The following article will take a deep dive into components you should consider including as you operationalize your IT governance of a Digital Adoption Platform:
Technical Stakeholder Roles
Technical Governance Committee
Instance & Application Management Policy
Sample Process Workflow
Technical Stakeholder Roles
Tip
One of the most important steps in establishing technical governance is to define who needs to be directly involved in decision-making processes that determine technical standards for how the platform is used and managed.
Consider asking the following roles to participate in technical governance committee or at least establishing entry and exit criteria for critical decisions.
Stakeholder Roles as pertaining to Technical Governance are dependent on:
Where WalkMe sits (both within the business and the application)
Complexity of application functionality and critical weight to the business
Volume of applications
Maturity of governance process
Maturity of technical capabilities with WalkMe
Maturity level of support
Role
Description
Platform Owner
Typically accountable for managing the creation of all test and production environment governance policies
Quality Assurance Lead
Ensures that WalkMe has a QA protocol with application testing (or is informed by project plan)
UX Lead
Part of design making authority for any platforms that require it or company branding policy. Different structure for external applications
Business Analyst
Can assist process & product improvement through data analysis (using WalkMe Insights + data platforms)
Security Compliance Lead
Informed of all instances that WalkMe sits on top of and alerted to any critical occurrences
Security administrators are consulted during the creation of governance policies to ensure program is compliant according to organizational security policies and guidelines.
Development Lead
Development leads/SMEs should be consulted / informed when any workflows are released
Development leads should share release management updates / changes
Technical Governance Committee
Define what decisions and responsibilities need to be managed by the technical governance committee for both onboarding and ongoing applications.
Consider what outcomes you expect and what risks are being mitigated. Then make a list of decisions and actions that your technical governance team will be responsible for and add this to the DAP Team operating model and ensure it's accessible in the knowledge management system (intranet, sharepoint, etc)
Key decisions of the technical governance board
How should we manage the technical aspects of implementations?
What technical standards should we adhere to for engineering, development, and integration?
Example structure of how to define the role of
Charter
The decision body and gatekeeper on platform-related technical aspects
Assesses technical and design options and approaches
Assesses that the development standards, best-fit usage, UI standards, data governance/strategy are among the tools used by this group
Stakeholders
Program Lead for WalkMe
IT Manager for WalkMe
SPOC for WalkMe w/in IT
Development leads (each application)
Application administrator (SFDC, Service Now)
Responsibilities & decisions
Ensure WalkMe deployments, release cycle management & security is aligned
Be the design authority on platform customizations and integrations
Maintain the design decision register (for new applications)
Maintain the oversight of platform performance w/ content (remove technical debt or trigger a health scan)
Provide advice and recommendations to the program steering committee and project(s)
Enforcement of platform quality and upgradability
Be the advisory for projects, operations, and executive boards
Outcomes
Approvals for new application validation & onboarding
Guidance on requests for technical support from projects
Technical design approvals for customizations and integrations
Approve and review any feature or special configuration
Decisions on requests that have an impact on the platform
Typical agenda
Review technical requests
Evaluate new demands/stories/ requirements
Evaluate requirements
Review release content (technical review)
Technical release approval
Release planning recommendations to project teams
Approvals on platform wide aspects
Review high/critical incidents that were addressed to the DAP team
Instance & Application Management Policy
What to review & what questions to ask
Define policies for how you'll manage each WalkMe application. Defining these policies upfront will help your organization in many ways including:
Reducing system release fire drills by aligning with the application/product roadmap and release cycle proactively for content maintenance
Reducing the resolution time to resolve incidents by clearly defining support procedures and teams
Preventing incidents by defining the process to modify system properties, enable plugins or working directly with WalkMe Support or Technical Architects
Role
Example structure of how to define the role
Advanced Permissions
Who should be granted admin and security admin permissions for each application?
What is the most advanced role?
What permissions does WalkMe have to each instance?
How will you monitor and maintain permissions for the instance over time?
Support Procedures
What is the support procedure to resolve incidents against the instance?
What support groups are involved in resolving incidents against the instance?
What escalation paths are necessary to resolve incidents with higher complexity?
When and how should we escalate to WalkMe support if necessary?
Critical Availability
What blackout windows exist that prevent access and/or releases?
Maintenance Procedures
What maintenance windows exists for performing routine maintenance and/or change requests against the instance?
What enterprise maintenance windows exist that impact the instance?
What are your organizational change management procedures for version upgrades?
Features & additional integrations
What is the process to activate plugins within the instance?
Who should be consulted before activating plugins within the instance?
Who should approve activating the plugins in the instance?
User Considerations
What users are dependent, and in what way are they dependent on this application?
How do users access the application?
Who are the users of the application? (remote, in-office, #, time & frequency of use)
Who are approvers within the application, if any?
What critical functionality is supported by this application?
Ownership & Stewardship
Who is the owner of the application?
Who are the stewards of the application, if any?
How can you to contact the owner if necessary?
Get Started
Additional Resources & Peer Connections
Visit the WalkMe Community to put this knowledge into practice alongside your peers -
Download slide decks, resources & tools from the Champion Toolkit
Join Strategy & DAPtics – a peer-led group that meets monthly to share resources and discuss Digital Adoption strategy
