OPEN SOURCE - Job Scheduler - Services

Recipe for Setting up a Successful Implementation Project

• Defining Your Project's Goals
• Choosing the Project Members and defining Roles
• Evaluating the Tools and Suppliers
• Optimizing Project Communication
• Managing the Implementation Work
• Testing and Quality Assurance
  
  

Defining your project goals
Know your management's strategic goals. Suppose your company's management wants to improve business processes for one of the operating departments, then it will be important for you to know which goals have been set for this department. Before planning begins, tab into the resources of this department, since you will likely need their specific input for your project.

• Has management defined the strategic goals?
  
• Has management determined the budget for the project (resources/ manpower)?
  
• Which organizational unit will profit from the project success?
  
• Have you clearly identified the business processes that are affected by the project?
  
• Does your project aim at improving business processes for operating departments? Or will your project be IT-centric, e.g. achieving more efficiency with your technical solutions?
  

Choosing the Project Members and defining Roles
Depending on the project's requirements you will have to pick your project members accordingly. If you are managing a project that is supposed to improve business processes, then you need participants in your team that can contribute intrinsic knowledge about those processes. The project members are responsible for specifying the requirements. If the project is sizeable, then it is a good idea to identify a role for requirements documentation and specs.

• Identify the roles in the project, e.g. supplier, implementor, testing, quality assurance.
  
• Assign one project member to each role and stick to this decision.
  
• Accept no ad hoc project members without a clearly defined role in your project.
  
• Carefully choose the members for the project team: select your team members to represent their respective department according to their competence and responsibility.
  
• Identify the roles of external service providers, e.g. as tool supplier or implementor.
  
• Have the responsible members of the project team specify the requirements at the outset.
  
• Reject ad hoc changes to the requirements by third parties. Instead, let the project member that is responsible for the requirements documentation check all third party input and make sure that the requirements are complete before implementation starts.
  

Evaluating the Tools and Suppliers
Regardless of whether you decided in the previous step to implement the project yourself or to engage an implementor the next step is to evaluate the tools required for the project and the companies that might provide them to you. In the case of the Open Source Job Scheduler, now would be the time to contact the SOS GmbH and request evaluation assistance. If you decide to do so, we will assist you create a test environment that reflects the more crucial requirements. By the end of the evaluation you will have a clear idea of the functionality of the tool for your project and the service/ support provided by the SOS GmbH.

• Determine the technical goals of the evaluation and stick to them.
  
• Be prepared to setup the test scenario with one of our specialists.
  
• Decide on the tool that is best for your purpose.
  

Optimizing Project Communication
Good communication is crucial, especially if you have different teams working. Project meetings are useful for regular updates, status reports and assignment of tasks. You will save a lot of time if you plan your meetings ahead of time. Why not start by writing an agenda? It could be as simple as an e-mail listing the points that you want to work on next. During the meeting write down the decisions taken for each point on your list. By the end of the meeting you will have a protocol that you can send to the participants immediately after the meeting.

• Don't schedule meetings for topics that can be handled by e-mail or in phone sessions.
  
• Take the time to prepare a meeting agenda.
  
• Send your agenda to all participants in time so everybody can prepare for the meeting.
  
• Write a protocol with the results of the meeting, not the discussions.
  
• Send the protocols to all members that have participated.
  
• Make sure that each task is assigned to one person responsible and set a date for completing the tasks.
  

Managing the Implementation Work
Don't try to do all at once or to plan implementation periods that drag on too long. Instead split the project in manageable chunks of work with a deadline attached to each chunk. Keep your business processes in mind - it will be easier to assign tasks to specific work packages. Determine the priority of your work packages and decide in what sequence you are proceeding. Doing it this way will help you to handle delays in the project, since delays will not affect the entire project, but rather certain work packages.

• Split the implementation work in manageable work packages.
  
• Keep the business processes in mind when assembling the work packages.
  
• Determine the priority and the sequence of work, according to the availability of resources.
  
• Take care to plan small work packages and keep track of the implementation results.
  

Testing and Quality Assurance
Don't underestimate the importance of testing. Dedicate a considerable amount of time in the project schedule for your testing period.

• Include the project members from the operating department that will profit from the development in the testing process.
  
• Work out a test specification reflecting the requirements documentation.
  
• Setup test cases that exactly correspond to the business processes.
  
• Have the persons responsible for testing confirm the compliance with the requirements.
  
• Determine the benchmarks by which the project results are evaluated.