Consultant “Do you have your processes documented?” Client: “Of course, let me show you the ringbinder where we keep them. I had to use them the last time we did an upgrade and they are somewhere here. Oh yes, here it is the red ringbinder in the back of the overhead on my cubicle. What? Do the executives review them…you have got to be kidding.”

Consultant: “Can you show me how they cross all the organizational boundaries? Where they start and where they end? What are the results and who is the owner of the process? Who is getting value at the end of the day?” Client: “Huh?, I just keep the binder of the visio documents, I don’t know who uses the process documentation.” And so on, and so on.

Process is not something to keep in a binder on the shelf, but something to review on an iterative basis. Do your processes remain static? Are the roles always the same, do they change? If so, how and who integrates the change into the organization to ensure it is accepted? It is important to identify the stakeholders, the change agents, the processes that change and how they change. Is the change a result of a policy change, a change in the system, a role enhancement, a performance concern either system performance or performance of an associate? There is an impact to the organization which will effect systems, people, process, procedure outcomes or results that must be addressed.

Who owns the process? The process owner is the person who gets value at the end of the day. What does that mean? It means the highest level ownership in the organization, the role that ensures that part of the organization is achieving the results expected and the results that support the organizational vision and direction. I wonder how many associates can explain how what they do will impact the direction and strategy of the organization..in fact, how many can articulate the vision or strategy of the organization?

Process is the absolute foundation of the organization and determines where any implementation or upgrade will go and whether or not it will be successful. It is the foundation for system, customizations, training, testing, and ongoing support of the organization so again I ask…where are your processes? In a binder on the shelf, or in the forefront of organizational and strategic discussions?

Objective of the Meeting
The purpose of this discussion is to provide a foundation for decisions and definition of your system and
processes during the Discovery Sessions. The discussion will center on some of your current
information and discuss ideas for the forthcoming implementation. Please participate to the best of your
ability.
There will be information and additional research that may be required following the discussion sessions.
What is needed for Process Analysis:
• Ability to conceptualize future state
• Roles: Who does what in the process
• Boundaries: Where does the process start –end.
• Pre-Post Conditions
• Rules: Regulations
What are your pain points?
Are there points in the process that could be eliminated?
Are there manual processes that you would like to have supported by the system?
What changes are you most apprehensive about in changing process?
Keep the following points in mind as we discuss process:
Points of Discussion
Base Benefits
Do you have Benefit Programs?
–What differentiates the Programs?
How many Medical Plans?
How many Dental Plans?
How many Vision Plans?
Plan Summaries, Plan Documents
Benefits
Describe your benefit types: (Examples)

• Long-Term Care

• Medical

• Legal Services

• Wellness Credit

• Vehicle

• Uniform

Base Benefits Dependents/Beneficiaries
• Child
• Employee
• FostChild
• Grandchild
• DPAdult
• Dom Partnr
• DPChild
• Other
• OthQ Dep
• Stepchild Child
• Spouse
• ExSpouse
(Provide any manuals or reference procedures if applicable)
I am sure anyone who has conducted informational/discovery sessions will have information and questions to add to this blog. Please feel free to send additions or comment.

The purpose of this document is to provide a foundation for discussion, decisions, and definition of your system This document defines the current Time and Labor business practices of the Client along with ideas for the forthcoming implementation.
Question and Answers
Time Collection Process, Time Period and Time Reporting Code
1. Do you electronically track employee time worked? If so, what technologies are used to enter time?
Internet
Intranet
Electronic Timesheets
Clocking systems (Kronos)
Swipe card (i.e. Employee Badges)
Other (please describe)
2. Do you have employees or groups of employees who record time on paper-based time sheets? If so is there a need to print new timesheets?
3. Is employee time entered centrally or is time entry decentralized?

4. Does the time collection system allow time entry for groups of employees or for one employee at a time?
5. Do you have staff, such as timekeepers, who collect and post time? Please provide details of the process of collecting time and who collects and posts time.
6. Is there a restriction on who can enter hourly employees’ time versus salaried employees’ time?
7. Can employees enter their own time?
8. Can employees inquire and view their entered work hours?
9. Is time approved? If so who approves time? What is the procedure for approving employee time? Can time be approved electronically?
10. How is time capture for both electronic and paper timecards: hours per day or punch time ins and outs or are employees paid a standard schedule and only exceptions are captured or all three depending on the employee?
11. Currently, where is time entered corrected if there is an error? At the data entry level or is it corrected in the payroll process?
12. What is the input of incremental time, such as half days for vacation, etc. currently allowed?
13. If standard hours are used, what are your employees’ standard hours?

14. If time capture differs for different employees, explain the business process on what determines how the employees’ time will be captured.
15. Can retroactive time and labor adjustments be made once a time period has ended? Describe any situations that require you to pay employees hours and/or amounts from the prior period.
16. How are new employees set up for reporting time? Please describe the business process for “enrolling” your new hires in your existing time management system.
17. What are the beginning and end days of the time period? How does this relate to the payroll cycle?
18. What are the beginning and ending times for a 24 hour period?
19. Describe all of the specific time codes that are used in recording time in the current system, including any recorded hours for unpaid time, such as Unpaid Sick, Unpaid Vacation. Does the present system track absences or tardiness?
20. What are the Public Holidays offered to the employees? Are the same Holidays offered to all employees’ or are there different Holiday Schedules for different employees.
21. If more than one Holiday Schedule, what determines which Holidays are offered to an employee?
22. What are the specific business processes that must be adhered to for time reporting, such as Education leave must have at least 1 hour keyed to a maximum of 8 per year?

23. Aside from capturing hours, do you also record data elements such as dollar amounts or units? Such as flat dollar bonus amounts or units like 30 cents per mile.

Cost Allocation, Schedules and Shifts Processes
1. Is your timekeeping system used for allocating costs? Do you define how and/or where an employee time is spent? Are there certain tasks that are grouped together? Please describe how your costs codes are structured and how they are assigned to the time reported by employees.
.
2. Does the organization use Work Orders to capture information about labor costs? How is the information used?
3. Do your employees work shifts? What are they?
4. Is an employee assigned to one shift or are they allowed to work multiple shifts? Can they work multiple shifts in a day and/or in a week?
5. How many shifts make up a workday?
6. Are shift employees paid a differential? How is the differential calculated?
7. Describe your FLSA processing requirements? What days constitute the definition of your workweek? (E.g. Mon – Fri, Sun – Sat). Are FLSA requirements union driven?
8. Do all employees work the same schedule or are they flexible work schedules? Please describe all the different schedules that employees work.

9. Are employees allowed to work several jobs in the same week? In the same day?
10. If an employee is working out of his/her job classification, is their different rate of pay and how does the timekeeper or payroll representative determine the rate of pay?
11. Are employee’s represented by Unions/Bargaining unit(s)? If so, how many Unions/bargaining units?
12. When do these unions bargain? What are the bargaining seasons?

Time Administration Processes
1. What are the time processing rules currently used today? For example: How is Overtime calculated, only hours worked or does the calculation included Vacation, Holiday etc? Is it overtime after 8 hours in a day or after 40 hours in a week? Are these rules the same for all employees or different for each class of employee? If so, please describe each rule being used.
2. Are leave balances maintained at time entry level? If so, list all types of leave that are maintained.
3. If leave balances are maintained at time entry, describe what happens when the employee’s leave requested is greater than the employee’s leave balance or are the employee’s allowed to carry a negative balance?
4. If employees work flexible schedules, are the hours paid for vacation, holiday and sick based on the flex schedules.
5. How is the entered time validated? For example, if total time entered exceeds standard hours, does the current system provide red flags for the approver to review?

6. List any reports that are used to validate this time. Please submit an example.
7. Are control totals used to reconcile employee time entry? Describe the process. Please identify and give an example of any reports used for reconciling.
8. What are the mechanisms for correcting error data? Please describe the business process for correcting data that your time collection system has invalidated.
9. Do you have any audit needs regarding who has changed or approved time?
10. What employee information is available for time entry personnel?

Compensatory Time Management Processes
1. Are Client employees allowed to report Compensatory Time (Comp Time)?
2. How is Comp Time earned? Can the accruals be recorded in the existing time collection or payroll systems?
3. How do employees take their Comp Time?
4. Are Comp Time balances maintained automatically by the existing system?
5. Are Comp Time balances adjusted at the end of the year? How is that adjusting done? Manually? Electronically?

6. Can Comp Time expire? What are the conditions under which Comp Time would be considered to have expired?
7. Can Comp Time be bought, sold or donated? How are these transactions handled?

Time and Labor Integration with Payroll, Human Resources, and Projects
1. Is the timekeeping system electronically integrated with an automated payroll system? Please describe the process of integrating the two systems.
2. Which system calculates the time rules, such as Overtime, shifts and such?
3. How often is time collected and uploaded to payroll? Do the time periods, used for capturing time, follow the payroll period?
4. What is the current deadline that time must be entered and calculated so payroll can be processed in a timely matter
5. If time does not load to payroll, what are the procedures for investigating, rectifying, re-approving and paying for that time?
6. Describe how your Time and Attendance business process integrates with human resources and payroll? Does your existing T&A system interface electronically with your payroll and HR systems?
7. Aside from Payroll, does your current time keeping system interface to any other system (internal or external)? Such as a Project or Funds. Please list those interfaces and describe what they do.

Reporting/Outbound Data
1. Are there reports generated to balance and prove employee time entry?
2. Are time reports generated to be sent back to time originators/collectors?
3. Are time reports generated for managers to approve time?
4. Please list and describe all time reports that are generated from the current system. Please submit an example of all the reports.

Policies and Procedures
Please provide any policies and procedures manuals and desk references currently being used by your department for time management.

The purpose of this document is to provide a foundation for discussion, decisions, and definition of your system during the Discovery Sessions. This document defines the current Payroll business practices of the Client along with ideas for the forthcoming implementation. Please complete this to the best of your ability. If a question does not apply to the Client mark that question as N/A (Not Applicable). If you can’t get an answer for a question, mark that question as N/R (Needs Researching). If the question has already been answered through the Client’s internal business process review, please refer to that document. Provide a due date for submission.

Responding Contact
Department
Question and Answers
Payroll Data In Legacy
1. What is your current payroll system?
2. How many years’ worth of payroll data is there in your current system?
a.) How many employees?
b.) How many pay periods worth?
3. Do you process payroll for both active employees and retirees? If so, are they processed in their own company?
4. How many companies, departments, locations, work/tax locations, company City /County /local taxes are currently processed. Please list in detail.
5. How clean is the legacy database? Is there duplicate payroll data, inactive payroll data, etc?

6. Provide a file layout of the legacy database(s) with field names, formats and sizes.
7. Please provide lists/query reports of the following data that you have in your current system:
a.) Active earnings codes/pay codes
b.) Deduction codes/ids
8. How much history of payroll data, would the Clients need to retain in Peoplesoft? Can the data be archived as flat files and accessed by queries?
9. How do you group your employees for payroll? Are pay groups utilized for processing the payroll? Please describe all groups and any eligibility requirements for an employee to be in that group.
10. How are contract and temporary employees paid? Please describe in detail.
11. Do you have employees whose pay workdays are not equal to pay periods? An example might be true contract pay employees?
12. Do you group earnings codes so that only certain earnings are available to certain groups of employees? Please describe in detail any groupings.
13. How do you accumulate earnings or deductions for other processing?
a.) Do you have special accumulators for determining 457 earnings? Please list all special accumulators and the earnings / deductions that affect the accumulator.
b.) Do you have special pay processing/accumulators for Retirement, 403 (b), 415 etc?

14. How many different check and advice forms are currently being used? Please describe or attach a voided sample. Indicate if the form is pre-printed.
15. How many shifts are currently processed in the system? Please attach any shift schedules and explain in detail.
16. Are any tables shared between the legacy payroll systems?
17. Are payroll changes audited? If yes, explain the process.
18. Please provide copies of current procedures, process flows, forms, and system manuals.

Payroll Administration & Processing
1. Who has overall responsibility for managing the payroll process?
2. What are your pay frequencies?
3. Please describe your pay period begin and end dates for each pay frequency.
4. How are your Check Dates relative to your Pay Period End dates?
5. What is your current payroll processing schedule?
a.) Time entry cut off?
b.) Payroll processed?

c.) Checks printed?
d.) Checks distributed?
6. How many employees are:
a.) Post-paid?
b.) Paid in advance?
c.) Current paid?
7. How far in advance do you build your pay calendars?
8. How are pay-sheets created and calculated? Does payroll launch these processes online? Are they automatically launched through batch processes? If the latter – what batch process scheduler do you use?
9. Do you create off-cycle or manual checks for ad hoc payments? How many on average would be produced in a pay period? What is the manual check process?
10. How many banks and accounts are used to process payroll checks and payroll related payments?
11. Is direct deposit offered for payroll checks to all employees? If so, is prenotification required and how many days does it take for the bank to pre-note?
12. How are direct deposits transmitted, (flat file, software, internet)?
13. Is there a limit to the number of direct deposits per employee?

14. May an employee participate in direct deposit and also receive some of their pay in a physical check?
15. How are checks and advices distributed to employees?
a.) By work location?
b.) By department?
16. Provide a list of paid holidays offered to the employees. Are any employees offered a different holiday schedule? Who determines the holidays? How are they published?
17. Please explain in detail holiday pay processing for all employees.
18. Are all employees – both full and part-time employees – eligible for all holidays?
19. Are floating holidays provided to the employees? How are floating holidays assigned? Are all employees both full and part-time eligible for floating holidays?
20. Are savings bonds available to employees through payroll deductions?
a.) Can employees purchase more than one bond per pay period?
b.) Can employees deduct for different bonds by pay period?
c.) Where are the savings bond balances maintained?
d.) What form of transmittal is used to process savings bonds?
21. Do all payrolls contain both salaried and hourly employees?

22. How are exempt employees maintained?
23. Describe your time collection process for the following types of employees:
a.) Salaried exempt
b.) Exception hourly
c.) Hourly non-exempt
d.) Contractual
e.) Other
24. Do hourly employees report time on a daily basis or do they summarize their time?
25. Describe the approval process for timesheets.
26. How are final checks processed? Are they part of the current payroll cycle or are they processed manually? Describe the process.
27. How do your current systems interface with your bank?
28. Describe your check reconciliation processes.
29. How does the Payroll system interact with Human Resources and Benefits?
30. Do the systems currently share information? Is there duplication of data because the systems do not share data?

31. What third party systems does the current Payroll system interface with? (Savings Bonds, retirement funds, outsourced benefits, etc) Is the data to other systems inbound or outbound?
32. Are payroll vendors paid from the payroll system or Accounts Payable?
33. Describe your check printing process.
34. Describe your check reprint process.
35. Describe your paycheck reversal/adjustment process.
36. How are garnishments, child support, court orders, etc, processed? How are garnishments paid? Please describe in detail the garnishment process.
37. Are company fees deducted for employee garnishments?
38. Please provide a list of all garnishment vendors.
39. How are balances tracked, reconciled, maintained and adjusted? Please explain with reference to:
a.) Earnings Balances
b.) Check Balances
c.) Deduction Balances
d.) Tax Balances

e.) Garnishment Balances
f.) Accumulator Balances
40. Is there a need of balances other than calendar year?
41. Do you adhere to FLSA rules? If so, which earnings are included as:
a.) Regular
b.) Overtime
c.) Excluded from FLSA calculation?

Earnings and Deductions Processing
1. Are all earnings eligible for Retro Pay processing? If not, please list what earnings are not eligible.
2. How is Retro Pay determined? What is the process to pay?
3. Are all earnings subject to the same tax methods such as annualized or do you have some earnings that are based on supplemental tax rates?
4. Are there any earnings that are considered memo earnings that are calculated but not paid to the employee such as vehicle valuations?
5. Are all earnings subject to Federal Withholding, FICA, City /County Withholding, and Federal Unemployment Taxes? Please list all that are not subject.

6. What earnings, if any, require special calculations? Are there any earnings that are based off other earnings? Please explain the special calculations.
7. What earnings have an effect on leave accruals? Please list all earnings and describe in detail their effect on leave balances.
8. How do you handle sick payments (in house and third party)?
9. Describe the process flow for sick leave donations.
10. Describe your process for maintaining additional pay (recurring earnings)?
11. What is your process for balancing the additional pay (recurring earnings)?
12. Describe your process of handling one-time payments.
13. Are there any data entry issues that require timekeepers not to be able to select certain earnings?
14. What types of general (non-benefit) deductions do you have?
15. Do you allow partial deductions or arrears?

16. Are there times when only certain deductions are taken? Please describe your deduction schedule.
17. Describe your process of handling one time deduction overrides.
18. Are employer deductions taken at the same time the related employee deductions are taken?
19. Are medical/dental/LTD/Life Insurance deducted every pay period on the employer’s side?
20. Are there any deductions that are employer related only?
21. Are there any deductions that require any special calculations? If so, please provide the calculation requirements. For example, imputed income calculations for life insurance premiums and employer paid automobiles?
22. Describe the process for paying step up pay.
23. Does the City /County retain any percentages on fees?

Payroll and Human Resources Data
1. Are employees assigned a job code?
2. Are employees assigned to a position? Is the position within a job code?

3. Provide compensation rate tables. Discuss when these rates will change in the future. Do union contracts determine future pay rates?
4. How do you handle pay rate changes in the middle of a pay period? Do you use proration? If so, how is it calculated?
5. Are gross-up paychecks processed in the current legacy payroll system?
6. Do you have a process to calculate “what if” scenarios? Please describe the process in detail.
7. How often do you pay bonuses? Pay Rise? Who processes these payments? HR or Payroll? How is information fed to Payroll?

Accounting
1. Please describe in detail your current General Ledger interface process.
2. What determines your posting period, check or period end date?
3. Describe your payroll accrual process?

Tax Administration
1. In what City /County s and localities does your organization pay taxes?
2. Are City /County and private disability plans being used in the current system?

3. Do you have self-funded alternatives to City /County Unemployment Insurance and City /County Disability Insurance? Do you offer a Voluntary Disability Insurance plan?
4. Are fiscal and calendar year to date tax totals required?
5. Are any tax reciprocities being used in the current payroll system?
6. Do you have special requirements for Taxable Gross Definitions, where taxability for specific earnings and deduction codes are treated differently for the City /County and local level?
7. Provide the City /County and local tax formulas that are used in the current legacy payroll system. Is marital status used in determining City /County tax?
8. Does the current payroll system offer employees additional tax withholding amounts? Federal, City /County and local taxes?
9. Do any employees work in multiple City /County s? Describe how taxes are withheld for the employee.
10. How are new hires W-4 information entered into the system? How is this information maintained? What is the process to change W-4 information?
11. Do you produce W-2 and W-2c’s internally or is this function outsourced? Please describe in detail the W-2 and the W-2c process.
12. Are non W-2 personnel paid through the payroll system?

13. Do you file local, City /County and federal taxes? Are tax payments made internally or externally? What is the quarterly process? What is the yearly process? Please describe each in detail.

Payroll Reports and Inquiries
1. List and provide samples of the reports generated from the payroll system
2. What other reports do IT or other departments produce for payroll?
3. What on-line inquires are presently used?
4. Are there additional informational requirements not being currently met?
5. What are the current interfaces into your payroll systems in addition to those listed previously? Out of your payroll systems? Please list in detail.
6. What would you like to eliminate and/or change in the current Payroll process? Please be specific.

Policies and Procedures
Please provide any policies and procedure manuals and desk references currently being used by the Payroll Department.

What have you heard about PeopleSoft 9.1?

Some information that has been gathered includes some facts:

It is the third release since the acquisition

It has 1350 new features approximately

It has 28,000 or more page enhancements

It has Web 2.0 Capabilities

Approximately 300 new web services

And a large number of industry specific enhancements

Like many new releases, there is a new look and feel to the product. You still have the My Favorites area and in addition there is a recently used area on the menu.  In addition the navigation menu is only visible when pulled down.

9.1 also includes mouse over functionality on the menus.  In going through some of the changes and talking with clients one of the features they seem very happy with is the ability to use zoom grids for more working space with drag and drop, grid scrolling and column locking capability.  The grids are also sortable.

Some of the other items include an updated style sheet, a rich text editor, mouse-over pop ups as mentioned previously and an instant message capability with Yahoo and Beehive.

Some other features include out of the box role-based dashboards and reports.  The fact that it uses PeopleSoft  security is not a change.

There are some nice HR analytics dashboards including: workforce profile, Recruitment, Leave and Absence, Learning Management (a favorite mine), HR Performance, Compensation, Retention and Workforce Development.  Some of these are new and some enhanced.

So why would you want to upgrade?  Well, if you are on 8.8 you are going to have to get extended support which certainly is a financial reason to upgrade.  Others are increasing the effectiveness of your workforce by ensuring compensation rewards top performers and you have pay for performance capabilities.  Making sure that you have a strong pipeline for key talent is critical to any organization and maintaining this internally is a cost saving for recruitment.  Nine one will provide executives with the ability to make better informed decisions with metrics available.    Eliminating interfaces could reduce IT expenses and eliminating customizations during the upgrade usually results in cost savings and additional efficiency.

Some links that will provide additional information include:

http://www.oracle.com/education

Http://www.oracle.com/pls/psft/homepage

http://www.oracle.com/applications/peoplesoft-information-portal.html

If you are interested in some great decision trees, read this article from Gartner, it is packed with good information and would be helpful in deciding if you want to go to 9.1.

When customers are planning a new installation of PeopleSoft, Gartner suggest to implement version 9.0. “Gartner believes that v.9.1 will be released during 2H09, but most customers will not want to be the first to take on a new release. If you need the newest functionality right away (such as compensation management or succession management in HCM), then implement v.9.1 as soon as is practical for your organization. If you don’t need the new functionality, then implement v.9.0 until v.9.1 has more market traction and proof points, which Gartner expects within 12 to 18 months of release.”

Read the full article.

Source: Gartner (July 2009)

This year Oracle released new versions of PeopleSoft (8.50) and Applications (9.1). Will customers start upgrading to 9.1 in 2010? If customers follow Gartner they will wait. My opinion is that the evolution steps between the PeopleSoft versions aren’t that big. Loads of fixes, patches, bundles and maintenance packs from previous versions have been included in this new release. Big functional changes haven’t been made in 9.1. The risk between upgrading to 9.0 or upgrading to 9.1 isn’t that big. If your customers are multi language users, you might want to consider the upgrade to 9.1 as it is unclear when the language pack will become available.

Do you have the Deltas?  Have you started implementing 9.1?  Add Comments or follow RSS.

Let’s talk about some of the roles that you might want to consider for your project.  Depending on the size of the project, you may or may not need all of the roles but someone will have to assume the responsibilities.

Client Executive:  The client executive is responsible for the overall relationship with the customer.  This is the role that would address and resolve issues that cannot be resolved at the  vendor level. They keep the customer aware of new products, services, and software updates as they become available.  They are also the ones who look for opportunities where they can add value to the customer’s business.

Program Manager: The Program Manager may support the Client before and after their software acquisition, especially on large complex projects.  Sometimes called the Enterprise Manager, they would be a part of the Client’s Steering committee and should help shape the project success through the use of best practice, project and business practice.

The Enterprise Manager participates on the Steering Committee, and helps drive the project through to success.  They use industry best business process and practice.  They provide advice that will minimize risk and accelerate the implementation or upgrade.  Many organizations use the engagement manager and project manager interchangeably, however, their responsibilities re significantly different.

Project Manager: The individual in this roles provides the leadership for the project team and produces the status reports, plans, budgets and formal methodology (such as CSC, Compass, Rational) and resourcing.  The Engagement Manager supports the Project Managers both client and consulting in all aspects of project planning and control, and supports the design,development and deployment of a strong quality program.  The Project Manager is responsible for the “care and feeding” of the consulting and client project team members and for supporting the client Project Manager.

Process Specialists (Functional and Technical) Functional specialists are charged with guiding the project team through those steps that require detailed applications functional knowledge and related industry best practices. This consulting-sourced role is usually a full-time member of the project team.

The Technical Specialist executes the technical steps by providing support in the design and management of databases and in tuning the system and architecture. This is a consulting sourced role working in lock step with the client role.

System Engineer The System Engineer designs and creates technology solutions in response to business requirements. They are brought into a project when the solution requires some specific knowledge in the emerging technologies. Skills include: Workflow,  Electronic Commerce; Security including OLAP, Multi-dimensional modeling, compare report decisions, eApplications and solutions to customization requests.

Education Representative This person is responsible for working with the customer to make sure they use the education resources available to them in the most effective manner. This includes executing training plans, setting up on-site classes, and making the customer aware of alternate training formats including stand up training, interactive training, webinars and other venues. It is also the responsibility of this role to have a clear understanding of the business processes used and reflect those processes in User Productivity Kit or Tutor development.

As we move through the discussion on Day 2 and looking at the project scope, constraints will be identified.  Be sure to provide your client and consulting team with examples of what might be a constraint.  A constraint is something that limits your degree of freedom.  Limited development resources might be a constraint.  Constraints might be economic, political, functional, technical and even environmental.  Be sure to document the constraints and work with the project team to ensure they are identified.

Second to constraints would be assumptions.  You make assumptions regarding many aspects of the project.  Assumptions represent opinions that have not or cannot be readily or easily proven; yet they are expected to be true.  An assumption that is often made in organizations is that the executive team is on board and giving total support to the project.  Sometimes an assumption is made that the organization has a specific requirement, only to find out in the fit/gap that the system cannot support the requirement.

So far we have covered many discussion topics in Day 2 and it is important to facilitate interaction and participation by the team.  The one week workshop packs a great deal into the first week that not only sets the stage for the project but also ensures the success of the project.  Think about the deliverables that will be produced as a result of the workshop.

More projects fail because of poor change management than probably any other factor.  People do not like change and it is important to develop a change management and communication plan.  Identify that person in your group who loves to lead the charge on change.  Then develop a group discussion on how this project will impact the organization.  Draw an organizational chart on the board and circle the stakeholders.  Look at how the project will impact end users, customers, managers, executives.  How will that change be communicated to each of those groups.

Identify the leader who will begin to develop the change plan.  How will the team be structured to complete this deliverable.  A draft should be completed by the end of the week and a group will need to work on the content and strategy for that deliverable.  You can facilitate discussion in the large group and then assign a small group to work on the deliverable.  Or you can have several groups assigned to change and communication items for the plan.  Don’t hesitate to assign homework so this is completed and ready for presentation by the end of the week.

What are some of the creative ways to communicate to the organization?  Do you want to develop a web page? a newsletter, tweet program, blog, regular program for sending emails?  Will the communication look different for each group?  Let the group help stimulate this discussion and get a feel for the culture of the organization and how it communicates.  My experience in organizations demonstrates how communication differs, a small organization may communicate only by email, others may have formal presentations and still others may have comprehensive web sites.  Stimulate the group to come up with all the venues that they think will work for their organization and then assign a small group to incorporate the ideas into the plan.

One more step in the starting week of implementation/upgrade planning.

So what should you have completed at the end of the Workshop on the first day.  A Goal of the workshop has been established and there is a solid understanding of how to implement or upgrade “right the first time”.

A template with a rough draft of some of the Charter information will be complete with time for review.  It is also important that team members understand they may have homework such as reading through draft documents and making comments or edits.

So what do you think should be included in a project charter?  I would suggest the following:

1. A mission statement for the project

2. Project Objectives and measuresments to establish when those objectives have been met.

3. A strategy for the project

4. A critical element is the Scope statement.  More projects fail from scope creep than probably any other factor.

5. An Issue Resolution methodology with initial issues identified

6. A Risk Resolution methodology with initial risks and level of risk identified.

7. The resource plan with roles, responsibilities and rules.

8. Constraints, Assumptions and a plan for next steps

9. An initial project plan at a high level which identifies critical milestones.

So at the end of the first day the team has started to develop the deliverables and resolve some of the issues that are open.  This is the time when the Project Manager should schedule a time for a presentation to the steering committee or management team.

Communication with the team and leadership is critical and the fourth day should be used for that communication with a sold presentation in place.  We have discussed the first day and what will be addressed. The timeline for the workshops may vary depending on how extensive in terms of modules and functionality the implementation or upgrade is determined to encompass.

Please make additional suggestions or comments to enhance this program.

Consultantshave called this week with questions regarding how to respond to RFP’s when they ask for specifics about conversion.  At a high level, the critical data elements are determined, mapped, converison scripts written, conversion run and tested.  So what would be each individual step?  Next time you run through conversion document the steps and post them as a comment for all of us.

The second question was around variable comp and formulas.  If you have any standard formulas that you may be using on an implementation, I know a consultant who would appreciate some help.

So what projects are back in play and what old standards continue.  I’ve heard DIMHRS is into testing and continues to continue.  Lot’s of organizations looking at upgrades to 9.0 but making a decision to move forward is often a slow process.

Please feel free to comment and watch as we add eBooks and other interesting information to the blog.