At the recent Town Hall, the Chapter Leads talked through several topics in relation to our new ways of working to support our agile project-based structure. A lot of content was covered, so here’s some of the information that was shared so you can review in slower time and make use of your chapter meetings to dive into the detail. To watch the town hall recording, please click here.
Meetings / Business Rhythm
During October, the Chapter Leads will be establishing a rhythm of a regular meetings covering a variety of topics, each with their own specific agendas and objectives. The meetings will support the resource allocation model, ensure project performance is regularly reviewed and of course give everyone 1:1 time with your Chapter Lead.
The following diagram shows the various meetings planned in for a given month, how they relate to each other and who is involved.
What this will look like in a given month:
Resource Allocation Model
The allocation and management of our people (resources) is a key part of the new ways of working. To achieve this, we are working to develop new tools which will help us optimise this process.
As a result of our new agile project-based organisation structure, we are now able to allocate resources by chapter and assign people based on their ability and/or availability which in turn facilitates people being able to gain experience in all aspects of the shipbuilding process.
We will be moving to a resource allocation tool in a phased approach.
- Step 1: Develop manual Resource Allocation Plan (RAP) in Excel.
- Step 2: Allocate resources based upon a “live demand” – still using Excel.
- Step 3: Activate Smartsheet and move to a more automated process.
It’s important to remember that we will be balancing the needs of multiple projects with the resources we have available to us at any given time and not just ship build projects but other projects that might come our way too.
The following diagram highlights that allocating resources will be ongoing, continuously reviewed and adjusted as necessary. The meetings that will be put in place will be a valuable support to this process.
Standard Project Team
The following diagram shows the set up of a standard project team for a ship build and how input is needed from each chapter as well as other key stakeholders.
Squad Lead
This is a term that was introduced a few months ago and one which we know requires further clarification on how the assignment works.
Here are some key elements to remember about this temporary assignment:
- It is only activated when a project demands it, primarily in the following workstreams:
- Design
- Construction
- Commissioning
- It is to provide focussed leadership and coordination for a specific period of time.
- It is situation specific problem solving and decision making.
- It provides opportunities to step up and lead.
Project Blueprint
We’re creating a cross-functional working group that that will work together to co-create the blueprint for resource allocation using Project Ace (6371) as the working example. The following diagram shows the key stakeholders:
Skills Assessment
We’re continuing to build on the data that we gathered during the first part of the skills assessment that we carried out in June. The next phase is to gather qualitative information through the regular chapter member 1:1s. The outcome will be to identify and implement appropriate development activities to support individuals, this will be a continuous and evolving process, as the diagram below highlights:
Further information
We encourage all of you to be curious and challenge thinking so we can co-create together ways of working that are not only effective but really drive what we do.
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please speak to any of the Chapter Leads.