Too basic, it can almost be ignored... but shouldn’t !!

By Suren

There have been many articles, research papers and books written around the success and failure of ERP projects, and they explain in details on what to do, how to do it, what not to do and so on. However the reality is that it is only human tendency to overlook some basic ground rules which everyone knows and accepts, but somehow has been overlooked.

To keep it simple, I’ll like to breakdown the key areas by their importance in the Initiation & execution project phases, since these areas take up the biggest chunk on a project life cycle.

Initiation & Planning

• Scope verification – Freeze the base, with a wobbly base you are not going to get anywhere. Check if a document has been laid out with what are the key requirements of the business, try and define this in tangible terms and how much of it is to be covered in each phase of the project.
• Cost / Benefit Analysis – The PMO has got to do this analysis to avoid going over budget.
• Stakeholder support –Draw up a stakeholder matrix and pass it onto PMO & all key project members (Leads etc) so they are all on the same page with stakeholder’s roles, responsibilities and power.
• Supplier Responsibility Documentation – A document detailing out what the vendor is responsible for and what the client is for.
• Draw up initiatives & communicate to project members. It’s always nice to know the rewards of good work before starting on it than after.

Execution

• Supplier deliverable checks – Cross check the execution steps with the Supplier responsibility documentation.
• Resources - Always a key. Plan for contingencies and move them around. Name and list down those individuals who can fit into multiple roles and keep them happy. A few good guys can take you a long way.
• Focus on good sound business decisions / solutions – Don’t let people get carried away with developing and designing solutions that don’t make business sense but is fancy and nice to show to the higher management. 
• Communicate Deadlines – Keep project members aware of their key milestone, keep it transparent to everyone.

If you’ve been involved in project implementations for a long time the above list almost feels like second nature, but having them actually laid down on the table in a project environment is the key but in most cases a “RARITY”.