No application deploy of this scale is simple. Our goal is to successfully deploy the most effective solution with minimal disturbance to the customer’s processes. Listed below are several key strategies we believe are crucial to success.
Define the scope and manage with change control. In Phase 1 a detailed scope will be defined and agreed to by all stakeholders. The scope will include all implementation tasks, application customizations, report creation and training with a detail schedule. All additions, modifications, and reductions of this defined scope will be strictly controlled with formal change control procedures. These changes will be reviewed and approved by the executive team.
All human resources needed during the project will be identified as key or non-key stakeholders. The key stakeholders will consist of a team with less than 12 members that best represent the customers business units. This team will meet regularly during the project and be responsible for communication and resource scheduling non-key stakeholders. The non-key stakeholders will represent any other human resources needed for the completion of the project, external and internal.
At the completion of Phase 1, the project plan, schedule, and scope will be signed off by key stakeholders, external vendors in the form of a statement of work, and the customer executive team. This sign-off will communicate the acceptance of the project and scope and the commitment to the project. At the completion of Phase 2 the key stakeholders will sign-off after a successful user acceptance test has been completed. After go-live the key stakeholders, vendors, and the customer executives will sign-off acceptance that the project has been completed to the scope and commitments outlined.
To ensure success these communication tools will be used.
The customer’s stakeholders play a major part in this project. Without the needed involvement, engagement, and commitment by customer’s employees, this project will not be successful. To ensure this commitment is made and sustained throughout the life of the project, we will need the support and assistance of the customer’s management team to remain steadfast to our goals, schedule, and deliverables.
Project Plan : This step’s objective is to complete the master plan. The agenda will include: project organization, project structure, project goals, scope, project team assignment, implementation methodology, first cut training plan, agreement to major milestones, performance measurements and will lead to the publication of the master plan for approval by the steering committee.
Integrated Pilot: This step will fully implement in a model context the complete operations of the company. This will include steps such as Invoice and Receivable entry, G/L, etc. to accomplish the equivalent of a full Month's activities, including a close cycle. This represents the integration of the department pilots. The project team will sign off approval and completion. This is in lieu of any type of parallel runs.
User training: This activity is usually performed by the project team, and delivers specific instructions on how to use the application to perform each user’s job responsibilities. This activity is performed just prior to going live.
Project review: A formal review of the implementation. This step will identify any small clean-up, outstanding issues, preliminary performance measurements, and may also be the starting point for planning the next phase.