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What determines a project’s success?

July 28, 2019

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Tom Korbecki presents two high-level checklists that can help you forge a path to your project’s success. How many items can you check in the succeed column?

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Why Projects Fail

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  • Lack of top management support
  1. Support for the CIO is not enough, must also have CEO and top executive support.
  2. Lack of Direction
  • Lack of ownership by the business and participation in the project
  • Unrealistic time frame
  1. Not enough time to build business process improvements
  2. Not enough time for testing
  3. Underestimating effort to test internal and external interfaces
  • Implementation budget
  1. Companies tie their hands by underfunding the efforts and/or limiting the scope through impractical project schedules.
  2. Tier 1 packages such as Oracle should be budgeted on the upper end due to the implementation complexity and the size of the company.
  • Internal resistance by either IT or the business to leave legacy software.
  1. ERP packages typically are developed around best practices. Software often fails to achieve it’s promise due to the reluctance to change by people who have a vested interest in the existing process or software.
  • Failed to capture 100% of the requirements during the discovery phase
  • Lack of training and education
  1. Underestimating this effort
  • Value of data
  1. Make sure data converted is accurate.

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Why Projects Succeed

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  • Partnership between implementers and stakeholders
  1. Both groups gain by a successful implementation
  • Adequate resources for the project
  1. No surprise that the same people who run functional area are also the ones essential for the success of the implementation.
  2. Back fill key personnel.
  • Project Management
  1. The magnitude of an ERP implementation requires an aggressive and structured project management process.
  2. Oracle project manager who understands the methodology and manages the risks of the project which impact time, quality and costs.
  • Project organization structure
  1. Quick response for decision making and issue management
  • Ensure project has a sufficient budget
  1. If budgets are not sufficient to support deadlines, project resources are under constant pressure and take shortcuts.
  2. Ultimately, morale disintegrates along with the quality of work.
  • Functional ownership of the project
  1. Sense of ownership by the business increases the chances of success
  • Project approach reflects task dependencies
  1. Project manager ensures that team does not start next task until its pre-requisite is completed successfully.
  2. Schedules are built to allow adequate time to complete a task.
  • Business process redesign
  1. Match business processes with new software
  2. Software modifications only when business processes that differentiates you in the marketplace are not supported by the software.

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