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Delivery Baseline

Purpose: All engagements within Mesh-AI should ensure they are meeting the minimum standards for delivery and engineering. By ensuring these standards are in place we can look to minimise any potential risks within our engagements regarding how we are working.

What and Why we are doing things should be covered in regular delivery reporting and engagement briefings.

Process:

  • Standards are published on Confluence and shared with teams.
  • An engagement check-in should take place on a regular basis to understand how we are tracking against the standards and ensure clear actions are in place for improvement.

Delivery Standards​

Clear Outcome/s​

  • There is a clear outcome the customer is looking to achieve and an understanding of how our engagement will deliver it.
  • Progress against delivering Outcomes are tracked, measured and are articulated on the squad dashboard.
  • Outcomes are spoken about within Squad calls and progress against them is understood across the squad.

Ownership​

  • A clear, accountable owner and sponsor at the customer should be identified from the outset and have decision making authority.
  • Sign off on the agreed outcome, delivery parameters, understanding of key risks and dependencies and the overall delivery approach needs to be agreed with the owner from the start.
  • A clear RACI should be developed across the rest of the delivery, agreed with the owner / sponsor and maintained throughout - at deliverable level.
  • Agreement on reporting, timing and format, should be agreed with the owner / sponsor at the outset.

Delivery Plan​

  • There is a clear overall plan for the delivery and a more detailed plan for the immediate 3-6 Months aligned to the outcomes of the engagement.
  • We are able to articulate what we are achieving at multiple levels; high level on the engagement and day to day activity within the teams.
  • Plan is articulated and regularly shared at the stand ups and steerco.
  • Aligns to clear outcomes which are aligned to business outcomes.
  • Work is visible and tracked within tools such as Jira, Trello etc.
  • This is used as a tool in the squad calls to orientate everyone on where we are.

Charter & Ways of Working​

  • There is a clear view on who is on the team and what their responsibilities are via a clear RACI.
  • Understanding of working practices, tools and locations with all delivery team members (not just Mesh-AI team) in line with the right working culture (example).
  • Team actively calls out gaps and proactively matures their team charter.
  • There should be agreement with the customer on locations for the delivery.
  • Time should be spent both at the customer site and Mesh-AI offices to promote face to face collaboration and aid relationship building.

Reporting​

  • Customers are sent a regular report to cover progress, key RAID items and financials (burndown). Minimum is once every 2 weeks (for a sprint, weekly if needed).
  • This Report should be tagged and put into the weekly dashboard.
  • Reports are not just activity based (i.e deployed x to UAT environment). They should detail progress against the delivery plan. Are we on track against our targets, etc.
  • Progress against Outcomes (or 6-12 weekly big wins & milestones); reflect on value delivered, which is often hard to see in an individual sprint.

RAID/Governance​

  • Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies are proactively tracked and managed with clear owners for resolution.
  • The RAID is escalated and shared with the client.
  • The RAID is visibly shown on the dashboard with Key risks and issues shared.

Metrics​

  • We are clear how we will measure success for what we are building.
  • How many users will be utilising the tools.
  • What is the benefit being driven (efficiency, cost etc.) and realisation of the benefit.
  • Customer satisfaction and adoption via CSAT survey.

SoW Management​

  • The SoW is proactively managed. This should not be a set in stone artefact, but should be proactively managed to ensure alignment of scope and focus.
  • Fixed term deliverables have a clear sign off plan with time built in for revisions and feedback.

Ceremonies​

  • SteerCo: A regular (weekly / fortnightly) Steering Committee is established with senior stakeholders within the Customer. Core risks and issues that affect the engagement should be raised and proactively managed.
  • Stand-ups: Key ceremonies have been diarised and are in place, with or without the customer (with upfront agreement with the customer).
  • There are Mesh-AI only opportunities for the teams to collaborate > Team/architectural huddles
  • An instant messaging channel should be set up with the customer and any partner teams from the outset ie. Slack, Teams or another.

Onboarding and staffing plan​

  • There is a clear onboarding process for new individuals joining the team, how will they gain access to systems and gain context of what has been delivered to date (most pertinent in longer engagements).
  • Well documented and concise understanding of the customer for new members (example).
  • Background and context on the customer for every new member to read prior to joining their squad/workstream, including previous engagements delivered to the customer.
  • Introduction to key customer team members and sponsor when appropriate.

Squad​

  • Effective, regular communication is key. Each squad should have a slack-channel, squad call and designated squad day in the office for teams to collaborate and challenge.
  • The entire squad is effectively bought in; across People & Talent, Marketing, Partners and Finance.
  • Measured through squad goals as set out in the charter/squad kick off.

Stakeholder Map​

  • There is a clear stakeholder map with sponsor/peer/champion/influencer etc and a view of who from Mesh is accountable for the engagement that is the first point of contact for the sponsor.

Engagement Close out​

  • At the start of the engagement, we are clear what good looks like for the end of the engagement, handover, service transition etc.
  • We document achievements against desired outcomes, referring back to the SoW.
  • If appropriate, an agreement with the customer is obtained for any public communication, i.e. a case study.

Things to consider​