Streamlining the Onboarding Process to CMS Cloud
Date
September-March 2020
Team
Mallory Young
Stefanie Owens
Amanda Kennedy
Methods
- Service Audit
- Service Design Implementation
My Role
- Service Designer
The Opportunity
How do you help developer teams within a federal government agency reap the benefits of onboarding to the cloud sooner?
Summary
Our service design team audited and redesigned the touchpoints where we collect information from application teams throughout the CMS Cloud journey, primarily during — but not limited to — the earliest part of the application teams' onboarding process. This effort helped streamline our application teams' path to operations and maintenance in the cloud by eliminating overall onboarding questions across three forms from 67 to just 30 information fields, as well as completely eliminating two form touchpoints for these teams to fill out. More efficient onboarding means that CMS can reap the benefits of their applications in the cloud sooner: cost-effective, flexible, and resilient ways of storing and maintaining data.
Approach
We started with an audit of the various points where we collect information from application teams as they prepare to onboard their application to CMS Cloud. We determined which forms and meetings were relevant and then captured and redesigned all fields across those touchpoints in Mural.
The Mural detailing the service design team's redesigned information intake process proposal.
We presented a proposed future state of the information intake process and highlighted recommendations, such as getting rid of two forms that asked questions that were no longer used by our internal teams or were captured in other touchpoints.
Our team shared our recommendations with various teams on the CMS Cloud program, and once we had buy-in, we implemented the changes. Our revised plan focused on:
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Minimizing redundant information by eliminating 2 forms.
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Centralizing information so that all who need it have access.
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Proactively capturing and verifying information needed for our customer database in a more user-friendly way.
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The requirements in Mural that led to an updated Intake Form on cloud.cms.gov,.
Implementation involved:
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Deprecating, updating, and creating touchpoints throughout onboarding.
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Updating scripts and slide decks used by our Cloud Navigators, who are the team that interacts directly with developer teams onboarding to CMS Cloud.
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Updating extensive internal onboarding documentation and processes that Cloud Navigators reference during onboardings.
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Developing requirements for an intake form on cloud.cms.gov and working closely with a cloud.cms.gov engineer to hand off requirements and provide feedback on revisions in dev.
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Providing Subject Matter Expertise during User Acceptance Walkthrough (UAT) with various teams involved in the new onboarding process.
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Developing language regarding updated information intake process that was included as part of onboarding service release notes for the latest version.
Outcome
This effort eliminated redundant work for application teams and supported a more streamlined onboarding experience. Now, application teams will only be asked 30 information fields, compared to the 67 they were asked previously. More efficient onboarding means that CMS can reap the benefits of their applications in the cloud sooner: cost-effective, flexible, and resilient ways of storing and maintaining data.