Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation

Being Agile will increase the likelihood of success.

Table of contents

Executive Brief

Execute the Project/DIY Guide

1. Assess
   • 1.1. Establish Your Starting Point
   • 1.2. Governance Structure
   • 1.3. Define Your Metrics
2. Prepare
   • 2.1. Establish Your backlog
   • 2.2. Build Your Teams
   • 2.3. Assess Readiness
3. Govern and Course Correct
   • 3.1. Govern and Manage
   • 3.2. Transition

Insight Summary

Appendices

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Are you ready to enable your people to do their best work?

“When you read “govern and manage” the tendency is to think of “command and control”; however, research shows that traditional project methods lead to high failure rates. If you reframe it as an agile conversation about “providing oversight and course correcting” then you enable people to do their best work and achieve better results.” (Robert Fayle, Director ‒ Research, Enterprise Applications, Info-Tech Research Group)

Our understanding of the problem

This Research is Designed For:

• Applications leaders implementing a new enterprise product.
• Project managers looking for a better way to deliver successful implementations.

This Research Will Help You:

• Improve the likelihood of a successful implementation by surfacing problems sooner and getting regular, early feedback from stakeholders.
• Define metrics that are leading indicators of success or failure and deliver on the anticipated business value.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• The governance committee providing oversight.
• The frontline leaders tasked with executing the implementation.
• Business stakeholders.

This Research Will Help Them:

• Understand their role as facilitators not controllers.
• Provide an overview of the overall project and the roles of all involved.
• Determine how the requirements break down to execution tasks.

Executive summary

Situation

• Implementing enterprise software is hard. Research shows that 17% of IT projects go so badly that they threaten the existence of the company (Bloch, 2012). You need a framework that will greatly improve your chance of success.
• Traditional Waterfall project implementations have demonstrated a low success rate for on-time, on-budget delivery.

Complication

• Agility outside of software development is still in its infancy. The knowledge to apply it to business processes is lacking.
• Your best process experts are the same people you need to keep the business running. The business cannot afford to have its best people pulled into the implementation for long periods of time.

Resolution

• Leverage the best practices of project management, traditional and Agile, to deliver value to the business sooner.
• Follow our iterative methodology with a task list focused on the business must-have functionality to achieve rapid execution and to allow staff to return to their daily work sooner.
• Engage users and receive timely feedback through the use of timely demonstrations of work completed.
• Govern and manage the vendor partner relationship to leverage their expertise.

Info-Tech Insight

1. Agility is not absolute.
   Being Agile means using various techniques to get the right work done right. Sometimes that means traditional Waterfall techniques are the right answer.
2. Iterations allow for course correction.
   Short planning and execution cycles allow for better course correction. It’s far easier to recover from being fifty percent off on a week-long estimate than one that is four weeks.

Understand the benefits provided by Agile and the requirements for successful implementation

The effectiveness of your delivery method will depend on how integrated you are with the business and how disciplined you are in the execution of the method.

“Is the path you are choosing going to get you where you want?” (Diana Larsen, author and co-founder of the Agile Fluency Project)

Project success – Agile versus Traditional (including Ad Hoc)

IT Project Success Rates

(Source: Ambysoft, 2018)

17% of projects with budgets greater than 15 million fail to the point of threatening the existence of the company. (Source: McKinsey & Company, 2012)

Info-Tech Insight

Aim for the highest level of integration with the business and the discipline to execute to increase your chances of success.

Agile at work

CASE STUDY

Industry: Construction
Source: IBM Corporation, 2019

Challenge

CTE, which sells, rents, and services construction and industrial machinery, had its financial data siloed in three separate legacy systems.

Data analysis meant manual processes to extract, collate, and validate the necessary data. This time and cost-intensive process hampered CTE’s plans for the utilization of customer-centered information.

Solution

CTE chose SAP S/4HANA in the cloud with IBM Services as the system implementer (SI). The project required collaboration across a significant cross-section of CTE employees.

Working in three-week sprints using IBM’s Ascend methodology (powered by SAP’s Activate), CTE received the first proof of concept within ten days of project launch.

Results

IBM was able to deliver a live solution in eight months. CTE was able to recover the time on data reconciliation while relying on validated data from a single source to examine its customers’ spend patterns.

The implementation plan – follow the Info-Tech path

1. Use Agile techniques such as a backlog for the work items, focusing on the must-have items (i.e. 40% of the backlog).
2. Use iterations to accomplish work, which sets the implementation up for success.
3. Once all the must-have requirements have been implemented, the business has the choice of launching the enterprise software.
4. Post launch the teams can continue in the same cadence delivering additional functionality ad infinitum.

Related Info-Tech research

Build a Better Backlog
The quality of your product backlog is key to realizing the benefits of Agile.

Implement Agile Practices That Work
Guide your organization through its Agile transformation journey.

Create a Plan for Establishing a Business-Aligned Data Management Practice
Guide your organization through its Agile transformation journey.

Enable Shared Insights With an Effective Data Governance Engine
Empower data-driven decisions for operational excellence.

Use this icon to help direct you as you navigate this research

Use this icon to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation – project overview

	1. Assess	2. Prepare	3. Govern and Course Correct
Best-Practice Toolkit	1.1 Establish Your Starting Point 1.2 Governance Structure 1.3 Define Your Metrics	2.1 Establish Your Backlog 2.2 Build Your Teams 2.3 Assess Readiness	3.1 Govern and Manage 3.2 Transition
Guided Implementations	Scoping call: discuss preparations that led to implementation. Discuss governance and the importance of stakeholder engagement. Discuss organizational goals, success metrics, and project metrics.	Discuss how to take your requirements and build a prioritized list of tasks. Talk about the teams needed to accomplish the project and the impact of changing members. Discuss the implementation plan and the readiness of the teams to execute.	Discussion of dashboards and backlog review criteria. Disaster preparation through the use of scenario planning and the creation of a checklist of transition to operation criteria.
Onsite Workshop	Module 1: Set Strategic Expectations and Realistic Goals	Module 2: Prepare Your Teams and Requirements for Execution	Module 3: Govern and Course Correct the Implementation and Prepare for the Transition of Operation
	Phase 1 Outcome: Established goals, objectives, metrics, and structure for governing the project.	Phase 2 Outcome: Teams and prioritized task list ready for implementation.	Phase 3 Outcome: Successful implementation and transition to operation.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Phase 1: Assess

Phase 1 outline

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Assess

Proposed Time to Completion: 3 weeks

Step 1.1: Establish Your Starting Point

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Explicitly define your business objectives.
• Identify the key stakeholders.
• Establish your success criteria.

This step involves the following participants:

• Executives
• Delivery lead
• Stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• Goals and objectives of the project.
• Table of key stakeholders.
• Key success metrics.

Glossary of terms

Project management practices, and in particular Agile practices, have a language all their own. The following list is not exhaustive, but it is intended to help everyone agree on the meaning of certain terms.

• Product Backlog Item (PBI) – A requirement that has been added to the list of work to complete.
• System Integrator (SI) – The vendor/partner assisting with the installation and set up of the enterprise software.
• Iteration (or sprint) – A time-boxed period of work during which tasks are worked on to completion. No task should take longer than the defined period.
• Iteration (or sprint) Team – A cross-functional team that works together for one or more iterations to complete PBIs.
• Scrum Master (SM) – The scrum master is a facilitator who helps iteration teams overcome road blocks.
• Epic – A very high-level requirement that may represent a module of the proposed system or an end-to-end business process (e.g. accounts payable [module] or procure to pay [end-to-end business process]).
• User Story – A business requirement identified during the selection process.
• Delivery Lead – We will use this role as a generic placeholder. In your organization this may be a project manager, an Agile coach, product manager, or some other role.
• (Delivery) Team – To avoid project or Agile connotations we will refer to any and all teams by the generic “Team.” If there is a specific team referenced then it will be noted, e.g. operations team.
• Subject Matter Expert (SME) – Business and technical leaders who have specialized knowledge needed by the project team, e.g. enterprise architect.
• Product Owner – This role is the business owner of the backlog. This role can be fulfilled by the delivery lead, a dedicated product owner, or some other role.
• Agile Coach – An Agile coach is someone with broad experience implementing and running Agile processes.

Info-Tech Insight

Create your own glossary of terms that is accessible to the entire enterprise. This will ensure everyone has a common understanding of terms used.

A successful software implementation provides more than immediate business value; it can build competitive advantage

When software projects fail, they can jeopardize an organization’s financial standing and reputation, and in some severe cases can bring the company down altogether.

Rarely do projects fail for a singular reason, but by understanding the pitfalls, developing a risk mitigation plan, closely monitoring risks, and self-evaluating against where you should be during critical milestones, you can increase the probability of delivering on time, on budget, and per the intended benefits.

Benefits are not limited to just delivering on time. Some others include:

• Building organizational delivery competence and overall agility.
• The opportunity to start an inventory of best-practices, eventually building them into a center of excellence.
• Developing a competitive advantage by maximizing software value and continuously transforming the business.
• An opportunity to develop a competent pool of staff capable of executing on projects and managing organizational change.

Exercise: Review your goals and objectives for the implementation

1.1.1 – 30 minutes

INPUT: Business strategy, Business vision

OUTPUT: Record results in section one of the Governance Model Charter Template

Materials: Whiteboard, Markers

Participants: Executives, Delivery lead, Stakeholders

The aim of this exercise is to affirm/develop strategic requirements for the application. Record the results in section one of the Governance Model Charter Template. To assist in forming your goals, answer the following questions:

• What are the major coverage points?
• Who will be using the systems?
• How will different users interact with the systems?
• What are the objectives that need to be addressed?
• Where do we start?
• Where do we draw the line?

Sample

Info-Tech Insight

By including the goals and objectives in the Governance Model Charter Template, the project team is reminded that the focus is the business value delivered not the technology.

Understand how to navigate the complex web of stakeholders

Identify which stakeholders to include and what their level of involvement should be during requirements elicitation based on relevant topic expertise.

Large-scale projects require the involvement of many stakeholders from all corners and levels of the organization, including project sponsors, IT, end users, and business stakeholders. Consider the influence and interest of stakeholders in contributing to the requirements elicitation process and involve them accordingly.

EXAMPLE: Stakeholder involvement