You cannot know what to build without first knowing what you have to work with. Evaluating your current infrastructure as well as finances is a key element of project planning and one that should yield a clear path to success. It will set the tone for your entire deployment life cycle and lay the foundations for a working relationship between you and your consultants. The business analyst can also be an important part of the team by understanding the business requirements that must be met in order to arrive at an accurate and working Business Requirements Document (BRD).
key resources
Project Managers
Project managers are going to be your bread and butter. It is important to have a project manager that understands I.T. and has forethought into how rapid I.T.’s growth can be. Experienced I.T. project managers that have demonstrated success in deployment of the technology in question (i.e. SharePoint, Dynamics, custom development, etc.) or similar will prove to be an invaluable resource for you. It is typical to hire (or assign) a project manager that will service the project on your behalf. They are tasked with representing your best interests both financially and strategically. Know that it is also typical for the consulting agency to also have their own project manager as part of the team, in fact it should be required. This person will serve as the liaison between the business end of the project with the technical development team behind the deployment. The two project managers will work side by side to ensure the success of your project and ensure accountability to either side throughout the duration of the project and throughout the pre-sales process.
Business Analyst
One of the first hires into your team aside from your PM’s will be a Business Analyst. A good business analyst will be able to really engage the end-users to find out exactly what they really want from the ideas or concepts being presented to them. They are non-technical in their engagement using layman’s terms so users have a clear, well represented view of the changes coming their way. It is the task of the BA to document these requirements into several parts — the wishes, the wants, and the needs. The project managers, information architects, designers, developers, and the systems analysts all must then interpret these requirements into viable delivered solutions. The BRD becomes the project’s “bible”. A BA typically stays engaged through part of the Design phase of the project.
key deliverables
- [PRE-SALES] Statement of Work (SOW)
- [PRE-SALES] Skills Assessment Sheets
- [PRE-SALES] Team Names/Contacts
- [DISCOVERY] Business Requirements Document (BRD)
- [DISCOVERY] Project Plan
- [DISCOVERY] Project Internal Communications Plan
- [DISCOVERY] Time Projections
- [DISCOVERY] External Team Engagement
- [DEFINITION] Resource Management
- [DEFINITION] End-User Communications Strategy Plan
- [DESIGN] IA/VD Design Approval and Signoff
- [DESIGN] Solutions Design Approval and Signoff
- [DEVELOPMENT] Development Overall Management
- [DEVELOPMENT] User Acceptance Testing Review
- [DEVELOPMENT] Disaster Recovery Testing Review
- [DEPLOYMENT] User Acceptance Testing Signoff
- [DEPLOYMENT] Disaster Recovery Testing Signoff
- [DEPLOYMENT] End-User Training
- [DELIVERY] Peer to Peer Knowledge Transfer
- [DELIVERY] Project Final Signoff
- [DELIVERY] Post Deployment Review
- [ALL] Phase Delivery Financials