Paramount to a successful project:
- Communication
- Each owner understanding what is expected of them
- Communicating the interrelationship between tasks
Be sure to create and manage a project plan for system selection. Project plans are not just for system implementation. How well you plan for and execute the system selection process will be a tell-tale sign of how well system implementation will be planned and executed.
Whether you use an on-line project management tool or create a project plan in Excel, these are the highlights of any project plan.
- Project charter
- Tasks, owner, milestones, project start & end date with actual start & end date
- Dependencies, those tasks that have to be done before another can be started
- Appoint one person responsible for managing the plan; this entails:
- Updating the plan with each task completion, delay, addition
- Staying on top of the plan (managing the plan) by contacting each person as their task is due
- Send email alerts when a due date is approaching or past
- The person appointed to manage the plan needs to have the authority to contact each owner
- Each owner needs to accept that the person managing the plan will be contacting them with the end goal of keeping the project on schedule
- Have at least weekly internal meetings either on-line and/or teleconference to keep each owner accountable
- At these meetings readjust the plan as needed
- with the plan attach each meeting’s minutes so all will know what caused delays and how they impact the plan
- the person responsible must have the authority and ability to contact multiple vendors that may be involved to keep them accountable
- celebrate milestone successes throughout the project
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