Implementation Critical Success Factors - Technology

[Josh Personius]

Implementation Critical Success Factors — Technology

I have my past blog I have written about the various resources that are critical to an implementation (customer and vendor) and detailed out the various roles and responsibilities associated with them.   In review the pillars that I am going to explore are People, Process, Technology, Governance and Strategy.   In this post I will explore the aspect of technology.

When discussing an implementation, technology spans two areas for ServiceNow Professional Services; implementation and consumption of our technology.   I find it unique in that we are using the same technology to manage the deployment for which we are deploying.

ServiceNow Professional Services uses the SCRUM Process Pack (SCRUM) and Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) primarily to manage our deployments. We have taken SCRUM and PPM then re-purposed these native applications into our own application called StartNow.   The primary reason for us re-purposing them is two fold;

1. We can organize StartNow in a specific, repeatable way that allows us to can gain consistency in how we deploy.  

2. We have specific process around StartNow that is highly focused to meet our specific needs that allow us the room to continually improve our services.

We have established StartNow as a great tool in which to deploy, however there also needs to be a good process to back that tool up - which I will discuss in a future post related to Process pillar. StartNow is a product that has been evolving over the past 2 years and in that time we have worked to improve our deployments.

Both the Product Management Institute (PMI) and The SCRUM Alliance are realizing the value of using both methods in a deployment as an effective way to manage and execute.   It is clear that agile SCRUM is great for actual execution of what is needed, the build process, however there is much more that must happen before you can execute.   The insight of what it will take in the strategic planning and building out of our platform is missing from agile SCRUM. PPM is a solution that targets the strategy, order, resources and time.   The reverse is that with traditional waterfall project it is typical that the requirements that we built in advance are not being met. I think it is fare to give both their diligence where it is deserved; PPM is strategic and Agile SCRUM is fast and effective.   Using both to balance a deployment is where they can be very effective when put together.

StartNow was created based on both PPM and SCRUM techniques giving insight and understanding to what is being developed during the project and ensuring that it is meeting the requirements and user capabilities.   Validation though out the project leads to simpler go-lives as many of the typical issues are found and corrected early in the deployment.   A key benefit in using agile SCRUM is the involvement of the right team members at the right time. Having this team engaged early then allows every level of the organization to be involved and potentially committed to the project. Being agile works great during the execution of the development (deploy) stage, however understanding who will be committed and when they will be needed is where it gets very tricky using only agile and near impossible on large scale projects. This is where project planning is needed to help strategize when and how the larger milestones will be accomplished and early warning and planning can happen for when resources will be called upon. Project planning is a necessary step for any project that involves many groups that could impact various levels of an organization. This planning then in turn will help in the order of execution, which in turn leads to the overall duration and budget required to execute against the deployment.   Project planning from a StartNow standpoint is a high level view of the overall strategy without getting diving into all the specifics up front and leaving these details for agile SCRUM based processes.

In my next blog I will discuss how a good process is necessary to support the technical aspects of a deployment.   StartNow is based on both a great tool, but also a great process.