AVOID PITFALLS... Great Projects Have Great SUCCESS Plans!

Key points to keep in mind when creating your project's SUCCESS plan:

• #Strategy - Leverage proven methodologies and create a concise plan of action that encompasses the project's goals and value. Select the right people to represent the key business areas impacted by the changes and make sure they are a part of or closely tied to the project team. Aligning a detailed change management plan with the project plan will allow you to be proactive when addressing issues that may adversely impact the project. All this and more will help achieve your project's desired outcomes.

• #Unity - Start from the top... It is so important that the top leaders of your organization are united on the same vision, goals, and value of the project. Maintain organizational awareness with frequent communication of the project’s goals and progress. Lead sponsors must support the teams involved and ensure that the impacted users are being heard and brought along the journey via project updates and two-way communication. This increases the chance of a successful adoption.

• #Process - Refine or re-engineer outdated processes... and get rid of the ones that do not provide value. Define clearly, the roles and responsibilities of the processes. Relevant and clearly defined processes enable better decision making, better accountability, and better chances of achieving the intended objectives.

• #Technology - Understanding the key business requirements allows better prioritization of the appropriate enhancements and upgrades to systems. Software with the right functionalities will save critical work energy. Automating tedious tasks, allows teams to focus their time and expertise on decisions that drives the process forward.

• #Efficiency - No one likes busy work... Re-evaluate your current standard operating procedures and business processes. Eliminate the steps/tasks/tools that don't provide relevant value. Operational efficiencies across all areas achieve greater results and reduce waste, time and money.

• #Measure - Performance measurement from reliable data, provides visibility to the effectiveness and efficiency of your processes, resources and the work time used to conduct the activities to meet the desired outcomes. Monitoring performance along the way provides the opportunity to make tweaks where necessary to support continuous improvement.

• #Adjust - As you go through the journey there will be areas that you identify that will require some adjustments...that is normal. Lessons learned should be considered when making value add changes while keeping the process moving forward.