Operating Model
Team Structure
The Technical Solutions team is unique in the sense that it federates a very wide range of skills and expertise (inherent complexity of building software). Due to our team’s size, some domains of expertise are led by a single person, resulting in one-person teams. We see this as a temporary situation but find it necessary to formalize these teams as the services they provide are essential to our collective success.
The Technical Solutions team is composed of 2 types of teams:
Mission Teams - They execute the core operational goals of Akvo, i.e. build software for impact.
Support Teams - They provide centralized domain expertise that is required for the Mission teams to achieve their goals.
Hybrid Teams - They execute the mission and provides support capacity to the organization
Each team is described in a table with the following attributes:
Mandate - A summary of what the team does at/for Akvo
Offers - The services that the team offers
Needs - The information, tools and services needed for that team to deliver its function
KPIs - The KPIs that will be used to measure the performance and success of the team. In some instances, we’ve also described a number of metrics that reflect the volume of work.
Lead - The person accountable for the team
Coordination - The frequency with which the coordination meeting is held.
Task Tracking - The place where work is tracked and coordinated (Asana).Mission Teams
TC Team
Tech Consultancy Team
Mandate
Support the BD team in developing and closing deals
Deliver high quality and on budget custom software solutions
Offers
BD
Explore partnership collaboration
ToR evaluation (Go, No Go)
Technical proposal writing (Budgets, Timelines)
Tech PoC for concepts provided by sector leads
Delivery
Custom software solutions
Software handover activities
Maintenance and support
Needs
Information
BD - ToR, context
Delivery - ToR, context, user requirements
Tools
Capacity Planner
PMT
Task Manager
Code hosting: Github
CI/CD Pipeline: Semaphore, CircleCI
Unit testing: coveralls
Services
Hosting
Design
Testing
User support
KPIs
Execution Efficiency
Definition: Ability to execute the scope within the allocated budget
Source: PMT
Target: 100%
Team Utilization
Definition: Ratio between allocated work days and available days to work
Source: Capacity Planner
Target: 90%
Team Billability
Definition: Ratio between allocated work days on client projects and available days to work
Source: Capacity Planner
Target: 75%
Unit Test Coverage
Definition: % of the code covered by unit tests
Source: Coveralls
Target: 80%
Integration Test Coverage
Definition:
Source: Integration testing software
Target:
User reported bugs
Definition: number of bugs reported by users after the software went into productions (by severity)
Source: Re:amaze
Target: less than 5% critical bugs
Lead
Coordination
Project issue board on GH
3 times a week tasks status / adhoc as required
Bi-weekly team status check
Task Tracking
Each project has its own Asana Team or Project
Product Teams
Mandate
Offers
Product development
Product management
Needs
Information
Market data
User feedback
Tools
Capacity Planner
PMT
Task Manager
Code hosting: Github
CI/CD Pipeline: Semaphore, CircleCI
Unit testing: coveralls
Services
Hosting
Design
Testing
User support
KPIs
Bug Reports
Definition: number of bugs reported by clients
Source: Reamaze
Target: less than 5% critical bugs
User Acquisition
Definition: This metric tracks the number of new users acquired by the product over a certain period of time.
Source: Contracts
Target: TBD
User Engagement
Definition: This metric measures how often users are using the product and how engaged they are with it.
Source: TDB
Target: TBD
Revenue
Definition: This metric tracks the amount of money generated by the product
Source: Contracts
Target:
Customer Satisfaction
Definition: This metric measures how satisfied users are with the product.
Source: Satisfaction questionnaires
Target: 4/5 in average
Lead
Coordination
Every 2 weeks - Guillaume Deflaux Zuhdil Kurnia
Task Tracking
Support Teams
DevOps Team
DevOps Team
Mandate
Secure internal and external systems
Provide best-in-class infrastructure for the services Akvo offers
Offers
Security for internal and external systems (Company-wide)
Implement security best practices for our internal tools (email, password management, etc…) and server deployments.
Infrastructure (TC Platforms / Products)
Design
Deployment
Support & Monitoring
Costing
Knowledge Management & Company Culture
Updated technical documentation (wiki) covering the above topics (SOPs, best practices, …)
Provide DevOps & Security trainings internally
Promote a DevOps & Security culture
Domain technical watch (best practices, tools, …)
Needs
Information
Product/project software architecture plan (before development started)
Product/project software architecture documentation
Product/project system requirements and quickstart documentation
Infrastructure budget allocation plan from product, project or BD team
Tools
Hosting provider (Google Cloud, Contabo, Siteground)
Code Version Control (Github)
CI/CD Tools (SemaphoreCI, CircleCI, Github Action)
Documentation tools
Infrastructure orchestration and configuration management tools (Terraform, Ansible)
Secret management tools (Hashicorp Vault, Vaultwarden)
Maling tools (Mailjet)
Workflow automation (N8N)
Services
Testing
KPIs
Average Service Availability
Definition: The client facing service are available
Target: 99.9% over a quarter
Source: Uptime checks
Change Success Rate
Definition: Changes made by the DevOps team do not result in any downtime or other issues.
Target: 90% over a quarter
Source: uptime checks, CI/CD
Note: downtime caused by deployments are not taken into account
Cost
Definition: Amount that we spend on cloud services (mostly GCP)
Target: Yearly targets based usage of services (COGS, cost per project…). Still TBD
Team Satisfaction
Definition: The DevOps team should aim for a high level of satisfaction among internal teams who rely on DevOps support.
Target: Score at least 8 out of 10 on average
Source: Quarterly survey
Lead
Coordination
Every 2 weeks - Guillaume Deflaux Anjar Fiandriato
Task Tracking
Design Team
Design Team
Mandate
Support TC and product teams in delivering designed-for-purpose applications
Offers
Requirements Gathering
Conduct user research
Collaborate with product managers, developers, and subject matter experts to define and prioritise user stories and product requirements
Wireframing & UI Design
Create wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups that effectively communicate design concepts and interactions
Create and maintain design style guides and design systems that support consistent and efficient design
Provide corresponding HTML/CSS templates
User Feedback
Continuously iterate on designs based on user feedback, stakeholder input, and usability testing
Knowledge Management & Company Culture
Updated technical documentation (wiki) covering the above topics (best practices, tools, …)
Domain technical watch (best practices, tools, design trends, …)
Needs
User Research Tools
Design and Prototyping Tools
Collaboration Tools
Design Systems and Style Guides
Feedback and Iteration Tools
Training and Professional Development
KPIs
KPIs (aggregated quality measure)
Work Volume
Lead
Coordination
Every 2 weeks - Guillaume Deflaux Ouma Odhiambo
Task Tracking
User Support & Quality Team
User Support & Quality Team
Mandate
Be the first point of contact of our end-users and help them make the most of our platforms and products.
Support the TC and products teams in delivering well tested software applications.
Offers
All the services are provided to Products and TC Platforms alike.
L1 Support
First point of contact with users
Triage issues and escalate if necessary
Resolve issues that are related to the usage of the software (anything that is not a bug or a server issue)
User Trainings
Create training curriculums
Deliver trainings to end-users (remote/onsite)
Functional Testing
Write test plans
Execute test plans (automated or not)
Document issues and create test reports
User Documentation
Create and update user documentation inline with software release cycles.
Knowledge Management & Company Culture
Updated technical documentation (wiki) covering the above topics (best practices, tools, …)
Domain technical watch (best practices, tools, …)
Needs
Information
Platform/Product onboarding from the development teams
Functional requirements documents
User stories and personas
Release schedules
Test data
Test environment
Tools
Helpdesk (Re:amaze)
Documentation/Wiki (MkDocs, Bookstack)
Automated Testing (Selenium, Appium)
Test Management (TestRail, TestLodge, Zephyr, Zebrunner)
Bug Tracking(Github, Asana)
Load Testing (Gatling, Locust, LoadRunner)
User Feedback (Piwik, HotJar, ProductBoard)
KPIs
L1 Support
KPI
SLA breaches
Definition: Number and % of tickets that breached the SLAs
Source: Reamaze
Target: 0(%)
Average User satisfaction Level
Definition: Level of satisfaction of users after the handling of their tickets
Source: Reamaze
Target: 4/5 or higher
Work Volume
Number of tickets received (Reamaze)
Number / % of escalated tickets (L2+) (Reamaze)
Average first response time (Reamaze)
Average resolution time (Reamaze)
User Trainings
KPI
Average trainee satisfaction Level
Definition: Declared level of satisfaction of trainees after a training on one of our platforms or products
Source: Post training questionnaire
Target: 4/5 or higher
Work Volume
Number of trainings delivered
Number of created training curriculums
Number of updated training curriculums
Functional Testing
KPI
TBD
Work Volume
Number of test plans written
Number of test plans executed
Number of test reports written
User Documentation
KPI
% of up-to-date documentation sites
Definition: The % of documentation sites that have content that cover 100% of the user facing features of platforms and products
Source: Documentation sites + platform / product release notes
Target: 100%
User Satisfaction Level
Definition: Level of helpfulness of documentation pages
Source: MkDocs
Target: 4/5 or higher
Work Volume
Number of updated articles (MkDocs)
Number of visits to the help sites (Piwik)
Knowledge Management & Company Culture
KPI
Adoption
Definition: % of TC Platforms/Products using the documentation site and testing tools.
Source: Documentation sites + testing tools
Target: 100%
Work Volume
Number of significant updates to the wiki (Wiki)
Lead
Coordination
Every 2 weeks - Guillaume Deflaux Jonah Kisioh
Task Tracking
Hybrid Teams
Technical Solutions Management
Technical Solutions Management
Mandate
Align objectives of the Tech Solutions Team with the objectives of the rest of the company
Improve the efficiency of the entire Tech Solutions Team
Offers
Strategic and technical orientations to sub teams, including tie-breaking based on suggestions
Internal initiatives to focus on
Tools, methodologies and best practices that affect all teams
Needs
Information
Company strategy and objectives
Feedback from sub teams
KPIs
Objective alignment
Definition: The fact that the Technical Solutions sub team objectives are aligned with larger company objectives.
Team Efficiency
Definition: The fact that the Technical Solutions sub team objectives create efficiencies that affect the entire team.
Lead
Coordination
Monthly - Guillaume Deflaux Joy Ghosh Deden Bangkit
Task Tracking
Coordination Mechanisms
Team coordination plays a big part in creating the right environment for our team to deliver great work and to create a positive dynamic. The team coordination approach described below aims to foster team building while boosting our collective efficiency, i.e. provide enough context for everyone to properly execute their work while doing so in a friendly, respectful and engaging manner.
This approach is purposely built for our current team. We should expect it to change should our team size and structure evolve.
1-to-1s Guillaume / Team Leads
In most instances these meetings are used both for people management and team coordination purposes.
Frequency
Every 2 weeks
Duration
1h
Purpose
Ensure that there is a space to discuss your life at Akvo.
Coordinate the definition and the execution of team roadmaps
Ensure coherence of team specific initiatives within the larger Tech Solutions Team
Structure
Manager-Direct 1-to-1
Workplate & Projects
Growth
Performance
Team Specific Discussion
Services
Initiatives
Roadmap
Performance
Tech Solutions All Hands
Frequency
Every 2 weeks
Duration
1h
Purpose
Make sure that we can have a bit of “face time” all together in order to break the silos created by our day-to-day
Create a space for direct communications with the entire team (email remains the official channel for team wide announcements)
Create an experience sharing space to foster ideation and innovation within the Tech Team
Structure
Think Tank Thursdays (30 min)
A rotating presentation by someone from the team.
Any topic that is (vaguely) related to our work
Any format allowed as long as there’s at least 10 min for questions. The more interactive the better.
All Hands (30 min)
Team wide announcements
Project / Product updates
Team Specific Updates
Updates from MC