Governance and quality control for enterprise deployments

How can you ensure consistency, compliance, and optimal performance in your enterprise deployments?

The answer lies in effective governance and quality control.

In this Propel24 session, Saurabh Prabhu breaks down what it takes to implement solid governance and quality control for enterprise deployments. 

Saurabh is the Senior Director of Customer and Professional Services at iCertis, a global leader in AI-powered contract intelligence. At iCertis, he oversees the delivery of tailored solutions, ensuring that clients maximize the value of their contracts through seamless implementation and ongoing support.

In this session, Saurabh shares his insights on:

• The four pillars of governance and quality control
• Components of effective governance
• Strategies for quality control with case studies and examples
• Tackling common governance and quality control challenges

4 pillars of governance and quality control for enterprise deployments

Each organization implements governance and quality control differently depending on its domain, size, and needs. However, broadly speaking, they involve:

• Establishment of policies: This includes defining procedures or methodologies governing software deployment processes, and outlining roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority to ensure clarity and accountability.
• Documentation and reporting: Maintaining comprehensive documentation of deployment processes and outcomes facilitates accountability, transparency, and compliance, making it easier to track progress and identify issues.
• Feedback mechanisms: Establishing channels for gathering feedback from users and stakeholders helps identify areas for improvement and address concerns, fostering continuous enhancement of deployment processes.
• Continuous improvement: Implementing ongoing evaluation and improvement mechanisms based on performance metrics, feedback, and industry best practices ensures that deployment processes evolve and remain effective.
  

6 reasons why governance and quality control need your time and attention

While there are plenty of findings that make a case for investing in governance and quality, it ultimately comes down to these six areas:

1. Consistency and standardization: Ensuring uniformity across deployments, making processes predictable and repeatable
2. Compliance and regulatory requirements: Meeting industry standards and regulations, reducing the risk of legal and financial penalties
3. Risk mitigation: Reducing potential project risks by identifying and addressing issues early in the deployment process
4. Cost optimization: Ensuring the efficient use of resources minimizes waste and maximizes return on investment
5. Enhanced user experience: Improving satisfaction and usability, leading to higher adoption rates and better outcomes
6. Stakeholder confidence: Building trust and reliability among stakeholders, ensuring their continued support and engagement
   

Crafting an effective governance framework: Key components for success

Crafting an effective governance framework is crucial for organizations aiming to streamline operations, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance in their enterprise deployments. Here are the key components of an effective framework:

• Policy development or implementation methodology: Define and document policies, roles, responsibilities, and procedures governing deployment or implementation processes.
• Resource allocation: Allocate and track resources effectively (budget, personnel, infrastructure) to support deployment initiatives.
• Performance reports: Generate regular performance reports and dashboards to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like cost management and system performance metrics.
• Compliance checks: Conduct regular compliance checks to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements and organizational standards through audits (e.g., ISO, CMMI).
• Security protocols: Implement security protocols and access controls to protect sensitive data and systems, crucial in sectors like healthcare (PHI, HIPAA, etc.).
• Stakeholder management: Establish clear communication channels with stakeholders for updates, issue resolution, and feedback, utilizing metrics to gauge engagement.
• Change management: Implement robust change management processes to assess, authorize, and track software configuration changes, ensuring minimal impact on scope, time, and cost.
• Audit trails: Maintain comprehensive audit trails of deployment activities to ensure accountability and traceability throughout the governance framework.

8 key quality control strategies for enterprise deployments

The essential techniques that can help you achieve seamless, reliable, and efficient software implementations include:

1. Testing strategies: Effective testing strategies are crucial to ensuring software reliability and functionality. Develop comprehensive testing strategies, including unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing to validate software functionality and performance.

2. Quality assurance: Quality assurance encompasses adherence to organizational standards and best practices throughout the software development lifecycle. It ensures that development processes follow established guidelines to maintain high standards of quality and consistency. By aligning quality assurance with internal audit activities, you can validate compliance with policies and standards, ensuring robust software quality management.

3. Deployment planning: Deployment planning involves meticulous task definition, setting achievable timelines, and managing dependencies to ensure smooth implementation. By outlining clear milestones and risk mitigation strategies, you can minimize deployment risks and ensure the timely delivery of software solutions. Effective planning also facilitates the seamless integration of new software into existing systems, optimizing operational efficiency.

4. Rollback procedures: These procedures allow you to revert to a previous software version in case of deployment failures or issues, minimizing downtime and ensuring continuity of operations. By implementing robust rollback protocols, you can mitigate risks and maintain user confidence in software deployments.

5. Performance monitoring: Continuous performance monitoring is critical for identifying and addressing bottlenecks, optimizing resource utilization, and ensuring the scalability of software solutions. Tools like Dynatrace and Datadog provide real-time insights into system performance, enabling proactive measures to enhance software efficiency and user experience. Performance monitoring facilitates proactive maintenance and optimization of software systems post-deployment.

6. User training: By providing comprehensive training and support, you can empower users to navigate and leverage new software functionalities effectively. User training programs ensure smooth transitions to new software environments, enhance user engagement and maximize adoption rates, ultimately driving organizational productivity and satisfaction.

7. Feedback mechanisms: Establishing a robust feedback mechanism enables organizations to gather valuable insights from users and stakeholders regarding software usability and performance. By collecting and analyzing feedback, you can identify usability issues, prioritize enhancements, and align software development with user expectations. A structured feedback process fosters continuous improvement, ensuring that software solutions evolve to meet changing business needs and user requirements.

8. Documentation: Comprehensive documentation of deployment processes, configurations, and troubleshooting procedures is essential for maintaining transparency and ensuring audit readiness. Detailed documentation is a reference for future audits, facilitating compliance with regulatory requirements and organizational standards. You can streamline troubleshooting, minimize downtime, and support effective software management and maintenance by documenting software configurations and procedures.
   

Real-world examples: How simple governance policies enhance project success

Saurabh shared insightful examples of how simple governance policies can positively impact projects.

In a healthcare IT organization, Saurabh managed a portfolio of service-based projects in the US region. They conducted regular compliance audits every three months using a clear and comprehensive checklist of mandatory and optional items. Senior managers were trained to audit projects outside their departments, which ensured a thorough review process. This approach led to successful compliance reviews and smooth ISO and CMMI-level audits.

In another example, as part of their Rocketlane implementation, Saurabh's team developed an escalation metric linked to key project milestones. Project managers received reminders about upcoming milestones, and missed milestones triggered escalation emails. This system escalated unresolved issues up the organizational hierarchy, ensuring timely intervention. The strategy effectively kept the right people informed and involved in resolving project issues efficiently.

Overcoming common governance and quality assurance challenges

Implementing robust governance and quality assurance policies is not without its challenges. Here are common obstacles and strategies to tackle them effectively:

• Lack of standardization: Establish standardized governance frameworks and quality control processes that clearly define roles, responsibilities, and procedures for all stakeholders. This ensures consistency and accountability across the organization.
• Resistance to change: Overcome resistance by providing comprehensive training and support to employees. Foster a culture of openness and continuous learning, encouraging teams to embrace new processes and improvements.
• Limited resources: Prioritize investment in key areas such as automation tools, training programs, and hiring skilled personnel. Identify opportunities for resource optimization to make the most of available resources.
• Complexity of the software ecosystem: Utilize tools and technologies for automated testing, deployment orchestration, and monitoring. Establish clear communication channels and collaboration frameworks to manage complexity effectively.
• Compliance and regulatory requirements: Stay updated on relevant regulations and standards. Integrate compliance requirements into governance frameworks and quality control processes. Engage legal and compliance experts to ensure adherence to these standards.
• Siloed organization structure: Foster a culture of collaboration and transparency. Break down silos through regular cross-functional meetings, shared goals, and joint initiatives to promote a unified vision and cohesive efforts.
• Lack of monitoring and feedback mechanisms: Implement robust monitoring tools and metrics. Establish channels for collecting feedback from team members and stakeholders, and use this feedback to drive continuous improvement initiatives.