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The facts that we got to know from the problem statement: Organizational Goal 1 Timely delivery Organizational Goal 2 Reduced inefficiencies There needs to be a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that needs to help us in addressing our coordination challenges of unclear priorities, delayed feedback, miscommunication. We also need to keep in mind the fact that we need to tie it link to the organization goals. Let us define the KPI as follows KPI A KPI is a value that is measured for achieving a specific objective and how effectively it is being done (over a period of time), be it an individual, team , organization. KPI Description Collaboration Effectiveness Index It is a custom indicator that measures the collaboration effectiveness of the cross-functional team To make the KPI to be measured with respect to each of the challenges let us measure each of the challenges in the form of some metrics. Let us define them as well Metrics Metrics Definition Metrics Frequency Measuring Unit (Number/ Percentage) Remarks Percentage of ambiguous priorities (while discussing milestone related activities) It is the ratio of count of priorities that are not clear by the total count of Daily/ On Need basis Percentage Why the measuring Frequency values are like this? These metrics may not be necessarily relevant for every day but as it runs in a tight schedule (3 months), the system should be in a position to know how the team is fairing in each metric at any given point of time as each day has an overall impact on the project. Hence the measuring frequency should be ‘Daily’. ‘On Need Basis’ is just to ensure that some times you may not have data for these metrics on a given day. To cater to that, that value is provided Percentage of missed feedback (while discussing milestone related activities) It is the ratio of count of opportunities that were missed to have feedback by the total count of possible feedback opportunity Daily/ On Need basis Percentage Number of miscommunication happened (while discussing milestone related activities) It is the ratio of count of miscommunications that happened by the total count of communications happened Daily/ On Need basis Percentage Metrics Calculation: Metrics Formula Percentage of ambiguous priorities (% AP) (Number of ambiguous priorities/ Total number of priorities) *100 Percentage of missed feedback (%MF) (Number of missed opportunities to have feedback /Total number of possible feedback opportunity) *100 Percentage of miscommunications happened (% MCH) (Number of miscommunications happened / Total number of miscommunications) *100 KPI Calculation Collaboration Effectiveness Index (CEI) = 1 - (%AP + %MF + %MCH) How does the KPI work The KPI uses an index score with a baseline value of 1 (equivalent to 100%). It means that when a project starts with ‘CEI’ value as 1 , the other parameters (AP, MF, MCH) will be ‘0’. But as the other parameters get changed during the project execution, then the CEI index value changes and could naturally go down and even in negative (which is not a great sign). The objective is to ensure move towards the baseline score of 1 which means there is improvement shown in the other parameters. To make the concept clear let us put some numbers on the metrics and see how this impacts the KPI and see what inferences we can have Assume you have the following scenarios: Scenario 1: Total Count Count Formula Calculation Priorities: 10 Ambiguous Priorities: 5 % AP = 5/10 * 100 = 50% (.5) Possible Feedback Opportunity: 20 Missed Feedback Opportunity : 5 % MF = 15/20 * 100 = 75% (.75) Communications happened:30 Miscommunications happened: 6 %MCH = 6/30 * 100 = 20% (.2) CEI = 1 – (0.5 + 0.75 + 0.2) = 1 – 1.45 = - 0.45 Scenario 2: Total Count Count Formula Calculation Priorities: 10 Ambiguous Priorities: 2 % AP = 2/10 * 100 = 20% (.2) Possible Feedback Opportunity: 10 Missed Feedback Opportunity : 3 % MF = 3/10 * 100 = 30% (.3) Communications happened:20 Miscommunications happened: 10 %MCH = 10/20 * 100 = 50% (.5) CEI = 1 – (0.2 + 0.3 + 0.5) = 1 – 1 = 0 Scenario 3: Total Count Count Formula Calculation Priorities: 12 Ambiguous Priorities: 1 % AP = 1/12 * 100 = 8% (.08) Possible Feedback Opportunity: 14 Missed Feedback Opportunity : 2 % MF = 2/14 * 100 = 14% (.14) Communications happened:22 Miscommunications happened: 2 %MCH = 2/22 * 100 = 9% (.09) CEI = 1 – (0.08 + 0.14 + 0.09) = 1 – 0.31 = 0.69 Inferences that we can arrive from the CEI score from these 3 scenarios 1. In Scenario 1, the negative score (-0.45) of CEI indicates the fact that these challenges negatively impact the KPI which in turn impacts the organization goals (we will see how it does) 2. In Scenario 2, even though the CEI score is zero and is not negative, it still shows that there are areas of improvement. Unless CEI score is 1, there will be always an opportunity for improvement to be done for any of these challenges 3. In Scenario 3, a positive CEI score (0.69) depicts that the challenges stated in the problem statement are minimal/limited but needs to be addressed How does the KPI impact the organizational goals: Organizational Goal 1: Timely delivery In a cross-functional team, multiple skilled people work together. Therefore, there needs to be lot of coordination amongst the team members. a. Unclear/Ambiguous Priority: If there are unclear priorities it can delay the work execution or hamper the work progress. b. Feedback Opportunity Missed: Similarly, if there is a feedback, that needs to be obtained/provided, let’s say for a task that is being done, then that needs to be obtained on time. Else, crucial information may be missed out and this can potentially turn into a rework effort in the form of a defect, or a new requirement (depending upon the type of feedback received) c. Miscommunication happening: Imagine there is a change in approach for a deployment task/work (to production) that is originally planned for next week. Due to unforeseen circumstances, that is planned in the current week (on weekday). The communication has gone to the project lead who has communicated erroneously that it would be done on weekend. This is just a hypothetical scenario. But if this happens, this would catch the team unawares and make everyone feel awkward and there could be even escalations and customer dissatisfaction and most importantly can right shift your deadline, in this case. All these challenges are a bottleneck to this goal because it impacts the flow of work/task to be done and hence it can delay your delivery. Addressing these challenges with the help of the KPI, therefore will ensure that you meet the organizational goal, which will ensure that we meet the project deadline Organizational Goal 2: Reduced inefficiencies In a cross-functional team, multiple skilled people work together. Therefore, there could be several handoffs or waiting time involved if there is not a proper collaboration especially when there are dependent tasks or work a. Unclear/Ambiguous Priority: If there are unclear priorities it takes lot of time (waste) in getting a clear-cut agenda/priority. Eg: A business analyst does not convey his priority properly resulting in more discussions with the developers and testers , within the cross-functional team. b. Feedback Opportunity Missed: When a feedback is missed out on a particular work or task, the feedback could be either missed out completely or the feedback could be received later , resulting in rework or probable defect later or a newer opportunity (which can come at the tail end of the project). This is a wasted time which should be avoided in the first place c. Miscommunication happening: Let us say a software developer and a tester are discussing on their work. The work involves development of a a login page for a website. The Business analyst has a 1-1 meeting with the developer, then she has a 1.1 meeting with the tester, both the meetings related to the login page development. The problem starts when the tester tests the developed login page. The tester says that the name field is not curtailed (can enter a sentence long name). The developer says that Business Analyst told him to do a typical standard way of doing and hence he followed only the usage of Alphabets only to be written and not the length. To counter this, the tester says the Business Analyst told him to follow test standards which is to curb the length of the name and also ensure names follow Alphabets only. This was a clear sign of miscommunication that could have been avoided if Business Analyst had set up a meeting with both tester and developer for a shared understanding. As you can see here, these challenges impact this goal as they bring more waiting time/wastes in the form of rework, defects, additional/long discussions, etc... These are inefficiencies that needs to be reduced so as to meet the project deadline. This KPI ensures that these challenges are addressed and thereby addressing this goal Conclusion: We saw how the KPI of Collaborative Effectiveness Index (CEI) is being impacted by the existing challenges within the team. We also saw with the 3 scenarios as how those CEI scores have an Impact and what inferences we get from each of the different CEI scores. Also we got a view of how the KPI can ultimately impact the Organizational goals of Timely delivery and reduced inefficiencies. Let us try to ensure what can make us to have better team collaboration Key Take aways/Actionable Insights to strengthen team work: 1. Ensure a daily huddle is there amongst the Cross-Functional team members to a. understand day-to-day priority b. discuss outstanding queries that can quickly become a dependency & future bottleneck c. Ensure feedback is shared, wherever deemed to be fit d. Highlight the day-to-challenges faced by you or as a team and take decisions accordingly 2. Have a standard communication channel (such as Google Chat, Ms Teams,…) that is used a. To pass key communications/notifications (when it is known post the daily huddle time) b. Better to prefer in-person communication for more effectiveness (only if the team is co-located) 3. Show Transparency of work/task progressed a. Display the progress of the task/work in a Wall or a digital board/sticky notes or through any means b. Highlight the work/tasks that have dependencies with other members in a distinct manner (keeping it creative can make everyone interested to look at it & get the visibility it requires) c. A dashboard view of all the work/tasks at a team level -with current status, priority levels can make everyone aware of the current overall progress of the project d. Having a defined metrics for the work/task, may additionally help the team – such as number of completed tasks, number of defects closed within SLA…. IMHO, these are key factors which can help the team. Also let us discuss an interesting aspect which can tell the significance of team collaboration. The formula for calculating the number of communications that can happen for a team of size ‘n’ is = (n * (n-1) )/2 When team members work in silos, what will happen is there would be too many siloed conversations. For instance, for a team of 3 members, the communication will be (3 * 2) /2 = 3 which means Person A will talk to Person B , Person A will talk to Person C and Person B will talk to Person B (3 communications) If a team size is 8, then the number of communications to happen in that team will be = (8 * 7)/2 =28. But when the team size marginally increases to 10 (from 😎 the communications to be made is quite high, which is (10 * 9)/2 =45. This is where a daily huddle, a proper communication channel can help in to address these communication hassles. Team Collaboration will be a major challenge if we do not have a proper mechanism in place and it will get only complicated if the team size grows which will be the case (mostly) if a project is ramping up or if the project is in RED, for some reasons and when there is lot of pending work to do which will require more people to complete Therefore, we should focus upon the actionable insights that can help in stronger collaboration amongst the team members that can ensure smooth functioning of the project, resulting in completing the project on time.