An Post is the Irish Post Office, and supplies postal and electronic communications, operates post offices, delivers parcels and administers the National Lottery. An Post is organised into five Business and five Headquarter Divisions. The IT Department of An Post has, for some time, been engaged in programmes of improvement to its processes - with encouraging results.
The Department is medium sized with 70 staff and has achieved success using the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) as a reference - with Management applying shrewd customisations in line with the scale, culture and objectives of the business.
Information technology really took off for An Post in 1991 when a decision was taken to invest heavily in computing solutions in support of the business. A significant IT budget was agreed and the department grew from 20 to 60 in the following 18 months, and set about providing systems to both Business and Headquarters Divisions.
By 1993, progress had been disappointing. Productivity was low, and systems were not being delivered to time or budgets. This was not really surprising. Many of the additional staff required significant training and had been a drain on existing, experienced personnel. There was no established development lifecycle, few procedures and no standards.
Business Divisions could not afford to wait and bought in their desired solutions - but in an uncoordinated fashion. Frequently these 'solutions' did not implement smoothly, and IT were drawn into clearing up the problems.
There was an urgent need to find a way out of the problem spiral.
An Post went to BIS for an IT Framework. BIS adapted their 'Modus' product to the An Post environment and delivered some volumes of documented 'Framework'. This Framework identified the complete functional domain of the IT department, defining the contents of each function and its interfaces. It was designed to be the master plan for more detailed procedural developments, in due course. BIS provided staff with training, underpinning the Framework. The Framework addressed and solved many problems - but others remained.
Ken Thompson of Vision ( an IT consultancy specialising in Process Improvement) suggested that the best way forward was to first establish the full facts by an objective analysis, using the Capability Maturity Model as a reference base.
Ken was clear that the solution was in a commitment to the practice of Continuous Improvement - an ongoing programme of step-by-step changes. The Model was customised in some areas to align with An Post procedures, size and culture, the overall effect being simpler and more relevant. A shortened assessment was agreed beginning with briefings on the Model and the Method.
Three one-day workshops, with the IT Project Managers, focused on the software development processes.
The first workshop focused on the staff's perception of achievement against their own Critical success factors.
The second workshop used a simple questionnaire to identify in an objective and structured way exactly where the An Post processes were positioned in relation to the Model. For example, a series of questions would be directed to establishing the method for Requirements Analysis and relating this to the Model, which had five levels of increasing competence or 'Maturity' - identifying the matching 'Level' as a score.
The third workshop combined 'perceptions' with 'practices' to identify:
Each element of the process was analysed and positioned, with a comprehensive tower chart drawn up, illustrating the resulting profile.
In fact the exercise indicated that some project areas had implemented the Framework much more successfully and extensively than others. 'Best Practice' was much higher than 'Average Practice'.
'The actual scores were the least important aspect of the exercise.', says Project Manager Syl Byrne, 'We got most benefit from in-depth discussion of our processes, and comparison with a Model which set out the next Levels of improved practice. The Model helped us see the wood from the trees and gave us an inventory of possible improvement steps.'
The exercise identified a number of areas needing attention, with priority attention for Project Management, Configuration Control and Software Quality Assurance. The Model had pointed out in detail, areas of improvement potential within these functions. There was also a plethora of other general issues or themes, to be built into the resulting process, for example quality controls and sign- offs throughout.
Continuing the logical approach, an Action Plan was drawn up against a time base. Subjects were planned as improvement projects in priority order, with each project breaking down into stages -Define Procedures, Select Tools and Methods, Implement a Pilot and Roll Out in project areas. Three Project Managers took responsibility for an Improvement Project each. In each improvement project the first stage was the construction of process procedures - the vehicle for the identification and documentation of 'Best Practice'.
Syl observes, 'It would have been only too easy to jump in and start writing procedures, but we saw the subject as one of key importance - so we first considered carefully, exactly what we wanted to achieve.'
An Post set out a series of policies for their procedures.
The first step was to agree the style and map out the architecture for the complete domain of procedures. Major functions were decomposed into process blocks and documented in a master diagram. In due course a procedure would be written for each process block. The existing experience of the process Framework was a valuable asset and foundation to the exercise.
A hierarchy of three document types was agreed.
To be of maximum benefit to Staff:
The Project Management procedures are now in place and in use.
Traditionally, all Staff were given the same intensive training
at one sitting. Considerable improvements have been made by introducing
short regular 'Drip Feed' sessions weekly. These have been a mixture
of briefings on new procedures being introduced and drop-in surgery
sessions dealing with individual issues e.g. practical interpretation
and application of the procedures on a specific project.
The Roll Out process also highlighted the need for a Software Quality Assurance function to carry out independent internal audits, to ensure compliance with the new procedures across all project areas. A Process Area Guide has been written and the procedures implemented.
The organisation has been made more effective. Top management Steering Groups for major projects now guide developments through a series of working groups. The company culture has been changed to accept and value the procedural way of doing things, recognising this as representing agreed Best Practice. In IT there is now a significant body of defined and implemented procedures, continually being added to. The procedures are being used in practice, as witnessed by the Software Quality Assurance ( internal audit ) process. The next priority area has been identified as System Testing and an improvement project is underway.
An Post is recognised as one of the most innovative postal companies in Europe with key skills in the exploitation of IT. Indeed An Post is now involved in IT consultancy in the area of post office counter services. It has recently won a contract to supply software for installation at 1,500 post offices in the London area.
IT Manager Eoin Hester observes, 'An Post has a firm commitment to change continually to meet the needs of our customers. Our Company delivers Client expectations on time and to budget in a controlled manner. Our IT function has made great progress, by adopting the principles of Continuous Improvement and is making an important contribution to the business.'
