Technology Management

As independent advisors, we can examine your

situation and look for key success factors.

As projects become more complex and resources tighter, it is important to have the right skills and time as they are required. We provide skilled resources dedicated to your success.

We have a proven record in implementation management to bring your people together and get things up and running.

If you have the people, skills and time, but want an outside check on whether the team has the tools to move ahead, we can help with a "readiness assessment". This spot check can come at the beginning or in the middle of a project.

In cases where a project has major implications and you need third party monitoring and advice for non technical executives and Boards, our quality assurance provides guidance and support throughout the project.

Implementation Management

The situation
The objectives are set and the products are selected; now you need to bring it together and build a working system. You want to know that the project will meet its time lines, and that you are in control once work is under way.

The issue
Technology projects often require teams of people with a variety of skill sets to bring together the technology, data and business processes that make up a working system. If you don't implement systems continually, you may not have the skills on hand or dedicated time available to give the project the attention it requires.

You want these skills already trained and experienced, only for the duration of the project

.How we can help
We have skilled and experienced staff to get your system up and running. Our team will help you:

Build a realistic plan that's understood and accepted by those involved
Identify resource requirements and skill sets
Manage the work
Report on progress
Identify problems and solutions (in time to fix them!)

At the end of the project we'll conduct a brief hand over session so you understand exactly "where you're at" and who is responsible for which tasks to support the system on an ongoing basis.

Readiness assessment

The situation
Projects bring several groups together for a common purpose. In most cases, the team has never worked together before and the technology is new to most of them. Everyone will be on a steep learning curve that blends business processes, reporting relationships and technology.

With time at a premium there’s no room to start off on the wrong foot; you want to know everything is in place and ready to go.

The issue
As projects come together, it’s often hard to gauge the true state of affairs, and the people working on the project may not be the best source of information. Who among them will risk appearing negative? Who has the range of skills and experience to look at the big picture?

What you want is a fair assessment of strengths and weaknesses to improve your chances of success.

How we can help
As independent advisors, we can examine your situation and look for key success factors. We meet with you and the team to look at:

Management and expectations.
Skills gaps.
Technology gaps.

We use our external perspective to validate what we hear. We can have confidential discussions with team members to find out if they really understand what’s happening, and if they’re comfortable. The point of readiness assessments is to correct weaknesses, not to place blame.

When we’re finished you will have a solid understanding of:

What you need to move ahead.
Your relative strengths and weaknesses.
Suggestions to improve the projects chances of success.

Time requirements
Readiness assessments take from one to three days, depending on the project’s complexity and the number of validation interviews.

Quality assurance
The situation
There are no problem free projects, but there are many projects where small problems are ignored until they become large and very visible. Project QA is intended to support internal project managers during the start up phase and then monitor progress to completion. This service should be of interest to:

Internal project managers wanting independent support.
Project sponsors that recognize the value of independent validation.

The issue
Organizations frequently want the costs and personal commitment associated with using internal staff as project managers. The downside of this approach can be that:

Internal staff frequently lack project management experience and may not be well positioned to make the best business judgments. This is especially important early in the project when resources and deliverable expectations are being set.
Project teams are encouraged to develop supportive interpersonal relationships to work effectively under the heavy workload and high stress common to major initiatives. This can have drawbacks, however, because it also encourages “positive” progress reporting. Problems that should be escalated are not, either because they are not recognized or because the team feels they may jeopardize executive support.

How we can help
Our consultants help the team and the sponsors to develop realistic expectations as the project gets under way. We provide a third party perspective to help sort the big issues out from the small.

During start up we work with the internal project manager to:

Finalize a work plan with reasonable task descriptions, resource assignments and dates.
Design an effective monitoring methodology to track progress with a minimum of overhead.
Ensure effective recording, prioritization and tracking of problems and questions (“issues list”).

When the project is under way we:

Monitor the reports and issue lists to spot problems and suggest solutions.
Meet periodically (usually monthly) with the team managers to review results.
Report to the executive sponsor.

Time requirements
Start up support usually takes from 5 to 10 days, depending on the complexity of the project and the skills available internally to design plans and reporting structures. Monitoring ranges from one to two days per month for the term of the project.