit so that all the figures are dimensionless units.
    3. Calculate ROI and IRR. Calculate NPV if costs and benefits are spread out over time.

    Resources

    Alvarado, E.; Sandberg, D. V.; Pickford, S. G. “Modeling Large Forest Fires as Extreme Events.” Northwest Science, Vol 72: 66-75. 1998.

    Franklin, J. “Operational Risk under Basel II: A model for Extreme Risk Evaluation. Banking and Financial Services Policy Report.” Volume 27, Number 10, 10-16. 2008.

    Franklin, J., Sisson, S. A., Bergman, M. A., & Martin, J. K. “Evaluating Extreme Risks in Invasion Ecology: Learning from Banking Compliance.” Diversity and Distributions, Blackwell Publishing, 14, 581-591. 2008.

    Abarbanel, H.; Koonin, S.; Levine, H.; MacDonald, G.; Rothaus, O. “Statistics of Extreme Events with Application to Climate.” McLean, Virginia: The Mitre Corporation. 1992.

    Taylor, C. “Composite Indicators: Reporting KRIs to Senior Management.” The RMAJournal, 16-20. April, 2006.

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  • How an Enterprise Architect Used Change Management Tools to Diagnose Business Problems (Trends and Insights)

    Posted 5 months ago
    by David M. Meltzer}

    A number of change management tools and models are not only useful when transforming a business or landing a project, but also in understanding why some businesses don’t operate effectively.

    Two very important aspects of improving business in general and business transformation involve focusing on awareness and desire: to improve employee awareness of ways to work better, and increase desire to adopt new methods and technologies.

    This post is based on the experiences and observations of Robbi Laurenson, a Microsoft Enterprise Architect and certified Prosci® consultant, who has found value in using change management principles in diagnosing organizational issues.

    Engaging with a Struggling Organization

    I recently began consulting with a company that has been struggling to effectively carry out strategic plans. It’s been easy to see at an intuitive level that there’s dysfunction in the business, but it’s been hard identifying or describing it explicitly and understanding how to approach solving it.

    The problems have been especially evident as we’ve pursued changes in business operations and infrastructure. Attempting to carry out and manage necessary changes has revealed that there are deeper problems stemming from the organization itself that need to be addressed.

    Morale has been low in this business, politics is evident around every corner, and there’s a lack of direction in current and planned activities.

    One of the executives has turned out to be very negative about business changes. Other executives haven’t had the mandate to make decisions, and the business often seems paralyzed rather than able to effectively move forward.

    Even just one problematic executive affected the larger organization. The leader was not engaged in the right ways, and was unaware of the impact this silent message was having on the rest of the organization. This was not driving the business in the right direction.

    Though my influence as an Enterprise Architect is sometimes limited to driving specific initiative activities, I found this engagement largely about helping make the right things happen, in the midst of executive turmoil. I had to rely on a set of soft skills to help unblock the political situation.

    Applying New Understanding

    I had an intuitive understanding of the organizational issues in this engagement, but I wanted a more structured approach that would help generate solutions. For example, after diagnosing business issues, we could address them during account planning, identifying key players if things go wrong, methodology for addressing organizational issues, and describing how tools and relationships can be used to communicate compelling value statements to the organization.

    During this engagement, I attended Prosci® Change Management Training (see http://www.prosci.com/training/trainingoverview/).

    I soon found myself mapping change management principles to diagnosing the organizational dysfunction at our client, as well as ideas for overcoming it.

    The Prosci® ADKAR® model (see http://www.prosci.com/adkar-model/) describes a process that individuals go through in terms of change:

    • Awareness
    • Desire
    • Knowledge
    • Ability
    • Reinforcement

    Specifically of interest to me were the phases of awareness and desire. I realized that communication issues relating to awareness were interfering with carrying out changes in my engagement, and that desire for change was ambivalent at high levels within the business.

    Issues with Employee Awareness

    Most people affected by change suffer from lack of awareness, which impacts all the other stages of change management. It often requires many contacts, using multiple types of media, to communicate to stakeholders. There are also different levels of awareness that people acquire about upcoming changes. Employees may be technically aware of a change without realizing that the change applies to their work.

    Without adequate awareness, change does not happen smoothly, and sometimes does not happen at all. For example, one business that sublet some of their facilities forgot to inform the help desk about the new people using the equipment. When the change in facilities usage began, the help desk began getting calls from people they didn’t support, and conflict arose.

    People also dislike having changes forced on them, without an explanation of the value of the change. This can make stakeholders feel that they are just cogs in a machine, without the need to know or understand. Stakeholders should understand why a change is better for them, as well as for the business. They should view opportunities enabled by the change, such as being more effective, and directly impacting the bottom line of the business.

    Conflicted Desire for Change

    Desire is a difficult stage of change to get through. How do you create desire in the face of resistance to change?

    Keeping people informed helps overcome initial reactions against change. More desire is gained by clearly showing solutions that people will find useful.

    But in most engagements, we should be building buy-in with ongoing participation of stakeholders and those who will be affected by the changes. Influencing desire begins early in the planning process. Invest in stakeholder engagement early. During this phase, it can be very useful to make a vocal champion out of someone who was antagonistic at the beginning, but who has since become a supporter of the changes.

    Desire is not a set quality, especially as opinions change as changes are rolled out in phases. A great new system, with exciting and valuable benefits to the business may eventually cause someone to say, “Wait, they’re going to lay people off.” In this case, repair work needs to be done to raise the desire for the planned change and lower the risk of having adoption problems.

    Desire is a fickle thing, and extremely dependent on keeping stakeholders informed of changes, value, and rationale. Changes must be seen as being well thought-out, and have involved the participation of stakeholders. Also, when business stakeholders communicate well with technical stakeholders during planning stages, IT has much more desire to enable business changes.

    Choosing the Right Opinion Leader

    Both awareness and desire hinge on how you run communications through the change management process, especially in the disrupted world of a rapidly changing environment.

    Two of the most important people to the success of change management are the CEO of the business, and the immediate line manager where changes are occurring. There is often no substitute for these participants: other managers don’t generally have the same influence or effectiveness in driving conversations and setting direction about change.

    When you enter an account, it’s important to know if someone in a leadership position is bucking something happening, without desire for change, or thinking things won’t work out. You need to understand this individual’s drivers and personal context in order to optimize your influence. You’ll need to get this person on board: If a leader doesn’t “feel it,” the leader can’t communicate the right message to others.

    Ideas for Influencing Business Leaders

    When trying to influence people to “come to the party,” different approaches are needed: sometimes you can approach executives directly, and sometimes you need to approach with subtlety.

    Some of the techniques for influencing business leaders include:

    • Flawless Consulting. (See the book “Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used,” by Peter Block, pub: Pfeiffer) In this approach, you negotiate for what you need. Often, a CEO or line manager will send you off to do the work, without realizing that they are a critical part of delivery. These leaders need to be involved in communicating messages about the value of the changes, and reinforcing the message along the way. At times, you may need to help the executive change perspective, or inspire them to be courageous about communicating the right message. Flawless Consulting involves being direct, and saying “I need your support to make these changes, and if you want the initiative to be successful, this is what I need from you.”
    • Political Navigation and Personality Analysis. Within an engagement, we learn know who is involved, their personalities, and what we want them to do. We have tools for mapping out stakeholders that are sympathetic or antagonistic to your cause. It’s important to try to lessen participants’ antagonism, especially because they may be instrumental in identifying other potential projects and necessary changes. Ask them what is of value to them, what it would take to get them on board. Being able to clearly state value propositions of change is very important in reinforcing business changes.
    • Crucial Conversations. (See the book “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High,” by Patterson, et al., pub: McGraw-Hill) Your sponsors have various motivations when pursuing change, and it’s helpful to understand them by talking to them. However, it’s also necessary to have similar conversations with other people in the organization, and to make sure that there is more than one person sanctioned to participate in the project. This can be a delicate balancing act: engaging the support of your sponsor, but broadening your base in the organization to help limit risk.

    Summary

    As I was taking the Prosci® Change Management practitioner training, it immediately became evident to me that the principles were far reaching because they deal with the core of how we get things done – people changing. Much like TOGAF® did for the harder skills in Enterprise Architecture, Prosci® tools provided a language and a framework to describe and influence how, and more importantly why, we can employ other soft skills to land successful engagements.

    It’s not enough just to plan and implement – the heart of Value Realization is in landing the change that engages an organization together in creating something better. That means winning the hearts and minds of everyone involved, from start to finish.

    When I find that I am struggling to understand why an engagement is not turning out the way I want, turning to the human aspects of awareness and desire is often key to understanding the underlying restrictive dynamics.

    I’ve realized that change management principles are both an essential tool for landing projects, and a critical lens for understanding the inner human mechanics of the organization. In this era where we are driving not only purchase and deployment of solutions, but also adoption and utilization, change management is going to be a key pillar of our success.

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  • 12 Tips for Building Rapport with Business Leaders (Trends and Insights)

    Posted 5 months ago
    by David M. Meltzer}

    How do you build relationships with business executives? Often times your opportunity to shift from a fleeting, impersonal relationship with a senior business decision maker (BDM) to a more direct relationship stems from what you can do to build rapport and curiosity in a few unplanned moments.

    For Microsoft Enterprise Architect Ron Lamb, the “win” is to gain interest from the BDM for a 1:1 meeting on a topic that is of great personal curiosity or challenge. You may have an unplanned meeting in a coffee room, elevator, or after completing a larger meeting. You have a few moments to create rapport and take the first steps in building a relationship that works on a new plane, one that transcends any specific initiative that you and Microsoft are working on at that moment. What techniques and patterns seem to work to gain that initial 1:1 opportunity, and then build upon it?

    This post summarizes the experiences and observations of Ron Lamb, a Microsoft Enterprise Architect involved in business strategy planning.

    Introduction

    Over the years I’ve expanded my services from technology into business-focused development and business strategy, especially as I’ve acquired more experience across many industries and around the world.

    One of my career objectives has been to quickly build great relationships with chief executives and business decision makers during our engagements. Though my participation often begins as a subject matter expert or to help drive transformation, a personal connection creates opportunities to have a larger and broader impact, and perhaps even become a special resource to that executive. David Maister’s book “The Trusted Advisor” describes the opportunity and techniques best.

    Increasing the Value of an Enterprise Architect

    For me, an important part of creating rapport and building relationships is quickly opening the door for an exchange and testing of ideas, while presenting learnings from peers.

    My goal is to help business executives walk away having learned something, with skills or insights that they didn’t have earlier. I want to provide individual value, in addition to the value I bring as a part of the project team.

    In my short conversation with the executive, I share my focus on a challenge that I’ve been researching and struggling with and provide some provocative element of the challenge. I seek an indication that they are challenged / perplexed by the same thing, and if so, ask if perhaps I could invite them out for an opportunity to talk to them about it. I choose a challenge that I know the executive is also curious or concerned about. I share my understanding of the size of the challenge and the opportunity, the lack of a clear industry answer, and the risk of committing to a path that has a suspect likelihood of success. Business executives have a full plate of such highly unstructured, perplexing challenges, so perhaps not unsurprisingly, I often get a positive response.

    The opportunity that I imply and hope an executive responds to, is an opportunity to:

    • Hear something new and thought provoking,
    • Have a chance to test out their own observations, beliefs and hypothesis,
    • Talk about something that never seems to land on their leaders’ or subordinates’ area of focus,
    • Discuss a “squishy” problem that they either currently or certainly will have to deal with.

    Some of the characteristics of topics that work well include:

    • what you’re passionate about,
    • and is challenging and of interest to the executive,
    • that doesn’t have clear solutions,
    • with an interesting angle / insight / hypothesis that you’re willing to share.

    By demonstrating your willingness to share your insights / hypotheses, you’re putting some personal capital on the table. When executives recognize this, they may reward your openness by sharing their own personal insights and hypothesis.

    Having a Safe Conversation

    Very importantly, this must be a “Safe Conversation.” What you are each sharing is to the benefit of each of you as individuals, and not to become the subject of the next day’s conversations amongst the project team, or at Microsoft. This also explains the value in having this type of conversation be 1:1.

    To further cement the understanding that this is not part of the ongoing work, and is between the two of us, I arrange for the meeting to be over dinner or perhaps a social setting after work. That is, I’m not using the executive’s or my “chargeable” or business time for this discussion. I avoid meeting in the executive’s office or building. Otherwise, there is an implication that this is work associated with context of the executive’s role, and existing business relationships and contracts. Meeting at the office also introduces time pressures from the need to attend upcoming meetings. The goal is to create a level of separation between the existing client / partner relationship and a burgeoning trusted relationship / advisor connection.

    Choosing Topics to Discuss

    Avoid topics closely tied to the work you have in play at the client. Remove any sense of conflict with the Microsoft or client teams. Try to avoid the project teams questioning, “Why are we not invited to this meeting?” You have to use your own knowledge of who to inform before such a meeting. It is also your challenge to do so in a way that removes the potential of a “gate keeper's” intercession.

    Discussions that I’ve personally had with executives in this setting include.

    • The huge gap in successfully achieving expectations in Strategy Execution,
    • The challenge, at a personal rather than enterprise level, of “in the moment” increasing team members’ willingness for adoption, dealing with the resistance of key members of their organization (whether named or not), and generally gaining a higher likelihood of sustaining a targeted change,
    • Dealing with a highly silo’d organization when addressing enterprise change,
    • The strange phenomenon of the low level of span of control that senior executives actually have. It changes once a strategic initiative is launched and in the hands of their subordinates. The next level of leaders comprise where the work gets done and where priorities and personal agendas get balanced,
    • In the case of a CFO, the under-utilized nature of their experience and company insight in setting and carrying out enterprise strategy. The role of a CFO in Strategy Execution has been narrowly defined over the years around financial and prioritization decisions. CFOs know that they have a lot more to contribute, but are hesitant, unsure of when and how to inject insights, within the dynamics of their peers’ span of control,
    • The challenges of balancing focus and investment in innovation, along with business as usual.

    I let executives know our meeting is meant to provide an opportunity to share insights and the opportunity for me to share with them information about what some of their peers in other industries have done when facing similar challenges. When discussing lessons learned (successes and equally important for lessons learned, failures), the executive can look at ways to apply ideas to their own situation and industry.

    Tips for Quickly Engaging with Executives

    1. Take advantage of small windows of opportunity with business leaders – while grabbing coffee, or during a break in a meeting, or when you run into each other in the hallway. Try to have the discussion outside of the leader’s office – try to engage on a personal level outside the role the leader plays while in the office. Talk to the person, not the role. Have a one-on-one conversation, though be willing to do follow-up with other people indicated by the business leader.
    2. Set up or find a safe conversational scenario, where you’re being direct, putting personal capital out there, and being a little provocative to inspire business leaders to share their thoughts about the topics you’re discussing.
    3. I liken the approach to these conversations as though I’m talking to my cousin about some big problem that we both have. In this case, it’s something that has been brought into particular focus in the industry where we’re working, and it would be useful to share ideas.
    4. Choose a topic that is not in the area for which you’re engaged – avoid having team members feel that they should also be involved – the topic should be of personal interest to the executive and a passion of yours.
    5. Choose a topic that has some ambiguity, and no one claiming to have “the answer.” Choose topics that present similar challenges to other business leaders, and use your research and knowledge of the ways other business leaders are thinking about the topic.
    6. Choose a challenging question – one about which you and the business leader care very strongly, but is clearly distinct from the current engagement. Use a provocative statistic or statement to spur the conversation. Be thoughtful in advance of perhaps 2-3 key potential takeaways that should be memorable from the evening. Look for the ability to land on some things that the executive can try out (or avoid!) in the near future.
    7. You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room for the topic you choose, just one of the most curious. Choose topics in which you have strong interest and passion. Share your observations about patterns that peers have identified in the same space, and suggest your interest in testing out the viability of the patterns.
    8. Use a simple provocative statistic to demonstrate the size of a problem.
    9. Listen. Give the executive the chance to be smart about the topic. Learn from their feedback, while sharing the points of view held by other peers. Encourage the executive to share insight into something that the rest of the world may not have seen. Make it a “Safe” conversation, where they feel comfortable in sharing their observations and perhaps personal challenges with the topic.
    10. Help shed light on topics, sharing your opinions and those of others without trying to convince the leader of something. Share a correlation about something you’ve noticed; suggest some tricks of the trade.
    11. Follow up and say thanks! Maintain confidences. Hopefully it was a fun, provocative evening.
    12. A final observation: In a number of cases, we’ve ended up talking for over half the evening about family, work history, hobbies, and so on, before getting down to the topic initially chosen. Could it be that that part of the conversation was the most valuable? Enjoy and be forever curious.

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