Tiered operations support

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1

Hi noggers,

First some background;

I have inherited a real-time services delivery infrastructure that while technically functional is absent of a wworking tiered operational support structure. In addition, the infrastructure was not implemented with technology best practices and has some remaining single points of failure. T3/engineering handles engineering, operational support, testing, and development. T1 and T2 perform some tasks but not what is expected of a traditional support structure, As we are attempting to scale our program our limitations are obvious.

We are trying to scale the program and need to remedy all single points of failure and implement technical and management best practices. While we try to remedy all of the above, our customer expects routine capability enhancements.

Question(s)

  1. how to pivot to a tiered operational support structure and set expectations for each tier level. How do I do that without having my entire staff leave?
    Current staff is not a professional organization and are used to a purely reactive state.

  2. ITIL process are great and we have started to implement what makes sense but I need a operational support stucture/model to support and manage this effort.

  3. How do you manage your engineering and operational projects? Currently I am using Excel for all projects short and long term and also use a seperate spreadsheet for my short term project sprints? Basic project tracking with no mature processes involve.

How are you pulling this all together?

I would like to hire key positions that can bring essential capabilities to my project but I am limited hiring new staff.

thoughts, suggestions

Mike

2

Find a new job.

3

Both of those would be my first reactions.

Or... depending on how "not professional" your staff is, you might consider sending them out for some training, or bringing someone in to do some training.

Heck, you could challenge your your staff with "ok team, go figure out a more mature approach."

Miles Fidelman

Maybe you want some of them to leave, if they're "not
a professional organization". Get some fresh folks
from professional minded organizations and see if
the others quit being reactionary only and step up
their game.

and

4

Mike,

You’re essentially trying to change the culture of the organization. Unless you have senior management buy-in, it will be pretty fruitless.

Maybe while announcing the restructuring, offer bonuses to keep people from leaving prematurely? People can adapt if the rate of change isn’t too high.

Like others have said, turnover isn’t bad as long as you can maintain continuity of operations. Keep in mind, the highest performers are the most mobile.

Best,
Joshua

5

Thank you for all your replies, I agree it is a culture change and we have made significant changes in the last 2 years. The changes
we have made included letting some of the personnel move on which allowed me to realize some gains.

Regarding ITIL, I made organizational changes to control the engineering work that is integrated to production by instituting an engineering review board and change control board for customer visibility and participation. It is also used to capture project intellectual property and to document testing and implementation plans.

I believe I knew what noggers were going to say (though very much the same) but wanted validation, I am overwhelmed with the enormity of the required changes and the challenges of the customer interaction to approve of all changes. But we are making progress, I need to make a big pivot now to drive the organization into the correct model.

thank you everyone for your replies, I value this community, if you have more thoughts please do not hesitate.

Mike