managing demand through quarterly release cycle management · •increased work orders (non-project...
TRANSCRIPT
1
Managing Demand Through Quarterly Release Cycle ManagementSession #238, February 23, 2017
Sidney Dixon, Director of Enterprise Applications, ProHealth Care, Inc.
Marcie Reichert, Manager, GE Healthcare
2
Speakers
• Has 13 years of experience
implementing and supporting IT
applications
• Currently the Director of
Enterprise Applications and
Informatics at ProHealth Care
• Supports 28 applications
• Has 6 years implementing and
managing IT applications
• 12 years as staff nurse and Manager
for surgical services
• Currently the Manager for Clinical
Education - PeriOp/ARC covering
North America at GE Healthcare
Sidney Dixon Marcie Reichert
3
Conflict of Interest
• Sidney Dixon
– Has no real or apparent conflicts of interest to report.
• Marcie Reichert
– Has no real or apparent conflicts of interest to report.
4
Agenda
• Discuss learning objectives
• Review prior state challenges
• Define service level agreements
• Review release management principles and benefits
• Discuss lessons learned
5
Learning Objectives
• Identify the elements of an ITIL release management strategy
• Discuss the process to implement release cycle management
• Recognize how release cycle management improves IT and organizational
efficiencies
• Analyze the lessons learned and importance on continual process
improvement
6
STEPSTM
• Better planning for the organization
• Able to predict with a high rate of
accuracy on when we will implement
their request.
• Aligns to organizational change
management
• Decreased staffing by almost 10% while still better able to manage the demand.
• Gained ~ 6,000 hours in capacity
• Increased work orders (non-project requests) by 50%
• Reduced the amount of duplicate testing we were performing and training we were doing with operations.
7
Prior State“…Predictability is one of IT's most elusive goals…”
8 8
Typical Challenges
ITTracking and managing
projects against multiple
requests and tickets
Support vs Work Orders vs
Projects
Inefficiencies with testing,
training, & communications
Quality of delivered
solutions
OperationsLack of predictability
Unclear timelines on
support and work orders
Business owner confidence
Amount of pace of change
being introduced
LeadershipVisibility to a roadmap
Escalation management
paradigm
Operational alignment
9
A Model of Predictability
9
10
Former State of Releases
Q1
14
Q2 15 Q3 15
Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Project A
Project B
Enhancement A
Enhancement B
Legend
Scope
Build
Test
Train
Go Live
11
Service Level Agreements
12
What are SLAs?
• ITIL defines it as:
– A contract and/or agreement between a service provider (either internal or external) and the end user that
defines the level of service expected from the service provider. SLAs are output-based in that their
purpose is specifically to define what the customer will receive.
• Typically it will cover:
– Terminology
– Processes
– Service hours
– Service availability
– Customer support levels
– Throughputs and responsiveness
– Restrictions, functionality and the service levels to be provided in a contingency
13
Why SLAs?
• Nature of SLAs:
– Iterative process… business is dynamic
– IT requirements change
– New technology
– External and internal factors
– Reviewed and updated quarterly
SLAs
Sets Expectations
Common Definitions
Turn Around Times
Performance Measurements
Release Management
Predictability
14
Release Cycle Management
15
What is Release Management?
• A methodology for planning and implementing an integrated set of functional
components and processes in a controlled manner.
– Date driven
– The project management “Iron Triangle”
– Reversed planned
– Mechanized
– Forecasted schedules as well as functionality
– Integrated and predictable
– Uses standard system development lifecycle (SDLC) and project management methodologies (PMBOK) and best practices
16
Release Management
Scope
• Projects
• Enhancements
Build
• Span cycles
• Start dates vary
Test
• Dates aligned
• Includes all items in scope
Communication
• Training aligned
• Policies/Procedures
Go Live
• Start scoping next cycle
First Monday Last
Tuesday
Calendar
Quarter
Prior
Quarter
17
Release Lifecycle/Scheduling
Q2
15
Q3 15
Release Cycle 3
Q4 15
Release Cycle 4
Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept
Scope
RC 1
Build Test Train
/
Com
m
Go
Live
Scope
RC2
Build Test Train
/
Com
m
Go Live
&
Scope
RC3Project A
Project B
Enhancement A
Enhancement B
18
Process
Project Requests
Enhancement Requests
Support Tickets
19
Benefits of Release Management
• Economies of scale with certain processes at specific intervals
• Provides an integrated (and transparent) view of both business and IT plans
• Results in a more stable production system
• Creates predictability in delivery timeframes, costs, and support requirements
• Allows for the utilization of corporate resources consistent with corporate
priorities
• Enables governance efficiencies
20
0
10
20
30
AD
T
Be
acon
Cla
ims
HIM
Hospital B
illin
g
Inpatie
nt/C
lin…
Pro
fessio
nal…
Rem
ote
Ap
ps
Will
ow
Project Count
AVERAGE9/1/2014-3/31/2015
AVERAGE4/1/2015-8/31/2016
Benefits of Release Management
• Gained ~6,000 hours in additional
capacity
• No longer the bottleneck for requests
• Decrease in number of break fix tickets
• About a 50% increase in completion of
enhancement requests
– Better tracking and metrics with release management
• Decreased staffing by 8 FTEs
0
200
400
600
Demand Hours
AVERAGE9/1/2014-3/31/2015
AVERAGE4/1/2015-8/31/2016
21
Change Management
• Socialized and vetted the methodology about 6 months
• Organizational culture
– Hope
– Squeaky wheel
– Senior leadership support
22
Lessons Learned
• Increased more proactive planning for testing
• Ability to be more transparent with what’s included in the release cycle
– Reporting tools
• Organizational planning and forecasting
• Difficulty coordinating with teams not using release cycle methodology
23
Next Steps
• Build SLAs into our ITIL tool (ticketing application)
– Measure SLA compliance
– Adjust process or SLAs as necessary
• Expand to other areas within IT
24
Summary
• Challenges to provide predictability on enhancements and routine maintenance
for delivery timeframes, costs, and support requirements
• Release management is a methodology that provides predictability, stability and
transparency to software delivery
• Planning, planning, planning:
– A release in June might start in January
• Key to success is managing a targeted schedule
• Not a silver bullet
25
Questions
Sidney Dixon
Marcie Reichert
Please remember to complete your
online session evaluation.