Avoiding the Implementation Tar Pit

 

When a project is delivered and the final analysis completed, it's the project manager, not the project team, who's in the limelight or in the hot seat. The project manager is held accountable in no-holds-barred terms both by both the customer and senior management. At this point, the project manager receives his performance report--good or bad.

Let's face it: Beta testing and customer training are two aspects of project management that can be silent project manager killers. How well these two milestones are executed can make the project manager a hero--or cause him to be tarred and feathered in the public square!

Florida--The Sequel: It's Deja-Vu All Over Again!

The importance of beta testing and customer training was driven home as a result of the State of Florida's implementing a $32 million renovation of the state's election system with electronic voting machines for the 2002 primaries. This statewide sweeping introduction of technology was a result of the voting card "hanging chad" controversy in the 2000 Presidential election. The statewide project was complicated by precinct changes that occurred after redistricting. The end result of using this new technology was that systems crashed. Like the 2000 election, it left voters wondering if their votes were counted; candidates pondered recounts; and everyone asked who was to blame.

Voting problems included both …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.