Risk Management

Nov 6 2009   10:00AM GMT

Ten cautions in case of a self sponsored project

Posted by: Jaideep
Software Project, Project Management, Development, software development, Risk Management, risk mitigation, risk severity, project sponsor, project methodology, Project Plan

What if you have chosen to develop a product for which you don’t have a customer right now? If you perceive that by the time you complete development phase and the product will be ready to launch if will not be obsolete as per technology or concept, go ahead but take care of following cautions to be a winner in the game:

10. Technology: Ensure that you are starting with the latest technology, as even the latest technology will be a little older by the time you complete the product.

9. Concept: Ensure that you do not start building a product that has several variants already in the market. Beat the drum to give the world a new beat.

8. Keep the air in your bag: Let the concept not leak out until you are ready to launch the product. Launch it with a bang. Advertise, blog, press conference, and whatever you feel appropriate for the launch. But ensure that your team confide in you in this exercise till you are ready to shout.

7. Convince, build trust: Convince yourself that you have chosen a right path even if it is risky. Demonstrate your management about your idea and the way you want to design/ launch it. Build trust among your team in giving a real shape to your dream.

6. Risk Management: It is very essential to jot down the risks involved, and ways to mitigate them depending on their severity.

5. Incentive: Let your team know what incentive they are going to get once the product and project is successful.

4. Project Sponsor: Mostly in such type of projects your management will sponsor the project, so all risk lies inside the house. Your stake is quite high in such projects. Equally important is the success of such projects.

3. Project Methodology: Adopt the right methodology and adhere to its requirements.

2. Project Plan: Ensure that such projects cannot tolerate much deviation in terms of time or money. Since in such projects all risk is yours, don’t let it increase at any cost.

1. Definition of successful project: Building a beautiful product in this case is of not any use if there is no buyer at the time of launch. Your total investment in the project can return only if you are able to find out a buyer.

Jun 1 2009   9:00AM GMT

Ten Components of a post implementation review

Posted by: Jaideep
post implementation review, software business, Software Project, software project management, software implementation, project effectiveness, product usefulness, product maturity, product friendliness, risk perception, Risk Management, key user management, product acceptance, project requirements, product development, product building, team management, project implementation process

What is post implementation review? When it should be done? Why is it required? All this has been discussed in last three posts. Let us now understand what ideally would be the components of a post implementation review. As discussed earlier, some components can be answered immediately at the completion of a project with a formal closure. But for answering some other components, customer needs some time for project to run in the absence of project team, experience it, feel it, see the user’s reaction on the way things are happening in the product when it is in use.

Infact before filling the post implementation review, it is advisable to use the software at its maxima, as extensively as possible, involving all key user’s areas, using all inflow and outflow procedures. The basic guidelines required while filling a post implementation review can be take up in my next post. Let us also understand that this questionnaire has to be quite elaborative and descriptive. Let us first understand the essential components of Post Implementation Review for a software project. The questions can be built as per the need of the vendor and product. The essential components to be covered are:
1. Effectiveness of the Project Team
2. Effectiveness of Customer management in managing Product understanding and implementation
3. Effectiveness of Customer management in understanding the requirements, building the product, selecting the right team and procedure
4. Change management during the complete cycle
5. Issues management
6. Preparedness of key users and management for accepting the product
7. Communication skills and management of vendor team and management
8. Risk perception, risk management
9. Product effectiveness, usefulness, maturity and friendliness
10. Customer management eagerness for future business to the same vendor

These are the core components based on which the elaborative questionnaire can be build to assess customer satisfaction over the product, vendor and team.

May 8 2009   10:09AM GMT

Change Management in terms of people – how to manage during a project

Posted by: Jaideep
change management, Project Management, Software Project, Risk Plan, Risk Management, risk mitigation, manpower management, Project Lifecycle, project stages, project guidelines

Although it can not be avoided in real life scenario and that is why there is a risk plan and risk management to avoid such circumstances. But still a lot can be done to atleast minimize the risk and thereby mitigation.

Vendor - Management has to ensure the bare minimum changes (preferably NO CHANGES) in terms of project manager and team members during the project lifecycle.
They also have to ensure that the project is handled in such a manner that any change(s) happening therein will not affect or delay any of the stage.

Customer - Management has to ensure the bare minimum changes (preferably NO CHANGES) in terms of project manager and key users during the project lifecycle.
They also have to ensure to adhere to the guidelines specified by vendor project manager to manage such change(s) so that it does not affect or delay the project during any stage of the project.

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.

Apr 17 2009   10:03AM GMT

Role of vendor project manager at customer site during implementation stage

Posted by: Jaideep
project manager, software implementation, project implementation, Project Management, project team, project lead, Risk Management, Risk Plan, implementation plan

The vendor project manager has to work as a consultant to the customer project manager rather than taking the full command at customer site during implementation phase. From vendor side, it is the responsibility of the project manager to highlight the risks (in terms of user’s availability, user’s understanding level, or about the product usage) to his and customer management and a plan to overcome those risks. He also has to ensure that the solution provided is in line with the business needs.

He has to make the customer management totally convinced that it is their product which they have to use in real life scenario and hence they have to be fully confident in that. The vendor management has to be with him all the time for this.

Apr 6 2009   10:29AM GMT

Six facts about software application risks

Posted by: Jaideep
SDLC, software project management, Risk lifecycle, Risk Management, risk identification, risk assessment, risk impact, impact analysis, countermeasure, fool-proofing, risk severity, Project Lifecycle, Software application

Similar to SDLC (software development lifecycle management), there is RLC or Risk lifecycle management in a software application in which there are different stages involved. The different stages could be risk identification, risk assessment, impact analysis, countermeasure identification, countermeasure assessment, risk plan etc. There are certain facts about Risk:

1. All Risks identified or perceived in a software application do not necessarily happen in real application usage scenario: This is a proven fact that all risks identified or perceived from an application during its pre-launch stage do not happen during post launch real-life usage stage. Some risks perceived may not happen ever. And some unidentified risks may appear later. Whatever is the case, it is always good to identify the risks that may occur during its usage, the more realistic the better. It is not important that they happen in real scenario, more important is to plan how to cope up if at all they happen.
2. All risks have an impact: All risks have an impact – large, medium or small, but they have. It is the impact that makes its severity high, medium or low and accordingly a plan is prepared to handle the risk, when it happens.
3. Same risk in different circumstances will have different impact: The same risk will vary in terms of its severity under different circumstances of usage, user base, geographic location, type of application etc.
4. No application is 100% risk free, whatsoever countermeasures are taken for it, and only thing that gets done with the countermeasures is lowering of risk: A risk plan to countermeasure a risk never fool-proofs a risk’s impact, only it helps in lowering its impact to a certain level.
5. Risk Impact Cost vs. Countermeasure cost: It is very important to have an analysis of both before deciding on the plan. Some risk may be very severe but its countermeasure cost could be unaffordable.
6. The biggest risk in any application is identification of wrong risks, impact, and plan: Identification of wrong risk with right estimation of impact and countermeasure is useless. Equally useless is identification of right risk with wrong impact analysis (thereby underestimating or overestimating the impact) and arriving at a wrong countermeasure. Right risk identification with right impact analysis but with wrong countermeasure also is a waste of efforts.

Mar 4 2009   10:03AM GMT

10 top “Do this if you want blunders!” in Software Development and Software Testing

Posted by: Jaideep
software development, software testing, Project Management, Software Project, Quality Goals, software quality, SQA, SQC, product development, project documentation, organizational goals, time to test, development plan, Project Plan, Test Plan, test case, implementation plan, project close-out, top management requirements, requirements analysis, business requirements, change management, Risk Plan, Risk Management, Software Repository, Code library, Code repository, test case repository, project standards, project methodologies, software development standards, software development methodologies, test standards

1. Quality Goals are meant only for Quality Department: No department other than quality (project management, product development, documentation, general management etc.) has to read, understand and learn about the quality goals of the organization. It is only the responsibility of quality department and quality staff. So keep performing without ‘quality’ in it. After all the quality has to do its job.
2. Don’t define your quality goals: If quality goals have such a low value in the organization, don’t document it. Because even if it gets documented, it will be never read or adhered to. Why waste efforts and paper.
3. Give least time for testing: In your project development plan, keep least time between the release time and development finish time so that quality people get least time to test the product and thereby least burden to the production/development team.
4. Have a highly versatile and flexible project plan: Build a scope of huge flexibility and versatility in your project plan/ development plan/ testing plan/ implementation plan to make it a never ending project.
5. Don’t focus on customer top management requirements: Just focus on the user’s and department’s requirements while freezing customer requirements in requirements freezing stage. Discard top management in all briefings, findings and their requirements analysis at any stage. This may make you success in all stages except the final project close-off stage, which will never come in this scenario.
6. Adopt no methodology: Don’t try for any world class standards or methodologies in your project management even if you have any world class projects in hand. Be assured that both situations will go hand in hand for a long run. So no need to worry.
7. Learn the art of converting inadequate into adequate: Project in your review reports at all stages that situation is under control with an art of projecting inadequate efforts, planning etc as adequate.
8. Never change: Have a firm belief that priorities have no meaning. Keep working on your pace as per your desire. Don’t prioritize and re-prioritize anything, ever.
9. Risk: If your trust yourself, be firm that there is any risk to assess. There is no requirement of risk assessment and risk planning in your projects at any stage.
10. No Repository: Who says – there has to be a library of codes and test cases for instance? Why create a repository? You have enough time to work and re-work on anything.