Software and hardware implementations fail for variety of reasons, including lack of top management commitment, unrealistic expectations, poor requirements definition, improper package selection, gaps between software and business requirements, inadequate resources, unrealistic budgets and schedules, poor project management, lack of project management methodology, underestimating the impact of change, lack of training and education, and-—last but not least-—poor communication.
With such a laundry list of failure factors, improving the odds of software implementation success seems impossible, but it can be accomplished. It begins with a blueprint of strategic project assurance at critical points in the implementation. Such a project assurance blueprint establishes a clear understanding of expectations among all people involved—from business and IT management to vendor partners and end users.
At the leadership level, you need to develop an executive dialog that allows business and organizational issues to be identified and analyzed with clarity and without emotion.
Identify, align and continuously monitor work streams to ensure smooth progress throughout the organization. Understand dependencies between work streams during project plan development to ensure proper resource allocations and project time frames.
Contrary to popular opinion, green may actually be red. Realistic monitoring and analysis of the implementation’s progress can show that even though all project management indicators are green, warning signs indicate endangered components.
Critical to maintaining control of the project, you need to manage the confluence of overly optimistic go-live dates against outside influences and interdependencies, such as available resources and realistic expectations.
Assessments conducted by an outside expert add both value to the project implementation and protection against the high cost of failure. Expertise delivers the know-how and the objective oversight needed to overcome organizational roadblocks. It also provides you with peace of mind. Assessments should be conducted by an executive project manager or software implementation expert who has managed enough projects successfully to know how to recognize subtle indicators, intervene to accommodate the situation, and adjust expectations accordingly.