Continuing to read the Cluetrain Manifesto and finding great insight into organizations. A big clue that is mentioned is that top down organizations are dysfunctional and counterproductive. Look at the organization you are working in and determine if it is an organization where communication is open or controlled. “Do not contact that person”, “don’t send that email”, “never call anyone that is higher in the food chain “….dysfunction at its finest. People throughout the organization top to bottom often have very valuable information and much more valuable than the “control freaks”. Remember too that listening is a very important communication tool as is assimilation.

Putting down the Cluetrain and listening to the morning news brought forth another enlightening concept. A camel is a horse that was developed by committee. Any team has to have a leader and if everyone is the leader you will have a beautiful Camel. This does not mean the leader has to be “Controlling” because that is NOT true leadership. They do have to lead the team in the direction of the results expected and provide guidance and direction while listening to suggestions. It is so easy to put together a group that goes off in every direction believing that each of them are the “in charge” person. If you are building a Camel…look around and find a leader, or be one!

Going through many books during a recent move, the cluetrain manifesto surfaced. Having read it before it seemed apparent it had been saved for a reason. Reading back through the 95 theses in the beginning provides 95 reasons for a re-read. The theses apply at different times but some of my favorites include things like the org chart today is hyperlinked not the old pyramid. There are those who would like to maintain that heirarchy as it provides them with “secrets” and “power”, but it will be short lived in a hyperlinked organization.

Command and control are outdated and just enhance bereaucracy and power as well as a culture of paranoia. Don’t talk to the CEO as it will only result in TMI for them. Don’t skip levels in the heirarchy or power will be lost to your superior. Hah, and Dah, these no longer apply. Most communication failures can be traced to command and control.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but employees want access to corporate information and not just in a brochure or an annual report. Employees want to know what the strategy is, where the corporation is going, the mission and results. How do they fit in the corporate culture and how many ways are they contributing to the results.

Cluetrain points out a new kind of organizational conversation between and among workers. The conversation is making them smarter and more productive. Isn’t it time for your organization to join the conversation?

Want to see some of the latest government sites..try apps.gov, data.gov and Recovery.gov. Recovery.gov is supposed to provide information on where the stimulus dollars are being spent. Let me know if you find anything interesting.

How will the project be administered?

Projects need to have a governance model and the project team needs to understand the model and agree to work within it’s construct.

How this activity works:
By reviewing the standards of the methodology you are using.  Will it be Compass, Rational, or some similar project methodology.  Many groups are looking to Agile to implement or upgrade faster. This might be a good methodology if your technical team is also solid in understanding the functionality associated with the application.
Reporting relationships will be identified and how status reporting will take place is important to the success of your project.  Do you have a status report template so all reporitng is consistent.

Determine status reporting responsibilities
 How often will you require status reports? Daily? Weekly by team rolled up once a month by Project Manager?  Discussed at weekly meetings?
 What is the format or template that will be used for your status report?  How can you determine at a quick glance the status of the project.
 Who should receive the status reports? How will they be distributed, posted?
• Define project filing system/repository or project diary to maintain all information in a central location.
• Determine meeting schedules and format
• Determine issue resolution procedures
• Determine change request procedures
• Determine configuration management procedures
• Determine quality review procedures
 how often
 who will perform
 what will they review

Management Procedures

Objective
To determine the tools for tracking the project and how we will measure progress and budget
Overview
How this activity works:
This discussion is about the collection of input, processing and reporting of project information and what tools will be used for these activities.  Examples such as Excel, Project, Word, Powerpoint for progress presentations (standard project template, logos etc..

It begins with the your methodology standard as a “straw man”.
Additional Materials
Distribute methodology standards

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.

Planning is so critical for a project and what makes a project successful is in the way you approach the first few weeks.  I have conducted these strategy and implementation workshops in a week but the work of the team goes well beyond that.  The first few weeks, however, are what can determine success or failure for a project.  So far we have discussed how important it is to get a project right the first time, the importance of scope, and organizational impact or change.  Another important factor that needs to be addressed in the first week is how you will handle issues that arise during the project and what the process will be for resolving those issues.

If you are working with a standard implementation methodology there is probably a process for issue resolution.  If not, develop a database, excel spreadsheet or similar method for tracking issues.  It is important that you establish what an acceptable time frame is for resolution and what will be done if the issues are not resolved in a timely manner.  What are the roles involved in the resolution process, who identifies, who assigns, who tracks, how high up in the organization will you have to go to find a solution, and finally who determines if an issue is closed.

Issues should be addressed on a weekly basis at meetings.  If critical you might have a process in place to identify them on your project website, or even use twitter to get information out to your team in a timely fashion.

Of course, there is a deliverable that would be associated with this part of the workshop which would be a template for tracking issues.

So we have now addressed one more small part of what would happen in Day 2 of your implementation/upgrade workshop.

Looking forward to any additions you might provide via comments.

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.