This Beyond the BC Bits blog series focuses on the non-technological factors that play a crucial role in determining the overall success of an organization’s Business Central implementation project. The goal is to highlight and provide guidance on many of the major factors that will most significantly impact your project’s success.
Part 1 of this series covered how to properly prepare for your implementation project, while Part 2 covered how to work with a Business Central partner. Future articles in this series will cover approaches to training and testing, the use of Apps and customizations, data migration and deployment, and long-term management of Business Central.
In this article, the focus is on methods used to effectively manage the Business Central implementation project, including how to define the project goals and objectives, strategies to keep your budget and timeline under control, and how to structure and utilize an escalation path to ensure all project goals are being met.
Build the Project Team
The first action to be taken when planning and managing a Business Central implementation project is to build the project team. A typical project will consist of several types of roles, each with different tasks and responsibilities throughout the project.
Leading the project team should be an Executive Sponsor. Alternative titles for this position may be Project Champion or Executive Committee if made up of more than one person. The Executive Sponsor does not need to be involved in the day-to-day tasks associated with the project but instead will maintain responsibility for any decisions required regarding the project scope, budget, and timeline. When there are issues that arise during the project that cannot be resolved by the project managers or key users, it is the Executive Sponsor that assists with making a final decision.
The Project Manager is responsible for managing all day-to-day tasks associated with the project. While this role does not need to be an expert in any one area of the business, it is fairly typical that this person has moderate level of knowledge of the business and can participate in training sessions and meetings to help make sure that decisions being made in one area of the system are in line with decisions that are being made in another area of the system. This role has the most influence on the success of the project, so this role should be decided based on who would be the best person in this role regardless of their current workload.
Key users are those members of the team who will have responsibility for defining and implementing functionality within a specific area of the system. A key user is someone who understands how the current business operates and through training can assimilate the existing processes to the new processes that will be deployed in Business Central. In a typical Business Central implementation, it is common to have one key user who oversees multiple areas of the system, such as purchasing and inventory management.
Please note that it is possible that someone who has been assigned to the project team may be removed from the team after the Project Scope has been fully defined if a decision is made that this person's knowledge and skills will not be needed.
Define the Project Scope
The project scope defines the specific functionality that will be included in the initial deployment of Business Central. The project scope also just as importantly defines what will be excluded in the initial deployment of Business Central. The entire project team should meet to define this list so that input and feedback from the entire team can be included in these decisions.
You may have noticed that the logo for this Series is an image of Crawl, Walk, Run. This is the specific place where this image is most relevant. There are many strategies for implementing new ERP solutions, but the most effective way to implement Business Central is to deploy all of the functionality that is required to replace the existing software, but not necessarily with all of the existing “bells and whistles”. Set the focus of the initial deployment to only those features and functionality that are used today and are required today to operate the business. All non-required functionality should be deployed after the initial deployment has been completed and the original project budget closed. Do not forget to include a list of all of the features and functionality that will NOT be included so that there is no misunderstanding or assumptions made by any of the team members.
Implementing Business Central “all at once” instead of only selected modules most often is the best option due to the integrated nature of Business Central and the difficulty of drawing a line at where to cut off a process and have to deal with short-term integrations to the legacy system(s).
These strategies accomplish two primary goals: they minimize the overall project risk by reduced the functionality required to complete the deployment, and they provide the greatest opportunity for meeting the project budget and timeline goals set at the start of the project.
Set the Project Meeting Schedule
Communication throughout the project is essential for a successful implementation and setting the meeting schedule and participation expectations provides the project team with notice on how this project will impact their other day-to-day activities so that they can schedule accordingly. The meeting schedule should be communicated by the Executive Sponsor of the project so that the entire team understands that there is buy-in on the project from the highest levels of the organization.
A weekly project status meeting is the ideal schedule. This meeting should be no longer than 60 minutes, it should include the project manager and all key users (not necessarily the Executive Sponsor), and a consistent agenda should be followed. The format of the meeting should start by recognizing what was completed in the past week. This is important because each Business Central implementation project is made up of hundreds or even thousands of tasks and providing recognition to tasks completed helps keep the team motivated. Next, the meeting should cover the tasks currently in progress and note any potential issues or risks associated with them. Finally, the project should cover what is planned for the following week (or two).
A monthly executive project status meeting should also be scheduled. This may convert to a bi-weekly meeting as the go-live date approaches. The purpose of this meeting is to communicate the status of the projects to the Executive Sponsor and make any decisions regarding project scope, budget, or timeline. The best way to plan for this meeting is to prepare a 1-2 page executive project status report that can be delivered to all meeting participants prior to the meeting so that the meeting time can be reserved for follow-ups and decision making regarding any open issues.
There are two additional meetings that are common and recommended as part of any Business Central implementation project. The first is a project kick-off meeting at the start of the project to communicate the importance and goals of the project and set the expectations for all of the team members on each of their roles and responsibilities throughout the project. The second is a project close-out meeting to officially recognize that the project is completed. It is unfortunate that this meeting is often overlooked because the entire team has worked very hard at getting the project completed successfully and their efforts should be recognized and rewarded.
Communicate Project Risks Early and Often
Every single Business Central implementation project carries risk. If you have not listed the potential risks at the start of your project, then you have not thought hard enough yet. The key to project management is not to eliminate all potential risks, but to properly plan for them. The primary way this is done is by formally acknowledging each risk, communicating it to the entire project team, and then tracking the progress made in each risk area.
Risks may appear after the project has started. These risks should be communicated as soon as possible so that plans can be put in place to address them. Seldom does it occur that a new risk somehow ends up going away on its own. Instead, these new risks most often grow and get worse the longer the risk is not acknowledged and addressed.
One of the responsibilities of the Executive Sponsor is to serve as an escalation path for project risks that may be noticed by a project team member. If for some reason the team member is not comfortable with communicating the risk to the Project Manager (or perhaps the Project Manager is the source of the risk!), then the risk can be brought to the attention of the Executive Sponsor to handle.
With each decision that is made throughout the project regarding functionality to be included, the question “Does this add any risk to the project?” should be asked and whenever possible any tasks that add risk should be moved to after the initial go-live deployment date. These can be difficult decisions, but when the goal is to meet a specific budget or timeline, these difficult decisions are the ones that will ultimately decide if these goals are met. Maintain focus on getting Business Central up-and-running, then celebrate your victory throughout the organization, and then work on optimizing Business Central for tomorrow!
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