Why you should be Swarming (creating the buzz) & Getting Things Done

SWARMING (creating the buzz):?Our Team-based Approach to Getting Things Done

Businesses rely on technology as never before to achieve desired outcomes.?To best support this, the current service models must respond quickly to resolve issues. With #business so dependent on contracted support services, downtime is increasingly intolerable & unacceptable. Enterprises are increasingly raising the bar regarding the availability of contracted services, so IT organizations and service providers must ensure resilient services that are both high quality & high availability.? Any inadvertent defects or service disruptions will impact the client's interpretation and view of quality.

Given this evolution in the business & technology landscape, service providers must respond to survive, and they must:

• Maintain good ongoing relationships with clients to understand the nature (use & extent of use) of their business/products/services and the desired outcomes or business results.?Staying in touch with the business and clients assures a regular flow of information and awareness of the need for new functionality.?In addition, the change management process functions for such improvements.
• Understand which business processes are mission-critical and less so to design services with the proper level of availability, resilience, and cost-effectiveness.
• Work with the business & clients to agree on the frequency of new features and service performance so improvements are introduced in line with business requirements, minimizing the risk of any productivity loss or downtime.
• Improve the #quality of all client-facing delivery & supporting services.?Clients are no longer tolerating defects/deficiencies in services.?Once the service is in production, it must work well and continuously.?When it doesn't, clients want the issue triaged and resolved quickly.

So how do we improve our service delivery and build confidence with the client and amongst the team(s)?

From the IT perspective, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) offers a set of best practices to guide how IT and all service providers can organize resources (people, money, tools, hardware, and software) and deliver high-quality capabilities.?ITIL recognizes that most organizations have teams organized around technology (e.g., application platforms and related activities) and suggests a?consistent framework with four functions to execute the related processes:

1. Customer & IT Service Management - #ITSM (service desk serves as the technical & central point of contact for user support)
2. Technical Management (such as the database, network, and server)
3. Application Management / DevOps (responsible for design, development, and life cycle support of the enterprise applications)
4. Operations Management (monitoring & management to ensure a stable, high-performance production environment)

Breakaway from the conventional support model- it's not the only answer!

When services are live and in operation, functions work interoperably to support processes & keep services available. The Service Desk receives alerts of incidents from users and resolves as many as possible upon receipt. ?If the service desk cannot resolve the issue or needs further assistance, it should have a process and agreement to escalate the matter to another support group that can help fix it as quickly as possible. (along with the support of other groups)

The diagrams below show the difference between the conventional way of escalating & resolving incidents & process anomalies encountered and an alternative method we found to be highly beneficial.

Our recent implementation of a replacement claims adjudication system found that the longitudinal approach 'streaming' resulted in a lengthy and costly bureaucratic process that protracted resolution.?Alternatively, the swarming technique reduced the resolution time by one-half (50%) to two-thirds (~65%).

Caution:?one size does not fit all!? The swarming approach (like successful program & project management) needs tailoring for the circumstances of the engagement.

The Escalation-based Tiered Support Model

This escalation-based / tiered support model in the ITIL framework is a proven practice for responding to and resolving user incidents and issues. Still, it has inherent delays when timely resolution is needed.

Tier 0 – Self Service.?Where available, self-service is done through a Services portal to ensure a uniform and consistent method of supporting users (e.., with FAQs and simple resets) and service disruption notifications and reporting. (not shown in the diagram)

Tier 1 – The Service Desk.?The service desk is tier-1 or first-line support for end-users. It takes ownership of an issue & its resolution (to a significant percentage ~70% of cases without escalation to other support teams. ?The service desk, staffed with generalists, has broad technical and application knowledge to a limited depth. ?Based on target timeframes, there's a limited amount of time to resolve most of the reported issues. ?If the problem is not easily resolvable, they escalate it to a tier-2 team.

Tier 2 – Technical Support or Application Management Teams.?Tier-2 has the technical & application management teams with more specialized knowledge and skills to resolve the issue. ?Tier 2 will typically resolve about 20% of the problems reported due to the higher level of expertise required. ?Upon resolution at Tier-2, the service desk is notified and initiates actions to gain permission to close the ticket. ?Should the tier-2 function not resolve the issue, escalation onto Tier-3 occurs, and a team with in-depth subject matter expertise, knowledge, and skills to apply to the issue/problem resolution.

Tier 3 – Specialist Support: Subject Matter Expert, Developer, or Vendor Support.?Tier-3, third-line support accepts all incoming escalation from Tiers -1 & -2 and assigns resources to resolve the issue. ?Once settled, the same process is applied to get permission to close the ticket with the client. ?Tier-3 support resources fix only the most complex problems since they are often more expensive.

This tiered support model approach has been around for a long time and works well when a large percentage of the relatively simple problems resolve at the tier 1 support level.? It works well where there is not a high frequency of changes. ?The tiered model can work well when the business system's environment is mature and relatively stable.? There would only be a single or a couple of major releases per year and minor interim releases in operations mode.?This support process resolves most of the issues quickly at Tier-1, and there is only a small percentage of issues/problems requiring Tier-2 or Tier-3 support problems. It's compatible with the traditional structure of most organizations – organizing staff into support groups around technology and applications.

The tiered support model challenges arise where the pace of business and technology change leads to more frequent releases, patches, and changes introduced into the production environment.?Tier 1 support begins to struggle with the increasing volume of tickets due to a larger volume of more frequent changes produced.

A tiered support model often creates a firefighting/hero culture, where the Tier 2 or 3 support staff (experts) are called on to resolve the most challenging issues.?Tier-1 support staff relegation is simple, routine, and repetitive issues/tickets; starving for knowledge and new skill development tends to burn out more quickly.

A need for change

To continue to be relevant & a valued contributor/business partner, service providers must respond to changes in the business landscape and the business & clients they serve. ?It makes good business sense to use proven IT best practices such as ITIL for general guidance;?however, it's also essential for service providers to recognize that #ITIL is adaptable, flexible, and not intended to be prescriptive.

Periodic re-examination of the service delivery model & methods applied to the tiered support model is no exception.?With the significant and often dramatic changes in both business & technology, alternative models evolve and deploy quickly.

While the tiered production support model has advantages, there are notable challenges. The increasing complexity of issues/challenges/problems requires a more agile model that breaks down barriers. Swarming encourages collaboration, knowledge sharing, faster response, and timely resolution of issues – resulting in higher business value.

SWARMING – an alternative that works!

Swarming Defined

A recent program we completed was a great example of the value of swarming when trying to manage the evolution of a technology system while simultaneously meeting the day-to-day needs of the business. ?Instead of the traditional escalation-based support process, we applied intelligent swarming to build excitement.

We found we can start swarming any time more than one team member works on the same issue simultaneously.?There is a continuum where only one or two team members are working on a problem, or ALL team members could be working on the same.

Swarming is a term we borrowed from IT Service Management (Incident Management - ITIL 4).?There are similarities, as we define #swarming as a technique for decomposing & solving complex tasks/issues. In application development / #DevOps , #Agile teams have been using swarming for some time.

Our application of' swarming' included a core cadre of persons from crucial process areas (with different levels of expertise) passionately intent to work together to resolve all issues and concerns promptly.?As we triage each situation, which competencies are the most relevant and needed becomes clear.? Subsequently, we assign ownership and resources to work it (often in real-time).

The collaborative nature of swarming is the preferred way we handle significant incidents that require timely resolution. The approach applied is much like a swarm of bees; when a concern arises, we gather and, in concert, contribute to the more significant effort so that the entire hive (program/project) succeeds. Analysts gather to provide their collective expertise to an event, anomaly, or incident.?The swarming approach is beneficial when engaging disparate groups (not only within an organization but also internal and external) whenever we need to resolve complex incidents and when a team struggles to resolve a problem.

Adapting Swarming Patterns

Ideally, team members will discover and adapt the approach to the appropriate swarming pattern most practical for the unique circumstance. ?There is no one-size-fits-all or single "right" way to swarm.

"Working closely together is essential – we strive for agreement early on the essential attributes that bind the front-end & back-end, before starting work."

~ Margaret 'Maggie' Smith ~

Ways to Swarm

1. Divide by functionality is the most natural way of dividing work, but everyone needs to work openly & closely to coordinate the interplay between multiple process steps/tasks.
2. Divide by front-end and back-end work is a pretty obvious and easy way to divide labor. ?An analyst/engineer can start working on the front-end User Interface (UI), while another can work on the back-end database & reporting.
3. Pairing program - Two (or more) resources are working together – segregating the responsibilities – resulting in fewer defects, more shared knowledge, and more efficient problem-solving.
4. Test-driven development – With clear requirements/feature sets, an analyst/engineer starts writing component tests and integration tests while the other works on the underlying functionality – periodically validating components.

Integrating QA into the development process is essential for quality assurance integration in the development process. ?An added benefit of swarming is that development and QA run through test scenarios together.?With swarming, the QA, Client, & Dev's increased engagement, collaboration, and interoperability reduces feature & function development times and delivers results much faster - defects and unforeseen features are discovered earlier in the process and handled immediately.

Key Lessons Learned - takeaways

After "swarming" for a few weeks, we saw both the short- & long-term benefits of the approach.? As time progressed, we quickly became nimble and able to resolve issues faster, increasing throughput (i.e., corrections and clarifications) and delivering results quicker and of higher quality. And there were other benefits as well.

• Problem-solving & decision-making benefit from increased communication (software development is no exception.) ?Scrums & swarming (for scrums) help identify issues or roadblocks early and enables timely resolution.
• An additional benefit is increased communication, which aids software design decisions generally taking much longer. ?Respectful debates resolve problems that wouldn't have happened if we had continued working independently (using command & control versus the self-directed team approach that swarming provided.)

Swarming - pros & cons

Working collaboratively with the client and discussing new features, functions, and requirements, we learned about the specific domains, the applications we're supporting, and solution development best practices.

Using Swarming as a new service support model, we quickly brought together crucial process owners, analysts, developers, and testers and assessed the risk using the currently available information.?Soon, the recommended solutions/options have been vetted, coded, tested, and implemented.?The service model provides the leadership, partners, and critical clients clarity in the engagements with potentially impacted products & services. Appropriately applied, we maintain services and build customer confidence.

Valuable knowledge must flow smoothly through processes and technology, delivering vital information across platforms.?Knowledge workers must work quickly, collaborating and sharing what's learned to promptly solve problems and provide knowledge to address critical client needs.

Swarming, we craft a network of experts (with intimate process knowledge) to solve problems through dynamic teaming and collaboration, facilitated through cross-functional and cross-geographical interactions. The swarming methodology quickly aligns resources to work and, when experienced, is better described as collaboration on steroids; it removes tiers of support and, when appropriate, calls on the collective expertise of a 'swarm' of most relevant analysts. Applying the concept of self-organizing teams focusing on documented issues has shown significant customer value.

Self-organizing teams can leverage collaborative interactions in the swarm to generate knowledge quickly.?The QA manager captures re-usable knowledge - systematically created and refined naturally in the workflow for future use.

Leaders considering, or in the throes of, #DigitalTransformation (seeking increased customer value) must prepare teams for straightforward, yet more complex, collaboration activity.?The Swarming collaborative support model helps organizations shift to a customer-centric, fully networked organization focused on service excellence.

Swarming is equivalent to a daily huddle and is an essential component of a continuous improvement management system.?Huddles are a method for valuable communication, near real-time escalation, and shared understanding throughout the different levels of and across various organizations.?A consistent swarming process and management system enables quick decision-making and staying connected with new business events, development needs, and operations challenges.

Swarming has numerous benefits, including:

1.?????Accurate metrics – Swarming connects the day-to-day work of the teams to the metrics and the goals of the supporting system - helping the engaged team(s) focus on priority improvement & optimization work impacting operational performance metrics.?This method keeps the teams focused on how their efforts affect the system and energizes people's engagement because of that connection.

2.?????Timely resolutions of concerns & problems – Swarming provides a consistent method for team members to raise concerns & problems (challenges & opportunities). Without an open forum, these matters are likely to be ignored or 'fixed' by using workarounds - building up to become more significant issues in the future.

3.?????Prioritization for problem-solving – Swarming enables teams to prioritize problem-solving efforts (clarifying, quantifying, and qualifying) and foster new improvement/resolution ideas.?A technique to consider would be using a PICK chart (possible, implement, challenge, and kill/kibosh).

4.?????Celebrate progress & success together – Swarms (aka huddles) provide a place to celebrate wins as a team.?Celebrating victories and successes is a great way to keep the team engaged and reinforce their impact. Celebrating failures is just as valuable because each time we fail, we learn, and the learning helps us become better problem solvers.

5.?????Coaching opportunities – The swarm / daily huddle is a great place to coach staff on problem-solving and PDSA thinking. ?Asking open-ended, humble questions can help refine thinking and allow teams to see the problem through a more transparent lens.

Often organizations start with a daily huddle when they decide to implement a management system. ?It is important to note that this is just a single management system element.?You need to include all management system elements to get the best results. Also, don't forget to incorporate the principles and behaviors of organizational excellence into each component you implement.

Conclusions

Swarming is one option - a collaboration-based triage approach instead of an escalation-based one.?Swarming means one resource serves as the primary point of contact (POC) and handles an issue/ticket from start to finish. This accountability (instead of forcing it through a tiered support model) enhances professionalism and results in better solutions.

"Collaboration is the very reason for using the swarming model - it's our secret sauce to success!"

~ Don Gleason ~

Under the QA Manager's purview, the entire support team is alerted and ready to engage as soon as an issue arises. Depending on the criticality (priority & severity) of a case, the size of the support team and the frequency of swarms may vary – preferring to be lean; we ensured SMEs were 'on call' to join if needed.

The most likely resource to resolve the ticket as quickly as possible is the one who picks it up.? The swarming support method works on and through a pick-up, collaborate, solve, and repeat model. ?Typically, anyone and everyone on the team 'swarms' on a user's problem and drives timely resolution.?Swarming can be a diametrically opposite model to tiered support - as swarming revolves around three simple basics:

1. Collaboration between staff & clients
2. Flat hierarchy
3. No escalations (everyone's primary POC is available to huddle, solve the ticket, and then can move on to the next one)

Swarming challenges the traditional three-tiered support model as it doesn't protect subject matter experts from high-volume low-difficult cases daily. While the model is seemingly resourceful, one could easily have readily solvable tickets engaging over-qualified staff. If you wish, you'll trade-off solving them 'quickly' over reserving high-skilled for only complex/tricky issues - especially when velocity & quality paired!

Suppose the organization is planning to adopt DevOps. ?In that case, the swarming model will ensure that key members and subject matter experts are innovating and not solving high escalation tickets, nullifying the concern of talent misuse often associated with the model.

Collaboration is the very basis of the swarming model. ?Through the Swarm Queen, the 'team' swings into action as soon as an end-user reports an issue/concern. ?Depending on the size of the swarming team, the frequency and number of swarms you might have may vary.?

RISK:?very dependent on participation, coverage (i.e., resource back-ups), and passion (sense of urgency)

On the other hand, collaboration in a three-tiered model can be straightforward only when:

• Many issues coming in are similar/common
• The support team is tiny
• The tickets and issues faced are repetitive

Support Type Decision Model

The swarming model might seem like a no-brainer for smaller-sized companies; swarming is compatible with most organizations due to the simple learning curve for staff.?The real benefit comes from team collaboration.?Swarming has a clear edge over escalation because of its underlying flatter approach to solving support. ?However, if the team size is small and the service desk solves similar tasks, three-tier support still could hold value.

The three-tiered support model follows an approach implemented hundreds of times with much success.?On the flip side, the swarming model of IT support is relatively new and sees success (in fact, many Implementation Command Center models leverage this approach.)? Swarming adoption depends on many factors like the team's maturity, openness to change, organization culture, and development methodologies.

Whatever the decision, it must be documented and broadly communicated with the client(s) and the service delivery organization.?The best thing is that the two approaches complement each other for many situations and can co-exist – and be incredibly valuable!

How quickly an organization responds to and averts a material threat can be the difference between success and failure. Swarming is a proven technique for rapid response & resolution that builds solid relationships and teams - with excellent results!

Swarming is an essential aspect of our program management approach - we collaboratively apply it in our engagements. Our most recent program continued to produce such strong positive results for our client, the consulting team, and the IT and Claims & Contact Center Operations teams that we needed to share.

We are staunch believers in using it, and we encourage groups & organizations to try it.

If interested in learning more, reach out to us here on LinkedIn. We can jump on your favorite video-conferencing application: MSTeams, GoogleMeet, Zoom, Loom, ... and have a quick discussion. Also, let us know if you want more 'How-To.'

UPCOMING ARTICLE: "Leveraging the Implementation COMMAND CENTER Approach for Success"

About the Authors

Margaret Smith (Maggie) is a highly-experienced Quality Assurance Manager and Business Systems Analyst with rich experience across quality assurance, business analysis, and IT Operations functions. Using a highly effective collaborative approach, Maggie effectively leads teams in comprehensive testing and validation of the technology and large project implementations. She's responsive and motivated, quickly capturing the trust & confidence of the team and executive leadership - delivering outstanding bottom-line results. She performs well under pressure across diverse industries & organizations of varying sizes.

Don Gleason is known for service delivery excellence with a vision directly tied to customer satisfaction.?He served as a turnaround CIO and CIO-adviser for health plans. Don advises client executive teams (business & IT), manages programs in complex/matrixed organizations, and deals effectively with multifaceted and sensitive issues with various influential internal and external parties.? Don is intimately familiar with success barriers and works with client leadership, process, and project teams using tailor-made tools and assets to aid in the organization's quest for success.?He brings uniqueness in strategic thinking blended with proven coaching skills that stimulate and motivate others on the path towards making innovation work and achieving operational excellence. Finally, his organizational and cultural awareness allows him to build high-performance teams, deepen relationships, and foster a cooperative work environment with a wide range of constituencies in diverse & inclusive communities.?

Don and Maggie build strong internal and external relationships that ensure the successful delivery of high-quality services and deepening trust, leveraging / coaching / mentoring client teams – to assure sustainability.?We are passionate about innovation and ingenuity with strategic mindsets to motivate, stimulate, and implement innovation processes throughout the organization (CEO-level on down).

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