The TSO, a CMMI level 3 software development organization, was  the steward of the software applications for an integrated pay and personal business system that supported 320,000 employees and retirees. The TSO had captured multiple awards over time for their achievements and customer satisfaction. The TSO consisted of a mix of military, civilian, and contract workforce. 

 

The TSO became part of a government relocation  in 2009.  As a result of the relocation decision, the TSO would be required to vacate occupied space in Kansas City as the facility was being closed.  

 

The basis of the TSO's world class performance was their experienced workforce, their application of the Integrated Product Teams, and their organizational process discipline.  Each of these components would be in jeopardy  as a result of the move.  The workforce would be divided, experienced resources would be left behind, and tightly woven organizational business and software development processes, assisted by co-location, would be fractured.  In addition, the timeline required for this type of move was typically 5 to 7 years.  The TSO had less than 2 years to secure a facility, affect the move, reconstitute the workforce, and bring the organization back to their previous performance levels.

 

GPMG was engaged to provide project management services as part of the move for the TSO.  GPMG established a project management office,  developed and implemented integrated project plan to hire/relocate 550 resources, select the facility and build-out, relocate and certify IT operations, maintain business continuity, mitigate risks, and ensure legal requirements were satisfied.

 

GPMG secured a War Room which became the nerve center for daily interactions and planning.  Multiple stakeholders were engaged from the customer to the customer field offices as everyone would be impacted prior to, during, and after the move.  Several unique concepts were introduced to minimize risks during the workforce separation and move:

 

• The concept of Knowledge Value Asset (KVA)  was introduced as a means to capture the contribution of a resource in the existing environment.  The KVA included the culmination of applicable experience, knowledge, skills, and contribution on an individual basis.  KVA was cumulated, baselined and analyzed prior to, during, and after the move to determine the value of resources lost, the type of resources required to replace lost resources, and the estimated time required to re-establish the organization's previous performance level.  The KVA analysis also identified the organization's most vulnerable time during the move which enabled leadership to minimize software development releases to critical needs only so the mantra of "do no harm" could be maintained.

• Divisions within the organization developed transition plans around the KVA model to determine when and how they would be able to meet their customers' business needs.

• A custom web portal was constructed to manage the KVA, the replacement of resources, the management of the project, and the management of assets from one location to another.  The web portal collected the information for roughly 700 people who were impacted by the  move.

• Introduced Mind Mapping across multiple organizations to quickly gather and organize information for stakeholders who were at multiple levels of understanding regarding the organization and their role within it. It provided a simple means of working on common understanding.

• Introduced organizational transition and plan templates for the divisions to standardize the method in which information was to be gathered, analyzed, and managed.

• Instituted SmartBoards and VTC as common methods of communication for the Integrated Product Teams which would be located in multiple locations as a result of the move.

• Performed customer, organization, division, and branch rehearsals and simulations to identify weaknesses in business processes when applied to a multi-location ecosystem.

• Development of web based solutions and online document repositories which maintained versioning regardless of use and location.

• Integrated Risk Management which included prioritization of individual risks and an examination of those risks and their triggers in terms of the overall risk to the re-locations.

• Development of online dashboards to provide real-time updates for executive leadership regarding each of the major relocation components including: Resource Transition, Transfer of Capabilities, and Facilities Transition.

• Development of Organizational Dashboards to monitor the ongoing projects within the Business Applications portfolios to ensure progress was in sync with the relocation.

• Introduction of campaigns and ceremonies to reduce surplus equipment, eliminate paper documents, and promote resource relocations.

 

Results:

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As a result of the preparation, the TSO was able to move to the new location using a phased approach  that minimized the disruption to business application services, minimized the impact to the baseline KVA, minimized risks to the stakeholders, promote new workforce relationships and meet all of the legal requirements on schedule and within the $65M budget.