HYBRID STRATEGY FOR TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 1

Hybrid Strategy for Technology Operations Management

Shane A. Molinari, MS, PMP, CISSP, SSMBB
shane.molinari@me.com


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Abstract
Managing large complex programs requires structured and objective performance
management to ensure continuity of technical operations, but risks instilling auto-
response conditions that limit innovation and individual disposition. If rigid processes
dampen innovative creativity and flexible systems increase risk of failure, is there an
alternative to bridge the two approaches to enable controls and valuation? Equally, how
is the barrier to change overcome to ensure sustainability? Understanding that
technology and business are intertwined, this paper will provide intelligence to
determine what aspects of operational flexibility can be instilled and where
standardization is required to ensure organizational sustainability.
Keywords
Operations, Processes, Standards, Governance, Sustainability


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1 INTRODUCTION
Some aspects of process controls require flexibility. Examples of such environments
include startups and organizations that have a wide variety of customers with an equal
requirement for individualized products and services. Such environments need
individualized judgment-based freedoms to ensure organizational success. For
instance, the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain shifted from rigid process controls for customer
service to giving front-desk managers, concierges, and restaurant workers more
freedom to exercise judgment to enhance customer value (Johnson, M. and Hall, J.,
2009).
Although Johnson and Hall encourage flexibility and artistic approaches, they equally
recognize the need for standardization in mass process application environments,
including:
IT projects driving configurations and coding
Nascent or broken processes cannot produce the consistent output that
customers demand
Such out-of-control processes are common when a product or processes use new
materials, technology, or designs.
To avoid polarization, an artistic-scientific hybrid can be utilized. For instance,
referencing the IT project example, while configuration and coding require rigid process
controls, process architects need to be more agile when bringing the pieces together.
Research has already demonstrated that alternative systems of thought are essential in
recognizing and assessing system assumptions, implications, and practical
consequences (Elder et al, 2010).
According to the American Productivity & Quality Center, the three main barriers to
adoption of a best practice are a lack of knowledge about current best practices, a lack
of motivation to make changes involved in their adoption, and a lack of knowledge and
skills required to do so (APQC, 2013). In order to overcome these technical and cultural
challenges, four basic steps will need to be completed:
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Internalize competency standards
Leverage critical thinking to effect communication and change
Improve organizational problem-solving skills
Commit to overcoming existing native tendencies

2 Discussion
2.1 Internalize Competency Standards
When discussing system standards, it is crucial to first define what a system entails. A
system can include, but not limited to:
Technology
Processes
Organizational infrastructure
Equally, it is important to differentiate technical and operational systems.
Regarding a technical system, a system development methodology is a fundamental
collection of phases, procedures, rules, techniques, tools, documentation, management,
and training used to develop a system. Consequently, when considering building
technical systems, there are three basic methodologies:
Sequential (e.g., Waterfall)
Iterative (e.g., Rational Unified Process)
Agile (e.g., Extreme Programming)
When considering the operational system development of people and professional
environments, one must consider:
The mission, which answers the fundamental question, Why are we here?
Stakeholders interested in the mission
Organizational model and conventions (i.e., command, control, communications)
Human resources
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2.1.1 Technical System
2.1.1.1 Sequential Approach
In the 1960s it became clear that ad-hoc techniques were not scalable and thus
stressed the operating systems and respective IBM Corporation technical project teams.
As a result, a new software engineering discipline emerged and introduced the waterfall
metaphor into the production of software (Brooks, 1982). The process refers to work
completion within one life cycle. Projects are sequenced into a set of steps that:
Typically span from end-user requirements to validation
Enables control and information to be passed onto the next phase when pre-
defined milestones are reached and accomplished
Is highly structured, providing maximum control over the process
Nevertheless, a significant risk exists with organizations that lack capability maturity
whereby such rigid process controls can promote significant rework (Benediktsson et al,
2006).

2.1.1.2 Iterative Approach
Large-scale projects use the iterative development process (e.g., Rational Unified
Process), starting with a subset of the requirements to develop a subset of the product
that satisfies the essential needs of the end users. Following the intermediate product
assessment, the respective design and requirements evolve over a series of iterations
to provide a system that meets evolving customer needs with improved design based
on feedback and learning.
This reduces the risks attributed to surprises and consequential failures. The iterative
development process model combines prototyping with the strength of the classical
waterfall model. The strengths of the iterative process framework enable systems and
software engineering methods and techniques such as reuse, object-oriented
development, and rapid prototyping. This approach can be especially valuable in the
event that not all personnel required to complete the project are available.
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With regards to the risk aspects of this approach, Rajlich (2006) stated, In terms of the
staged life cycle, iterative program development extends the stage of evolution at the
expense of the initial development, which becomes just one of the iterations.

2.1.1.3 Agile Approach
Agile methodologies emerged in the mid-1990s, focused on responding to software
development changes quickly and efficiently. Agile models focus by delivering the first
increment in a couple of weeks and complete software deliverables in a couple of
months. Agiles Extreme Programming is a key example of how the methodology
intends to improve software design and code throughout the development lifecycle. The
Agile Alliance defined Twelve Golden Principles in 2001 to provide support for
development of only small software projects having small teams.
The risks are clear in that the Agile methodology is designed for small projects.
Consequently, there is no validated guidance about how to customize agile process
models for medium and large software projects. Further, Extreme Programming places
emphases on coding and operational software instead of comprehensive documentation
and architecture design (Qureshi, 2012). This concern lends to problems for contractual
work that requires early detailed proposals and cost estimates (Cusumano, 2007; Cao
et al, 2004; Qureshi, 2012).

2.1.2 Operational System
In order to construct an operational system, leadership must first answer some basic
core value questions, and then convey those answers to the organizational
membership:
Why are we here? What is our purpose or mission?
How do we manage stakeholders that can influence our efforts?
How do we build sustainability through legacy and new employees?
How can we manage our intelligence assets?
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2.1.2.1 The Mission
Overall, it is crucial for the organizational mission to broadly define its purpose and
identify the scope of its operation. Equally, when drilling into the core of the organization
(intra-organizations), the mission becomes function specific (e.g., department, division),
with each function clearly rolling up to align with the enterprise mission. Each
downstream function should adapt the overall mission into specific function-based
mission values and guiding principles. Further, functional mission statements should
also support the other intra-organizational missions to provide horizontal ties across the
organization to ensure cross-functional consistency.

2.1.2.2 Mission Stakeholders
The Project Management Institute describes a stakeholder as an individual or party that
may influence, be affected, or feel like they are being impacted by a decision or action
(PMI, 2013). Mainstream stakeholder management approaches describe identifying and
prioritizing the stakeholders as individuals. However, research has demonstrated the
importance of identifying not only the stakeholders as individuals, but interconnections
between them as well (Freemen et al, 2001). This is especially important when solving
operational problems or instilling change, because the support of the stakeholders
collective drives operational network optimization. This can be accomplished by
executing stakeholder analysis at a generic level via defining the stakeholder roles
rather than attempting to define them as complex and multifaceted individuals.

2.1.2.3 Organizational Model and Conventions
Regardless of whether the organizational infrastructure is hierarchical or flat, time is a
precious resource when establishing the governance frameworkas a formal
deliverable with financial, logistical, and administrative policies, procedures, and
processes. The respective construction process itself should be straightforward and
deliberate. Leveraging integrated guidelines and standards (e.g., COBIT, PMI, ISACA)
is a proven means to achieving business continuity goals the right way the first time
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(Molinari, 2012). More details around delivering sustainable governance will be covered
later in this paper (i.e., Effect Communications through Governance and Disposition).

2.1.2.4 Managing Intelligent Resources
Because businesses have increasingly realized impacts from skill specialization and
workforce mobility, leadership focus has shifted towards developing and implementing
knowledge and human-resource management strategy hybrids. Further research has
demonstrated that superior resource performance came from emphasizing human
capital development that resulted in increased production and cost effectiveness
(Brewer et al, 2010). Additional discussion regarding individual disposition will be
provided in the next section Effect Communications through Governance and
Disposition.

2.2 Effective Communications through Governance and Disposition
It is crucial to visualize governance with integrated resources (i.e., people, technology,
and infrastructure). Leveraging this systematic approach leads to a robust performance
and higher trust factors, manifested by strong horizontal ties across the crisis
management divisions (e.g., operations, logistics, IT/IS Support) and vertical ties
between the program team members and stakeholders. Consequently, these conditions
foster strong levels of collective actions where there is a high degree of sustainable
continuity program designs, localized needs, and capacities for assisting one another
during high-stress recovery operations.
The first step is clearing the existing blurred lines between process control and practical
application to ensure the disposition of the program membership. It is clear that
employees being part of an organization are fundamentally impacted by a more
complex formal and social infrastructure. In the event of individual negative impacts, the
resulting ripple effect can influence the collective. This is supported by a study that
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demonstrated how systemic risk affects the individual and respective social, financial,
and economic environment (Molinari, 2012).
Practically speaking, for the enterprise to recognize an innovation opportunity, an
individual must be free to recognize the problem and its potential solution (Narayanan,
2001). Utilizing a disposition carryover approach has repeatedly demonstrated that
organizational cultures that focus on the individual employee and their accomplishments
are more likely to achieve innovation and greater success than organizations that utilize
a team-based approach (Molinari, 2012).

2.3 Improve Organizational Problem-Solving Skills
Establishing a culture that supports and promotes sustainability is as important as
developing the correct formal strategy and processes. Like many new initiatives, the
commitment and energy demonstrated by leadership goes a long way in successfully
embedding sustainability. The personal support of specific leaders can play an
important role in generating or supporting employee engagement. Driving ownership
down into the lower organizational levels supports the basic principle of developing
responsibility among employees.
Program membership will need the vision, support, and proper Integrated Process
Management (Molinari, 2012). Although there is an continued demand for leveraging
formal methodologies for sustainability (i.e., Six Sigma, Project Management), the
respective tools have too often been leveraged without the employees having practical
application experience and without considerations for risk. Consequently, the seemingly
blind uses of individual methodologies have increasingly led programmatic failure.
Worse yet, many of the respective recovery efforts also failed, causing even greater
economic and social impacts to the respective organization (Molinari, 2010).
The solution is to integrate formal processes (see Figure 1 below as an example) to
ensure sustainable project and program execution, as well as recovery efforts when
necessary (Molinari, 2010). However, this requires formal training in the respective
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methodologies and the experience in applying the respective training and
methodologies. More importantly, integrating processes requires a fundamentally
creative disposition to know what methodology to lead with, when to leverage the
respective tool, and how to successfully govern the overarching process. Successful
practical use of integrated formal methodologies ensures organizational sustainability
and success (Molinari, 2008).

Figure 1: Illustration of proactively integrating Six Sigma and Project Management
processes to ensure the project and programmatic success. This approach directly
supports the organizations overarching goals and objectives (Molinari, 2010).

3 Leverage Critical Thinking to Overcome Native Tendencies
In order to resolve a problem, one must first recognize that the problem exists and then
communicate both the problem and resolution. Everyone solves problems at one level
or another. The challenge often stems from delivering communications and
recommendations in a complex environment. More often than not, the
recommendations are derived from personal experience. Consequently, the respective
proposed solution can often be wrong:
They typically lead to judgments that are different from the optimal choice or
reality
They happen so automatically that we do not realize they are occurring
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They are often difficult to avoid (Pohl, 2004; Kida, 2006)
If team members are taught critical thinking as a goal on how to think differently, then
usually these errors can be reduced or eliminated. A general approach to driving critical
thinking is though collaborative learning which includes participants who are oriented
toward a common goal. The purpose of cooperative learning is to increase the
knowledge and skills of each team member. A key aspect of this approach is to ensure
that each member is primarily assessed on his or her individual performance and how it
affects the rest of the team (Slavin, 1983).
To be effective, the learning activities need to include constructive forms of controversy,
since the ability to resolve controversies has often been considered a mark of maturity
(Furrow 2004). Further, constructive controversy promotes uncertainty about the
correctness of the individualistic views, thereby driving a more reasoned judgment on
the issues being considered (Johnson et al. 2007). Although the approach is
straightforward, it is certainly not easy during initial engagements. Critical thinking
requires a willingness and ability to question assumptions. Nevertheless, cooperative
learning environments succeed in cultivating the critical thinking skills, resulting in
instrumental benefits, (i.e., tangible organizational benefits) and intrinsic benefits (i.e.,
ideological benefits as the right thing to do).

4 Conclusion
Additional research (i.e., case studies) is needed to demonstrate the prosed hybrid
approach effectiveness. Nevertheless, this paper did provide the initial steps in a
hybridized approach to intelligent organizational development and sustainability.

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