implementation phase

Jun 10 2009   10:00AM GMT

Ten Reasons of getting into pitfall of leaving a scope of software development at customer site

Posted by: Jaideep
Project Management, Software Project, change management, project organization, developer, project sponsor, project director, project manager, key user, implementer, technical lead, business requirement study, business analyst, business analysis, requirement analysis, requirement gathering, implementation phase, project phase

In the previous post we learnt what all could a software project could lead to in presence of higher scope of software development at customer site during implementation phase. Let us see what all factors are responsible of insufficient requirement gathering during business study phase of a project.

1. Incompetent team (vendor): Any project calls for a project team. A good team at both ends is important. Both teams have a substantial role during a project. If key users selected at customer site for delivering process knowledge to requirement analysts (vendor), there are higher chances of wrong information driven. The key users chosen should rightly be the actual process owners not essentially be at the higher level in the organization.

2. Incompetent team (customer): A right selection of project manager and analysts is equally crucial. The team has a short duration stipulated for gathering requirement information and understanding business processes. And mind it, this is not an individual race, it is a relay race, and weakest link will decide the overall result of the project.

3. Non commitment (customer): Well the process owners are the key users, but if are not serious or have not received the right message from their management may not be seriously committed to the vendor team. A non committed team will not be able to impart right knowledge, processes, practices and information required critically for a project.

4. Non commitment (vendor): A team of good committed project manager and analysts is equally crucial for gathering information. The previous experience on business domain and success factor definitely counts in.

5. Lack of time (customer): Key users identified if are engaged in other important projects running in the organization will be always short of time for providing right information to vendor project team.

6. Inappropriate discussions: In a limited timeframe of business study, there will be limited discussions. So all discussions should be crisp, purposeful, well driven and result oriented.

7. Improper documentation: Well explained requirements if not documented properly may lead to a wrong, incomplete product. Right people with right business and process knowledge have to acquire a good documentation skill also to lead the project to right direction and grand success.

8. Top Management involvement (customer): If customer management thinks that providing key users completes their job in the project, they are wrong. Their involvement in all important meetings is as important as the business is.

9. Project Organization: A right architecture of project team is very important. The project sponsor, project directors, project managers, key users, developers, implementers, technical leads from customer and vendor respectively should be the right mix of people.

10. Change in requirements: Any change in business or process during or after the requirement study phase has to be communicated to vendor team well in time, so that by following the change management procedure, the changes are taken care of properly.

Apr 20 2009   10:05AM GMT

Role of customer project manager at customer site during implementation stage

Posted by: Jaideep
project manager, Project Management, project implementation, implementation phase, project lead, project ownership, UAT, business study, business need, software training, implementation process, implementation plan, project team, Risk Management, Risk Plan, post implementation, process owner, reconciliation, transaction entry, project sign-off, project closure, project failure, project success

The customer project manager has to take the lead and ownership of product as soon as it is launched at customer site for implementation. The UAT, training and implementation process can only be effective in case customer project team gets fully involved into each and every activity of the implementation phase. Infact the implementation plan prepared by vendor project manager should be the responsibility of customer project manager to execute.

Customer Project manager and management has to clearly understand the risks involved during the business study, implementation and post implementation phase as highlighted by the vendor Project Manager and to act thereupon to overcome those risks with suggestions from vendor project manager.

These risks could be in terms of consequences involved:

if requirements are not complete and well defined,
the involvement of users and process owners during business study, implementation, UAT, masters creation, transaction entry, reconciliation etc.,
if sign-offs not happening in time, etc.

Even if the sign-off is given and product is not put in use, there is a chance of project failure at both ends.

Mar 18 2009   10:37AM GMT

Don’t create panic when team momentum is at bottom of the graph

Posted by: Jaideep
Team momentum, Software Project, software team, implementation phase, Project Initiation phase, Project Management

Usually during the period between first project close-out and next project initiation, most of the team members of project have not much to perform except utilizing their time in non-visible activities. This could include personal web browsing, social sites, pending emails, thinking about improvisations, learning from past etc.

In an organization, management has to understand that if some of the teams of team members are sitting idle that does not mean they are useless. That means that they are undergoing revitalization phase. Surprisingly you will notice that by allowing teams/members to sleep at job when not at the peak of a project will generate an extra bounce of energy which can be utilized at the time when they jump into a project, especially when on a remote site during implementation phase. During this phase most of the team members don’t bother about time and pay their full energy into completion of project in as best possible manner as they can. And probably that energy, zeal and feeling comes from that period when they are allowed to relax.

Mar 13 2009   10:07AM GMT

7 mandates for Customer Organization on Software Project “Ownership”

Posted by: Jaideep
1. Software Project Ownership, Software Project, specifications finalization, implementation, project manager, Key users, requirement freezing, implementation phase, UAT, project close-out, project milestones, Project Management, Project Plan, business practices, Business Rules, statutory requirements, project initiation

In software project there are two key agencies involved – customer and vendor. Both have to own equal responsibility in managing, monitoring and completing it successfully. In my earlier blog I have mentioned 6 mandates for Vendor Organization on Software Project Ownership. Here I would like to highlight 7 mandates for Customer Organization on OWNERSHIP in a software project. If both these mandates are followed, there is not doubt about the success of a project.

Mandates can be as below:
1. Involvement of top management during specifications finalization and implementation is mandatory: Most of the times customer management thinks their role only in signing off the project initiation documents and after that they feel it is the responsibility of the vendor team and their organization team managed by respective project managers to run the show and make it a success. This is a wrong concept, as the top management has to play a lead role in defining their expectations and requirements during specifications finalization phase of the project. They have to keep monitoring the progress of the project in later stages too. Generally what happens is that the top management do not define their requirements and expectations during this phase and at the final stage of implementation they feel robbed off as they realise that they are getting nothing or something they did not require or expect.

2. Project Manager and Key users should be identified well in advance and should be spared from all other responsibilities during requirement freezing and implementation phase: The top management should identify the project manager and key user well in advance based on their business knowledge, process ownership and commitment towards the organization. They should also ensure that this team’s top priority is now this project where they have to define specifications of requirements, UAT, implementation, reconciliations etc. And if they are engaged in their day to day routine activity or in any other critical program, they would not be able to do the full justification to the project.

3. Management has to ensure all milestone sign-offs – like requirements study, UAT, Implementation close-out etc: The management has to ensure that they mutually identify the milestones of the project. Proper sign off after each milestone achieved, monitoring of milestones progress etc. The persons understanding the gravity and seriousness of the matter should be authorized for signing off the various stages.

4. Project Manager has to ensure about the specifications completeness and validation during requirement freezing phase. Also he has to ensure his own and the key users’ availability during the project implementation, training and UAT phase: The project manager chosen by the top management has to ensure that accurate and complete requirements being documented validated by respective process owners. Since top management can not be involved in day to day activities of the project, he, being the project manager has to raise an alarm to the top management as and when he foresees any deviation from the plan or unavailability of key persons of his team who have to define the requirements or have to vet the validity of software meeting those requirements defined.

5. Project manager has to ensure the adherence of implementation plan timeline and any non-adherence has to be escalated well in time: As said above, Project manager has to be very careful and serious in this regard, and should be empowered enough to raise the appropriate alarm to the right person at right time at any level.

6. Top management has to review the progress of the project regularly as per schedule (weekly/daily): Top management has to have a process to monitor the progress of the project. The metrics could be plan vs actual or anything. Their involvement in monitoring the progress will definitely keep everyone in the team on their toes.

7. Persons dedicated for requirement freezing should be well aware of business practices, processes and statutory requirements of their organization and country: This is very important but not critically analyzed often. The persons identified for defining the process, requirements and business rules should be well aware of the business practices and processes of their organization and any statutory requirement of their country.