Operational Readiness Review - Getting your Team to March to the Same Orders Willingly While Building Your Brand!

The concept of an Operational Readiness Review originates from a process that is used by the United States Military and NASA  It is used to ensure that all team members are crystal clear on the details of the mission they are preparing to complete. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_review_(U.S._government). 

Everything from equipment being used, to who will be using them, for what, when and in what sequence of events.

This process is one that can be leveraged conceptually for complex project execution like migrations / conversions for example.

Managing projects are complex work requiring focus and concentration. Migration / conversion / on-boarding projects are a good example of complex projects. They often have direct impacts on your customers if they aren’t carefully analyzed, planned, socialized, refined & executed.

You may have to run several of them, and produce increasingly more predictable results with each pass.

o  Operations requires this – manage through change effectively while maintaining performance within existing SLA’s.

o   Sales needs this – sell a solution to a client and setting realistic expectations on end product, delivery timing and quality.

o   Customer Service needs this – manage customer expectations and addressing customer needs.

o   Finance needs this in order to be better positioned to quantify and predict ROI

Why do I need an ORR? An ORR or Operational Readiness Review is a process by which the individual steps of a migration / conversion are reviewed with the core team members and then documented. It produces a document that details the process; step by step and in the proper sequence. There may need to be several iterations of the review process and document updates. Not only for the purpose of getting it right, but also to allow the process details to be fully socialized with the core team members who will be executing those individual steps. Nike Project management (Just Do It) cannot be relied upon for these types of projects. Too many things need to be planned, anticipated and have back up plans in the event that something goes wrong. This is highly likely in these sorts of projects. 

Flow chart out individual execution steps (grouped by resource). The steps are often times sequential, though many may happen concurrently. There are many steps and participants who need to be working in synchronicity and on time for a migration / conversion to be successful. While a document of the steps is critical and necessary, many people are visual learners and as a project manager, you need to ensure that you are communicating with all of your core team members in a language that they understand.

Create document with detailed steps, owners, dates, times, and comments. A flow chart does not provide the level of detail that a checklist will provide. Some will need this level of detail while others will need less. Most often the involved stakeholders will need the checklist. The informed stakeholders (customer service, marketing, etc) will not always require the same level of detail but will want to understand the process. The flow chart is a great tool for identifying the key checkpoints, exit/entry criteria from one phase of the migration to the next, and particularly the Go / No Go;  Point of No Return in the process.  Of course if there is a No Go decision, your plan must include a roll back strategy otherwise Go / No Go becomes Go-No-Matter-What. It is important that all understand when this milestone is reached and that all stakeholders are involved in this part of the process. They need to assess and participate in the decision making process as it will affect their realms of responsibility.

Review both with your execution team and stakeholders. Ensure that all understand the process, and understand the impacts of the migration to their individual departments and responsibilities.

Run multiple phases, tweak and modify the process after each phase. Where possible, break a migration into multiple phases. Running test phases is akin to warm ups for the big game. It will allow you to test the process, correct or modify and then try again. Having a high sense of comfort in the validity of your process is important not just for you but to instill confidence in your stakeholders who you will need to support you during the migration, and who will inherit the outcome.

An Operational Readiness Review accomplishes many things at once. It ensures that all team members are on the same page / marching to the same orders; Increases confidence that all team members know their roles and are well prepared to execute them correctly; creates a more cohesive team performance and environment; Increases chances for success / better prepared for handling exceptions; manages expectations with informed stakeholders.

This process is a powerful tool to add to your PM tool kit for improving your brand in project management by increasing your reputation for execution excellence.

For more information on tools & techniques that you can use to improve your project performance in increase the value of your brand visit us at www.exorion.net . Join us on Twitter @exOrionLLC.

by Sean Best, PMP. Owner of exOrion LLC. His 20+ years of project management experience includes work in the banking, payment processing, telecommunication and software development industries. He can be reached at sbest@exorion.net