Executing delivery projects in a hyper-scalable environment

Effective cloud computing requires both agility and thrift. To translate: the delivery of cloud projects needs to be lean and highly adaptable.

Hyper-agility is part of OVHcloud’s DNA; who are simultaneously creating and disrupting paradigms in the tech and project management sectors.

Back to basics

Delivery management is the function of applying processes to ensure goods are effectively and efficiently transferred from one location to the next.

What’s Delivery Management?

Delivery management is a subtle art, especially when it comes to non-standard projects. Adapting the organization around specific delivery projects requires experience; such as mastery of waterfall/agile project management methodologies, an understanding of classic frameworks such as Prince2 or SCRUM, and, above all else, common sense when responding to the specific needs of clients, especially key accounts.

The cloud industry is accelerating quickly. So, resources must be allocated with ever-greater frugality and agility to achieve the optimal result, and to maintain hyper-scalability (driven by the daily delivery of our products.)

Before we continue, here are a few general considerations:

• Most companies are structured in vertical silos; such as the purchasing department, the production department, and the marketing department.
• The customer, however, is using products that require all these departments, so is therefore independent of the silo-ed structure. It is necessary, therefore, to break through all the silos, from a delivery perspective, to deliver the expected solution.

Hence, delivery management must be thought of in two ways:

1. Delivery management requires an end-to-end, horizontal and transversal approach across the entire delivery chain.
2. The supporting delivery organization must be lean for maximum efficiency.

Identifying the value chain starting with the customer’s needs.

By applying methods inspired by lean manufacturing (particularly Value Stream Mapping), it is possible to respond to this issue by mapping the whole delivery process.

As a Delivery Manager, I build a mental image of the delivery chain, starting from the customer’s needs, then prioritized as objectives. I then link this chain to the proposal (with a detailed plan) and then link it to the implementation phase. Lastly – but most importantly – I link it to the successful solution delivery.

For example, a project consisting of several hundred, custom-configured dedicated servers will require expertise in sales, architecture, procurement, manufacturing, network, electricity, and data centers.

The chain extends beyond OVHcloud to the final, crucial link; which will be on the customer’s side – the delivery and acceptance phase, which begins the solutions usage.

Once this stage has been completed, it is a matter of integrating the actors around this value chain in order to break down the remaining silos that may exist.

Integrate the teams by valuing human resources

Once this chain has been visualized, it is a question of identifying the minimum number of players necessary for each stage of delivery – naming a SPOC (Single Point of Contact) for each link, while sharing the global vision of the project across the project team. Typically, we will organize restricted synchronization meetings with our architects and product specialists, then the building, procurement and manufacturing specialists, and finally the data center technicians for the final setup, referring to the custom-configured dedicated servers. The 5D model (discover, define, design, develop, deliver) will be useful here to sequence the required meetings for each phase.

Delivery management requires an end-to-end, horizontal and transversal vision across the entire delivery chain.

The point is to identify how the actions of each player are linked to the delivery chain as a whole. Each player is aware that the important thing is not to integrate a particular server in a data center, or to increase the electrical power of a room, but to meet the challenge of customer satisfaction in terms of costs, deadlines and quality assurances.

This encourages human interaction, a clear dialogue, and inclusiveness. The result is that there are a limited number of stakeholders at any given moment working for the maximum value of the client. End-to-end management through the value chain is, therefore, both efficient and lean.

In a nutshell

Defining and integrating the delivery teams around the value chain, starting from the customer, allows delivery managers to identify the inter-dependencies, inputs & outputs of each link; while keeping the stakes and objectives of specific delivery projects in a hyper-scalable environment, for which OVHcloud is the European leader. This customer-centric approach, enabling the delivery of the expected value to the customer and beyond, is a cornerstone for OVHcloud.

In one word: OVHcloud delivery management, Hyperscale-proof.