Program Assessments Illuminate Real Problems

I thought it would be useful and interesting to share actual Assessments of three  programs.

My intent is to highlight a framework Meridian uses to help clients ensure program success. 

Each evaluation was completed by Meridian as part of our Program Delivery Assurance services.  In each case we were engaged by business leaders to provide a frank evaluation of the current state of three very different ERP programs and (more important) to advise whether and how to proceed with their ERP efforts.

This post highlights three ERP programs to provide a measure of cross-program comparability.  In practice our framework has been used to evaluate and guide a wide range of programs.

It’s important to note that we believe our charge is to find the best way to move forward.  Sure “shut down” is a last option, but it’s not considered lightly.  Experience shows that in most cases when there’s a will there’s a way to succeed with almost any program.

Summary evaluations of each program are shown in the following table (extensive analyses underpin each judgment).  A note on how we conducted these ERP evaluations follows in a separate post.

Program Dimensions	Program A	Program B	Program C
Planning	Murky	Very light	Good
Scope Management	“Bitten off far more than you can chew”	Too accommodating, creeping	Good scope management
Fit with Culture	Challenging—“we do everything at  once”	Standardization at odds with culture	Poor—individual fiefdoms threatened
Sponsorship	Confused but fixable	Sincere, though accountability is missing	Low—executives view as an IT initiative
Priority	Depends who you ask	Large program, not treated that way	One of many “top priorities”
Relationship with Business	Broken—no one really owns, champions this program	Not viewed as a business sponsored project	Very poor, business takes lead from sponsors, ignores
Program Management	“Can’t get to where we want to go with current approach”	Put together rapidly/recently	Good though playing catch-up
SI Support	Shared disaster	None	Arms length, to the letter of contract, no more
Use of Methodology	Making it up	Largely following vendor roadmap	Unclear beyond original design
Change Management	Too little too late	Inconsistent across locations, organizations	Nonexistent
Training	Incomplete at-best	Too technical, no opportunity to practice	Always “next on the agenda” but not addressed
Technical Development	Good	Good	Fragmented, configuring by line of business
Master Data	Adequate	Fragmented, no MD Process	Fragmented, managing by line of business
Testing	Scary bad, willing to seriously compromise	Inadequate time, depth to approach	Good, vendor standard approach
Cutover/Go Live	Expect a ‘scary’ Go Live experience	Focusing on pilot, not on larger Go Live	Fragmented planning, poor timelines

Scary stuff: we note problems along virtually every dimension of program performance.  Of course these programs were all clearly at-risk, hence the need for our Assessment services.

I highlighted (colored cells) the core problems we observed within each ERP program.  These highlights provide an easy way to summarize why each ERP program was struggling.

• Program A:  Program A was far too “ad hoc”—one week on the ground suggested this organization was making it up as they went (with little to show for their imaginative efforts).  The crux of the problem lay in the relationship between the client and their systems integrator—or more accurately the complete lack of a relationship which meant no one was in charge, planning and leading the ERP effort.

• Program B:  Can you be “too nice” to implement ERP?  I think so; this company bordered on this condition.  No one really wanted to hold the reins and drive the program forward; the Program Management Office was overwhelmed and incapable of forming the center of gravity and effort required to really drive a program of this scope and complexity.

• Program C:  “Do as I say, not as I do” might characterize this floundering program.  The project team was sincere, but their business executives weren’t and the Systems Integrator divined that this might not be their next great reference account.  Interesting, it took a real executive intervention, with shouts and tears, to “break the fever” and get this program back on track.

I don’t think it’s appropriate to tell specifically what happened with each program.  Suffice to say that each company had some level of ERP success (in fact two of the three were ultimately wildly successful).

My point in sharing these cases is two-fold:

• There are myriad reasons programs struggle.  Once struggling the key is honestly assessing where you are, understanding why you are where you are, and taking appropriate action, however unpopular.  If you’re not willing to do this then you probably should pull the plug!

• It’s far better to stay out of these unhappy positions by regularly and honestly assessing program progress and risks.  But don’t depend on those closest to you for this assessment.  It’s human nature to want the stoplights to stay green even if they should be blinking red!