It used to be technology was just another utility, on a similar level to an enterprise’s plumbing or electricity.

Now, technology fuels pretty much every critical business service for every company in every industry. Technology is inextricably bound with the business. Without technology, business stops. Without technological innovation, the business stands still.

However, while the nature of technology in an enterprise has fundamentally changed, the reality is that technology funding and planning are being managed just as they were 10 or even 20 years ago.

Current approaches create misalignment, inefficiency, waste, and many other problems. That’s why teams now have to take a new approach, one known as people-centric planning. Through people-centric planning, teams are given persistent, long-term funding. In addition, teams are organized around products and value streams, rather than in the siloed departments of the past.

With this approach, prioritization of top initiatives, also known as “Big Rocks,” still happens. Approval of the capital expenditures for these initiatives still happens. What doesn’t happen is the deceleration caused by funding approvals and changes that typically happen when priorities change.

To successfully employ people-centric planning, teams need to address three key principles: governing innovation, aligning technology with the business, and empowering teams. In this post, I’ll examine how teams can align technology with the business.

The problem

Historically, a technology team’s performance has been measured based on such characteristics as system resilience or the lack of bugs. Teams receive praise, or at least are left alone, when releases don’t break and don’t have bugs—but there is no shortage of fingers pointed at them when problems arise. Meanwhile, business stakeholders keep asking for enhancements that increase the risk of all those problems coming into play.

This fundamental tension causes misalignment, miscommunication, and confusion among both technology and business teams. When there’s misalignment, it is often the technology team that’s seen as the problem. Lack of governance and common metrics can exacerbate this misalignment.

Often, the next obstacle to arise will be around timing. That’s because these siloed teams often prioritize work based on different criteria. Business leaders will say a feature is needed by Q1; technology leaders will say it can’t happen until Q3. How do you resolve this conflict?

The people-centric planning approach

People-centric planning enables teams to avoid these conflicts and disconnects. Through this approach, teams create value streams that fuse business and IT staff, who have one set of shared goals. Leaders of various functions prioritize according to negotiated agreements. The trick is to strike the right balance between addressing business priorities and backend technical and architectural objectives.

In these cases, it can often be helpful to negotiate guardrails, with the goal of striking a balance among various types of work. These guardrails can often be expressed as percentages. For example, for a given quarter, the agreed upon mix could be 20% of the time focused on defect resolution, 40% on new feature development, 20% on addressing technical debt, and 20% on discretionary work. Next quarter, leaders will have a similar conversation, adjusting the mix as needed. To make this work, business and technology leaders must have a good working relationship.

People-centric planning: The payoffs

Through people-centric planning, teams can establish tighter alignment. When teams are aligned around value streams with common objectives, they’re better able to connect strategy with work, reduce unnecessary friction, and foster deeper collaboration. By grooming the backlog in accordance with both business and technical needs, teams can establish a predictable cadence, improve trust, and accelerate progress.

Ultimately, by employing people-centric planning, your organization can begin to align funding approaches with modern business and technological realities. In the process, you can achieve significant improvements in agility, efficiency, and business performance.

To learn more, please visit our People-Centric Planning page.

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