Project Times

Tom Salvon

Article 1: From the Sponsor's Desk - Focus on Value, Not Budget

Drew Davidson May 22, 2013

Summary

The Situation o Retail company has difficulties matching supply to demand o Stores often had inadequate stock o Lacking sufficient information to manage ordering/shipping/sales

The Goal o Marketing and Distribution VP's proposed phase-in plan to CEO/other
o o
executives Development of new inventory control system $6 million, 24 month, store-by-store (improve process each time)

Summary
The Project

VP Warehousing
o Include warehouse operations in inventory system interface

CIO
o Determine tech needed for inventory system o Hire contract PM with POS and inventory system experience

Project Manager
o Compose RFP and gather potential vendors o Once vendor list was narrowed down, PM sent out RFQ to short-listed vendors o Chose to use the MuSCoW approach to maintain scope constraints Must, Should, Could, Would Winning vendor estimates came in well under budget AND offered a wide
array of extra features

Stakeholders wanted to add more features due to being under budget

Summary

The Results o Delivered first implementation to the pilot store o Ran full inventory and compared to existing inventory totals, marked
o
improvement in inventory accuracy Glitches in pilot run:

i. ii. iii.
o i. ii. iii.

Performance issues bridging POS system and new inventory system

Initial reporting offerings didn't satisfy store and product managers Old manual processes for syncing sales campaigns, requisitioning, etc. failed with the new system Tuning the bridging process resolved issues. No additional cost. Added in an ad hoc query component (originally a rated "Would") for added analytical capabilities. Added approximately $450,000 to budget Added automated processes for streamlining/improved accuracy. Added approximately $330,000 to budget

Solutions and added costs:

Aftermath

"Cookie-cutter" system - straightforward store-by-store implementation Sponsors saw an opportunity for integration with the company web site to grow the client base and increase their clients' sales During early-stage rollouts, proposed secondary project for this purpose Due to the ability to use the teams already in place, quickly gained approval and additional funding

Takeaways

Decision-makers o The start of the project's success came from VP Marketing's

involvement of VP's Distribution and Warehousing and CIO

Project Manager o Previous experience in related projects o Coordination of parallel work o Familiarity with RFP/RFQ, scope management Scope Control o MuSCoW approach proved very effective in keeping project on track,

o Focus on Value o With riskier projects which may require a complete system overhaul,
focus on potential annual business value rather than project budget

away from scope creep allowed additions only when absolutely necessary

Response

Great model example of successful system overhaul Would have searched internally for qualified PM Could relate to the pilot, then cookie cutter install tactics Liked the amount of upper-level involvement

Executive Perspective on Project Sponsorship

Abid Mustafa June 12, 2013

Summary

Corporate level sponsors having trouble remaining involved in adopted projects o Can affect project support - potential failure Have to balance support with existing job duties o Financials/budgets o Corporate politics o Administtration/logistics o Corporate strategy o People/technological resource management List tips for effectively balancing normal corporate-level tasks and responsibilities and involvement in sponsored projects

Takeaways
Several tips for both executives and PM's to improve sponsor involvement Limit the number of sponsored projects (Executive) o Too many projects - can burn out, stretched too thin Effective communication of project work (PM) o Emails, memos, even texts Thoroughly preparing for executive meetings (Both) Making sure that executives are up to speed with progress, technology, project management, etc. (PM) o Not meant to condescend to executive on technical knowledge o Better safe than sorry - better to repeat yourself or

Response

Liked the comments about making sure exec's are up to speed Good focus on time management Related to projects I have worked on at co-op