Service Project Management: Some Thoughts

[fhall]

Strolling through the community, one sees great material on technical issues. Given the rich set of enterprise offerings available in Eureka release, though, it seemed like some community comment on actual project/product management of ServiceNow could be worthwhile. How to start? Where to start?

As a current project manager with reasonable experience in Helpdesk turnarounds and management, Operations bootstrapping and management, and much process mapping and implementation, I respectfully share some fairly densely-packed observations from experience. I hope they're of use. Feedback is most welcome.

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Project Management is Public Relations Management.

There's no such thing as an IT project. They're all business projects. Some are stewarded by IT. Know the business.

Project success requires two things:

1.             getting the work done,

2.             being seen to get the work done.

They both matter.

It's People, Process, Tools — in that order.

People

• Identify your unhappiest customers. Add them to the project team.
• Know who your people are. Know what they do. Document what they do. Make sure they know what they do. Use a RACI Matrix. Publish it.
• Know how you're going to talk to them. Make sure they know how you're going to talk to them. Develop a Communication plan. Publish it.

Process

• Everything is supply chain. This is especially true in service organizations!
  (Recommended reading: Eliyahu Goldratt's "The Goal")
• If you can't draw it, you don't understand it.
  • Can you whiteboard the process(es) in question so everyone using it nods their head 'yes'?
  • Can you whiteboard required process improvements so everyone invested therein nods their head 'yes'?
• If you don't draw it, you won't understand it.
  • Visio is your friend.
  • Have you iterated the workflows until all your stakeholders agree with them? Are their names included in all versions?
  • Have you versioned and published your signed-off as-is / to-be workflows?
  • Signed-off as-is / to-be workflows are the foundation of your requirements documentation — and may even be your requirements documentation…!

Tools

• Don't move to Tools deployment without signed-off workflows.
• ServiceNow isn't a toybox - it's a toolbox. Don't let management or line-staff stuff "shiny bits" into the cart.
• IT loses credibility through over-scoping. Fix real, defined business problems. Bound your scope. Don't over-reach. Triage ruthlessly.
• Demonstrate success by fixing those real, defined business problems. Then fix the next business problem. Repeat.
• Ensure all your people understand and communicate the value you've added. Build inter-team credibility. Share the victories.