Astria's Delivery Services CoE

Appian Max Team — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 13:24:20 GMT

Current Revision posted to Story by Appian Max Team on 4/23/2024 1:24:20 PM

Profiles In Appian Excellence: Case Study

Organization Overview

Industry: Global Pharmaceuticals Revenue: $50+ billion Employees: 100,000+
*Astria is a pseudonym case profile.

Summary

Astria* is a global pharmaceuticals company whose CoE is managed by IT and provides application development and delivery services to distributed business lines. Their CoE resources work closely with a pool of preferred partners, allowing the team to influence outcomes across a portfolio of projects.

We want to work together with business partners to help them see the art-of-the-possible. Appian has a lot to offer, but if a business partner is unfamiliar, we want to make sure we're using Appian for the most appropriate projects.

IT Manager and CoE Lead

Astria's CoE Journey

Astria began their Appian Journey with small projects, the success of which helped build confidence across business partners for future investment. Soon other business units started using Appian for their own, independent project.

By 2018, the Astria was working with multiple external partners on Appian projects and “needed a central group to support those applications”, says the IT Manager and CoE Lead. “While our CoE initially had a limited focus on application support, we realized the benefit of a more centralized group coordinating between the partners that do Appian development and our internal business units.”

“Over the past year, we’ve shifted our approach from one of support to become more of a delivery services provider, advising business partners on potential projects, coordinating delivery with partners, and sharing knowledge across internal and external teams. Like an external services provider, we are funded via project costs ultimately billed back to the business.”

In the future, Astria wants the CoE to expand its delivery services offerings to more effectively scale as partners take on a greater number of projects. They also want to increase speed by working with other teams on automation initiatives such as RPA, IDP and AI.

CoE Overview and Roles

The CoE has 8 total FTEs, works with four external development and delivery partners with 70+ individuals on those teams. They also work directly with business partners and support over 15 applications. In the near future, they would like to double their team’s resources and further invest in functional stability (governance) to more effectively support Appian initiatives across the business. “All our funding comes from the delivery of projects, so it’s hard to justify spending on foundational group capabilities that are necessary for our group to scale effectively."

“Developing good talent and building out the base of skills in a team can be a challenge, but is something you can’t skimp on. Having a team with a blended skillset has helped us accelerate development with partners."

Current roles on the team include: architects, scrum masters, developers, testers and a contracting/licensing expert. The goal is to embed delivery expertise into distributed projects and fully map against SDLC needs - ecosystem, platform and development experts that can guide both business partners and delivery teams end-to-end.

CoE Responsibilities

Project Initiation Services

The CoE works with business units to scope projects based on business needs. They also assess fit with Appian and recommend potential delivery options back to business partners.

Partner Coordination Services

The CoE ensures partners develop and deploy applications according to the company’s specific requirements. They will periodically conduct partner audits to ensure appropriate oversight and will also manage relevant contracts and licenses.

Applications Support Services

For the most part, the CoE does not directly support applications after they are built. Instead, they provide advisory services to lines of business about how to effectively manage and maintain those applications. For example, the CoE team often advises on application enhancement requests.

Lessons Learned

	Promote a product mindset	"The team must have a 'product mindset'. This means they need to understand the business problem the app needs to address end-to-end. If they don't they tend to become 'feature focused'...and risk producing an app that does not, in the end, have the desired business impact."
	Don't just take orders, shape them	"If given the choice, 90% of the time business units (BUs) will just ask for their backlog to be completed without much informed prioritization or knowledge sharing around what's best. The CoE needs to serve as a trusted advisor to help BUs shape their direction."
	Blended teams accelerate partners	"Having a team with blended skills is critical when working with a partner ecosystem. Our folks know the company and the environment, the partner staff tend to be more technically capable, but don't always know much about the company. Setting our CoE to be a one-stop for everything Astria helps partners get to work faster and accelerates time to value."

Download full article e-book

community.appian.com/.../Astria.pdf

Tags: story, Vision

Astria's Delivery Services CoE

joel.larin — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:28:38 GMT

Revision 5 posted to Story by joel.larin on 10/13/2023 1:28:38 PM

Profiles In Appian Excellence: Case Study

Organization Overview

Industry: Global Pharmaceuticals Revenue: $50+ billion Employees: 100,000+
*Astria is a pseudonym case profile.

Summary

IT Manager and CoE Lead

Astria's CoE Journey

CoE Overview and Roles

CoE Responsibilities

Project Initiation Services

The CoE works with business units to scope projects based on business needs. They also assess fit with Appian and recommend potential delivery options back to business partners.

Partner Coordination Services

Applications Support Services

Lessons Learned

	Promote a product mindset	"The team must have a 'product mindset'. This means they need to understand the business problem the app needs to address end-to-end. If they don't they tend to become 'feature focused'...and risk producing an app that does not, in the end, have the desired business impact."
	Don't just take orders, shape them	"If given the choice, 90% of the time business units (BUs) will just ask for their backlog to be completed without much informed prioritization or knowledge sharing around what's best. The CoE needs to serve as a trusted advisor to help BUs shape their direction."
	Blended teams accelerate partners	"Having a team with blended skills is critical when working with a partner ecosystem. Our folks know the company and the environment, the partner staff tend to be more technically capable, but don't always know much about the company. Setting our CoE to be a one-stop for everything Astria helps partners get to work faster and accelerates time to value."

Download full article e-book

community.appian.com/.../Astria.pdf

Tags: story, Vision

Astria's Delivery Services CoE

joel.larin — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:24:18 GMT

Revision 4 posted to Story by joel.larin on 10/13/2023 1:24:18 PM

Profiles In Appian Excellence: Case Study

Organization Overview

Industry: Global Pharmaceuticals Revenue: $50+ billion Employees: 100,000+
*Astria is a pseudonym case profile.

Summary

IT Manager and CoE Lead

Astria's CoE Journey

CoE Overview and Roles

CoE Responsibilities

Project Initiation Services

The CoE works with business units to scope projects based on business needs. They also assess fit with Appian and recommend potential delivery options back to business partners.

Partner Coordination Services

Applications Support Services

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

	Promote a product mindset	"The team must have a 'product mindset'. This means they need to understand the business problem the app needs to address end-to-end. If they don't they tend to become 'feature focused'...and risk producing an app that does not, in the end, have the desired business impact."
	Don't just take orders, shape them	"If given the choice, 90% of the time business units (BUs) will just ask for their backlog to be completed without much informed prioritization or knowledge sharing around what's best. The CoE needs to serve as a trusted advisor to help BUs shape their direction."
	Blended teams accelerate partners	"Having a team with blended skills is critical when working with a partner ecosystem. Our folks know the company and the environment, the partner staff tend to be more technically capable, but don't always know much about the company. Setting our CoE to be a one-stop for everything Astria helps partners get to work faster and accelerates time to value."

Download full article e-book

community.appian.com/.../Astria.pdf

Tags: story, Vision

Astria's Delivery Services CoE

joel.larin — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 15:06:35 GMT

Revision 3 posted to Story by joel.larin on 1/19/2023 3:06:35 PM

Profiles In Appian Excellence: Case Study

Organization Overview

Industry: Global Pharmaceuticals Revenue: $50+ billion Employees: 100,000+
*Astria is a pseudonym case profile.

Summary

“We want to work together with business partners to help them see the art-of-the-possible. Appian has a lot to offer, but if a business partner is unfamiliar, we want to make sure we're using Appian for the most appropriate projects."

IT Manager and CoE Lead

Astria's CoE Journey

CoE Overview and Roles

CoE Responsibilities

Project Initiation Services

The CoE works with business units to scope projects based on business needs. They also assess fit with Appian and recommend potential delivery options back to business partners.

Partner Coordination Services

Applications Support Services

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

	Promote a product mindset	"The team must have a 'product mindset'. This means they need to understand the business problem the app needs to address end-to-end. If they don't they tend to become 'feature focused'...and risk producing an app that does not, in the end, have the desired business impact."
	Don't just take orders, shape them	"If given the choice, 90% of the time business units (BUs) will just ask for their backlog to be completed without much informed prioritization or knowledge sharing around what's best. The CoE needs to serve as a trusted advisor to help BUs shape their direction."
	Blended teams accelerate partners	"Having a team with blended skills is critical when working with a partner ecosystem. Our folks know the company and the environment, the partner staff tend to be more technically capable, but don't always know much about the company. Setting our CoE to be a one-stop for everything Astria helps partners get to work faster and accelerates time to value."

Download full article e-book

community.appian.com/.../Astria.pdf

Tags: story, Vision

Astria's Delivery Services CoE

joel.larin — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 17:23:10 GMT

Revision 2 posted to Story by joel.larin on 12/9/2022 5:23:10 PM

Profiles In Appian Excellence: Case Study

Organization Overview

Industry: Global Pharmaceuticals Revenue: $50+ billion Employees: 100,000+
*Astria is a pseudonym case profile.

Summary

To meet corporate strategic goals for enabling innovative digital channels to customers and employees, ThetaBank* needed to support high velocity development and delivery- releasing as frequently as once per week. They drove decision making capabilities into squads, delivery teams consisting of IT and business product and process owners. This enables agile teams to make decisions quickly and iterate frequently without burdening business partners.

IT Manager and CoE Lead

Astria's CoE Journey

CoE Overview and Roles

CoE Responsibilities

Project Initiation Services

The CoE works with business units to scope projects based on business needs. They also assess fit with Appian and recommend potential delivery options back to business partners.

Partner Coordination Services

Applications Support Services

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

	Promote a product mindset	"The team must have a 'product mindset'. This means they need to understand the business problem the app needs to address end-to-end. If they don't they tend to become 'feature focused'...and risk producing an app that does not, in the end, have the desired business impact."
	Don't just take orders, shape them	"If given the choice, 90% of the time business units (BUs) will just ask for their backlog to be completed without much informed prioritization or knowledge sharing around what's best. The CoE needs to serve as a trusted advisor to help BUs shape their direction."
	Blended teams accelerate partners	"Having a team with blended skills is critical when working with a partner ecosystem. Our folks know the company and the environment, the partner staff tend to be more technically capable, but don't always know much about the company. Setting our CoE to be a one-stop for everything Astria helps partners get to work faster and accelerates time to value."

Download full article e-book

community.appian.com/.../Astria.pdf

Tags: story, Vision

Astria's Delivery Services CoE

joel.larin — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 17:20:33 GMT

Revision 1 posted to Story by joel.larin on 12/9/2022 5:20:33 PM

Profiles In Appian Excellence: Case Study

Organization Overview

Industry: Global Pharmaceuticals Revenue: $50+ billion Employees: 100,000+
*Astria is a pseudonym case profile.

Summary

IT Manager and CoE Lead

Astria's CoE Journey

CoE Overview and Roles

CoE Responsibilities

Project Initiation Services

The CoE works with business units to scope projects based on business needs. They also assess fit with Appian and recommend potential delivery options back to business partners.

Partner Coordination Services

Applications Support Services

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

	Promote a product mindset	"The team must have a 'product mindset'. This means they need to understand the business problem the app needs to address end-to-end. If they don't they tend to become 'feature focused'...and risk producing an app that does not, in the end, have the desired business impact."
	Don't just take orders, shape them	"If given the choice, 90% of the time business units (BUs) will just ask for their backlog to be completed without much informed prioritization or knowledge sharing around what's best. The CoE needs to serve as a trusted advisor to help BUs shape their direction."
	Blended teams accelerate partners	"Having a team with blended skills is critical when working with a partner ecosystem. Our folks know the company and the environment, the partner staff tend to be more technically capable, but don't always know much about the company. Setting our CoE to be a one-stop for everything Astria helps partners get to work faster and accelerates time to value."

Download full article e-book

community.appian.com/.../Astria.pdf

Tags: story, Vision