Something Mark Cruth said in a webinar a few months ago really stood out to me: if your team doesn't have a strong process in place, it doesn't matter how good your tools are. Productivity is still going to tank (paraphrasing here)
This stuck with me, and I think companies of all sizes can agree, we can all do better when it comes to process... here's an example from our IT team (we're a mid-market org with ~500 emp.) that shows just how much our process and workflows matter.
Our IT team increased productivity by 70% in two years.
- Cycle times dropped: issues now get resolved faster.
- There are more net positive days: with more tasks completed than created.
- And best of all, our team felt the difference and responded with positive feedback.
But we didn’t get here without challenges. At first, we were dealing with a very different reality.
Our backlog was overflowing, with the To-Do column becoming a second backlog.
Tasks piled up faster than we could tackle them.
Internal customers were frustrated, complaints started rolling in, and response times were far from what they should be.
So, how did we get to this point?
In 2023, Seibert Group expanded rapidly through joint ventures, adding employees and IT requests faster than our processes could adapt.
The IT team tried to keep up by working harder, but with no new structure or help, bottlenecks started to form.
We needed a better way forward.
That’s when we brought in one of our agile coaches.
His hypothesis was simple but powerful:
If we focus on streamlining processes and adding the right talent, we can dramatically improve efficiency—and everyone’s experience.
HOW WE DID IT
Step 1: HIRE
We doubled the size of the IT team, giving us the capacity to manage the increasing workload.
Step 2: FOCUS
Using agile best practices, the team implemented these key changes:
- Limit Context Switching: One person handles monitoring and support each week.
- Create Team Focus: A dedicated team (AppCare) now takes on tasks with high complexity.
- WIP Limits: Weekly tasks now have a strict cap.
- Swim Lane Prioritization: Tasks are grouped by urgency and type, ensuring the most critical work is completed first.
Step 3: REPORTING
We used Jira’s API to pull data into Google Sheets, and modeled reports tracking opened, closed, and active tasks.
This gave us clear insights without overcomplicating things.
The outcome?
The results speak for themselves. Faster cycle times, more completed tasks, and a happier, more productive team.
We’re not done improving—but we’re in a much better place now.
If your IT team is feeling stuck and you want to try these strategies, we created a playbook outlining all the steps we took: https://seibert.biz/itops
What is your IT team’s biggest challenge right now? I’d be curious to know if others have experienced the same thing we did and if so, how you solved it.
