After Action Review Themes: June & July 2024

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

What Sessions Did We Facilitate These Past Two Months?

Engaging in the Proven Process

• Teams utilized scalability factors to help guide modifications of the process to best suit the client’s needs.

  • In one case, the project had several “mini go-lives” as was requested during the prior Roadmap. The team adapted to the client’s ways of working and supported them while utilizing the Proven Process as a guideline for collaboration.

  • The prior Roadmap engagement also set up the team to jump right in and start doing configuration; this was enabled by the Solution and Technical Architects collaborating and making a clear plan before the project started.

• Utilization of the RASCI Matrix in the project's context helped clarify roles and responsibilities in the team. This enabled them to be flexible in planning, help navigate sudden changes in scheduling, and made it easier to step in for each other when necessary.

  • RASCI Definitions Visual

  • Base Project RASCI Workbook

General Project Best Practices

• Habitually recording sessions (especially early in an implementation) can help mitigate issues as they arise, especially when it comes to knowledge transfer in the event of turnover, reinforcing already-made decisions with the client, and clarifying requirements.

• In projects involving multiple companies in the same engagement, one team found that keeping those companies separate (note-taking, requirements tracking, environments, etc.) helped keep things organized and prevented confusion or negative impact on other companies/workstreams when changes in scope happened. This was especially effective because each business was different from the other; it was easier to treat them as separate, rather than trying to group everything into a single project.

  • It also helped to have team members focus on different workstreams (while maintaining close internal collaboration/communication), with a “main” team leading the overall project and supporting consultants for different workstreams. This made the process efficient.

Operations Enablement

• When it comes to multi-workload projects, there are some differences in processes for change orders between product lines. The ongoing Operations enablement initiative is working toward a common process for consistency in how we create and manage SOWs and/or change orders. Outcomes from that project will be shared and implemented this year.  

Proven Process Baselining (ADO Usage & Standardization, Proven Process Refresh)

• The Project RASCI Workbook is an excellent resource for project leaders (PMs, EMs, SAs, TAs) to facilitate team conversations about roles and responsibilities tied to key activities in each phase of the Proven Process. Reviewing the Project RASCI Workbook prior to beginning a new phase in the Proven Process is a great opportunity to reassess how things are going and make any necessary adjustments prior to proceeding.

• Updated versions of the Solution Blueprint Workbook for all workstreams were released this month. Click here for the announcement for BC / F&O, and here for CE.

Roadmap 1-Year Audit

• The current Roadmap engagement type has been “live” since June 2023. The CI Team will be completing an audit of the Roadmap engagement type to gauge effectiveness and opportunities for continuous improvement. This will include the identification of opportunities to update and improve current Roadmap assets, review the onboarding process for team members to Roadmap engagements, and the creation of new assets as needed. This audit process is expected to be complete by the end of Q3 2024.