Modern government is no longer able to singularly rely on expertise of individuals to ensure quality.
Conditions are more volatile with accelerating technology cycles, changing customer expectations and agile methodologies delivering regular releases along the value stream.
Remote working and Government increasingly leveraging enterprise delivery and industry capability models require smarter oversight of requirements and benefits management.
In light of this situation, what did you do to make sure they were entitled, had permission and had appropriate controls in place?
Such questions bring fear into the hearts of even the most experienced Officials. Establishing early industrialisation capability will provide the foundations to roll back time to evidence your process controls and then list the subsequent improvements.
In this dynamic environment the Policy owner needs to be able to demonstrate command and integration of their Policy area. This includes the ability to recall evidence to demonstrate due diligence of Officials and investment to protect the interests of the Taxpayer.
Policy owners need to condition their operations to deliver the necessary levels of quality. In our experience the following three steps help establish capability:
1. Capture the enterprise
2. Set a roadmap
3. Everyday finessing
These steps have supported engineering through to administrative desk-sharing ventures. The leverage of the expert in the chair and community are excellent ways to accelerate and embed this essential capability.
Capturing the functions at each level of the enterprise provides visibility of the core competencies needed to achieve strategic and operational outcomes. This structure also provides clarity on who is responsible and agents with competitive advantage needed in the enterprise.
The Operating model is the configuration of the things you need to complete in each department within this architecture.
Hint: Agile projects are working on the next configuration and unfortunately often miss change management. It is important for the scrum to include time to update manuals and process documentation so the process is ready for BAU team operations.
Strategic Navigation is a method for managing current state to a deliberate future state. You need to set a vision state for your industrialisation across the architecture. Over or under investment will likely have an impact on your outcomes.
By combining the roadmap and the architecture you will be able to identify areas where you need light-touch or detailed instruction. To an extent you will be able to rely on industry professionals, software and assets for quality.
The goal is to create simple documentation so someone else can do your job to the same standard. The effort capturing this need not be intensive, but is should be routine.
Support your team so that every time you complete a task, just take some time to capture feedback for the backlog. In addition to developing ownership this input will also foster better practical integration and efficiency allowing your team to lean more into their expertise.
It is important to review the business analysis capability across the business. A common library that leverages the architecture with templates for process documentation is needed for self service from the business. Templates support compliance and operational alignment. A Centre of excellence can provide specialist skills and rolling review to provide corporate assurance.
Hint: Community lead authoring is an excellent way to accelerate standardisation of practices. Each business team captures their processes in a similar way and in a common library. A central business architecture and analysis team provides governance and support, but the authoring comes from the experts.
