Business
Solutions
Delivery
Having the Guts to Act on
Your Lessons Learned
Nashville PMI Symposium
April 29, 2013
Stephanie Dedmon, PMP
Director, Business Solutions Delivery
Department of Finance & Administration
State of Tennessee
April 29, 2013
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Business
Solutions
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Session Agenda
• Introduction
• Learning Objectives
• Background – The Impetus for Change
• Developing Strategic Lessons Learned
• Ways to Drive Positive Change
• Methods for Garnering Sponsorship
• Key Lessons Learned
• More About Business Solutions Delivery
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Business
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Introduction
• Stephanie Dedmon, PMP
• Director, Business Solutions Delivery – State of
Tennessee
• Building on Lessons Learned and What We
Can Take Away from Our Experience at the
State of Tennessee
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Solutions
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Learning Objectives
• Understand the process for developing
strategic lessons learned from past projects
• Understand ways to drive positive change
based on painful lessons learned
• Understand methods for garnering
sponsorship and support for the vision
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Business
Solutions
Delivery
Background - The Impetus for Change
• Customer Focused Government initiative
started by Governor Haslam’s administration
• IT Workgroup comprised of Agency
Commissioners and IT leaders focused on
identifying and addressing technology
challenges facing State agencies
• IT Workgroup identified several major issues
and set about developing meaningful and
actionable solutions
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Solutions
Delivery
The Symptoms
• The State of Tennessee has experienced several of
the following over the last ten years:
 Projects that have completely failed (i.e., never
implemented, vendor lawsuits, etc.)
 Projects that have significantly exceeded budget
 Projects that have been delivered YEARS late
 Projects that have been delivered without full
functionality and/or without business results
These less than desirable project outcomes have
resulted in hard dollar costs to the State.
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Solutions
Delivery
Problem Statements
Inconsistent approach to
agency IT classifications,
organizational structure,
processes and results
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IT procurement
process
Lack of project management
methodology and experience
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Solutions
Delivery
The process for developing strategic
lessons learned
• Involve those who have both positive and painful lessons
learned
• Include stakeholders from multiple levels of the
organization
• Include stakeholders from all business units (business and
technical)
• Be willing to take a hard, but objective look at failures
• Focus on the whys, not the who
• Identify what should be done differently
• Categorize the lessons learned into meaningful areas
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Business
Solutions
Delivery
The process for developing strategic
lessons learned
• During Governor Haslam’s first year, this was done in the
form of several Customer Focused Government
workgroups
• The IT workgroup was chaired by the State’s CIO, Mark
Bengel but made up of both “old and new” stakeholders
• The workgroup included several Agency Commissioners
who were facing less than desirable project outcomes
• Over a period of six months, the workgroup identified the
biggest challenges and developed recommended solutions,
including implementation plans, costs and benefits
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Business
Solutions
Delivery
Ways to drive positive change based on
painful lessons learned
• Show the hard truth in dollars
• Document meaningful key success factors that
must be present going forward and map to
what happens if they are not (in other words,
show how and why projects must be managed
differently)
• Put your money where your mouth is…fund it
• Hire experienced resources who can deliver
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Business
Solutions
Delivery
Ways to drive positive change based on
painful lessons learned
• Created a new division within F&A called Business
Solutions Delivery to provide centralized resources for the
initiation, execution and management of large, complex
business solutions to help achieve business objectives
• Provide deeply skilled and experienced resources to help
deliver business solutions
• Focus on consistent and proven methodologies to enable
the State to achieve improved success rates in delivering
business solutions on time and within budget and at a high
level of quality
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Business
Solutions
Delivery
Methods for garnering sponsorship and
support for the vision
• Go big – get the right, high level sponsors to
support the vision and direction
• Develop a group of stakeholders who can help
carry the message and keep them informed
• Provide updates regularly
• Measure your success
• Continue to develop more lessons learned
• Get your customers to share their experiences
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Solutions
Delivery
Key Lessons Learned
• Agencies have way too many business and technical initiatives;
they need help prioritizing projects
• The State of TN has a lack of very experienced project managers
• Large projects rarely include a focus on the change impact
• The State has not traditionally truly owned testing and therefore,
the solution delivered may not be fully functioning or meet the
business needs
• We have not consistently managed project costs
• We have not always done business process improvement BEFORE
selecting a solution
• We have a lack of project management discipline
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Solutions
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BSD Resource Framework
• Specific Functional Resource Skills:
 Business Process Improvement
 Requirements Analysis and Definition
 RFP Development, Procurement Methodologies
 Contract Management
 Change Management
 Quality Management
 Project Metrics/Measurements
 Methodologies, Best Practices, Tools and Templates
 Testing
 Source Code/Change Management
 Training
 Communications
 Program Lifecycle Support
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BSD Service Offerings
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Assist in Business Process Improvement Initiatives
Help Develop Business Solution Alternatives
Develop Business and Technical Requirements
Help Facilitate the Procurement Process
Identify Agency Project Staffing Needs and Help Source Resources
Deliver Program Management for Project Lifecycle
Provide Project Measurement, Metrics and Reporting
Provide Testing Strategies and Methodologies
Provide Training Strategies and Methodologies
Provide Quality Assurance Strategies and Methodologies
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Adopting a More Proactive Approach
• Business Process Analysis and Reengineering
• SMART Business Requirements
• Solution Vision
• Market Analysis
• Business Case
• Cost – Internal Staffing, Infrastructure, Software, Vendors…
• Funding
• Procurements
• Disciplined Project Management
• Methodologies
•AprilMeasurements
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Key Success Criteria
• Have the project business drivers and success factors been identified?
• Does this project, and its business drivers, support the agency’s (and
State’s) overall strategic objectives?
• Does the project have adequate sponsorship, business participation in
the project and ownership of the solution?
• Does the project have adequate funding for all phases of the project?
• Will the agency dedicate and commit the appropriate number and
experienced project team resources to participate full time on the
project?
• Has a change control board been identified and are they ready and
to actively evaluate and manage change control?
Aprilcapable
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BSD Focus…Our Differentiators
• Requiring Up Front Business Process Analysis
• Adhering to Our Disciplined Project Management
Methodology
• Building Relationships and Partnerships
• Focus on Organizational Change Management
• Focus on Consistent Testing Strategies
• Delivering Deep Project Management Experience
• Using Consistent Project Metrics to Evaluate Project Status
• Creating a Culture to Encourage Sharing and Lessons Learned
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Criteria for BSD Project Support
• Initial Project Estimate of $10 million and greater
AND/OR high risk score
• BSD Governance Committee reviews all requests, key
factors and success criteria to determine which
projects BSD can support
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In Conclusion…
• The State of TN is very serious about improving our IT
project outcomes
• Business Solutions Delivery is a first step to provide
experienced resources and core methodologies
• BSD was developed as a result of acting on our lessons
learned
• Proof is in the pudding….projects on schedule, on budget
meeting key objectives
• Discipline….sticking to the methodology and willingness
and support to make the tough (and unpopular)
decisions
• Continuous improvement will be a focus
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Questions or Feedback?
Contact Info:
Stephanie Dedmon
(615) 253-2725
stephanie.dedmon@tn.gov
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