Your front door process doesn't need to be complicated.
A "front door" is a process that enables you to deal with unexpected change, and between COVID and all the security breaches, we have had our fair share of unexpected change!
Its purpose is
➽ To provide a vehicle for people to request work from your team
➽ To ensure the importance of the request is quickly assessed
➽ To understand the relative impact of the request on the team's current workload
You need to ensure your front door process is simple enough for everyone to understand and follow (otherwise, they will look for the back door)
Then you need to ensure the front door asks 3 basic questions:
➊ Is the request more important than any work we have already committed to?
➋ If the answer to question 1 is "YES", then do we have any capacity of deliver it?
➌ If the answer to question 2 is "YES", then prioritise and schedule the work
➍ If the answer to question 2 is "NO", then decide what existing work will need to be postponed to make this happen.
That's it! ♬
If you take on the work regardless, then don't be surprised if the current work slips or your team gets burnt out.
And don't be surprised if you find you are having difficulty retaining staff.
