The Delivered Innovation Methodology for Salesforce Project Delivery

0 Comments/ in Salesforce & Cloud / by Mike Topalovich

November 27, 2013

We rebuilt and relaunched the Delivered Innovation website recently, and I think it’s fair to say the most time consuming part of any website development project is the writing of the content. While it felt like we were sweating blood to come up with the right words at times, the opportunity to articulate the Why / How / What behind DI was a great exercise in focus and clarity.

One of the things you’ll notice on the new site is that we spelled out our methodology for delivering Salesforce projects. I have been in the IT industry for nearly 20 years now, with the past 15 spent mostly in the CRM space. When I first started my career, the entire concept of a project delivery methodology was somewhat a unicorn – it just didn’t exist in reality. Then “Waterfall” began to make its way into the mainstream IT lexicon, and while it was an imperfect methodology, it was something that could be learned and applied in a somewhat universal manner. Waterfall was eventually supplanted by the various flavors of “Agile,” and like most concepts in the IT industry, Agile was introduced as a philosophy but was interpreted literally and implemented in the form of prescriptive methodologies…with each individual “flavor” of Agile interpreted and hacked to fit the needs of the organization implementing it.

How we deliver Salesforce projects is a testament to the power of the Salesforce Platform, the maturity of cloud computing technologies, and the blurred line between business process and system design. The methodology that I have spent most of my career developing and refining breaks down into four key phases: Envision, Explore, Assemble, Adopt.

• ENVISION. Every project starts at the finish line. We work with you to visualize what success looks like, and the shared vision of a successful outcome is what we align to. Start with the “Why?” and everything else falls into place. It’s like looking at the picture on the box of a giant jigsaw puzzle before opening it up and dumping the pieces on the floor.
• EXPLORE. Now that we know where the finish line is, we have to work our way back to where we are today. We have to understand all of the pieces that are involved in this jigsaw puzzle. Business requirements serve as constraints that we have to work within, and become the edges that outline the puzzle. This is where the project plan starts to come together and the team prepares to start putting the pieces together.
• ASSEMBLE. We have a plan, we know our constraints, and we are ready to put all of these individual pieces together to form the picture that we all have in our heads from the Envision phase. We call this phase ‘Assemble’ because with Salesforce and the cloud, we deliver business value and competitive advantage not necessarily by creating something new, but by doing business in new ways using services and tools that have already been built and are commercially available in most cases. How the pieces are put together and managed are what enable new revenue opportunities and operational models.
• ADOPT. We defined the finish line. We found our way to the finish line. Now we have to cross the finish line. The jigsaw puzzle has been completed, but you will only get value from the new system if you actually use it.

Is our methodology perfect? I wish I could say it was. We learn from every customer we engage with, and we continuously refine our methodology with each project we deliver. As a framework, our methodology allows us to get things done and quickly deliver business value, but each customer and each project is unique, so the implementation of the methodology must reflect that uniqueness to deliver the greatest amount of business value possible. And with each new project, our customers benefit from the collective lessons learned and best practices developed from all of the projects that came before. That’s one of my favorite stories to tell.

The DI Methodology

Our Salesforce project methodology is focused on making the complex simple.

How we deliver transformational business results is a process that has been developed and refined over 15 years and hundreds of successful projects.

We strip out overhead and focus on value-adding activities. We break down complicated requirements into bite-sized chunks and continuously deliver results. We set a cadence with our drum-beat approach to building momentum and winning as a team.

Envision

Our work begins at the finish line. We always start by asking "why?"

Before any planning or analysis begins, we work with you and your team to visualize what success looks like. This shared vision of a successful outcome is what drives us, and it aligns the entire project team around the goals and objectives that will get us to the finish line together.

Once we have established "why" we are on this path, we move on to the "Explore" phase of the project to determine "how" we will reach the finish line and celebrate the win together.

Explore

Once we have established a vision of success, we have to work our way back to the starting line and understand "how" we will reach the finish line together.

Each business is different. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. What makes your company unique is how business processes, technology, and people all come together to create value and provide an experience for your customers. Our design philosophy balances business value and the impact on budget, timeline, and scope:

• We will always recommend an out-of-the-box Salesforce solution when one is available.
• If standard Salesforce functionality will not meet requirements, we will recommend commercially available third party solutions such as AppExchange applications.
• If there is not a viable standard or third party solution available, we will recommend a custom solution built on the Salesforce Platform.

Delivered Innovation will explore how you do business end-to-end, with a focus on the customer experience. We will map all of the moving pieces of your current systems and processes, establish priorities and constraints, and identify champions who will help move things forward. The resulting plan and design will chart a course to success that we will follow to the finish line together.

Assemble

With a roadmap established, it is time to execute on the plan and implement the design by taking all of the moving pieces and building them into a system that will deliver the envisioned business results.

This is where the rubber hits the road. We will establish our cadence, build momentum, and move the project forward. We segment the project timeline into iterations, learning from and building on the previous iteration, until the finish line is in sight and we can plan a realistic go-live date that the entire team can rally behind.

We get stakeholders actively engaged as early as possible in the process, combining a hands-on "test + train" approach to establish a feedback loop and ensure that everyone feels a sense of ownership. Any changes to design or requirements that arise during testing are incorporated into the planning for the next iteration, so that scope, timeline, and budget are actively managed throughout the project.

Adopt

Now that we have reached the finish line, it is time to cross it. As you learned during your initial Salesforce rollout, adoption is one of the major challenges to getting value from your Salesforce investment. Even though your Salesforce implementation may now be mature and your users have all gone through some level of Salesforce training, you will still encounter change management issues even in post-implementation projects.

Change is hard. It is almost always met with resistance. This is why we engage as many stakeholders as early in the Envision, Explore, and Assemble processes as possible. Change management is not a "throw it over the fence" proposition. If everyone feels like they are contributing to the process, that the system being designed and implemented will add value for them, and that they have a sense ownership in the outcome, many difficult adoption challenges will take care of themselves in most cases.

To augment the "test + train" approach, we work with your staff Salesforce analysts, administrators and developers throughout the process to ensure that they are ready to support any solution from day one. We find key champions within the organization and "train the trainers" to ensure that all stakeholders are aligned with the new system for go-live. For cases where more formal training is required across the organization, we work with partners to develop and deliver custom curriculum in classroom and online formats.