Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands

Local optimization isn’t the answer – you must examine the entire SDLC.

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Your Challenge

While teams are used to optimizing their own respective areas of responsibility, there is lack of clarity on the overall core SDLC process resulting in applications being released that are of poor quality.
Software development teams are struggling to release on time and within budget.
Teams do not understand the overall process, are not communicating well, and traceability is hard to achieve.
Each team claims to be optimized yet the final deliverable doesn’t reflect the expected quality.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Optimizing can make you worse. One cannot just optimize locally – the SDLC must be optimized in its entirety to ensure traceability across the process.
Separate process from framework.
You don’t need to “Go Agile” or follow other industry jargon to effectively optimize your SDLC.
SDLC process improvement is ongoing.
Start with your team’s current capabilities and optimize. You should set expectations that new improvements will always come in the future.

Impact and Result

Use a systematic framework to bring out local optimizations as potential candidates for SDLC optimization.
Prioritize those candidates that will aid in optimizing the overall core SDLC process.
Create the necessary governance and control structures to sustain the changes.
Use Info-Tech tools and templates to accelerate your process optimization.

Contributors

Avraham Mordoch, CEO, TOC Solutions
Emir Hasanbegovic, Founder & CTO, TribalScale
Paul Dowman, Founder, OK GROW!
Michael Hofweller, Director of Growth, OK GROW!
Kofi Senaya, Director of Product, Clearbridge Mobile
Amit Jethani, Product Manager, Pivotal Labs
John Munro, President, Scrum Masters Inc.
Ben Palacio, Information Systems Analyst, County of Nevada
Michael Yokota, Founder, Made with Magnolia
Sterling Bjorndahl, Director of Operations, eHealth Saskatchewan
Ken Piddington, Chief Information Officer and Executive Advisor, MRE Consulting
Emilio Chemali, Director of Strategic Business Intelligence & DevOps, MRE Consulting

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See how all the steps you need to take come together, with tools and advice to help with each task on your list.

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Get to Action

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read this Executive Brief to understand Info-Tech's approach to SDLC optimization and why the SDLC must be optimized in its entirety to ensure traceability across the process.

Document the current state of the SDLC

This phase of the blueprint will help in understanding the organization's business priorities, documenting the current SDLC process, and identifing current SDLC challenges.
- Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 1: Document the Current State of the SDLC
- SDLC Optimization Playbook
Define root causes, determine optimization initiatives, and define target state

This phase of the blueprint, will help with defining root causes, determining potential optimization initiatives, and defining the target state of the SDLC.
- Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 2: Define Root Causes, Determine Optimization Initiatives, and Define Target State
Develop a rollout strategy for SDLC optimization

This phase of the blueprint will help with prioritizing initiatives in order to develop a rollout strategy, roadmap, and communication plan for the SDLC optimization.
- Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 3: Develop a Rollout Strategy for SDLC Optimization
- SDLC Communication Template

Guided Implementation

This guided implementation is a three call advisory process.

Guided Implementation #1 - Document the current state of the SDLC

Call #1: Discuss your current SDLC process and define current challenges.

Guided Implementation #2 - Define root causes, determine optimization initiatives, and define target state

Call #1: Discover root causes and understand best practices to define potential optimization initiatives.

Guided Implementation #3 - Develop a rollout strategy for SDLC optimization

Call #1: Define your SDLC target state, prioritize activities based on your resources and initiative complexity, and define your rollout strategy.

Schedule Your First Call

Onsite Workshop

The Purpose

Understand SDLC current state.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understanding of your current SDLC state and metrics to measure the success of your SDLC optimization initiative.

Activities:		Outputs:
1.1	Document the key business objectives that your SDLC delivers upon.	Documented business objectives
1.2	Document your current SDLC process using a SIPOC process map.	Documented SIPOC process map
1.3	Identify appropriate metrics in order to track the effectiveness of your SDLC optimization.	Identified metrics to measure the effectiveness of your SDLC optimization
1.4	Document the current state process flow of each SDLC phase.	Documented current state process flows of each SDLC phase
1.5	Document the control points and tools used within each phase.	Documented control points and tools used within each SDLC phase

The Purpose

Understand current SDLC challenges and root causes.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understand the core areas of your SDLC that require optimization.

Activities:		Outputs:
2.1	Identify the current challenges that exist within each SDLC phase.	Identified current challenges
2.2	Determine the root cause of the challenges that exist within each SDLC phase.	Identified root causes of your SDLC challenges

The Purpose

Understand common best practices and the best possible optimization initiatives to help optimize your current SDLC.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understand the best ways to address your SDLC challenges.

Activities:		Outputs:
3.1	Define optimization initiatives to address the challenges in each SDLC phase.	Defined list of potential optimization initiatives to address SDLC challenges

The Purpose

Define your SDLC target state while maintaining traceability across your overall SDLC process.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understand what will be required to reach your optimized SDLC.

Activities:		Outputs:
4.1	Determine the target state of your SDLC.	Determined SDLC target state
4.2	Determine the people, tools, and control points necessary to achieve your target state.	Identified people, processes, and tools necessary to achieve target state
4.3	Assess the traceability between phases to ensure a seamlessly optimized SDLC.	Completed traceability alignment map and prioritized list of initiatives

The Purpose

Define how you will reach your target state.

Key Benefits Achieved

Create a plan of action to achieve your desired target state.

Activities:		Outputs:
5.1	Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives.Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives.	Level of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives
5.2	Identify the enablers and blockers of your SDLC optimization.	Identified enablers and blockers of your SDLC optimization
5.3	Define your SDLC optimization roadmap.	Defined optimization roadmap
5.4	Create a communication plan to share initiatives with the business.	Completed communication plan to present your optimization strategy to stakeholders