Codified Ways of Working
Maria Muir
Strategy to Execution | Flow Engineer | Operating Models | Transformation Advisor
An integrated, connected tooling ecosystem is needed to support strategy to execution
I'll be honest. I've never been a big fan of tools. My focus over the past 14+ years with ways of working has always been on People > Process > Tooling (in that order).
But after all of this time, I've realised that to truly make ways of working change sustainable, we need to be deliberate about tooling. It needs to be a focus. When we embed how we would like to operate and organise into tooling, we embed the change.
As such, this is a topic that Mark Payne and I have spent some time understanding in 2024. There is a gap in the market for a connected, integrated tooling ecosystem.
The gap in the market
We see a gap in the market for a holistic, integrated and connected tooling ecosystem (portfolio mgmt, work mgmt, workforce / resource mgmt, financial mgmt.) to help organisations deliver the most value, in the shortest time, with quality, safety and happiness.
There are lots of traditional project management tools. Equally, there are lots of agile tools. There are few that do both well. Even fewer that enable a connected portfolio from enterprise to team.
As such, a codified tooling ecosystem is needed to support organisations as they continue to improve ‘how they do what they do’ and to make those improvements sustainable. To be clear, at the time of our review, there was no 1 tool that does it all. This is why it is an ecosystem. And you will need more than just JIRA!
The tooling ecosystem needs to support the uplift in ways of working overtime, as the change approach should not be big bang. This may mean that we are living in two modes as we test and learn within an organisation and the tooling needs to support this.
The high-level needs
We need a system that supports the shift from Output to Outcome.
This means that Organisations may need to see two views of their data – the metrics they currently use, i.e., cost/time/scope and a new view that focuses on outcomes and value. This will support the transition from a traditional way of working to an improved way of working that supports delivery in the Age of Digital/AI.
We need a system that supports the shift from Project to Product.
This means that Organisations may need to see their teams in two views – the project/program context landscape that they are currently operating in and a new view with E2E Value Streams.
We need a system that supports the shift from PMO to VRO.
This means that the introduction of outcomes (aka OKRs) and outcome roadmaps will be needed in addition to delivery roadmaps. The portfolio of work will need to be visualised for all teams to effectively prioritise and manage work in progress to improve flow.
We need a system that supports the shift from rigid annual planning cycles to adaptive planning.
This means that organisations to move away from annual planning cycles towards adaptive strategic planning enabled by the shift to fixed capacity funding models.
We need a system that supports the removal of governance rage.
This means that we need to tech enable as much as possible so that we can remove wasted effort and management of portfolios via excel spreadsheets / PPT.
Ecosystem Users
When we started looking at what is required to enable strategy to execution, we first looked at who the customers of the codified WoW are and then mapped out what was required to enable the shifts to improve ways of working.
Features Required
6 Core Features
The core 6 features that an integrated, connected tooling ecosystem needs to support are:
1. Strategy / Outcome definition
2. Demand management
3. Capacity management
4. Financial mgmt
5. Governance
6. Workflow
Bringing the Tooling Ecosystem Components together
The components that we explored to consider in your tooling architecture cover - Inputs, Core Components, and Enablers.
3 Inputs
🟨 HR/People data
🟨 Finance data
🟨 Strategy inputs
Data integrations and connections will be needed to get the source of truth of HR/Finance data. Often Strategy is captured in PPT so being able to capture 'Strategy' in the tooling ecosystem may be helpful!
6 Core Components
🟩 Portfolio Financial Performance
🟩 Portfolio Mgmt including Portfolio Demand mgmt / OKRs
🟩 Work Demand Mgmt
🟩 Team Mgmt including Workforce Planning and Capacity Mgmt
🟩 Operations including Release Mgmt
🟩 Service Mgmt
These 6 core components may be different tools! e.g. Work Demand mgmt is often JIRA. Service Mgmt may be ServiceNow. Portfolio management tools like Planview need to consider portfolio financials, outcome definition, demand management and connecting strategy to execution. We discovered that often there is no system source of truth for 'who are your teams' (except for what's in the spreadsheet!) and this is needed to support demand/capacity alignment - this is TeamForm’s sweet spot.
The tooling ecosystem needs to be enabled by:
🟪 Portfolio, Flow & Delivery Analytics, BVSSH Outcomes & Reporting
🟪 Cloud Infrastructure
These enablers set-up the Value Realisation Office (aka the modern PMO) and Teams to help coordinate, orchestrate and deliver on the portfolio of work.
For further details on the tooling architecture view and tools that we explored to 'fit together', reach out directly to myself or Mark. We developed 3 common scenarios for how to compose the tools into an architecture.
How to get started
From the tooling review that we completed, we concluded these 4 key learnings.
1. A connected ecosystem is required
Through our investigation we found that no one platform satisfied all requirements.
This means that multiple tools will be required in a connected ecosystem for organisations to manage an E2E delivery model. We have also found that there are overlapping capabilities across the various tools and clarity is required in the design to be selective about which piece of capability will be leveraged and from what tooling platform.
The goal is an integrated system where no re-keying is required.
2. Transition will need to be supported
There will be 2 modes that organisations will need to operate within as they make the key shifts required in their ways of working.
This means that visibility will be required for both Project and Product / Value Streams and Output and Outcome.
Every organisation is different to the next. This means we cannot expect every organisation to be a copy of one another. Context matters as the ways of working shifts from traditional to modern.
3. Making the most of your current tech stack
This is not just about developing ways to connect your ecosystem, but it is also about understanding the roles of the different tools.
Use your current stack as effectively and efficiently as possible. The goal is to automate manual effort, ensure there is a source of truth for key data, and make it sustainable via tooling.
It should be noted that introducing new tools may have a high change effort.
4. Take a user centric approach
This means that different personas should have a tailored experience. Users should seamlessly be able to access, edit and manage the information that is most relevant to them.
Creating transparency of the work and teams should be the default. This makes it easy to view common goals to enable alignment and collaboration.
This has implications for the licensing model for the tooling platform meaning that it cannot be cost prohibitive to create this transparency.
For further information or discussion, please reach out to:
Head of Global Learning : Leadership , Management and AI Tech
8moGreat share
Organisation Transformation expert with a focus on improving digital delivery. Expert in Scaled Agile implementation.
8moReally loved this content. This is exactly where I have been focusing for some time. This area needs more discussion. Will be happy to contribute in this space.