Service Project Management - Further Thoughts (#2)

[fhall]

Since a few folks have stopped by to visit, it seemed reasonable (and rather fun) to continue sharing. This time, some brief observations on working with the customer on service-based projects. (I wonder if Eliyahu Goldratt would object overmuch if I employed the term "service-chain".)

People

I'm getting ready for your workflow mapping session with Department X, and rather dreading it. Two of the teammates have been at loggerheads for months now, each claiming the other doesn't know what they're doing and thus making each's job harder. How as the ServiceNow PM can I get over that?

I make it about the process.

I've discovered, often to my surprise, when peeled back far enough, interpersonal work problems are often workflow problems. Those that aren't can often be fixed with workflow.

From your own experience, you can likely find use cases where your work relationships were adversely affected by

• Undocumented assumptions
• Insufficient workflow
• Unclear deliverables

…leading to unsatisfied employees and some understandable blame-storming. Keeping that in mind, let's further explore thoughts on process.

Process
"Consensus" isn't a 'soft' concept. It's not about feeling better - it's about working better. Avoid permitting yourself or others to think differently about it.

As service-focused PM's, we are not there to solve problems. We are there to facilitate solution. Avoid personal heroics. Hold teammates accountable for team success.

I've frequently found that , if the team conducts the workflow exercises properly, at least one person will have a "Hi, Mom!" moment. They'll see themselves in the process and be excited by their place in it. That's a measurable indicator of success. (I usually keep that to myself and the exercise moving forward…)

I confess I've kept this little observation to myself: Simply documenting current workflow, and having your people sign their names to it enables real movement from Ad Hoc to Repeatable — even if you never automate or improve the workflow. (Check out the Carnegie-Mellon Capability Maturity Model on Wikipedia as needed for background on terminology here.)

It's just been my observation that when folks know and agree on how the supply chain works, they can — and usually will — adjust their workstyles to keep it functioning smoothly.

Tools

If you want to validate the 'water-tightness' of your documented workflow, mock-run the entire workflow start-to-finish manually with your team. Before you ever touch a line of code. Does it perform as-described? Is it effective?

...next time, I think it could be fun to comment on why a ServiceNow instance will only ever be as good as a company's Marketing department.

Thanks for stopping by!