Association for Development, Advancement and Productivity through Technology Training (ADAPT)

March 2004: Working “Upstream” to Ensure Project Success

Our March meeting was well attended. It was our first meeting this year where we surpassed double-digits for new faces in the crowd!

Our thanks go to…Tim Ross for coordinating the event, Massachusetts Hospital Association for hosting our meeting, and our presenter Tim Koehler, Director of Program Management, Siebel University. Tim shared with us, several suggestions for ensuring project success. Here are a few tips we discussed that you can implement immediately.

How does an organization align project deployment to business objectives?

Establish Business Imperative

Why is change critical to company success and what benefits will be achieved?
Determine Tactical Focus & Expectations

Which tasks are to be enabled by the system? What are the user
expectations necessary to achieve a measurable business result?

Communicate Expectations

How do you promote two-way dialogue among managers and contributors about the business
imperative justifying change?

Manage to Desired Performance

Will use of the information within the application assess performance and improve user effectiveness?

Here are Five Key Action Items to Ensure Your Projects are “Aligned”:

Work with your business partners to establish a clear business
imperative for changing the job performance model that is linked to current business reality.

Define an ideal “usage model” for primary job user groups that would generate business benefits consistent with the business case.

Actively engage and support executives and managers to lead the change process and reinforce the desired model.

Objectively gather qualitative and quantitative data to understand current use of technical tools and sales/service methodologies and the root causes of execution gaps.

Build a training curriculum and delivery strategy that better integrates new processes, methodologies, behaviors, and technical tools.