The Importance of a Reliable Delivery Framework

Today’s professional services organizations often focus on highlighting their processes and delivery framework, and to many it just comes off as a bunch of marketing fluff. In order to present a framework that your customers will value, you have to provide them with best practices and a path to success. A quality delivery framework will keep your customers engaged while providing their employees with a structured guide that enforces learnings and provides continuous value.

Consistency & Efficiency

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you were paying for professional services within your IT department, would you want to be the “guinea pig” for a new process or technology? Probably not. That’s why a well-defined and executed framework provides proven and time-tested methods of approaching, executing, and closing projects. This significantly mitigates risks and unpredictability. Part of executing the delivery framework relies heavily upon having team members that are familiar with the particular task at hand and how it relates to the bigger picture. Familiarity breeds success and it will allow them to proactively address risk points, complete tasks quicker, and avoid mistakes that could result from being unprepared.

Drive Quality & Enforce Learnings

Quality is driven by repeatable processes for which their outcomes have been proven multiple times across various use cases. When team members are not spending time correcting mistakes, they can spend more time ensuring the solution fits the customer and is architected properly to achieve the most value.

Of course the effectiveness of your team members will only be as good as the training they receive. Ask any trainer and they’ll tell you that one of the keys to learning is repeating. As you train employees in new areas of an implementation, whether technology specific, process related or a management function, the more repetition the better. This will enable resources to become experts in focus areas quicker, thus enabling their career growth and driving quality delivery for customers.

Delivery via an Optimized Framework

A successful delivery framework is comprised of transparency, communication, work product templates, and phase containment (or catching problems before they become bigger issues down the road). It provides a path for execution and risk mitigation which enables customers and services professionals to make pro-active adjustments to best handle the situation at hand. This is accomplished by clearly defining the tasks, people, processes, technology and dependencies necessary for success. The phase containment does not equate to only a waterfall approach, but rather enforces the checks and balances that must exist in order to maximize work effort while minimizing risk of rework or misalignment.

Promote Your Solution

As you refine your delivery framework, keep in mind that it’s a great opportunity to subtly promote specific features and benefits of your services that yield true value to your organization and the customers it serves. If you have a solid service or solution and understand your customers, you can make valuable recommendations for them that will add value to your service and increase engagement with your organization.