Collaborative Planning

The initial phase Collaborative Planning is concerned about planning and preparing employing for MAID. For that purpose, the evaluation team leader needs to arrange with the organization’s sponsor and align the MAID objectives in such a way that they support the project goals included in our EA BSC. Consequently, we want to measure and analyse how successful they have been fulfilled operating the EABV AM and how useful this assessment was by employing MAID.

Collaborative Planning comprises of three different stages with several activities for each which is summarized in Table 6-6 based on the method definition document (Kasunic 2010a). For each of the activities we have an input and an output. The latter is termed as product in this context. The detailed procedural steps for each activity can be taken from (Kasunic 2010a). All of the stages and activities including input information and products are described more detailed in the following subsections.

Stage/Activity Information Needed Products Establish Scope

Determine MAID

Objectives  Description of the project goals  List of MAID objectives Determine Constraints

 List of MAID objectives  Estimates of stakeholder

availability

 List of constraints to be met  List of stakeholder availability  List of revised MAID objectives

Determine MAID scope  List of revised MAID objectives

 List of constraints to be met  MAID scope statement

Establish Roles and

Expectations  MAID scope statement

 List of MAID team members  List of customer SMEs

Develop Plan and Schedule Determine MAID

 Input from sponsor to customer POC

Determine MAID Inputs  List of customer SMEs  M & A artefact inventory

Tailor Method

 List of revised MAID objectives  List of constraints to be met  MAID scope statement

 Approved tailoring decisions

Determine Cost and Schedule

 List of revised MAID objectives

 MAID scope statement

 Approved tailoring decisions

 Approved cost and schedule estimates

Obtain Commitment to

the Plan  All previous products  Approved MAID plan Table 6-6: MAID Collaborative Planning overview

6.5.4.1. Establish Scope

Scoping is crucial at the beginning of each evaluation endeavour. We need to know precisely what we want to evaluate. Therefore, the sponsor and the MAID team leader determine the actual focus of the evaluation. In our case, operational level assessment (cf. Sec. 4.3.2) demands choosing a suitable project, and hence we evaluate our DSR artefacts as they assess the chosen project in terms of EABV.

For this purpose, we need to determine MAID objectives. Basically, we want to be clear about what we want to evaluate and what can be done with the evaluation results. As input, we need project goals and generate a list of MAID objectives. Our list of MAID objectives contains the following items:

 Evaluate the EABV AM, the EABV FW, the EABV M, the EABV AP, and the EA BSC in terms of chosen criteria

 Give recommendations on how to improve/evolve the EABV AM

Thereafter, we need to determine eventual constraints. These impact the MAID evaluation and comprise factors such as time, cost, and stakeholder availability. They may limit the scope of the evaluation. One of the requirements for our EABV AM is feasibility, and thus we need to consider this as a constraint for the evaluation. Feasibility has an impact on cost, time, and stakeholder contribution and availability.

Finally, we need to determine the actual scope of MAID. Here, we distinguish between two types of scope: (1) the scope based on categories of the MAID evaluation that will be used and (2) the organizational scope. Since selecting MAID criteria is predicated on knowledge from literature and industry while being aligned to the requirements and DSR evaluation criteria, our scope is devised by a subset of criteria in each of the MAID categories. We outline the selection

of criteria more detailed in Section 6.5.5. Regarding the organizational level, we limit ourselves to one project and hence to the scope of our chosen focus project described in Section 7.2. As a result, we produce a MAID scope statement that includes involved organizational entities, categories of criteria, and the rationale for decisions made. Notably, the scope at this stage is rather at a high level and can get more detailed during subsequent planning.

6.5.4.2. Establish Roles and Expectations

After we determined our scope, we need to know which stakeholders will participate in the evaluation. This is done by the team lead and the customer POC. Consequently, we are able to produce a list of MAID team members including contact and availability information. Furthermore, we have a list of customer SMEs which also contains information about their M & A role and skills. More on MAID roles was already explained in the previous Section 6.5.3.

6.5.4.3. Develop Plan and Schedule

The team lead and the customer POC collaboratively work on creating a plan and schedule for conducting the MAID evaluation in this stage. The first activity is to determine the MAID outputs. The information needed is the list of revised MAID objectives and input from sponsor to customer POC. We have several options on how to report MAID evaluation results, such as presentations including M & A strengths and weaknesses, MAID survey results, a list of MAID criteria with ratings and rationale, recommendations for addressing M & A weakness, or a detailed report with all the findings. These outputs can be combined as the team lead and the customer POC sees fit, resulting in a list of outputs with descriptions. For the purpose of our work, we present the preliminary results in the form of a presentation.

The next activity is to determine MAID inputs. Here, we specify all M & A relevant documents, tools, and data repositories. For this purpose, we need a list of customer SMEs for they are together with the team lead and customer POC responsible for all tasks of this activity. The resulting product is an M & A artefact inventory. The information contained for each M & A artefact is the description for each of our DSR artefacts.

Thereafter, we proceed with the tailor method activity by adapting the method in a way best suited to fulfil organizational and project objectives. The team lead and customer POC need the list of revised MAID objectives, the list of constraints, and the MAID scope statement to tailor the method. In Appendix C.12, we summarize this tailoring for our purposes. We choose to tailor on the stage level as this gives us the most flexibility without generating too much overhead. As output, we generate a document containing the approved tailoring decisions.

After clarifying how to tailor the method, we must determine the cost and schedule. This is an estimate based on the list of revised MAID objectives, the MAID scope statement, and the approved tailoring decisions. The resulting cost and schedule estimate must be approved. For our purposes, we seek additional guidance from a financial analyst in order to conduct our MAID effort as cost efficient as possible. For example, we deploy stakeholders that were involved in the EABV AM design and development to reduce the time for additional meetings and explanations necessary for new stakeholders.

Thereafter, we need to obtain a commitment to the plan. Commitment comes from the sponsor in a formal way. For that purpose, we need all previous MAID outputs. Resulting is an approved MAID plan which is documented by the team lead. The plan is distributed to all relevant stakeholders.