CHAPTER 2: SIAM ROADMAP STAGE 1: DISCOVERY & STRATEGY
The Discovery & Strategy stage analyzes the customer organization's current situation, formulates key strategies and initiates a SIAM transition program, if appropriate. This enables the customer organization to:
Confirm whether SIAM is an appropriate approach, based on expected benefits and risks
Determine a sourcing strategy, based on existing service providers; those that can be retained and activities suitable for external sourcing
Consider additional skills and resources that may be required for the SIAM transition and subsequent operation of the SIAM ecosystem
Why SIAM?
In an IT environment where many services are becoming commoditized (cloud, as-a-service, etc.) and where multiple vendors need to work together to provide business-critical services, many organizations are spending more time on supplier management, rather than on actually delivering services. They are increasingly considering SIAM to:
Understand the end-to-end picture of service provision
Coordinate the activities of multiple service providers
Provide a single source of truth regarding service performance
Be a trusted partner in developing new services and strategies
Optimize delivery through people, processes, tools and suppliers
Ensure smooth performance of day-to-day operations, enabling them to concentrate on more progressive activities
2.1 Roadmap 'flow'
There is no one correct way of 'doing' SIAM. Most commissioning organizations already work with one or more service providers, and have different objectives, priorities and resources. Many elements influence the decision to adopt SIAM, along with deciding the appropriate approach for the transition to the chosen SIAM model.
Discovery & Strategy is a critical stage of the roadmap, as each customer organization's maturity, services and level of SIAM readiness is different. For example, some organizations may already have a sourcing strategy or mature supplier management capabilities, whereas others will need to create these as part of their SIAM roadmap. If activities are missed - or are partially completed - there could be a negative impact on the remainder of the transition project activities.
Many of the outputs from Discovery & Strategy are refined and expanded in the Plan & Build stage. A SIAM program is likely to require an iterative approach. Often, completion of a task will lead to the revision of an earlier activity. For example, designing the detailed SIAM model in the Plan & Build stage may lead to a review of the SIAM strategy, an activity completed in the Discovery & Strategy stage. It is essential to revisit the approach regularly and reassess previous decisions when needed.
The sequence of activities in the roadmap is not a predefined 'checklist' or prescriptive approach. Rather, it is an optimal approach, based on the authors' experience. Each element is addressed as part of a SIAM roadmap; each task's structure, order and priority depends on the customer organization's particular circumstances. Time pressures may require activities to happen in parallel for some organizations.
Designing without tailoring
The CIO of a small organization with 50 users created a SIAM strategy before understanding the capabilities of their internal IT team and its current services.
They engaged external consultants to design a SIAM model. They reused a model that they had created for a large, multinational organization. This included contract schedules for an external service integrator and several service providers. The CIO then brought in a separate team of external procurement professionals to run a major procurement exercise. After 12 months, the service integrator and service providers were appointed.
Because of the lack of tailoring to a 'standard' SIAM model to suit the needs of the smaller organization, the result was a threefold increase in the costs of the IT services.
2.2 Establish the SIAM transition project
"The SIAM transition project should be formally established using the organization's selected project management methodology."4
Managing the transition to a SIAM model is a significant undertaking. The time, costs, effort and resources for all parties involved should not be underestimated. This section provides some guidance on the most appropriate project management methodologies and approaches that can be used throughout the SIAM roadmap stages.
The context of this section is to provide guidance regarding the discovery, planning and implementation of a SIAM model. It is not intended to provide recommendations for the implementation of a project management framework.
2.2.1 Project management methods
There are a variety of project management standards, methodologies and frameworks available, including:
International standards, for example ISO 21500
Country specific standards, for example ANSI, BS 6079, DIN 69900:2009
Generic or global methodologies, for example PMI, PMBOK, APM, SCRUM, PRINCE2
Industry specific practices, for example HOAI, V-Model, etc.
Combining these with any existing practices within an organization provides a good starting point for managing the SIAM transition project and the activities of the SIAM roadmap.
Minimize complexity
Most organizations will already have a preferred project management methodology. It is usually better to adopt that approach, rather than impose a different method that can lead to further disruption as the organization learns SIAM principles and a new project management approach.
Successful completion of complex projects, such as a SIAM transition, almost invariably requires the selection and expert application of a number of different enabling practices, approaches and frameworks. It is important to consider the mix and the level of expertise that will be required for a SIAM transformation.
Some organizations may choose to work with an external provider of project management capabilities. This may arise when the organization has no capability in project management, no available resources or little experience of managing a project of this scale and type. In these cases, it can be helpful to work with an organization that adheres to an organizational or global project management standard. This reduces the risk of becoming over-reliant on a proprietary framework and its provider.
Regardless of the project management methodologies and practices selected, it is important to reach agreement on the principles and approaches to be used. This ensures a common understanding between the stakeholders involved in project delivery and governance.
In many organizations, the transformation to a SIAM model may be carried out as a program with several projects within it. In this case, a program management method or approach will need to be considered, in addition to a project management methodology.
Program versus project
Although programs and projects have many similarities, they also display several different characteristics and functions.
A project is well defined, with a start and end point and specific objectives that, when attained, signify completion.
A program has greater levels of uncertainty. It can be defined as a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing projects individually.
The transition to SIAM is usually a program that can span many years and includes several discrete projects. During the Discovery & Strategy stage, there will be many unknowns and variables to discover, define and resolve. The outcome of this stage is an outline business case for a SIAM transition project, and for the remainder of the roadmap stages (see section 2.7 Create an outline business case).
2.2.2 Agile or waterfall?
Agile (as detailed in the Agile manifesto5) is a set of methods and practices for software development. It is based on iterative and incremental development, and a rapid and flexible response to change. Requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross functional teams.
Although a SIAM project is not a software development project, Agile practices can add value. This topic is discussed in more detail within the SIAM Foundation BoK, including an alignment of Agile principles and how they might be applied to SIAM.
A waterfall approach is a more traditional method of development and implementation that follows sequential stages and a fixed plan of work. For example, plan, design, build and deploy. There are many activities within the SIAM program that can be addressed in an Agile or iterative manner, whereas other activities may be more appropriately coordinated in a traditional waterfall approach that promotes more detailed planning. A hybrid approach might use waterfall to set out the overall milestones, but apply iterations within the stages to achieve them.
Waterfall and Agile
At a UK manufacturing organization, the incoming service integrator created a waterfall implementation plan.
The transfer of processes was broken down into a number of phases and rolled out to the service providers being incorporated into the SIAM model. The processes were to be documented by the service integrator and introduced to service...
