One of the most important responsibilities of a Center of Excellence is setting up a proper governance framework.
In short, governance is a system of rules and processes that a company creates. It determines who has power and accountability, and who makes decisions.
Three components of governance are:
1. Decision Making
This means deciding who is deciding. Whether we’re talking about which new features should be implemented or what are the business priorities. There may be lots of feedback collected by users as they are using the platform. All of them should be considered but not all of them should be actually implemented.
This key team needs to include the product owner, the executive sponsor and subject matter experts (SMEs).
2. Collecting Feedback
In order to make decisions, there needs to be a channel to communicate user feedback. For example, users could submit bugs and change requests in an easy-to-use tracking system. The governance committee could then review feedback on a regularly scheduled basis and decide what are the next steps: implement now, implement later, or discard completed.
3. Compliance and Risk Management
Certain organizations may have obligations to the government, shareholders, executive boards, or their end users. The governance committee needs to ensure all decisions are compliant with these regulations, and the risk is managed accordingly.
The takeaway
Setting up some version of governance is recommended for organizations of any size. With proper leadership and a strong group decision making process, your Salesforce platform will be positioned for success and equipped to overcome challenges effectively.