After Action Review Themes: August & September 2024

This is the monthly update on the themes that came out of our After Action Review sessions in August and September. See below for key themes and opportunities, lessons learned, best practices, recommendations for immediate impact, and actions for long-term improvement.

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What Sessions Did We Facilitate These Past Two Months?

Multi-Workload Projects

• Especially in a multi-workload engagement, it is critical to align early on roles and responsibilities (see the RASCI Workbook), the utilization of ADO and tracking of requirements (standardized ADO Process Materials), and how the team will adjust or modify templates or approach based on client needs (scalability factors).  

• As a best practice for multi-workload projects, start working with the basic and common master data points between workstreams as soon as possible (basic data that is common to every business). Team members have found this approach to be effective on other projects as well.  

• Aim for a phased approach for more complex projects; the more functionality that is new to the client, the more difficult the learning curve can be for client teams.  

General Project Approach

• When resourcing for another project for an existing client, (particularly leadership team members, like project managers), prioritize including delivery team members with previous experience working with that client when possible.  

• Team members found that building in time for mock cutovers and dry runs (sometimes repeated events) helped smooth transitions and mitigate risks in anticipation of go-live.  

• For upgrade projects, the Define Phase is critical for assessing current state and should be emphasized, even with limited time and budget. This step is critical for better planning and avoiding issues down the line.  

• Continue to prioritize the Sales to Delivery Transition at the onset of the engagement, including context on client temperature and working style to prepare team members for how to be interact with the client. (See “Sales Transition Process” in Key Concepts, and “Sales to Delivery Transition” in each Project Type in the Playbook.)  

• When preparing for discovery sessions with the client, provide guidelines to the client beforehand about who is appropriate to attend these meetings—a limited number of people who can accurately speak to key pain points and business processes.  

Operations Enablement

• The ongoing Operations Enablement initiative is working toward a common process for consistency in how we estimate and create + manage SOWs and/or change orders. Outcomes from that project will be shared and implemented this year.  

• As part of the current phase of Operations Enablement, definition and alignment to a common end-to-end resourcing process across teams is being worked on. This includes connecting tools and pulling information forward for efficient forecasting, resourcing decisions, and project management.    

ADO Standardization

• Maximizing ADO’s abilities to track requirements, change orders, risks, and issues provides a number of efficiencies for both the Stoneridge and client teams. The recently released ADO processes and adherence to them is critical here, especially for how we train and talk to the client about utilizing the tool. Team members can look forward to the incorporation of these newly aligned processes in ongoing and/or upcoming engagements. (See “ADO Process Materials (for Projects)” in the Proven Process Fundamentals section in the Playbook.)  

  

Roadmap 1-Year Audit 

• The Continuous Improvement team is finishing a review of the Roadmap engagement in practice from the past year since the Roadmap Process Validation effort concluded in June 2023. The outcomes of this audit will include data to help drive more informed decisions related to Roadmap engagements, a list of updates to current Roadmap assets in the Playbook, a list of new assets to be created, and next steps for identified areas of improvement related to team member training and onboarding to Roadmaps. The outcomes of this audit will be shared in early Q4 2024.