SPRINT & RELEASE PLANNING

Information technology is taking a scrum approach to the ongoing development of VICE’s global support portal. Feature requests, workflow optimizations, teams to onboard, solutions to add, and bug fixes will be added to the backlog for future release. Each backlog item will undergo a requirement gathering stage to determine value, complexity, and level of effort needed. Backlog items will then be organized into repeatable work cycles, called Sprints:

• Work is prioritized by the product owner who will capture the needed requirement documentation.

• Before each release, Process Owners and Subject-Matter- Experts (SMEs) conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) to verify the solution is built or fixed as intended.

• Release notes follow each Sprint release into Production.

Slack

• Who: All VICE FTE & freelance employees can request Slack.

• What: Slack is a business communication platform.

• Where: Global Support Portal "Service Catalog", "Software Request" tab.

• Why: Slack aids in communication with internal & external parties allowing for better team collaboration, project and production management.

• Requirements:

  • Manager Approval

AP Requests

• Who: All VICE FTE's and freelancers can request support from the NA Accounts Payable Team.

• What: Support requests for Vendor Bills, Payments, Rush Payment Requests, Other Accounts Payable Issues and Vendor Bill Submissions.

• Where: Global Support Portal "Service Catalog" tab, then chose service category: Accounts Payable.

• Why: Previous workflows created an environment where both accountability and visibility were both decentralized and reporting abilities were limited for these teams to support the business. This updated Service Category and Items enhance requester visibility and improves on AP Team productivity and reporting capabilities.

• Notes from both Parent & Child tickets will be visible to all agent groups assigned.

• All tickets will now only be visible to the assigned Agent Group for additional security/privacy.

• Change Approval Management (CAB) has now been enabled for the defined teams that require formal approval of changes made to systems and/or infrastructure to adhere to audit control requirements & best practices.