Design Coordination

Service design involves many different aspects beyond designing a new application to provide new functionality (utility). Consideration must be given to how the service will operate, both now and in the future; what level of availability, security, continuity, and capacity will need to be provided; and the best approach to this (warranty). Other processes will interface with the service design processes. To ensure a successful outcome, the design activities must be coordinated.

The purpose of the design coordination process is to carry out the coordination of the many different activities of service design. The many processes and numerous interfaces involved are all potential sources of conflict. By providing a single point, complications and misunderstandings are avoided.

The objectives of this process include ensuring that all aspects of the design, including the architecture, processes, and metrics, are designed to provide the utility and warranty of the service to a level that meets the business requirement now and in the future. Where there are several competing projects, design coordination ensures the resolution of conflicting demands. It also ensures that the resources and capabilities needed for a successful implementation are in place and ensures that service design packages are compiled and transmitted to the appropriate transition staff when required. It ensures that everyone is clear about what needs to be handed over between the different lifecycle changes and the quality criteria they must meet.

Design coordination will check that the proposed design conforms to the agreed standards and that repeatable design practices are used so that there is a consistency of approach across services. It will try to identify any improvements to the design stage that could be used in future projects.

Design coordination covers all the various activities in design and ensures consistency across them. All activities regarding the design of any new services, changes to existing services, or the retirement of services will benefit from this process. It covers large projects, as well as those designs that are too small to merit a project being set up but whose activities would benefit from being coordinated. Some activities are too small to require coordination. The majority of design coordination will focus on major changes and larger projects, where the complexity of the tasks and the number of people involved present a risk that these tasks could become out of step with each other. Design coordination reduces that risk significantly.

Deciding which activities require design coordination and which do not is a matter for individual organizations to decide. Each organization must also consider how it wants to decide upon the level of coordination required.

Fitting the Process to the Business Requirement

The internal service provider for a large retail organization was concerned about the quality of changes that had been implemented in the past, many of which required rework later because not all implications had been considered. It was agreed that all changes would be considered to have a design phase. Even smaller changes now had defined design activities, including implementation plans. The coordination process in this situation was usually straightforward, acting as a check to ensure that all the activities had been carried out. Where necessary, when changes were more complex, there would be a greater level of detailed coordination. The organization was happy that this level of involvement in all changes addressed the concerns.

Another organization took an opposite view, regarding such involvement in all changes as unnecessarily bureaucratic. It laid down criteria restricting the involvement of the service coordination process to major changes or projects. It was happy with the level of assurance this approach provided.

Both of these organizations were right; the level of coordination in each case fitted the business requirement and each organization’s attitude toward risk. The first organization had poor experiences in the past, and implementing design coordination for all changes gave it the reassurance it required. Organizations such as government departments, global enterprises, and those with safety-critical systems are likely to want this level of assurance. The second organization was happy with a “lighter touch.” Organizations that need to be dynamic and responsive to fast-changing requirements, such as those providing web services, are more likely to adopt this approach.

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The design coordination process includes providing the required level of assistance to projects or changes that the organization has decided is appropriate. It ensures that all resources are managed effectively, avoiding scheduling issues and overcommitment of resources, by ensuring that resource planning is carried out in advance.

The process ensures that a standard approach is used wherever possible and that policies and guidelines are followed. It confirms that the service designs are documented and handed over with the service design package to transition. It carries out checks to evaluate whether the design is both fit for use and fit for purpose. It also ensures that the guidelines are updated when required. By monitoring the success of the service design activities, it identifies opportunities for continual service improvement and ensures they are implemented.

The process is concerned solely with the design phase. The role is one of coordination; the actual contents of the solution are the responsibility of the individual projects.