Operating Model for a State-Wide Software Development Training Program in Nigeria

A case study: A state government in Nigeria has a vision to increase software development capabilities and has chosen software development training as one of the vehicles or tools to achieve this vision.

The challenge: Implement the training program without the need of any physical infrastructure investments, make it sustainable, repeatable and scale-able.

The Approach: The operating model as step one to ensure proper analysis, understanding and implementation of the programme . The operating model looks into the current state and also the future state. In our case, we jumped right into the target state, assuming that the current state is totally immature or doesn’t exist.

Our approach is to use the operating model to ask important questions or highlight questions that need to be addressed.

Target Operating Model:

Customers: Who are the customers? The appropriate customer segment needs to be understood and addressed. E.g will this programme target youths from ages 10 to 14 or ages 15 to 17 or ages 18 to 21 or ages 18 to 38?

Channels: What are the channels that the customers will be reached and training offered? Online or Offline or Both?

Organisational units , actors and responsibilities: Who will offer the training? Contractors or in house employees? If contractors are used, what roles will they play? Will they carry out application processing, interviews and training? Who will be responsible to recruit these contractors?Who will conduct due diligence on these contractors? Who will audit their performances?How many contractors are needed? Will the contractors be drawn from geographical segments?

Business Functions: What in-house business functions need to exist? Audit? Contract/Supplier Management? Accounting?

Business Processes: What business processes will exist to underpin those business functions performed by those organisational units and in-house plus external actors? Recruitment process? Application process? Audit process? Supplier management process? etc

Performance Measurements: How will the contractors be access? Service providers and or contractors need to be monitored to ensure that they’ve delivered value for money

Target Operating Model Recommendations:

Customer segments: A stakeholder workshop and a customer survey is recommended to understand who are the right targets for this programme. Could it be that only exceptional candidates or students who have certain grades or abilities in science subjects should take this programme? The stakeholders would be a collection of existing contractors or suppliers, industry representatives and concerned members of the public. A customer-centric approach to the programme is encouraged.

Channels: Offline channels are recommended for training but a central repository of course materials accessible online could also be made available. The business processes decided on will impact also on the customer channels e.g if there is an agreement for a central application unit, there would definitely be a need to have an online training application portal and an online contract application portal. These can be created by using open source tools thereby reducing cost.

Organisational units, actors and responsibilities: The following are recommended :-

1. Contractors to deliver training. Contractors are institutions and registered training entities.
2. Audit team. External audit team comprising of software professionals, hired also as contractors but for auditing purposes.
3. In house contractor management team. The name says it all.E.g Accountant included.
4. IT team. For online management of academic resources, supplier portal, and application portal if necessary.

Business functions/Business Process:

1. Training applications could be centralised and successful applicants sent to courses offered by the contractors.
2. External audit with an operating procedure to ensure that standards are kept and maintained over time. This increases the quality of outputs.
3. Contract/Supplier management, handles the processing of contractors, communications, accounting and any due diligence checks.
4. Programme board, comprising of a member of the public representing each geographic area, members of software industry bodies or software practitioners with at least 10 years of experience.
5. Audit team, comprises of software veterans with at least 5 to 10 years experience.

Performance Measurement: The audit team will audit the contractors based on the following criteria :

1. People( Skills and competence)
2. Processes( Training processes)
3. Tools( Curriculum and training environment)

Summary: The operating model used in this analysis is streamlined version of deloitte’s target operating model . The key aim of this was to present a model where an Nigerian state government can achieve their goal of providing training programmes without the need to invest in real estate.

Many countries have developed ICT capabilities without having to invest in real estate. Many countries have also provided tuition free programmes to increase capabilities and they have not invested in real estate. I also happened to have gained a Bachelor’s degree from such free education initiative.

The government simply pays the contractors or service suppliers fees based on the number of units. The value of such education can be decided by the government and the contractors. It can be 1,000 USD per student or higher or lower.

Author: Aniekan Okono is currently a Management Consultant at ASE Consulting Ltd, his role involves mapping current state business architecture, developing target operating models, performing gap analysis, designing logical data architecture and gathering stakeholder requirements.