Anchor Every Project to Your Key Business Strategies

THE LINK BETWEEN STRATEGY AND DELIVERY

Five key techniques were identified to address the critical success factors, stabilize the project environment, and prepare for the launch of the CRM program. These techniques were defined to be applied from two perspectives. The first perspective was for the Sponsor and Program Manager levels, and the second perspective was for the Project Manager working in alignment with the Program Manager. The Sponsor and Program Manager were responsible for:

• Establishing a long-term, enterprise-wide implementation roadmap to be communicated broadly and often.
• Conducting the pilot to both validate and shape the enterprise strategy and roadmap.
• Establishing infrastructure and standard, flexible processes for an enterprise-wide program.
• Developing and executing a business unit engagement plan.
• Communicating thoroughly and broadly using information targeted for strategic decisions.

The Project Manager was responsible for working with the Program Manager to: package project visibility and reporting for a strategic view; validate alignment of projects with strategic objectives; establish continuous mapping of project deliver to goals, strategy, and objective realization; identify and manage dependencies between related projects; and engaging in thorough, consistent communication across all levels of stakeholders. The following sections detail the techniques used by the project manager in alignment with the Program Manager.

1. Package Project Visibility and Reporting for a Strategic View

To make informed decisions and create an effective CRM strategy, executives required good data from the project level, packaged for strategic decision-making. This required a formal communication plan and infrastructure, driven by executive communication requirements, and aligned through all levels of the organization. This aligned infrastructure would allow all levels of the organization to obtain the information they need to meet their responsibilities, while being assured that it aligns with the strategic vision of the organization.

At the tactical level, the project team was primarily staffed by IT personnel. The technical focus of the project team did not intuitively translate into the business focus of the sales stakeholders. The pilot's primary communication method was to collect as much information as possible about the project, then disseminate it as widely as possible. It was common for project status meetings to get bogged down into technical details. Not surprisingly, the functional stakeholders and users who needed to be kept up to date stopped coming to those meetings. Project visibility was generated from a primarily IT perspective, so it was primarily consumed by an IT audience. The lack of project visibility packaged for a functional audience made it difficult to generate commitment among functional users to participate in identifying and prioritizing requirements for the CRM application.

To resolve communication challenges on the pilot, two project resources were focused on communicating with sales and marketing stakeholders to identify business requirements and resolve issues. This approach was effective on the pilot, but it would be overwhelming in the program as concurrent projects were launched. To resolve this challenge long term, program communication guidelines and processes were developed, along with the baseline program communication plan. The guidelines, processes, and plan mapped out what information was required for each role to make decisions on the programproviding a formal method of packaging project data into a strategic viewpoint.

2. Validate Alignment of Projects with Strategic Objectives

When a project's scope and requirements are in question, it is usually due to varying expectations and priorities among stakeholders. Strategic objectives serve as the starting reference point to establish common ground among stakeholders and team members. Key members of the project team and senior functional managers sponsoring the project set out to formalize strategic objectives to provide context and perspective for decisions made about the pilot project's scope and requirements.

3. Establish a Continuous Mapping of Project Delivery to Goals, Strategy, and Objectives Realization

Next, a Program life cycle was developed (figure 4, below) to establish a formal, continuous mapping of project delivery to goals, strategy, and objectives realization. The challenges experienced on the pilot, and the vision for the CRM program led to the choice of enterprise program management as the basis for the program infrastructure, processes, and tools. Key stages in the cycle are established to ensure this continuous connection. For each functional objective, there is a cost/benefit analysis, formal sponsorship approval, formal project prioritization, and a formal initiation stage. By engaging sponsors in the approval and prioritization of proposed projects, we ensure that there is a link maintained between strategic and functional objectives.

The reporting structure (figure 4, below) places top business unit executives in ownership roles, with the responsibility of maintaining commitment to a common CRM vision, strategy, and direction among stakeholder business units. People who report to the top executives act as program sponsors, with the responsibility of approving funding, scope, and functional objectives for the program. The Program Office is responsible for managing the program budget and business case, the integration and alignment of multiple projects, the allocation and alignment of project resources, and providing visibility and reporting to executives.

4. Identify and Manage Dependencies between Related Projects

The functional sponsor and program manager needed to shift CRM from the sales pilot focus to a common vision and strategy across the company. This would require engaging business units where interest varied anywhere between ambivalence and enthusiasm. Many other business units were investigating launching CRM initiatives of their own. The presence of multiple CRM initiatives in the company would be counterproductive, since the goal of CRM is to have a company-wide integrated sharing and management of customer knowledge. To construct a single, integrated view of all CRM efforts, the program office scouted out all related and redundant CRM projects in the company, identify dependencies, then identify opportunities for knowledge and resource sharing, while eliminating redundant elements. This resulted in an annual plan that illustrated all of the work being performed in support of CRM, including critical dependencies and timing. This was an effective tool for the program manager in working with stakeholders to establish that all work should be performed under a single program, guided by a common business strategy.

5. Engage in Thorough, Consistent Communication Across All Levels of Stakeholders

The first key technique described the strategic packaging aspect of program communication. In addition to packaging data for the strategic level of the organization, a formal communication plan must address other key communication elements that enable people to operate with a common understanding at all levels of the organization. First, program communication must ensure that the key executives, managers, and business units are kept well informed. Ninety percent of the program could be receiving good communication, but if a critical ten percent is left out, the program could go off track quickly. To deliver information in a timely and effective manner, establish communication and visibility forums and tools for both internal and external customers, with systems and processes for maintaining accuracy and relevance of information.

Informally, it was also important to identify and foster key relationships with stakeholders, managers, and executives. Often times, people receive more candid information through these informal channels than from a formal visibility system. Many business cultures discourage people from being candid in communicating bad news. To encourage open communication, it was important to stay attuned and responsive to bad news and negativity. By fostering this open communication, the accuracy of formal communication channels improved as people became more comfortable communicating bad news.