Attention!
The content on this site is a materials pilot. It represents neither changes to existing policy nor pending new policies. THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL GUIDANCE.
Course overview
In this course sequence, the simpler things come earlier. We are getting to some of the lower priority things, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still helpful and important.
| Health indicator | Topic |
| Outcomes-orientation | Everybody's priorities |
| State capacity | Scope out the team |
| Procurement flexibility | Owning strategy and outcomes |
| Iterative development | Putting software into production |
| Admin | Course four - Report out |
What this course covers
In the fourth course, we’ll go further into what makes a healthy and thriving team and how to recognize more complex indicators of team health.
Outcomes-orientation - Everybody's priorities
Priorities. We all have them. But are they all aligned? In this lesson, we'll learn what to look for when asking individual team memebers about their roles and current priorities.
Ask both project and enterprise-level team members what the current priorities are.
- Bad: State team members can't speak to priorities at all.
- Meh: State team members can speak to priorities, but they're not captured anywhere in written or visual form.
- Good: Outcomes and priorities are clearly articulated by all state team members and live in a shared roadmap that's regularly updated.
Outcomes-orientation - Everybody's priorities
Priorities. We all have them. But are they all aligned? In this lesson, we'll learn what to look for when asking individual team memebers about their roles and current priorities.
Ask both project and enterprise-level team members what the current priorities are.
- Bad: State team members can't speak to priorities at all.
- Meh: State team members can speak to priorities, but they're not captured anywhere in written or visual form.
- Good: Outcomes and priorities are clearly articulated by all state team members and live in a shared roadmap that's regularly updated.
State capacity - Scope out the team
Observing a team's dynamics can help you figure out the "why" behind successes or failures. This module helps you learn what to look for when observing team meetings to get a sense of how the team works together.
Join meetings and watch team dynamics.
- Bad: Adversarial / non-existent relationships across the teams or divisions.
- Meh: Individuals have good relationships, but team dynamics are strained.
- Good: Individuals and teams from all divisions talk regularly and have good relationships.
Procurement flexibility - Owning strategy and outcomes
What happens when you lose ownership of your mission? In this conversation, Princess Ojiaku and Nikki Lee talk about the challenges of driving towards desired outcomes and the ownership of strategy and mission in Medicare and Medicaid IT projects.
Ask what challenges the team is having in driving toward intended outcomes.
Ask who is involved in setting strategy and outcomes.
- Bad: The state blames or relies on the vendor for the strategy and achievement of the outcomes.
- Meh: The state takes partial accountability for the strategy and achievement of the outcomes; leans on vendors for procurement strategy.
- Good: The state considers themselves wholly responsible for the strategy and achievement of the outcomes; leads strategy, collects feedback from vendors.
Iterative development - Putting software into production
It's one thing to write a piece of software. It's another for people to use it. That involves "putting the software into production" or "shipping the software". Many terms are used, but at the end of the day, it means that people will find ways to break what you thought was ready for prime time.
Ask how the process of getting new things into production works.
How long does it take? How many steps are involved?
- Bad: All changes are rolled out as a "big-bang" effort, where the system is turned off and then back on.
- Meh: Deploying changes is minimally disruptive to end users, but requires work stops for the internal team.
- Good: Deploying changes is minimally disruptive to end users and the internal team.