Balanced Score Card in Software Development Company
Introduction A software development and services company had initiated a very ambitious growth and diversification plan.
It was diverting lots of resources, both financial as well as manpower towards its growth and expansion.
Some senior management personnel within the organization started to raise concerns.
They asked some pertinent questions like the following:
They decided (or rather expected) that the score card would give them an independent measure to evaluate aforementioned issues and would also help them prepare a long term strategic plan.
Formulating the balanced Score Card Formation of Task Force At the onset, a team was formed and was mandated to prepare a score card.
The team was not only given a free hand to select a consultant/facilitator but was also given time lines for completing the task.
Department Level Champions The team held preliminary meetings with several departments.
Next, it identified staffs who may serve as the champions for this initiative in their respective disciplines.
The champion selection was done in an informal manner but it did account for the personal likes and dislikes of the identified persons.
Only those staffs were selected who were interested and enthusiastic about the initiative and perceived benefits accrued to them from this initiative.
Bottoms-up Score Card The team took a bottoms-up approach and asked the departments to prepare a score card for their respective departments.
The time frame was defined as five years and the departments were to work out year-wise plans.
They were also asked to enlist the requisites for achieving the defined targets.
Next, a workshop was conducted and the interdepartmental relationships and the dependencies were identified.
The targets of one department influenced the targets of the other departments All such boundaries were identified and inconsistencies were identified The concerned departments were asked to meet separately and iron out such variations.
Top-down Plan Quite separately but simultaneously, meetings were conducted with the senior management team and high level targets for the existing operations were culled out.
The implications of such targets on the respective departments were worked out.
Thus, we had two sets of targets defined, one with the bottoms-up approach and the other with the top-down approach.
The Agreed Plan & Strategic Initiatives The next step was to reconcile these data sets.
Towards this, operational level workshops were held and the targets specified by the senior management (which were several times of the targets worked out by the operating personnel) were reviewed.
Several strategies were formulated to make these objectives achievable.
The deliverables of such workshop sessions were planned with assumptions of resource availability and strategic options to pursue.
This blue print was presented to the top management and their concurrence was obtained.
Development of Reporting System A reporting system was designed to cull out information on the progress at the achievement of the formulated targets.
Computerization was used in good measure to achieve this task.
Internal Communication Throughout the study and also at the specified events, internal communication was carried out to send the right messages.
The communication used all the prevalent media such as:
Monitoring & Updating Score Card The plans were reviewed every quarter at the departmental level and the variances were highlighted Improvement initiatives were formulated.
A yearly review was also carried out, and based on the results of the annual review; the score card was suitably updated.
Key Challenges During the study, the major challenge faced was the insecurity feeling among the staffs.
Mostly, the staffs were worried as to what may happen to them? Would their jobs become redundant or would they be fired? On the other hand, a number of other persons declared open hostility proclaiming that the company is not doing things right and would fail in their efforts.
To circumvent both these types of criticisms, the company invested heavily in the internal communications which mitigate the concerns of the employees to a large extent.
It was diverting lots of resources, both financial as well as manpower towards its growth and expansion.
Some senior management personnel within the organization started to raise concerns.
They asked some pertinent questions like the following:
- Are we over committing in our expansion plans?
- Are we ignoring our current operations?
- Are we maintaining/growing our existing niches/lines of business?
They decided (or rather expected) that the score card would give them an independent measure to evaluate aforementioned issues and would also help them prepare a long term strategic plan.
Formulating the balanced Score Card Formation of Task Force At the onset, a team was formed and was mandated to prepare a score card.
The team was not only given a free hand to select a consultant/facilitator but was also given time lines for completing the task.
Department Level Champions The team held preliminary meetings with several departments.
Next, it identified staffs who may serve as the champions for this initiative in their respective disciplines.
The champion selection was done in an informal manner but it did account for the personal likes and dislikes of the identified persons.
Only those staffs were selected who were interested and enthusiastic about the initiative and perceived benefits accrued to them from this initiative.
Bottoms-up Score Card The team took a bottoms-up approach and asked the departments to prepare a score card for their respective departments.
The time frame was defined as five years and the departments were to work out year-wise plans.
They were also asked to enlist the requisites for achieving the defined targets.
Next, a workshop was conducted and the interdepartmental relationships and the dependencies were identified.
The targets of one department influenced the targets of the other departments All such boundaries were identified and inconsistencies were identified The concerned departments were asked to meet separately and iron out such variations.
Top-down Plan Quite separately but simultaneously, meetings were conducted with the senior management team and high level targets for the existing operations were culled out.
The implications of such targets on the respective departments were worked out.
Thus, we had two sets of targets defined, one with the bottoms-up approach and the other with the top-down approach.
The Agreed Plan & Strategic Initiatives The next step was to reconcile these data sets.
Towards this, operational level workshops were held and the targets specified by the senior management (which were several times of the targets worked out by the operating personnel) were reviewed.
Several strategies were formulated to make these objectives achievable.
The deliverables of such workshop sessions were planned with assumptions of resource availability and strategic options to pursue.
This blue print was presented to the top management and their concurrence was obtained.
Development of Reporting System A reporting system was designed to cull out information on the progress at the achievement of the formulated targets.
Computerization was used in good measure to achieve this task.
Internal Communication Throughout the study and also at the specified events, internal communication was carried out to send the right messages.
The communication used all the prevalent media such as:
- The company intranet
- The notice boards
- Printed notices and circulars to functional heads
- All planned events and occasions
- The company annual event, and Number of specially designed audio visual messages
Monitoring & Updating Score Card The plans were reviewed every quarter at the departmental level and the variances were highlighted Improvement initiatives were formulated.
A yearly review was also carried out, and based on the results of the annual review; the score card was suitably updated.
Key Challenges During the study, the major challenge faced was the insecurity feeling among the staffs.
Mostly, the staffs were worried as to what may happen to them? Would their jobs become redundant or would they be fired? On the other hand, a number of other persons declared open hostility proclaiming that the company is not doing things right and would fail in their efforts.
To circumvent both these types of criticisms, the company invested heavily in the internal communications which mitigate the concerns of the employees to a large extent.
Source...