02D Overview – Introducing the O2D Process and System

[Music plays, CSIRO logo appears on bottom right hand corner of screen, and text appears:  SROM:  Opportunity to Delivery System and Process]

[Text appears on screen:  Overview of the O2D Process] 

[Text appears on screen:  CSIRO O2D]

Narrator:  Hello.  My name is Cameron.  I’m a Team Leader in CSIRO Energy, and in this video I’ll be giving you an overview of Opportunity to Delivery, or O2D. 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘MyCSIRO Intranet’, and various screens appear]

The first thing I’d like to point out to you is the O2D intranet site.  This is a great place to come to find out more information about O2D, as well as looking for useful resources on how O2D will affect you, and it’s also a great way to find help on using the O2D system, as well as looking for answers to frequently asked questions.  In summary O2D is a process supported by an underlying system for managing our work in CSIRO.  The aim of O2D was to loosen the screws a bit, helping us to be a more effective organisation, making good decisions, and managing our work better.  O2D is the result of a large effort with input from many across CSIRO, such as the reference group that I was a part of. 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘O2D Process Overview ‘with the following flow chart:

Investment Decision making, Strategy CSIRO Business unit program – Investment Decision Making, Create Opportunity, Qualify Opportunity – Planning and Contracting, Plan Project/Activity, Governance/Contracting – Project/Activity Delivery, Delivery Project/Activity – Project Close, Financial Management, New model supports entire process. There is also a Decision Criteria box with the following points: 1. Strategic Alignment, 2. Customer/Collaborator, 3. Investment, 4 Capability/Resources, 5. Contract Requirements, 6. Delivery & Governance]

OK, so here’s an overview of the O2D process.  Basically it starts at our strategy, right from the very top through to program level, then looks at how we make decisions about the work that we will do, and then how we deliver that work, and finally close out those activities or projects. 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘Guiding Principles for Processes and Systems’ with text bubbles that read: Conversations over Reporting - Lead Indicators over Lag Indicators – Informed Risks over Risk Avoidance – Standard over Bespoke – Accountability over Over-governance - Simplicity over Complexity – Agility over Rigidity. Must add clear value – Manage by exception – Better data integration – User friendly – Eliminate off-system – Effective monitoring – Focus on planning – Support culture – Efficient and stable.]

The O2D process is underpinned by some guiding principles, and here’s some of those principles, and the ones that I think are important are the idea of conversation, so that we’re always talking to each other about the work that we’re doing, rather than relying on a system; we’re working on making sure that we take informed risks, rather than avoiding risk altogether; and we’re making sure we stay agile and are not tied up by complex or bespoke systems that make life difficult. 

[Image changes back to the screen titled ‘O2D Process Overview’]

Now in the O2D process, one of the key aspects is the whole decision making about what opportunities we pursue, and planning to make sure we can do those activities or projects well, and for that we’ve got a set of decision criteria to help us through that decision making and planning process. 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘O2D Decision Making Tool’ with text bubbles that read: 1. Strategic Alignment _ Does the opportunity align to CSIRO’s strategy and business unit impact statements? – 2 Customer/Collaborator _ Are we working with the right partners (Customers and collaborators)? – 3 Investment _ Does the opportunity represent a sound investment of CSIRO resources? – 4 Do we have access to the right people and equipment needed to do the work?. - Yes – 5 Contract Requirements, Select the contract pathway according to the commercial and contract risks – 6 Delivery & Governance, Select the management and governance required according to the risk assessment and customer requirements – Once Complete – 7 Endorse Opportunity, Endorser reviews opportunity and endorses it to proceed to planning sage.]

To help guide us through these decision criteria we’ve developed this decision making tool.  This discusses the four decision criteria, plus the two pathway criteria that we need to consider. 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘Strategic Alignment’ with text bubbles that read: What are the new opportunities and benefits created by the outcomes of this work? – How does this work help achieve CSIRO’s strategy and goals? – What else needs to be considered in addition to the Research Program’s existing risk profile? – What intellectual property needs to be considered? – What is the ‘Path to Impact’ and how will our customers help? – If this work does not deliver to our strategy then why are we doing it?]

The first decision criteria the strategic alignment, so what is this opportunity, and how does the work align to our strategic goals, and how will it help us on our path to impact, both for us and our customers. 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘Customer/Collaborator’ with text bubbles that read: What does the customer want and how clear are they about their own needs? – What is the status of our relationship with the customer? How well do we know them? – At what organisational level (CEO, senior manager, tea lady) are we interacting? – Why are we working with this customer and will it affect other relationship’s? – How is the customer going to use the outcomes of our work? – If the customer or project is in another country, what other challenges are there?]

The next criteria is the customer or collaborators, so what does the customer want; why this customer; and what is our relationship with this customer; and how is this customer going to actually use the outcomes of this work? 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘Investment’ with text bubbles that read: What is the coinvestment ratio and is this appropriate? – What is the cash flow and timing of payments for all parties involved? – If this involves international exchange rates, what is the effect of $ fluctuations? – What is the value, cost, and price of the work? Who is funding the work and why? – What additional costs (training, HSE, CapEx, compliance, comms) need to be included? – what are the financial tolerances and are they appropriate for the complexity & risks?]

 The investment criteria looks at what is the value of the work to the client, what should the price be, and how much is it going to cost us to deliver; are there additional costs we need to think about in terms of any training or CAPEX or compliance that we might need to pay for?

 [Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘Capability and Resources’ with text bubbles that read: How will this work create/build/grow our capabilities? – If we don’t have both the capability and capacity, who else can help? – What are the staff wellbeing and work/life balance issues? – How is the work a training opportunity or part of succession planning? – Is the work dependent on any equipment and what happens if it breaks? – How complex is the team (geography, partners, BU’s, science areas, leadership)?]

The final decision criteria is capability and resources, do we have the right people to do this work, and do they have the capacity to be able to do this work in the timeframe that we’re committing to; do we need any special laboratory or other facilities to do the work; is there any complexities based on the team working across multiple business units or across different sites; has the team had experience in doing this sort of work before? 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘Contract Requirements’ with text bubbles that read: What technical and IP risks need to be managed within the contacts terms and conditions? – Are the deliverables and milestones flexible enough to cope with the technical risks? – How complex is the contract and are you confident about all the legal implications> - Who can provide additional advice on the legal aspects of the contract? – What are the dependencies for delivery and are we reliant on anyone external? – What is unusual about this contract and are there any previous or similar arrangements?]

Next we have the contracting criteria.  Here we look at the agreements and contracts that might be needed to manage a piece of work.  We think about things like the technical and IP risks that might need to be considered; we look at how we word the deliverables and milestones; we think about what dependencies there might be on external parties that may cause us problems in delivering; and also thinking about what’s unusual about this piece of work or the contract that we need to take care of? 

[Image changes as a screen appears titled ‘Delivery & Governance’ with text bubbles that read: What is the level of complexity and risk? What type of governance, if any, is required? – What is the approval process? Who is the delegate? Is this a Major Transaction? – How will the team and project be managed (meetings, data requirements, monitoring)? – How will you maintain your relationship with customer and stakeholders? – What reporting and review processes are needed internally and for customer? – How will you ensure everyone involved is clear about their role in the work?]

The final criteria is around delivering governance.  This is where we look at the complexity of the work and think about how we will manage that.  We look at who the team is and how we will manage the team and make sure everyone knows what their role is, and also the communication with both internal and external stakeholders. 

[Image changes back to the screen titled ‘O2D Process Overview’]

The level of detail required in addressing these criteria will be entirely dependent on the nature of the opportunity and the requirements of the final approver.  The endorse stage provides a checkpoint where we can consider whether we want to put in the time and effort required to pursue the opportunity further.  The only formal approval required is at the commence stage. 

In summary the O2D process is about making good choices about the things we do with an informed approach to managing risk.

[Music plays, CSIRO logo appears with text: Big ideas start here www.csiro.au]