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Information Technology Strategy Team

Pilot IITB Directive on Product Management

Last modified: 2022-02-04
This is a DRAFT (v0.4) document

DISCLAIMER

This document does NOT attempt to explain all aspects of Product Management (such as vision setting, user research, and the different phases a product goes through in its life cycle). These are well documented already, such as on PMI.org and PDMA.org.

Instead, this documents seeks to provide structure to ESDC Programs and IITB in the transition from project to product, within a Canadian federal government context. In particular, the methods to fund cross-functional and cross-branch product teams.

The Directive and Standard strive to be as succinct and to the point as possible, without repeating rules in existing policy instruments that teams are expected to comply with (such as Financial and Security). To help the reader understand the rationale behind them and provide guidance in implementing them, a Guidance document has been written.

Table of Content

Effective Date

This is a pilot Directive, as part of the 2021-IITB-37 Branch Initiative.

This directive is effective between April 1st 2022 and March 31st 2023.

Authorities

This directive is issued pursuant to the authority indicated in the TB Policy on Service and Digital requirement 4.1.3.2 (Deputy Heads are responsible for) Designating a departmental CIO responsible for leading the departmental IT, information, and data management functions.

Approval Authority: ESDC Chief Information Officer

The Director General, Strategy, Architecture, and Business Relations (SABR) has the authority to issue, amend, and rescind this pilot directive.

Application and Exception

Application

This pilot directive applies to all ESDC personnel accountable or responsible for the JobBank (whether it be designing, improving, or operating them).

Exception

Software-based products other than Job Bank.

Objectives

  1. ESDC Program Areas and IITB are provided with clear direction and consistency in enabling Product Management for software-based products by differentiating ongoing software enhancements from projects during a product’s lifecycle.
  2. Set mandatory requirements for the funding of dedicated product teams that will manage software-based products by the Innovation, Information and Technology Branch (IITB) and a Sponsoring Branch.
  3. Set expectations for product teams in terms of responsibilities and their fit within the greater enterprise landscape.

Requirements

Product Team Setup

  1. The Product Team’s complete yearly budget includes software development work, as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  2. The Product Team identifies and secures source(s) of funds for the duration of the agreement
  3. Funds for the Product Team’s software development work are transferred to IITB on a yearly basis
  4. The Product Team’s cross-organizational structure is documented as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  5. The Product Team’s internal governance structure is documented as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  6. The location(s) of the Product Team’s requirement repository are kept up to date
  7. The description of the service(s) that the Product Team enables are kept up to date
  8. The inventory of applications from the Corporate Solution Directory (APM Program) that the product team manages as products is kept up to date
  9. Information about the product team is documented as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  10. The agreement between IITB and the Sponsoring Branch is formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  11. Funding pressures for the Product Team is on the Sponsoring Branch

Roles and Responsibilities

  1. The Product Team has the following roles assigned:

Oversight and Reporting

  1. The Product Team produces, at minimum, one yearly product roadmap as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  2. The Product Team produces retrospectives of each product releases as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  3. The Product Team produces software delivery performance metrics as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  4. The Product Team maintains an up to date risk register as per the IITB Standard on Product Management
  5. The yearly product roadmap is endorsed by IITB’s Project Portfolio Review Committee (PPRC) as part of the Product Team’s yearly funding cycle

Consequences of Non-Compliance

Consequences of non-compliance is approached by gradually increasing the severity of the consequences over time, at the judgement of both IITB and the Sponsoring Branch, as follows:

  • Receiving a notification of non-compliance
  • Requiring to explain reasons of non-compliance at a gradual level of committee engagement:
    • At the Project Portfolio Operations Committee (PPOC) for first time explanation
    • At the Project Portfolio Review Committee (PPRC) for a second time explanation
    • At Corporate Management Committee (CMC) for a third time explanation
  • Requiring the product team members to go on product management and Agile training, at the sponsoring Branch’s costs
  • Requiring to have the Product’s Roadmap endorsed by the Architecture Review Committee (ARC) as part of the product team’s yearly funding renewal
  • Cancellation of the MOU between the Sponsoring Branch and the CIO in funding cross-branch product teams

PPOC produces a non-compliance report as per IITB Standard on Product Management.

PPRC decides the consequences of a non-compliance.

References

Treasury Board Policy

Treasury Board Directives

ESDC Policy

ESDC Directives

IITB Standards

IITB Supporting Documents

TBS Guidance

Appendix A. Definitions

“Enhancement”: refers to adding features as new requirements or process improvements to enhance an existing solution in terms of performance, appearance, function, operation, platform, and usability.

(source: draft definition from Project and Programme Management Practice Working Group, subject to change as it is being peer reviewed, will ultimately be added as part of the Policy on Project and Programme Management)

“Initiative”: is an organisation’s response to meet a Government’s committed priority, solve a problem, and/or introduce an improvement in the way the organisation functions or delivers programs and services to clients.

It can range from, for example, minor updates to operational procedures, a key acquisition, or the implementation of a new tool; legislative, regulatory and policy changes that introduce or modify how and to whom programs are delivered; as well as projects and programmes that fundamentally alter the way the department delivers benefits and services.

Initiatives are designed to help the organisation achieve its target performance. These are outside of the organisation’s day-to-day operational activities that are implemented with the goal of achieving specific and measurable outcomes.

(source: draft definition from Project and Programme Management Practice Working Group, subject to change as it is being peer reviewed, will ultimately be added as part of the Policy on Project and Programme Management)

“Product”: A business output that is the result of a project used for continuous improvement on an existing solution or service, the value of which is realized and delivered as part of ESDC’s Program mandate, and which services external or internal stakeholders, and delivers or improves business capabilities or client experience.

(source: draft definition from Project and Programme Management Practice Working Group, subject to change as it is being peer reviewed, will ultimately be added as part of the Policy on Project and Programme Management)

“Sponsoring Branch”: A Program or Corporate area other than IITB that is seeking to get into an agreement with IITB to sponsor a cross-branch product team that includes IT Staff.

“Pilot”: A project that serves as a model for subsequent projects (source: Termium Plus)

“Product Management”: is defined by ESDC as the process of applying a continuous improvement mindset and practices to design, develop, and deliver value-added business and/or IT capabilities aligned to departmental priorities and objectives to clients (external, such as a Canadian citizen or organization; internal, such as a federal employee or department).

(source: draft update to the PPPM)

“Product Team”: A grouping of individuals (a team) that are responsible for a product’s development and operations. The team is cross-branch, meaning its members comes from more than one branch (e.g. specific individuals from both IITB and SEB form a single team). The team is cross-functional, meaning it embeds multiple functions that may traditionally be segregated in an organization (such as software development, testing, and operation, marketing, policy making).

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