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Developing Interface Agreements for Technical Services

Ben Ziser, Paul Harris — June 2011

Recent Engagement: Our client is a regional integrated bulk water and retail authority. The Technical Services group was working within a framework of ambiguous Asset Management relationships with their key internal client groups, with sub-optimal communication channels. This resulted in a lack of clear accountability in delivering key work types, and work being delivered in a ‘reactive’ manner.

Identified through previous management improvement work, there was an opportunity to:

  • Move toward an improved Asset Management Model for technical assets. Specifically, this meant clarifying the roles of Asset Owner,  Asset Manager, and Asset Service Provider, and
  • Clarify the tasks, roles and accountabilities of Technical Services and its internal clients for managing and servicing technical assets.

Marchment Hill Consulting (MHC) was engaged to develop a set of internal team workflows, and a series of Interface Agreements to address these challenges.

MHC reviewed the current internal agreements, service level agreements, and other internal interface management documents and processes. MHC also examined the workflows between Technical Services and its key clients, and identified that the majority of the current workflow issues related to task definition and accountabilities. Accordingly, MHC ensured that future workflows (see Figure 1) provided clarity of task (via workflow steps) and accountability (via swim lanes).

Figure 1: Future workflow for budgeting

After agreeing the workflows, MHC developed a series of Interface Agreements for Technical Services and their client groups. At the heart of each Interface Agreement are the “interaction tables” specifying the details, frequency and timeliness of each interaction between the teams, as well as guidelines around the quality of the interaction (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Interface Agreement interaction table for planned works

During the engagement, MHC identified additional improvement opportunities that would enhance the working relationship between Technical Services and their client groups. These improvements related to increasing the integration and rollout of the HELP desk function, improving the automation of timesheeting, and increasing the involvement of Technical Services in setting standards and preferred supplier lists

Our client gained a clear and consistent understanding of accountabilities for their technical assets, as well as opportunities independent of the agreements which would facilitate further process improvement and planning efficiencies.

Additionally, the client now has a concise and customised model of Asset Management for their technical assets. Reassigning asset management responsibilities not only increased the control Technical Services has over the direction, standards, and maintenance of the technical assets, but also allows the group to grow and develop their skills.

Get in touch with the authors — Ben Ziser , Paul Harris »

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