Project Expansion: Planning, Implementing, and Managing for Success

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Project Expansion Planning, Implementing, and
Managing for Success

• Presented by

US DOL/ETA Division of Youth Services
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Planning for Success

• System implementation projects, in general,
  experience low success rates
• 28 of projects meet full success
• 49 of projects are fully completed, but over
  budget, over schedule and lack full scope of
  planned functionality
• 23 of projects experience complete failure or
  are cancelled 1
• Undoubtedly offender-focused programs have even
  higher failure rates.
• 1 Extreme Chaos, 2000. The Standish Group

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Planning for Success

• The key contributing factors to implementation
  failure reported were
• Lack of planning unclear vision, goals and
  approach, not aligned with vendor/service
  provider incentives, schedules, other program
  priorities and other resource responsibilities.
• Incomplete, unclear and/or changing requirements.
• Lack of executive/community support and
  commitment.
• Lack of resources dedicated to the project
  (staff, time, money, participant involvement,
  project management and IT support)

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Planning for Success

• Other contributing factors to implementation
  failure are
• Unrealistic expectations for what can be
  accomplished and how quickly it can occur.
• Believing the vendor/service provider will assume
  responsibility for all tasks
• Hoping the vendor/service provider will fix your
  operational and personnel problems
• Fear of change
• Fear of technology

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Expansion Workshop Goals

• Keep you on the right side of these statistics
• Help you think through project expansion planning
  and implementation decisions
• Understand the options
• Understand the risks
• Position you for implementation success

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The Project Expansion Process
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The Project Expansion Process
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Implementation Planning Steps for Success

• Establish an Effective Implementation Team
• Finalize Project Goals Priorities
• Establish Implementation Strategies and Scope
• Develop the Implementation Plan with a Realistic
  Timeline
• Emphasize Communication
• Establish Benchmarks to
• Measure Project Success

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Step 1 - Implementation Team Key Participants

• Skilled Knowledgeable Project Director
• Community Leadership
• Local system Representation
• JJS, WFD, PSD, etc.
• Network/Technical Analyst
• Trainer

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Step 2 Finalize Project Goals Priorities

• What is the vision for the project?
• What is needed to help the project achieve?
• Sustained quality of service for program
  participants
• Ease of expansion and program integration into
  existing youth service network
• Controlled costs
• Higher ROI
• Other ?
• Which program features
• functions support these
• goals?

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Some Causes of Scope Creep

• When we suddenly realize that our projects scope
  has expanded far beyond its initial boundaries
• when we have that how-did-we-ever-get-here
  feeling were experiencing the downside of
  scope creep.
• Preventing scope creep starts with understanding
  how it happens.

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Scope Creeping

• More common sources of scope creep.
• The unknown
• Projects are ventures into unknown territory.
  Sometimes we underestimate the complexity of the
  problem we've tackled.
• Perfectionism
• We sometimes forget that good enough is good
  enough.
• Placating conflict
• We'll do almost anything to avoid dealing with
  conflict directly. We'll even expand project
  scope to satisfy all conflicting parties. When we
  placate conflict, we run the risk of creating a
  project that nobody can execute.

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Scope Creeping

• Assimilation
• To secure resources, programs sometimes seek
  partnerships based on a seemingly "natural fit"
  or for purposes of "efficiencies." But
  consolidation isn't free, and the efficiencies
  are often illusory.
• Career advancement
• By commandeering more resources, the leaders of a
  project can enhance their organizational power.
  Senior managers must learn to recognize these
  tactics, and approve scope expansions only on the
  basis of sound management principles.

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Scope Creeping

• The union of all misunderstandings
• If scope isn't clearly defined at the outset,
  misunderstandings result. When that happens, to
  preserve consensus that the project should
  continue, we might have to expand the project
  scope to include the union of all initial
  understandings. Making things painfully clear at
  the outset is worth the effort.
• The Donald Crowhurst effect
• Donald Crowhurst was a participant in the 1968
  round the world single-handed sailing race
  sponsored by the London Sunday Times. As
  described in a 1970 book by Nicholas Tomalin and
  Ron Hall, his life pattern was to tackle
  ever-larger projects, concealing a pattern of
  failure. Like Donald Crowhurst, some projects
  expand their scope to avoid acknowledging
  failure. Failure or restart must be realistic
  options for any project manager.

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Step 3 Establish Implementation Strategy Scope

• Phased vs. Big Bang Implementation
• Incremental functionality vs. full system
  implementation
• Phased participant services vs. immediate full
  implementation

• Communication Strategy
• Go-Live Date Constraints Planning

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Implementation Strategy Scope Phased vs.
Big Bang Implementation

• Incremental vs. Full System Functionality
• Do we want/need all functions/services available
  Day One?
• Can we absorb that level of change at one time?
• Can we take on that level of implementation work
  at one time?
• If not
• Based on the priorities of project goals
• Based on the time and resources that can be
  allocated
• What functions do we want/need immediately?
• In what sequence should we add the other
  functions?
• Over what period of time?

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Implementation Strategy Scope Example -
Incremental Functionality

• Establish Facility location
• Satisfy logistical requirements
• For program, staff, and participants
• Staffing in Proportion to participants served
• Provide minimum hardware/software and training
  material requirements
• Staggered enrollments based on growing program
  capacity
• Community-based roll-out
• Signage
• Hosted Events

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Implementation Strategy Scope Phased vs.
Big Bang Implementation

• Phased Program Services vs. Immediate Full
  Implementation
• Will we be ready for everyone to Go Live at the
  same time?
• Can we absorb that level of change at one time?
• Can we support everyone on Day One?
• If not
• Who/what areas should go first?
• What impacts will this mix have on the overall
  design of and delivery of program components?
• In what sequence should we add program
  components, staff, participants?
• Over what period of time?

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Implementation Strategy Scope Phased
Participant Considerations

• Program Cross-over/Coverage
• Participants
• Sites
• Programs
• Teams
• Case Management
• Support staff
• Technical Support
• Maintenance of Mixed Program Elements
• Labor
• Distance between sites
• Cohesiveness and consistency of services

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Implementation Strategy Scope Communications
Strategy Approach

• External
• Promotional
• Community Reaction
• Internal
• Employee Reaction
• Job loss
• Role change
• Technical challenges
• Stakeholders

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Implementation Strategy Scope Implementation
Date

• When is the best time to implement?
• Are there key resource constraints?
• Are there any other program activities to plan
  around?

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Step 4 Develop the Implementation Plan with a
Realistic Timeline
Based on the goals and strategies set for the
program expansion project

• What specific tasks need to be done?
• By whom?
• When?
• How long will all this take to complete?

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Developing the Implementation Plan Conduct
Vendor/Service Provider Planning Meetings

• Communicate program vision, goals, strategies
  approaches
• Establish overall project structure parameters
• Contacts
• Escalation
• Build relationships
• Confirm requirements
• Establish agreement on
• Tasks
• Roles and responsibilities
• Time requirements

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Developing the Implementation Plan Confirming
Requirements

• Facilities/Support
• xxxx
• xxxx
• xxxx
• Staff
• xxxx
• xxxx
• Program
• xxxx
• xxxx
• xxxx
• Other Considerations

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Developing the Implementation Plan Defining
the Detailed Tasks Responsibilities

• Workflow Design/Confirmation
• Policy Procedure Changes
• Job Changes
• Program Design Configuration
• Report Design/Project Forecasting
• Facilities/Support
• Training Needs
• Project team
• Participant

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Developing the Implementation Plan Defining
the Detailed Tasks Responsibilities

• Go-Live Planning
• Staff schedules
• Support
• Dress rehearsal
• Go/No Go decision
• Flipping the Switch
• Celebration
• Stabilization

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Developing the Implementation Plan Documenting
the Plan

• Milestones
• Tasks
• Dependencies
• Responsibilities
• Vendor/Service Providers
• Program
• Individual
• Time requirements

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Developing the Implementation Plan Setting a
Realistic Timeline

• Bottom Up Estimation
• Let the tasks resources drive the timeline OR
• Provide the resources to support the tasks for
  the timeline
• Remember Schedule Constraints
• Set a Go-Live that is Achievable
• Communicate It

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Managing Risks

• What is Risk?
• A risk is something that may happen and if it
  does, will have an adverse impact on the project.
• A few points here "that may happen" implies a
  probability of less then 100. If it has a
  probability of 100 - in other words it will
  happen - it is an issue.
• A risk must also have a probability something
  above 0. It must be a chance to happen or it is
  not a risk.

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Risk?

• The second thing to consider from the definition
  is "will have an adverse impact".
• If it will not have an adverse impact, it is not
  a risk. Suppose we said a risk was that we would
  find the project less complicated than we
  thought, and could finish early.
• Unless finishing early has an adverse effect on
  the project, it is not a risk.

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The Risk Management Plan

• There are four stages to risk management. They
  are
• Risk Identification
• Risks Quantification
• Risk Response
• Risk Monitoring and Control

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Risk Identification

• In this stage, we identify and name the risks.
  The best approach is pull together key players,
  partnerships, etc., to help carry out this
  identification.
• There are different sorts of risks and we need to
  decide on a project by project basis what to do
  about each type.
• Business risks
• Generic risks

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Defining Risk

• Risks should be defined in two parts.
• The first is the cause of the situation (Vendor
  not meeting deadline, Business users not
  available, etc.).
• The second part is the impact (Budget will be
  exceeded, Milestones not achieved, etc.).
• Hence a risk might be defined as "The vendor not
  meeting deadline will mean that budget will be
  exceeded".
• If this format is used, it is easy to remove
  duplicates, and understand the risk.

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Risk Quantification

• Risk need to be quantified in two dimensions.
• The impact of the risk needs to be assessed.
• The probability of the risk occurring needs to be
  assessed. For simplicity,
• rate each on a 1 to 4 scale.
• The larger the number, the larger the impact or
  probability.
• By using a matrix, a priority can be established.

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Risk Probability Matrix

• 
  _________________
• 4
  
• 3 Med
  Critical
• 
  ________________
• Probability 2
  
• 1 Low
  High
• 
  _________________
• 
  1 2 3 4
• 
  Impact
• Note that if probability is high, and impact is
  low, it is a Medium risk. On the other hand if
  impact is high, and probability low, it is High
  priority. A remote chance of a catastrophe
  warrants more attention than a high chance of a
  hiccup.

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Risk Response

• There are four things you can do about a risk.
  The strategies are
• Avoid the risk. Do something to remove it. Use
  a different vendor/service provider for example.
• Transfer the risk. Make someone else
  responsible. Perhaps a Vendor can be made
  responsible for a particularly risky part of the
  project.
• Mitigate the risk. Take actions to lessen the
  impact or chance of the risk occurring. If the
  risk relates to availability of resources, draw
  up an agreement and get sign-off for the resource
  to be available.
• Accept the risk. The risk might be so small the
  effort to do anything is not worth while.

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Rick Control

• A risk response plan should include the strategy
  and action items to address the strategy. The
  actions should include what needs to be done, who
  is doing it, and when it should be completed.
• The final step is to continually monitor risks
  to identify any change in the status, or if they
  turn into an issue. It is best to hold regular
  risk reviews to identify actions outstanding,
  risk probability and impact, remove risks that
  have passed, and identify new risks.

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Risk Management In Summary

• Risk management is not a complex task. If you
  follow the four steps, you can put together a
  risk management plan for a project in a short
  space of time.
• Without a plan, the success of the project, and
  the reputation of your program are on the line.
  Follow these steps and you will increase your
  chances of success.

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Step 5 Emphasize Communication

• Internal Communication
• Enlist full support

• Ease concerns
• Job security
• Technical learning support
• Tell them what to expect when

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Emphasize Communication

• Community Communication
• Tell them what you are doing why
• Provide consistent answers to questions
  concerns
• Keep them informed on progress
• Communicate enthusiasm confidence
• Include them in program success celebrations

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Step 6 Establish Benchmarks to Measure Project
Success

• Measurements based upon goals
• Participation
• Literacy and Numeracy Gains
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Long-term Placement
• Recidivism
• Individually stated goals
• ?

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Planning for Success
Good implementation planning leads to.. SUCCESS
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Thank You for Participating

• For more information, contact

US DOL at Richard Morris Sherry West LaSharn
Youngblood
Technical Assistance at Abt Associates