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Tier Patrol: Cost Control
Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.
Often to sooth the feelings of a client, accommodate last-minute considerations and make adjustments on behalf of unforeseen circumstances and technology changes, we stretch our project plans beyond their original agreed-upon scope.
While we try to artificially add extra time and resources to deal with these situations, there still needs to be a firm grasp of a project’s parameters in order to achieve some degree of successful completion. This not only manages the resources effectively, but also helps to ensure that funding for projects is properly controlled. Keeping tight reins on what can become potentially loose scope items is essential to this goal.
Wearing Layers
Depending on the risks and impact of a given project, it may be necessary to seek structured and substantive review and approval of its plan at different levels within an organization, not only to inform the strata, but more importantly to get agreement on how to manage the costs that are associated with it. Developing an internal process that involves a tier approach to project approval is instrumental to maintaining project integrity since it brings more authority and governance to the table, both internally and externally.
Setting up a tier system that is related to project cost and thereby connected to its subsequent approval or disapproval helps keep financial threats in …
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"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining." - Jeff Raskin |