How State Employees Create Change
6/21/2022 8:43:23 AM
The /mnit/about-mnit/transformation/index.jspOffice of Transformation and Strategy Delivery, housed within Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) and under the direction of /mnit/about-mnit/leadership/baber-zarina.jspAssistant Commissioner Zarina Baber, and the launch of Minnesota’s Modernization Playbook have powered the state’s ability to transform how we deliver value through Minnesota’s programs and services.
The Office of Transformation and Strategy Delivery is guiding all state employees who touch technology projects to use the Modernization Playbook – using a change agent network called the Transformation Practitioner’s Team (TPT). The TPT was formed in June 2021 and includes members from across the executive branch:
The TPT helps agencies incorporate the Modernization Playbook framework and associated governance into new and existing business and project management processes. This network of leaders and practitioners creates a space to manage change and report progress on adoption or barriers to progress from within agencies.
Stacey Walker, the Transformation Program Manager in the Office of Transformation and Strategy Delivery, serves as the chairperson of the Transformation Practitioner’s Team. She joined MNIT in April 2021 transitioning out of her background in healthcare over to state government. Stacey has been a Registered Nurse for 24 years and has led large-scale organizational change through her 18+ years of working in clinical informatics and project management. She brings an empathetic leadership style that places each individual at the center of importance in managing the changes introduced by the Modernization Playbook.
Stacey interviewed a few individuals on the TPT about how they are using the Modernization Playbook to improve access to modern government services – creating change for the better in Minnesota:
Tammy Bjork, PMP, represents DNR on the TPT, in partnership with the CBTO of the MNIT DNR teams, Jenna Covey. Bjork’s work to implement modernization practices at the DNR started well before the TPT group formed. She has worked in the project management space for more than 20 years at the State of Minnesota. The TPT and MNIT’s Office of Transformation and Strategy Delivery have used Bjork’s experience to shape the direction of the TPT’s work from the onset.
Bjork: MNIT and DNR started our modernization journey in 2016. The TPT and the Modernization Playbook have lent credence to the work we’ve been doing – it’s helped us articulate the value of modernization. Recently, DNR established an IT governance structure to ensure that the work selected for the investment of time and resources adds the most value to the agency’s core business functions and strategic goals. I am the MNIT member representing DNR on the TPT, but my agency TPT counterpart at DNR, my CBTO, and I work closely together through our DNR IT governance structure to increase engagement and understanding of modernization principles. The Modernization Playbook has given us a common language that we know every other state agency is using, and as members of the TPT, we’re hearing the same things at the same times about where we’re headed. Our next step is to define our portfolio maturity models and where we’d like to see our organization in the future.
We also are taking small steps to move to agile processes. Agile is promoted by the Modernization Playbook, and some TPT members are further along in this journey. We’ve applied a few tools and techniques to help the DNR move closer to implementing agile principles, build on successes, and reduce risk.
Bjork: We’ve really enhanced our RFP processes with the Modernization Playbook. We’ve applied lessons learned from the past and other state agencies for DNR key initiative projects that will impact Minnesotans. When we use these principles to create better RFP processes (from the Select phase through the Run phase), we take a more planful approach to our work, increase transparency, improve collaboration, and make better choices on behalf of Minnesotans. In addition, this method ensures the right people are engaged in projects, at the right time, for the right reasons.
Bjork: The fact that the Modernization Playbook exists and supports modernization principles for the State of Minnesota is an incredible value. The TPT can collaborate and bring that shared language to life, bringing agency and technical staff together.
The work of the Office of Transformation and Strategy Delivery connected project professionals and helped create relationships across MNIT, which is extremely valuable not only for implementing this effort but in the end, it will benefit the outcomes achieved for Minnesotans. We are using a common approach to project and portfolio management, where possible, for the technologies that we deliver – no matter the agency.
Laurie Hansen is an outspoken advocate for the process improvements outlined in the Modernization Playbook. Hansen has worked with MMB’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems since the inception of the SEMA4 (Statewide Employee Management System) system – and understands how projects succeed with best practices and shared knowledge. She regularly contributes her perspective as a business partner and as someone who sponsors projects to the various focus groups, knowledge resources, and educational content that have been created through the work of the TPT.
Hansen: Before Assistant Commissioner Baber started the Office of Transformation and Strategy Delivery, she partnered with MMB and helped us appreciate what a structured and rigorous project management discipline can bring to a project. Our participation in TPT has really helped us migrate successfully from project ideas to implementation.
We worked with the Office of Transformation and Strategy Delivery to take the business case – what all agencies use in the Select Phase – and turn it into a compelling presentation that provides executive-level information. The template that their office provided, and all TPT members can use, held the decision-makers captive, provided important information to help them think through all of the implications of the proposed project, and led to an approved project. I’m so impressed by the amount of expertise that the TPT is bringing to all projects in state government.
Hansen: We are now more efficient because we do better planning at the beginning of the project. We’ve followed the Select Phase of the Modernization Playbook by using our governance to review ideas and authorize ongoing work. The governance reviews all ideas and determines that the idea aligns with our agency’s strategy. At this stage, we focus on selling the idea by documenting the business problem and the potential benefits and doing a rough estimate of the size of the project. Once an idea is approved, we begin working on refining estimates and determining the scope and timeframe. Over the past 12-18 months, that’s built an understanding across our agency of our priorities. We’ve built trust and transparency by creating a roadmap that shows all of our business areas and executive leaders how projects and maintenance go together to further our agency’s mission, vision, and values.
For example, a recent upgrade followed the Modernization Playbook, which ensured its success for both MMB and people who use the systems. SEMA4, the state’s payroll, human resources, job application, and benefits system, and ELM (Enterprise Learning Management), the state’s learning management system, upgraded to new hardware and software versions. The Modernization Playbook methodologies guided this complex project to move from concept to execution and completion with all levels of project governance appropriately involved. Following the Modernization Playbook contributed to a project that was completed on the original timeline, within budget, and a launch with very minimal issues that were resolved in the pre-planned warranty period.
Hansen: There are formal governance decision checkpoints within the Modernization Playbook. Implementing those checkpoints has been transformative for MMB because they help us make sure that the project work we’re doing is authorized by the governance committee. The last checkpoint, right before we implement a project, includes a final review of the project resource estimates and timeline. This builds governances’ confidence in the project that a full planning effort has been completed and that the estimate is based on the best information available, which reduces the likely hood that the project will return to the committee for changes in scope or funding.
Sara Ovist at MDA has been actively involved in the agency’s modernization work. She has been a member of the Transformation Practitioner’s Team since the summer of 2021. Ovist is the data manager for MDA’s Plant Protection Division (PPD) and the business architect for MDA. She works with her colleagues to promote the Modernization Playbook, which impacts PPD and the agency as a whole.
Ovist: We have learned and really seen first-hand that IT (MNIT) and the business (MDA) have the same goals in mind – creating value for MDA’s customers and Minnesotans with technology. Going through a modernization effort, with the TPT and Modernization Playbook, has shown us that we can come together to solve problems. The TPT comes together and brainstorms how we can improve our practices across state government, and we’ve learned how to apply that at MDA.
The TPT is also helping us incorporate change management principles. We’ve broken down silos in the agency and across state government. The TPT gets me excited about where Minnesota is headed. It’s great to have similar like-minded people come together in one place. Prior to this change network, many of us were starting our modernization journey separately, but we weren’t sure who to contact.
Ovist: MDA received IT modernization funding this year in the agriculture omnibus bill, and we want to make sure that we use that funding efficiently. We are using modernization principles to first understand the needs of the people we serve, our customers. This is reflected in the TPT and Modernization Playbook. The business case in the Select phase ensures that our solutions benefit everyone. We are now interviewing customers, and we’ve heard that they want easier processes. Farmers want access to information about upcoming inspections and a unified process for licensing across the agency – they want us to streamline things for them.
This process has unearthed a need for a modern customer database. I was able to ask the TPT how other agencies manage customer data and their solutions for customer/client databases.
Ovist: We’re experiencing the impact of the Select phase in real-time. When we put time into the requirements of a project, we can solve problems that align with the goals, tactics, and objectives of the whole agency.
This also improves project execution. If you don’t define your scope clearly, you’re never going to get done with a project. It’s going to take time, but we’re seeing the benefit of putting in that time upfront so that when we do hand a project off to the technical teams, it’s just a technology project.
In the near future, we’re looking to implement an idea intake process. At the TPT meeting, we heard about in idea intake process at the Department of Revenue that we’re looking to adopt for our agency.
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