Web services

Defining an internal web service

Project overview

Improving the internal capability of teams to support the delivery of web services. This involved working with teams across the business and vendors to understand the current state and desired future state of web services in the organisation.

My role

Service Designer leading the engagement from discovery to through to design and delivery of the service. This involved conducting research,  producing design artefacts, and leading stakeholder engagement.

A diagram with no text indicating input into a process with an output

Approach

The lifecycle of web products was mapped out through desk research and initial conversations with tech staff. I selected case studies of recent web work for a deep dive into the process and outcomes. User research was conducted through interviews and workshops with the business, tech staff, and vendors to understand the overall experience of collaborating to deliver web services.

Findings from the research were synthesised and played back to stakeholders. Through workshops with individual teams a desired future-state for web services was co-designed and iteratively refined.

Once the final design was signed off a number of artefacts were produced and workshopped with the internal teams to document the agreed ways of working between teams. These artefacts were used to induct new team members and referenced as part of ongoing discussions to improve processes.

Challenges

Due to staff turn over and lack of documentation it was difficult to conduct research on certain case studies. The research phase of the project required a few iterations in order to capture a good spread of case studies with active team members.

A key finding of the research was that teams were time constrained and that made it difficult for teams to prioritise meetings relating to web work. This made the project itself challenging to plan for and it also created uncertainty on attendance for ceremonies to support the future service model.

Process highlights

A whiteboard showing planning in categories

Workshops to discuss how the service can be managed collaboratively at a high level. Each section was populated by the relevant teams and agree upon as a group. This was refined and agreed upon by our stakeholders.

A diagram showing five bars detailing roles between teams

Establishing roles and responsibilities - The roles and responsibilities of each team across differing types of web work were co-designed and agreed upon. This high-level artefact was supported by a RASCI detailing the individual role responsibilities.

A process map in two colours to show process flow and decision points

Working agreement - A working agreement was created to capture how decisions could be made for future work. This document detailed where agreement between teams was required to progress work and how key decisions could be made.

Previous project
Ben La Design