FastPLAN Workshops Help HP Launch Complex Programs

Company:
Hewlett-Packard, a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services, is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to all.

Business Problem:
Hewlett-Packard has a distinct culture characterized by a great deal of decentralization and local autonomy, along with the strong desire to reach consensus on issues before moving forward. But consensus is not easily achieved when many people from different disciplines and geographies must all play critical roles in a program. HP's Software Services Division engages in over fifty of these cross-functional programs each year. Responsibility for organizing and planning these programs, and attaining the required consensus, rests with Service Delivery Engineering (SDE) and its manager Burkhard Dinnies.

Role:
Dinnies engaged IPS to conduct FastPLAN® workshops for several of the most demanding programs SDE was preparing to launch. "It's impressive how much we accomplish in those three-day workshops," Dinnies commented. "IPS takes a very structured approach to synchronizing the efforts of our cross-functional teams. We sometimes have as many as thirty different disciplines and geographical organizations represented at our kickoff meetings."

Solution:
"Therefore, to be sure to kick it off properly, we asked IPS to come in and conduct one of their workshops. It was very valuable during just those few days, we came to our first joint understanding of what the program is all about and where we fit vis-à-vis other initiatives underway at HP," explained Dinnies. "Based on this understanding, we came up with a plan, which is right now in the execution stage and going well. Some of the issues that became visible to us during the workshop couldn't be settled within the group because they required escalation within the organization, but it's better to have such issues on the table than not."

Results:
Dinnies identified the following principal benefits that SDE received from IPS:

• The affected organizations are aligned and synchronized with a common set of objectives
• Expectations are properly set
• An understanding of the effort as a group, what the goals and key deliverables are and where all the necessary skills lie to achieve those goals
• Who is responsible for each task in the program schedule
• Better match what we do with what we know
• Acquired program management skills that apply not only to the program at hand, but also in general to new programs