Module 5 · Lesson 5.4 · Senior leaders
Practise, for senior leaders
Define the missing handoff in a value stream that runs across four teams, and decide who should own it.
Key idea
Value is created across teams, so a value stream is best read as a chain of canvases, one per handoff, each with its own definition and an owner where it will hold.
In this open version
Open the worked example in the Structured Collaboration Canvas™ and do the steps there; it opens in a new tab. The example already holds Harbourline’s own definition for the service design handoff, so draft yours before you look at it in the Definitions view. The set exercise starting point, with that definition removed, will come with the version of the course that keeps your progress.
The situation
Harbourline · from bid to steady support
Business value is created horizontally, across teams and functions, rather than inside any one of them. An end-to-end value stream is therefore best understood as a chain of canvases, one per handoff, each with its own negotiated definition.
Harbourline’s chain follows a Northlight Financial service from bid to steady support:
- Bids and Proposals (Cork) wins the work, with service levels agreed under “Delivery sign-off”.
- The Salesforce practice (Kraków) builds and integrates it.
- Service Transition (Cork) takes it from go-live to steady service, with run-books governed by “Run-book ready for go-live”.
- The Service Desk (Pune) supports it.
One handoff in the chain is the subject of this exercise: the service design pack that the Salesforce practice passes to Service Transition. Without it, Service Transition can’t plan a handover without going back to the project team, and the rest of the chain depends on that plan.
Two issues in the chain have been escalated to the Enterprise Execution Forum: the project bonus in Systems Integration is still paid on the go-live date, and integration knowledge leaves with the Kraków project team. Both bear on this handoff.
What to do
- Open the Interfaces view and read across the chain. Note which handoffs have an agreed definition and which don’t.
- Open the Parking lot and read the two escalated issues.
- Open the Definitions view and add a definition for the service design handoff: what the service design pack must contain and how it reaches Service Transition; a test two reasonable people could apply independently; and the senior leader who should own it. Consider who is accountable for the Deliver projects value stream, and who for Project to service.
- Link the definition to the Salesforce practice’s Deliverable “Service design pack” and to Service Transition’s Input of the same name.
- In the Parking lot, add a short note to the issue about integration knowledge, saying how your definition helps, and what it can’t solve on its own.
- Save your work, or note your answers, so you can compare them with Harbourline’s definition.
Questions to think about as you work
- Which senior leader should own the definition, and why? A definition owned by the supplying side can drift towards what is easy to supply. One owned by the receiving side can drift towards everything it would like.
- How does a project bonus paid on go-live affect what the project team puts into the service design? What would the Enterprise Execution Forum need to decide for your definition to hold?
- If this handoff fails, which teams further along the chain feel it, and how soon?
Compare with Harbourline’s definition
When you have drafted yours, open Harbourline’s own definition in the Definitions view of the worked example: “Service design ready for transition”, owned by Sarah Lindqvist, Director of Systems Integration. There is no single right answer; use the comparison to check your definition against the two-people test, and whether you placed ownership where it will hold.
What to take away
- Read the value stream as a chain of canvases, one per handoff.
- Place ownership of a definition where it will hold, not where it is easiest.
- Some conflicts, such as incentives set across functions, need a decision from the Enterprise Execution Forum.
Your progress
Course contents · This is the open version of the course. Your notes, progress and check scores are saved on this device, and in your account when you are signed in.