Best practices for operational governance model for managed services
Managed services, which I have written previously about, is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations. Here, the focus shifts from managing vendor and its resources to monitoring delivery, at an operational level. It is the vendors’ responsibility to manage its resources and part of the process that belongs to the vendors’ organisation.
Manage service can also be on-demand. When there is a high demand the vendor adds the needed resources and removes them when not needed. Helps minimize team leadership responsibility from group/middle managers; this is a value-add from the vendor, saves cost & brings about flexibility in the organisation.
Operational governance model: This governance model is a set of best practices to be used in the processes at an operational level.
Agree on the the process principles described in “Operational IT governance”
- We apply policy to processes.
- We apply standards to processes.
- We enforce decision rights in processes.
- We measure and control processes.
Plan (set objectives): Start by defining the processes and its objectives that the operational governance is going to govern upon. For e.g. application maintenance & support process and its objectives.
Implement (design & deploy):
Intellectual Property (IP) issues: Knowledge capture document is often saved in the vendors’ knowledge repository. This is customer’s IP. If tools & templates belong to the vendor make sure that the terms and conditions for IP rights are covered in the Master Service agreement.
Remember that the list below is best practices. Select the relevant areas, define them, follow up and improve upon as the process and organisation matures with this “way of working”.
It is important to
- define roles & responsibilities (in-house resources and vendor resources).
- define the process interfaces. Where does the customer’s process ends and the vendor takes over and vice versa?
- define the tools to be used (incident & problem management, defect management tool, solution templates, Change request tools, etc.)
- define the infrastructure to be used
- define artifacts to produce and who is responsible for them. Review these artifacts.
- define monitoring tools such as KPI & SLA
- define communication methods such as telephone, video conference is the resources are spread out.
- define how often meetings need be held. On Operational level once a month? On strategically level twice per year?
- define often the resources need to travel onsite.
- define decision points so that no decisions are taken without the right people being involved.
- define escalations levels when a problem arises. Even escalation levels to give feedback.
- define and encourage risks management
Manage (control & monitor):
Agree upon the method to control and monitor.
- control that the objectives with managed services are fulfilled
- control that the selected best practices fulfil your objective
- monitor KPI and SLA
- control that the vendor contributes to proactive maintenance by applying solution templates and change management.
- control that the vendor is proactive and gives value-adds to the relationship
- control that the vendor resources flag risks in time before they become a problem.
Assess (evaluate & analyze):
Evaluate & analyze results to the overall objectives. This is an input for continuous improvement.
