By: Heather Todd, Principal Consultant
All too often project teams are eager to get started on a project and overlook or quickly gloss over project management governance, which lays out the rules of engagement. An oversight in governance, for projects large or small, can result in a project’s delivery “RAG” (Red Amber Green) Status quickly changing from green to red.
Best practice project management calls for requires time at the beginning of each Blackbaud CRM™ project or any software project for that matter to develop a governance framework also referred to as the Project Charter. The framework describes the project scope, objectives, and approach along with the procedures and standards. If there are no guidelines, how will you effectively and efficiently manage a project?
Project management governance tips:
No matter the size of the project, from implementation to upgrades, a governance framework document should be drafted, reviewed and approved by the project management team (organization and partner).
Such a document can be scaled based on size and complexity of the project. For smaller engagements create a simplified framework that can be delivered with minimal effort. Always take the time to review the framework with the project team.
Use documentation sharing tools to ensure team members are accessing the same version of the documents to avoid confusion.
If your team uses a collaboration wiki tool, create a main project page with important project details such as an overview of the project, project milestone gantt chart, who’s who, and links to project documents and environments. Keep your information updated as needed throughout the project life-cycle.
This post is part of a series of blog posts discussing Project Management best practices. You can review parts 1 - 3 below and future posts will cover other areas of project management.
Issue Management Managing Your CRM Implementation: Part 1 - Issue Management
Risk Management Managing Your CRM Implementation: Part 2 - Risk Management
Scope Change Management Managing Your CRM Implementation: Part 3-Scope Management
Coming soon:
Organization and Staff Management
Communications Management
Quality Management
Configuration Management
Environment Management
Want to learn more about project management? Connect with our team today.