TBM Framework & Taxonomy

 View Only

TBM Office / TBM Program / TBM Practice / TBM Center of Excellence?

  • 1.  TBM Office / TBM Program / TBM Practice / TBM Center of Excellence?

    Posted 02-09-2021 12:31
    Ok, it's this topic that prompted me to start this discussion. What kind of "team" needs to be driving TBM within an organization?

    We've used TBM Office, TBM Practice, TBM Advisory Group (TAG), etc., to describe the core group driving and defining/roadmapping TBM in an enterprise.

    I'd argue the term we use is less important than what it should be, but sometimes terms imply certain elements that are critically important to success.

    Take "Center of Excellence," (COE) for example. We see COE with Cloud (CCOE) and Agile (Lean Agile COE, or LACE). Maybe it's a fad, but the general definition seems to fit with what we often talk about:

    https://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/what-is-a-center-of-excellence/ 

    A center of excellence (COE) brings together people from different disciplines and provides shared facilities/resources. It is sometimes called a "competency center" or "capability center" in academia.

     In business, and especially marketing, COEs should go further, in order to do what Gartner describes as, "concentrating existing expertise and resources in a discipline or capability to attain and sustain world-class performance and value." These long-term groups combine learning and oversight around a specific area, driving the organization to shift across multiple disciplines together.

    Our view has always been that TBM programs are enablers. You have a program leader ("Director of TBM"  is common) and one or more TBM analysts. But they don't make all the decisions enabled by TBM. Instead, they enable other decision makers, like the CIO, Infrastructure & Operations leaders, application portfolio managers ("VP of Applications"), service portfolio management, business relationship managers (BRMs), product owners, and so on.

    I've seen multi-billion dollar IT shops manage TBM with a rather small TBM office of 4 or 5 people, at least once the program is more or less "steady state". But I've never seen a program be successful without a strong interdisciplinary and cross-functional approach.

    Lastly, we're seeing more and more engagement with COEs outside of the TBM program, like the Cloud COE and LACE mentioned above.

    What's your view? What is your program called? How is it setup? Who do you engage outside of the direct program team?



    ------------------------------
    Todd Tucker
    VP, Standards and Education
    TBM Council
    ------------------------------