An IMS White Paper 7160 North Dallas Parkway, 320 Plano, TX 75024 866.799.7800 www.ims-web.

com

10 Guaranteed Ways to Ruin A Primavera Implementation

and 10 Key Success Factors, too

By Elaine Krazer, PMP Innovative Management Solutions, Inc

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Contents
Introduction ......................................... 2 Problem Statement ............................. 2 Previous Options ................................ 2 IMS Solution ........................................ 2 Summary ............................................. 2 What Causes Project Failure? ........... 3 The Top Ten! ....................................... 3

Introduction
Many have tried and some have failed Independent of the firm you choose to assist you as you implement Primavera products for the enterprise-- these key success factors must be present and certain practices are to be avoided, to ensure desired results.

Problem Statement
An enterprise identifies a need for improvements within its project management organization. Then--based on a valueproposition--spends money to purchase Primavera Products, but loses the value by mishandling the implementation. The result is the same bad process & bad databut now it is automated and delivered to more people, faster!

Previous Options
Prior to subject matter experts in the field of Project Management who also understood Primavera from years of implementation experiences, it was buyers beware! Now, based on that experience, IMS can show you how to avoid inventing the same square wheeland get you rolling to where you expect to be.

Benefit 1 Obliterate Pain Points Currently Experienced in Your Organization.

IMS Solution Benefit 2 Master Project Management Best Practices and Primavera, too. Benefit 3 Conquer Growing Risks and Issues Typical of Less Successful Projects.
IMS continues to be the solution provider of choice in multiple industries for sound Project and Portfolio Management Process advice through quality consulting services, but also provides high-quality results delivery through Primavera implementations worldwide.

Summary IMS knows. For references on previous implementations, call today. 866.799.7800

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What Causes Project Failure? Many surveys have proven 50-70% (1) of projects dont deliver expected results. It is then, either the expectation or the results that are erroneous. This paper will address 10 ways to align expectations with results in such a way that your Primavera Implementation project meets its goals. The Top Ten! If you dig into Primavera Implementation projects, poor results are rooted in these 10 implementation mistakes: (Ranked in order of impact with number 1 having highest impact) 1. Project is Handled as an IT (software Install) Project Rather than a Business Transformation Project, 2. Lack of a Dedicated Team Including Senior Management Support, 3. Mismatched Implementation Partner (Vendor) and/or Faulty Contract, 4. Inadequate Experience or Training in PM Best Practices and/or an Unwillingness to Adopt Them 5. Disconnect Between Strategic Plan and the Project Office or Project Selection Process, 6. A Constrained Implementation team , 7. An Unclear End-Game and Forgetting the Pain the Implementation Strives to Ease, 8. An Unprepared IT Department and/or Technical Environment, 9. Undocumented, Unpracticed or Absent Project Management Processes, 10. Big bang Change Management When the above 10 risks are fully mitigated, or are eliminated altogether; Primavera implementations are given the best possible environment in which to thrive. Each listed problem is easily found in organizations regardless of industry. Each one presents opportunity for expensive rework, non-value added bureaucracy, poor decision making data, and lack of adoption. In other words, you will waste time and money--quickly. Needlessly. Any of the above can be easily eliminated as a factor with proper planning and knowledge. It is that combination that prevents organizations from purchasing Primavera software and installing it for good use without a good partner. Enterprise software has evolved too far from the commercial-off-the-shelf solution where each person interpreted the procedures for themselves and where each person could add or delete information according to their preferences. Enterprise project management systems are on a larger scale and have organization-wide touch-points. Which means the implementation is farreaching, complex, and must be well-planned. If you add strategic planning to the mix, its icing on the cake. Just as a good chef knows there are many recipes for a good dish, a good chef also knows that ingredients and the ordered process of cooking make all the differenceno matter which recipe is chosen. Correlatively, there are many Primavera solution modules, a good implementer knows the key
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success factors and planned approach that will make all the difference differenceno no matter the organizations Primavera purchase. So, lets explore each of the he ingredients of a an unsuccessful successful Primavera Implementation project.

Key Failure
Project is Handled as an IT (Software Install) Project R Rather than a Business Transformation Project P The most costly mistake an organization can make is to assume installing Primavera is much like installing a spreadsheet, reporting or scheduling software package. Erroneously, some IT departments simply procure, acquire, install software and then let users input their own data. This happens when another division has s researched tools that would solve a business problem for the division, then partners with IT for the sole purpose of arranging the hardware to support the software purchase. Therefore, IT is unprepared to support the application technically and ill ill-suited d to support its business uses without the early involvement of a good business analyst. Truthfully, IT must be involved in the planning phases prior to software purchase. This ensures the IT group is aware of the investment, its hardware requirements and the amount of users. From this information, they can know the scale and complexity necessary to support key functions of the Primavera Enterprise System. A key indicator is that the initial investment in the software should be accompanied by an equal or larger investment in the implementation implementationthe the IT cost is less than half the equation. Another likely error is that the purchaser truly believes that a capable software package makes all users more capable, too. Research proves that 85% of organizational cha challenges llenges are from managerial (2) decisions rather than any other source . So the pain the organization is suffering, the same pain that is leading them toward a software purchase; is rooted in the organization rather than the tools currently in place. However, when a software purchase is accompanied by wise planning and business busine process improvementsit it cures many ailments. For example: a company experiencing late-phase late cost overruns and unforeseen schedule changes can benefit tremendously from Primavera Project Management, but must also ensure the configuration supports best pr practices actices from the organization and from the project management industry. Additionally, a good implementation will eliminate current challenges by improving the attendant processes that move projects through the organization. Otherwise? An automated tool sim simply sends the same problematic data to more users, faster-faster and the same poor decisions and process continue to breed painful results results.

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Key Failure
Lack of a Dedicated T Team Including Senior Management Support upport Often front-line line employees are the first to make leadership aware of issues or pains experienced by daily work on projects. When it is only the grassroots groaning that creates a project, then the project will not reach a successful ending. When a senior e executive xecutive initiates the project, but doesnt give it the level of support that is equal to the value of its result, then the project still will not meet a successful end. The combination of a senior senior-level level champion who actively removes obstacles from the path pat of front line employees who is eager to ease past pains and support a well-planned planned implementation will certainly have the highest chance of success. The authority of senior leadership who has clearly communicated the strategic direction and the keystones of the companys future embedded in the Primavera Implementation Project lends the project the power to succeed. That power will undermine the inevitable outcry that new users will have against doing business in a new way, using new software. Alt Although hough unavoidable, organizational change management at least becomes simplified when leadership loudly calls for adoption. Here is what that support looks like: time and money spent on training both new process and new software.

Key Failure
(Vendor) and/or Faulty Contract Mismatched Implementation Partner (V Primavera initial configuration is paramount to successful usage and good forecast data. The configuration must capitalize on current best practices of the organization and the PM industry, but it must t also remove bottlenecks from current processes within the organization. That means the first step of a good implementation is a full analysis of current projects processes, then current practices and then documenting the variances between the two. A key factor is working with a vendor with this competency and experience. Further, a contract that constrains or does not give enough time for the vendor to complete this analysis and then completely act upon the findings will surely end in rework, cost overruns and missed deadlines for the Primavera Implementation Project. If y you ou hire expertise, then the suggestions from the experts should be followed. Many times a vendors initial bid is undercut o match a estimated budget, , but the expectations and value to the organization are not cut cutensuring ensuring a more costly and likely failed implementation. A good vendor wants a happy client and will offer a plan to meet goals discussed and discovered during an analysis of current state. That plan should be given full consideration and any cuts should be accompanied by lowered expectations and higher risks for the organization. If you are worried, dont write up a time and materials contract contract go for distinct scope and a firm fixed price contract.
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More than 30% of new clients come to us when their attempt to install on their own has failed or when en they ask us to extend our contract beyond self-imposed time constraints because they are not able to get to their desired state on their own with that short duration. . Those kinds of jobs are always more expensive for the client because we are not free t to o choose the timing and must get them help immediately with higher level expertise and short-notice notice travel costs, said Brent Langley, IMS VP Primavera Services. Why would you hire an expert and then ignore their advice?

Key Failure
Inadequate Experience or Training in PM Best P Practices (and/or an Unwillingness to Adopt Them) T The organization must understand there is an entire body of project knowledge based on years of experience doing large and small projects within many types of work that ca can n prevent your organization from repeating mistakes or data that can help a company mitigate risks. It is foolish to attempt projects without doing the homework. Plan to research, train, and benchmark or otherwise learn Project Management best practices fr from om reliable sources prior to initiating projects for your organization. Further, companies need to understand that being a Project Manager is a job itself, ideally combined with a scheduler, and a portfolio manager and all of these would report to a Project Management office. Understanding this factor alone should prevent the grievous mistake of assigning projects to someone who already has a title and full slate of duties. Failing to understand project management best practices a and nd how your organization produces project results prior to an implementation often means chaos and disruption rather than efficiency and adoption of the new Primavera System. Laying new software and the learning that must take place for positive results upon on an already misunderstood foundation will surely lean the organization toward disaster. What are the first steps to take? Read the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), and then use those guidelines and definitions as a basis for defining and g guiding the details of those standards as they apply to your organization. Simply, define what a project is at your organization based on the PMBOK definition of a project. Then define a program and identify which programs exist in your company. Next, using your definition of these these, draw a flowchart of a project as it passes through your organization. IE: Step one: project begins when etc. Next, define who does each of those steps and who they must consult. Now, you have the steps and a clear definition of the roles. Document them. Now train or hire your people and name them to those roles. Now, you have a good footing to begin climbing toward project success.

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Key Failure
A Disconnect Between Your Strategic Plan and the Project Office or Project Selection Selectio Process Begin with the End in Mind (3). Period. If your organization has a strategic plan, then projects should be the tactical plan to reach strategic goals. If you cannot start a project kickoff meeting with the words, we are here today to take one more step toward strategic goal number x for our company, then you are doing the wrong project. Now, a vague strateg strategic ic plan can also be the problem; but there are few problems bigger than spending money on a project when the m main ain focus of your company is in another direction. The project will be deemed a failure even if it succeeds.

Key Failure
A Constrained Implementation Team The approach to working with your vendor on an implementation is to fully disclose your project process to themyou you cannot tell them too much. The team can then work with your employees to configure a system that capitalizes on strengths, mitigates risks, and removes bottlenecks while producing good decision-making making data. Most vendors want it done right, they want references and reputationnot not just your money. That is really good business. If they just take your money, they will run out of clients. Their first st quote to you is offered in that spirit spiritthey they may not have all the information they need yet about your company, but they want a long long-term term and fair relationship. Work with them using that first offer, if you cut budget then you must also cut scope and lower low expectations of Primavera at your company. It is robust, scalable and complex so the temptation by companies who decide to implement on their own is that they build Primavera to do business as they currently are doing businesswhich which means they will cont continue to get the same results. The contract is not the only constraint that road blocks a good implementation. Fear of change, lack of adoption by users, turf and territory protection tactics, failure to see the effect the system has on how business gets doneall all these constrain the team to produce less less-than than expected output. It is not just a software installationit it is the process that achieves your companys financial goals. Why would you hinder that? Put your best people on it, communicate constantly, be willing to change, hire a good vendor, be transparent to the vendor and accelerate into your best future possible.

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Key Failure
An Unclear End-game game and Forgetting the Pain the Implementation Strives to Ease E There had to have been a reason you purchased Primavera or created an implementation team, right? It was done to solve a business problem. To avoid failure, clearly define that problem. Baseline the measurements and data that indicates that problem exists. Detail and document the pains it was causing and what a future state would look like. Now, a good implementation team will use that information to build the system to deliver that future state. Not current state, but the desired future state. No baseline? ? No measurements? No envisioning? That combination ensures failure. failure Once the system is in use, watch trending and variance using the same measurements. Then create new measures based on the efficiencies of the new system. Now you see the benefits of imple implementing menting Primaveraand Primavera there are always benefits!

Key Failure
Unprepared IT department and/or Technical Environment Primavera is scalable, dynamic and capable. A good Primavera system ensures data is immediate and available to the entire organization. This means it must stand on a stable and capable technical infrastructure. The Web Access view allows users in the field and executives to dial-in dial to pertinent information for decision-making, making, progress reporting or forecasts. Program and Project Managers need the system to deliver timely up-to to-date date information for Critical Path Management and Portfolio Analysis. Therefore the he system must be installed on a platform your IT shop is capable of maintaining. Primavera is an enterprise client client-database database system that requires a good database manager is at least a phone call away. The data passing from the database to the users require requires s an appropriately-sized appropriately network capable of passing large amounts of data quickly. The demands of an enterprise system such as Primavera require administration and maintenance by qualified individuals who protect the investment made by the organization to improve their key business projects. If your IT shop does not include a DBA or a good OS administrator, the organization should consider hosting the Primavera solution. Hosting provides an excellent way to ensure the Primavera system is capable, ever-ready ever and updated with clean maintenance. A good provider should negotiate a Service Level Agreement that includes upgrades, up-time time measures and a sound technical maintenance/change management policy that wont interfere with your business hours. Check out t their heir credentials and hire one that is responsive, has fast processing, 99%+ availability ratings for less than $1500 a month monthcheaper cheaper than hiring IT personnel.

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Key Failure
Undocumented, U Unpracticed or Absent Project Management Processes rocesses Many companies seem quite capable of documenting how their work is done. That is the progress of a project or product through the organizational divisions to the end user or customer. However, few seem to understand that the project management process is a layer on top of that (like an overlay) which details how a project moves through the organization. This is an absolute must for an organization adopting Project Management as a function or one that is implementing Primavera as a solution. It is this process ss that becomes automated and helps to identify the key processes and procedures of the organization that touch the project as it progresses through the organizational functions. These key processes are the ones which will produce imperative data for improvement impro of delivery on project results. . Without a map for the project, the project will become lost and possibly bottlenecked in the organization with late delivery and other problematic results. Often these flowcharts define each phase of a project as it t travels ravels along your companys project lifecycle. Hopefully this lifecycle utilizes PMI guidelines for best practices, but remember there is no one sanctioned lifecycle which the PMI is standardized upon uponthese these are unique to your company and make sense for your business and its product. Of course, this mapping effort seldom matters if these procedures and process are not followed by everyone in the organization. Many times consultants are called upon to deliver consistency where each division or department of the organization practices its own brand of project delivery. Standards, once written, need to be followed and measured. These measures may highlight inefficiencies, but the company cannot know how inefficient or how to fix these issues if there is no data and/or no one is using the process. The rule is, use the process processeven if it is a broken process. The next step after the mapping effort is to define similar maps for the roles who perform the steps and for the data flow in the technical environment. Once all the layers are defined, the rest of the implementation is much more smoothly because this lays a foundation for a well planned implementation.

Key Failure
Big Bang Change Management Implementing Primavera will change the way business gets done in your company. It will change the way you schedule, perform and report projects, too. If projects are the focus of your enterprise, then the implementation will change much of your organizatio organization. n. There will likely be new job descriptions, new roles, new functions, new reports, and new measurements. There will be training and data migration and performance measures measuresperhaps perhaps even a new career path for some employees. That is a lot of change! If it is not managed well, the upheaval and rework can be extremely costly. A best practice approach is a phased approach: new users should be given just the basics to absorb before you bring them further into more advanced use of the system. We like to call it a Crawl. Walk. Run approach.
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Also, communication is your best tool during implementations. For example, the marketing plan should begin at time of purchase to tell employees a new way of doing projects is on its way, then that message should be progressively elaborative as the implementation continues. Ensure the messaging is not just about new softwareit should candidly state that those employees who run projects will be: 1. spending a lot more time planning projects prior to execution, 2. Using scheduling best practices such as Critical Path Management (CPM) with no open ends and no constraints in combination with variance analysis rather than float path observance, and 3. That they will be spending more time in front of the Primavera screen doing analysis than performing project work itself. This last one is toughmany designers fancy themselves a Project Manager, but dont want to accept that Project Management is an entire job function and has its own industry with standards just as engineering does. It is a mistake to assume your designers can run projects and do design work. Similarly in construction, it is a mistake to assume your Construction Manager will be the person who is also the Project Manager. Believe me, the time a Project Manager spends in planning and then each week in analysis will save more than his/her salary in rework and issue resolution or other qualityrelated recouping activities. A Primavera implementation project is an entire new way of thinking about projects plus new software in which to do those new functions. Ignoring either half of this equation ensures the highest success rate you will report is only 50% successwith only half your expectations met and only half the benefits delivered. (And that is if the half that was done is 100% successful!) Inability to make the switch from intensive progress data reporting to dynamic forecasting, and variance reporting CPM (No resource or no cost loaded schedules). Conclusion A recent client told our implementation team at IMS, Tell your clients they must be flexible or they will fail, IMSs guidance was what we did; and they were right. This Raving Fan2 states the summary perfectly. Primavera changes the way your organization approaches its projects from both a functional and technical perspective. Standing firm to the way your business currently runs will not bring about the changes you desire nor will it free up the Primavera system to deliver dynamic decision-making data for current and future projects at your company. Choose an appropriate vendor to partner with you on this ventureone who is experienced in Project Management and one who is experienced in successful Primavera Enterprise-wide Implementations. How do you do that? Just ask them for client recommendations, hire the right one with a good contract, and then follow their advice.

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Works Cited Covey, S. R. (1989, 2004). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York, New York: Free Press/Simon Schuster. Krazer. (2008). PMP Prep: Don't Just Pass, Get Results! Project Management Institute. (2008). Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) .

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