How does one bridge the gap in producing deliverables between operations and projects?

Question

As with most reasonable sized organizations, the current organization has an operational team and a project team which drive varying degree of initiatives.

Unlike any other organization i have worked for, there is very little understanding of the deliverables each team is responsible for which has a bearing on the next initiative. For example there is a constant battle between the teams regarding ownership of documentation. When a project is initiated, there is very little by the way of understanding the current state. The project is told to bring all documentation concerning the said initiative up to scratch. This happens seldom since the project team does not see it as its responsibility to update operational documentation which should provide sufficient information about the current state.

I sit between these teams and am attempting to bridge the gap however am unsure how best to do so since there is much in the way of historical contention. Being the new kid on the block, i would like to bridge this gap. Attempting for the teams to share a common goal hasn't succeeded nor being open about specific issues and concerns. This often leads to finger pointing further deepening the already sour relationships.

Is there a specific methodology i can adopt and adapt as i imagine the situation being a common theme in a number of organizations around the globe?

EDIT

To help answer the question raised by Tobias

Role: The role i play is that of an Enterprise Architect. The key challenge i have is that there is no consistency in standards, information and knowledge is tacit and people are unwilling to share information.

The teams include project managers, business analysts, server & administration, networks & help desk. All other roles are supported by vendors.

Answer 1

First of all, notice that your company is (probable) successful, otherwise you wouldn't have chosen it for your new job. I'm not saying that everything is perfect but be careful being the new one telling the old ones how to do the job. My first point is:

Raise open questions. How are you doing...? What is the motivation behind...?

Maybe there is a bigger picture that causes the problems you figured out but brings a much bigger benefit somewhere else.

Fore sure, you should work on improving processes and team work. The person in charge regarding the problems within the project is the PM. Check the project plan, esp. the risk and communications management part. I assume that every project member is asked to raise risks by communicating them to the PM. Assist the PM by doing so. Say that you identified a risk within your field of responsibility and bring it down to schedule and budget. Provide a risk probability also. It should be the PMs motivation to come to the root cause of the risk, if he/she shares your view on the risk. If not, ask for explaination, you are the new one and willing to learn.

By the way having a good WBS and a working project management in place, those problems shouldn't exist (or be at least not such a big issue).

If your PM is not able or willing to work on the risk - or if he/she blames the organization processes, move on to the process improvement guys. Since you work for a larger company there will be someone (usually within QA) responsible for process improvement. The approach is quite similar to the one of approaching the PM - switch from risks to chances in your formulation.

Answer 2

Welcome to StackExchange- Project Management.

This is not an uncommon issue in large enterprises. Clear ownership of deliverables can be a challenge. Given you're new, you probably are in a good position to do something about it, if you tread carefully. I would recommend a two phase approach.

Step 1- Conduct Stakeholder Interviews: I have used this method for several years now to great effect. My new employer uses a variation in all their consulting engagements, to equally high effect. At a high level (I should really write a blog on this): - Identify all your key stakeholders and customers. This can easily be over 20. If you hit 50, start looking for the key people in these groups. - Request 30 minutes of their time. Do this person by person, do not send out a mass email. The request should include the PPT slide and questions from below. - Create a 1 slide (just 1!) PowerPoint. The slide should have your orgs mission/vision (make it up if you have to but let your boss review it), an outline of your 90 day plan and a line with "Why am I here". - The 90 day plan should be some rif on "Listen", "Meet stakeholders and customers", "Document critical impediments", "Target Low hanging fruit", "Communicate" - Your interview questions: The secret to this method is you always ask everyone the exact same questions. I use the same six all the time. The first five are based off Manager-Tools.com Internal Customer Interviews podcast (great resource even for project managers). I'll put the questions at the bottom of the post.

The interviews work in two very powerful ways. The first is they build trust and relationships. Almost nothing is more powerful than asking people what they need and want. The second is by asking the same questions to everyone, you can create quantitative data out of the qualitative interviews.

Step 2 - Create a Responsibility Matrix You're almost certainly going to come out of the interviews with data around responsibility confusion (hint, you may want to craft a specific question to discover this like "Do you feel your roles and responsibilities are understood by the organization). Use this data and then work with your manager and the leadership of these two groups to identify this. Suggest putting together a Responsibility Matrix. I prefer the full RASCI over the RACI. Make a spreadsheet. Create columns for "Responsible, Accountable, Supportive, Consulted, Informed." Google RASCI for more on this. The two key ones are Responsible and Accountable. The person responsible does the work, in traditional development the person accountable is often higher up that person's food chain.

You're probably going to end up with holes in the matrix and places where there is conflict in who does what. From here, schedule meetings and work it out.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me direct.

My Six Questions: 1‐ What do you and your organization need and expect from my org? 2‐ What metrics do/will you use to assess us? 3‐ How have we done relative to your needs, in the past? 4‐ What's your perception of our org in general, that perhaps the numbers don't show? 5‐ What feedback and/or guidance do you have for me/my role/my team? 6- What are your biggest pain points?