A Center of Excellence, or CoE, is a powerful process improvement tool designed to provide rapid access to critical subject matter expertise and thought leadership in maximizing performance and innovation in an organization. At Momentum, we recognize that it’s also a tool that requires intentional planning, strategic development, and integrated assessment. We’ve worked with public and private-sector clients to implement close to sixty individual Centers of Excellence. As a result, we have an unusual depth of knowledge of CoE best practices. Here’s how we brought those best practices to bear on one recent client project.

The Situation

The IT arm of one state government client required high-quality resources to support, lead, innovate, and enhance business analysis services across the enterprise. They needed to provide business analysis services with a combination of advanced technical skills and industry expertise. Our client asked us to act as a liaison between business units and IT, developing technical solutions to bridge the gap between these entities.

Within the scope of work, we anticipated that we would:

1. Deliver high-quality business analysis and project management resources as needed for identified projects.
2. Provide overarching contract management of all facets of the contract, including:
   • Quality
   • Resources
   • Accounting
   • Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
   • Performance and Customer Satisfaction
   • Administrative Activities and Reporting

3. Support the client’s strategic goals and objectives within all phases of their process: Portfolio, Study, Procurement, and Project.
4. Integrate with other IT teams to support and maintain a viable information systems and technology office.
5. Provide mentorship to client personnel throughout all contract activities by promoting business analysis services using best practice standards, tools, and methodologies.
6. Effectively catalog business processes, stakeholders, and systems across the enterprise while actively supporting successful IT project delivery, facilitating knowledge sharing and transfer.

With an extensive IT portfolio housed within one of the largest state agencies, the client needed to be agile while maintaining organization and collaboration within its core teams. Momentum needed to work with various groups and stakeholders, quickly adapt to changes, continually provide recommendations based on best practices in business analysis, and perform innovatively. In addition, the team needed to be equipped to handle several specific challenges within the organization, including:

• Supporting technologies that were out of date or not the preferred technology based on the current business environment,
• Operating under long procurement windows for contracts and services that accompany public-sector organizations,
• Being innovative with a limited budget, and
• Delivering a service quickly while addressing the perspectives and needs of all stakeholders.

The Approach

Our primary directive was to meet the needs of the various stakeholders while supporting the strategic goals of the entire organization. Equipped to provide industry-leading solutions to specific business and IT problems, we focused on the client’s strategic goals throughout work order projects that aligned with the overarching strategy:

• Provide timely, quality service to create the best value for all customers.
• Leverage state resources to maximize the effectiveness of products and services.
• Nurture a flexible, dynamic work environment.
• Communicate the organization’s performance to customers.
• Integrate local, regional, state, and federal planning.
• Continuously foster a “safety first” culture embraced by all.
• Continuously increase the organization’s efficiency while promoting ongoing improvement and innovation.

Additionally, Momentum wanted to help the client deliver a mature, customer service- and innovation-oriented organization. Our overarching solution provided the organization with:

• Continuation of high-quality service through known resources;
• A strategic partner dedicated to helping the organization reach its goals and objectives;
• A strong foundation and commitment to help the organization reach Level 4 of the BA Practice Maturity Model; and
• The resources, knowledge, and skills to sustain business process management across the enterprise.

The Outcome

By working in close, continued partnership with the client team, Momentum enabled a viable center of excellence organization within the client’s IT department. This CoE effectively connected business areas to IT projects. The successful use of a CoE sets the organization apart from other agencies within the state and state agencies across the nation in terms of IT organizational maturity. The client is well on its way to achieving Level 4 of the BA Practice Maturity Model, which moves organizations and their business analysis services from an enterprise focus to a competitive focus.

Furthermore, the organization has already witnessed the benefits of the CoE implementation and sustainment, including:

1. The ability of executive management and business process leaders to take an enterprise view of all systems through the documentation of systems and processes;
2. Use of proven International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®) Guide standards throughout the organization to promote repeatable practices, consistent project results, and efficiency gains;
3. Integration of the CoE activities with other IT teams to build cohesion between resources and promote shared customer service; and
4. Improved customer satisfaction with a focus on business needs.

Several philosophical components have permeated our project work throughout the the contract. These components helped to grow the strong working relationship with the client and produced meaningful deliverables and recommendations across the enterprise. They include:

• Adopting the organization’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives as our guideposts;
• Employing IIBA®, PMI®, Prosci® and ITIL® v3 best practices;
• Integrating Independent, 3rd party analysis and recommendations; and
• Focusing on all aspects of the organization: people, processes, and technology

The Momentum team built an infrastructure that handles tactical aspects of the contract while developing the CoE, supporting the strategic growth, and achieving the desired maturity model. To achieve this success, we proposed an approach that cycled through independent assessment, analysis, strategy development and implementation, and re-assessment to ultimately reach practice maturity. The assessment and re-assessment cycle focused on challenging stakeholders to consider their organizations and the surrounding organizations. It helped establish formal processes, tools, and resources surrounding innovation and research and development while emphasizing robust communication and collaboration. Additionally, it provided support for organizational and cultural change management. Lastly, it afforded guidance for collecting, storing, and using benefit and customer service metrics.

Leveraging Best Practices to Meet Enterprise Needs

When approaching the new CoE described above, the Momentum Team used a best practice approach in conjunction with the standards outlined in the IIBA’s BABOK® Guide. We believe that IIBA’s core is comprehensive and flexible. We capitalize on this inherent flexibility and adaptability within many other methodologies, incorporating other strong best practices throughout our delivery. However, leveraging best practice only works if it meets the needs of the organization. We work with our clients to adjust standard templates and processes to meet the needs of their enterprise on each specific project. This “right-sizing” ensures that our clients’ CoE meets the needs of stakeholders, as well as the organization as a whole.

If you need assistance developing a center of excellence to address a particular challenge or challenges in your enterprise, drop us a line. We’re ready to help you build a world-class CoE for process improvement, growth, and enterprise transformation.