In the 15 years I have been in the software business and the over 20 years I have been implementing systems, it never ceases to amaze me at the number of implementation plans I review that I instantly know will fail. A plan for success is simply the right balance of scope, resources and time. Revolutionary, I know. We’ve only heard that a million times before.
However, I can equate it to a story my son shared with me. My son, Gerald, was a pole vaulter in High School, jumping 15 feet, which put him in the top 3 in the county. A few of his track teammates would tease him about how easy pole vaulting was and anyone could do it. So he handed the pole to one of the guys, Jeremy, who was boasting about his ability to do any track event without any coaching. Jeremy knew it all and was athletic and he was convinced that he could vault as good as Gerald. Jeremy took the pole and just started running down the runway and attempted to plant the pole in the box and launch himself in the air. When the pole bent, it slammed him right back down on the ground. He never got more than a few inches off the ground and was stunned by how hard the pole flicked him back on the ground. Jeremy returned the pole to Gerald and simply said "You the man. That’s way harder than it looks." He walked away quietly. He became one of Gerald’s greatest fans at the meets.
So why do we approach a project implementation in the same way? Without a good plan that has realistic goals, objectives and defined scoped, along with the right skilled resources planned along an achievable timeline, the project will fail. Here’s the secret sauce:
Success Plan = Realistic Scope + right skilled resources + achievable timeline
Defining a realistic scope should be something achievable within 30 to 60 days. A good plan requires planning with the right people in the discussion. Begin with the high level goals (company, annual, quarterly, etc). Align the project to one of these goals. Then further define the goals and objectives of the project that will directly contribute to the high level goal you tied the project to. Define the requirements needed to achieve the goals and objectives. Simple and small is always the way to get to a full scale implementation. Phase the scope into short time cycles (30 to 60 days) so that achievements are delivered as value to the business on an on-going basis. If you start simple, you can always add additional capabilities or complexity.
The next step is to evaluate the resources needed to deliver the requirements. This must be the right resource not just anyone who is available. Make sure the resources defined for the delivery of the project really do have the right skill set to deliver on the requirements. If the resource skillset required doesn’t exist in house, then look to outsource or bring in the skills needed. There are many reasonably priced outside resources that can be used to deliver on key elements of a project if managed properly. When defining the resource pool, make sure to use available work days for those resources (take out PTO and training courses). Then evaluate what other tasks or projects they are assigned to and determine capacity for realistic available dates of the resources.
The next step is to review the timeline. Just like a good forecast, it is best to create your preliminary project plan with the main elements required to deliver, following a proven methodology of stages (i.e. plan, design, build, test, deploy) and see what it is going to look like. Apply the resources you have identified with the available capacity you have defined. This should give you a preliminary timeline of delivery.
Finally, once you have a preliminary plan that has the scope defined, the right resources assigned that produces a first draft of the timeline, review this plan from a realistic approach. Analyze eachs stage of the plan and ask questions (i.e. The plan shows it will take 2 weeks to install and setup the solution, does that make sense if you know it takes only a day to do this? or if the plan shows it will take 6 months to complete, can you review your requirements and move some planned deliverables to the next phase?) Don’t be afraid to change your scope right up front. If the plan seems like it is too heavy and complex to deliver in a 30 to 60 day cycle, cut the scope to something more reasonable and attainable. Find the number one or two pain points that can make a difference in the group or organization quickly and focus on delivering that one element.
Make the plan simple, concise and achievable in 30 to 60 days or less. Anything more will fall into the 75% of projects fail bucket. I am a believer in 100% of projects can succeed with a realistic plan defined with the right scope, resources and timeline. Look for more indepth discussions on each of these secret sauce elements in the near term.
