By: Ashley Hansen Using the site field to restrict user access may not be critical for how your organization operates, but you still could find value in using the site field. Without configuring security roles to take into account the site on the record or process, you are left with a common field that’s practically everywhere in Blackbaud CRM™. You can use the site field to categorize records and processes by college, hospital, congregation, etc., to manage fundraising efforts and clearly track success. Below are some examples that demonstrate how using the site field can be useful to organizations: Associate fundraising purpose records with schools and colleges at a university to see which schools and colleges are achieving their financial goals. Populate the site field on a prospect plan to allow you to easily filter by the regional hospital from the Major Giving Management dashboard suite. When a designation is undetermined or will be established when a donor passes away, use the site field on opportunities and planned gifts to capture the department that will receive funds when received. Capture the appropriate site on acknowledgments, receipts, reminders, and tribute acknowledgments to allow schools and colleges to manage their own donor communications. Use the site field on interactions and events to track engagement with a particular congregation. Assign the site field to marketing efforts when the overarching appeal is site-neutral. This way, you can track the success of the appeal and see which school or colleges had the most alumni solicited and the most donors. Organize queries and selections using the site field to better manage the Information Library. The frequency in which it is available throughout BBCRM makes the site field an appealing and accessible resource.

Emily Walsh, Director As every project manager knows a clear project scope definition is one of the most important aspects of managing a project—clearly identifying boundaries of what is to be implemented and key work products to be produced. In this blog post, I will be discussing Project Management Governance Framework Scope Management best practices. Overview of scope The intention is not to rewrite the scope of work. But you do need to list what is being implemented and any deliverables such as customizations, documentation, training, support, etc. As changes to scope arise during project execution, it is important to follow a disciplined scope change management process to ensure agreement on the following: Required adjustments to schedule and/or cost Incremental resource requirements Business/project impact Adherence to contractual requirements Change Control Process The Change Control process provides the high-level process on how scope change will be managed and should include a sample change request tracker template or fields to be included in the tracker to provide exposure and agreement to the project management team. Below is a guide of what information should be included in each process step. The Creation of Change Request Identify and include the following information in the framework. Who is the initiator? Which project team members can formally make a change request. For example, is it Business owners? Is it anyone on the project team? How will the change request be submitted? Can the initiator submit via a web form, email, or another communication method? Who will ensure that the change is correctly logged (i.e. manage the log)? Most of the time it is the project manager. What details will be logged? A change order tracker to be created to track the request, date of the request, description of the change, business impact, value, prioritization, status, requestor, assignee, hour estimation, and other details as required. Who will assess the impact of the project change? This could be the project manager or another resource. Assessment of Impact of Proposed Changes Define who will make the analysis of the change request. As well as define the acceptable timeframe for the proposed change request. The framework should state how long the length of the change response is, with an estimated cost either for the implementation of the Change or performance of the initial analysis. Change requests should not linger as they could greatly impact the project delivery as well as dependencies. Approval of Change Requests Define who can approve the change requests. Is it solely the Project Steering Committee? If a smaller project or under a certain value is it the project sponsor, or even the project manager or business lead? Determine if change requests can be approved over email (if below a certain dollar value) or does it require a formal change request document with a signature. Reminder to review, the SOW, and the agreed governance documents with the internal team and client team prior to project kick-off.

Let’s take that time machine back to 1987 when perms and shoulder pads were in fashion and M.A.R.R.S’s “Pump Up the Volume” filled the radio airwaves. Fast forward to today, perms and shoulder pads may be in the past. But we can now pump up the volume of integration in Blackbaud CRM™ using the BrightVine Data Link (BVDL.) More than 42 Blackbaud CRM™ customers have converted their complex data import and integration needs by using the BVDL. Because the BVDL is fully integrated into Blackbaud CRM™ your data never leaves your Blackbaud CRM™ environment making it a powerful integration and transformation tool. Why should you have to manually manipulate or split files? Our customers went from multiple files with different types of data to one file containing all of your data. All customers have seen a significant decrease in processing time and with the introduction of the Data Link version 4.0 performance has gotten even better. Several organizations have decreased their processing from a day(s) to just a few hours. One animal welfare organization saw their NCOA process drop from 3 full weekends to 6 hours. A hospital system went from importing 2 million constituent attributes in 4 hours to only 20 minutes. Here are some tips to help you get started in the planning of converting existing Blackbaud CRM™ imports to the BrightVine Data Link: Planning and analysis Identify and prioritize integration to be converted from out-of-the-box imports to the BVDL. This could be based on volume, complexity, or current processing time. Identify team roles and responsibilities. Include data subject matter experts in data mapping sessions, testing, training/internal process improvement, and roll out. Determine the timeline. Are there any blackout dates or testing dependencies, to be considered, such as environment refresh and upgrades? Design and Build Share original data import mapping/documentation. It is helpful to understand any custom field logic and Blackbaud CRM™ data points. Revisit the field mapping included in the existing import. Determine if there are other columns that need to be added, or even removed from the data mapping. Include SMEs in the data mapping session to review and confirm mapping, matching, data updates, validation, and exception handling logic. Test Training of the technical team and SMEs on functionality and technical processes. Conduct parallel testing. Create and execute detailed plans to ensure data processing consistency, accuracy, and efficiencies. Production Deployment and Rollout Train end-users on BVDL functionality, new processes, and any new business rules. After deploying and configuring the new BVDL import process in your Production environment, ensure any downstream processes impacted by the new import process are modified to reflect any data updates. If you'd like to learn more about the BrightVine Data Loader, please contact us today!

G-D-P-R are four letters you may have heard frequently when discussing your organization’s data compliance and security. This post provides an overview of key European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) principles on the protection of personal data. For specific GDPR compliance requirements and questions, please seek advice from your organization’s legal counsel. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is Europe’s (EU) data privacy and security law enacted in May 2018, that sets out requirements for how organizations, operating in the EU, handle personal data with one set of data protection rules. GDPR not only applies to organizations established in the EU that process personal data, but also to any organizations established outside the EU if they target individuals residing in the EU. Violations of the GDPR can result in massive fines...Just ask Google or Marriott. GDPR applies to personal data, which means any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier. What is considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII) under GDPR? Names, government Issued IDs, social security number, contact information (email, phone, physical address), online information (social media handle), geolocation, birthdate. Health, financial, travel data including medical record information and account numbers. Biometric data such as photos, documents, scans Additional data stored on systems Below highlight GDPR key principles: Consent: The individual has given clear consent for the organization to process their personal data for a specific reason. It must be easy to withdraw consent, as it is to give it. NOTE: some countries have additional privacy and data laws. This is a general background on GDPR and not fully inclusive of all possible scenarios you may encounter. Please speak with your own counsel for specific rules you need to follow. Freely Given. Consent must be "freely given”. The organization should not require any constituent to consent to marketing in order to complete the transaction (i.e. event registration or donation). Specific. The individual must be asked to consent to individual types of data processing such as cookies and marketing. A general consent such as “Click here to agree to all consents in our privacy policy” is not considered valid consent. Informed. The individual knows the organization’s identity, what data processing activities the organization intends to conduct, the purpose of the data processing, and that the individual can withdraw their consent at any time. The language must be clear and simple to understand. Unambiguous. Clear, affirmative consent. The individual must consent by doing or saying something. For example, on a web page, the individual is required to click a checkbox indicating they understand and accept the organization’s proposed processing of his or her personal data. Revocation and Right to Object. Individuals must be able to revoke consent at any time. Right to Access: Individuals have the right to obtain a copy of their personal data, as well as supplementary information. Confirmation of personal use An individual can make a subject access request (SAR) verbally or in writing for a free electronic copy of data. Right to be forgotten: When data is no longer relevant to its original purpose, data subjects can have the data controller erase their personal data and cease its dissemination. Individuals can request as well that the processing of their data “suspended” on a temporary basis You are required to delete data after it is no longer needed. The organization to establish timelines to erase or view the data stored. Breach Notification: In the event of a data breach, data processors have to notify their controllers and constituents of any risk within 72 hours. Data Portability: Allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes by transferring it across different IT environments. When transferring data from one system to another, data transfer in a commonly used open format (e.g. XML, JSON, CSV, etc.). When selecting a data format, the organization should consider how this format would impact or hinder the individual’s right to re-use the data. For instance, a PDF version of records may not be sufficient to ensure that personal data is easily re-used. Privacy by Design: The inclusion of data protection from the onset of designing systems, implementing appropriate technical and infrastructural measures. Simply put this means data protection through technology design. There are GDPR distinct responsibilities of the software platform and software user: The software platform to be able to facilitate the request of the constituent. The data processing functionality is already integrated in the software/technology. It is the responsibility fo the user of the software (i.e. Nonprofit Organization) to interpret the law. While GDPR is an EU regulation, it also builds trust and confidence with donors, providing transparency on data collection and the use of personal data. If you’d like help setting up GDPR within Blackbaud CRM™ please contact us!

Let’s talk about: Data, Analytics, and Insights. Three terms you hear in almost every marketing meeting. But what do they mean? How are they connected? How do they impact your marketing/business strategy? Think of Data, Analytics, and Insight as a three-step process: Step1: Collect data Step 2: Apply analytics to make sense of data/gives context to data patterns and trends. Step 3: Create insights from the analytics that can be used to make business/marketing decisions and drive action. Let’s define what each of these terms means. Data Data is the information you obtain from users, such as contact, demographic info, behavior, and activity. Think of it as raw, unprocessed facts. In today’s digital age, data sources/collection can come from multiple channels such as acquisition lists, face-to-face, surveys, apps, email, websites, and social media. Organizations usually have different tools and systems where data is captured/stored. The effort in data transformation strategy is to put it all into a centralized system or develop a way to pull it together quickly. An easy to relate to example of data collection happens whenever you use a shopper rewards card when making a purchase at a store such as CVS. When you enroll in the program they collect some basic information such as name, email, phone number, gender, and address. As you use your card they collect what items you purchase, date, time, total sale, etc. All of these are examples of data points that may seem very generic but are, in fact, very useful to CVS. Analytics Analytics is the measurement and the discovery of patterns and trends garnered from your data. Analytics is how you make sense of your data and uncover meaningful trends. There is tremendous value buried in those massive data sets, but organizations are unable to unlock that value without the help of analytics. Analytics could be represented in the form of reports, KPIs, visual dashboards, and other business intelligence (BI) toolsets. Thinking about our CVS example from above, the collection of individual data points. But without taking the next step to analyze that data, the information doesn’t mean very much. By using analytics they can start to build a profile about you to understand how often you shop, your average total purchase, what items you regularly purchase, and how frequently you need those items. Analytics translates your singular data points into more meaningful information. Insights Insights are when people consume data and make observations, create hypotheses, and draw conclusions based on the data they just consumed. The real value of data and analytics lie in their ability to deliver rich insights. You can have infinite data points, but you need to be able to digest and organize that data in a way that allows you to pull out valuable insights. The best insights are actionable and prescriptive – they can be used to take immediate action that will improve your marketing strategy and donor journey. Once you’ve consumed your data and done some analysis of it, the next step is turning that analysis into actionable insights. For CVS this might mean they learn that you are most likely to shop during the week at lunchtime, you almost always shop for snacks and beverages but are also purchasing other household items as well. They know your favorite brands so you may start to see coupon offers for items that you frequently purchase or for other similar items under their brand to entice you to make a switch. They have taken your data, analyzed it, consumed the info, and are now able to make targeted offers that are likely to appeal to you as a shopper. In the world of non-profit organizations data, analytics, and insights are extremely important. The more data that you can collect about your constituents and their behavior the better you will be when it comes to creating a marketing strategy that speaks to your constituents in a meaningful way. Here is an example of how it is all tied together for something as simple as an end of a year email campaign: In our example the organization has just completed sending the first wave of its year-end appeal, which included an email segment. Data: 34,000 constituents with unique email addresses were targeted based on previously collected data. When someone responds to the email, we collect new data points about them. Analytics: When reviewing your email segmentation KPIs, you discovered there was an overall segment open rate of 21% and a bounce rate of 1.2%. Of the opened emails, 55% were on a mobile device and 18% gave with an average donation amount of $20. For the emails opened on a desktop, 20% gave with an average donation amount of $35. When compared to this time last year there was an increase of 10% of open rates on mobile devices. Insight: The rate of mobile device conversion rates have increased year to year by significant and indicates that increasing priority on mobile optimization, including email design, content, segmentation, and personalization in your marketing strategy. Insights are not derived from a crystal ball. Establishing the right discovery and analysis practices, combined with the right strategic tools, should help your organization to identify insights and then leverage them within your multi-channel marketing strategy. Contact BrightVine Solutions today, to assist with your multi-channel marketing strategy.

Once you’ve created a Blackbaud CRM™ marketing effort and sent your mail pieces out into the world, the exciting part happens. Responses start to roll in and they are entered into the system. Most organizations will probably have some particulars around how they track the success of an effort but Blackbaud CRM™ has a built-in tool that can help you understand your results. This feature is available to you once you Activate your marketing effort, after activation you’ll have a new link in your taskbar to Refresh the effort. The Refresh action takes a look at the revenue that has been entered into the system to see if it can be directly or indirectly attributed to the marketing effort. Once you refresh a marketing effort, if the system finds revenue that has been returned from the effort, the process will update the report within your effort to let you see the basics about how the effort is doing. Not only can you see how many people have responded, you can also see things like the amount raised for a specific segment, the average donation amount, etc. If you are tracking KPIs you’ll be able to see how you are tracking against these. Here’s a snapshot of a sample marketing effort that has had a few responses. Because I filled out the budget and expenses information for the mail Package, I’m able to see how I’m tracking against these costs in addition to donation information. What you’ll get from the report: Responders - Number of individuals who have responded In my example, my segments have had 2, 2, and 1 responder. Responses - Number of unique donations For the 1st segment where you see 2 responders and 3 responses, that means one of those constituents made two donations. Cost/dollar raised If you are setting up your package costs then this amount will be calculated based on what you entered vs. the number of donations. Total gift amount Calculated per segment but if you were to download this report you’d be able to sum the totals for all responses. Average Gift Amount - Total gift amount divided by the number of responses Response Rate - Responses divided by the segment quantity Lift - Lift is calculated as Response Rate over Total Response Rate - the ratio of the response rate for the segment to the response rate for the entire mailing. ROI Amount - Total gift amount minus Total cost for the segment ROI Percent - Total gift amount divided by the Total cost for the segment In addition to these basic calculations, if you are tracking KPIs in the system you can attach them to the marketing effort to measure against your goals. The report will calculate the following items. Expected cost/dollar raised Expected number of responders Expected gift amount Expected response rate Expected total amount Expected ROI amount Expected ROI percent At the bottom of the segment breakdown, you’ll also see additional information about indirect and unresolved responses. Indirect Responses - Gifts attributed to the marketing effort but not someone in the effort. You’ll see these if someone other than the person listed on the reply slip sends back a donation with the slip. In this case, gift entry can see the donation came back because of the marketing effort but the responder is not actually present in the marketing effort so the system cannot include it in the normal segment totals. Indirect responses should be included in your calculation of totals for the marketing effort. Unresolved Responses - Gifts attributed to the appeal but not the effort. These will often be present if you are using an appeal across many efforts. You will likely have to put on your investigator hat to determine if these responses should count toward the totals for the marketing effort or not. Refreshing an effort is something that you should do for a period of time after a marketing effort has gone out. As responses come in, the totals will update. Once you activate a marketing effort you could put it into a queue to do this Refresh on a regular basis, instead of doing it manually for each effort. Or, even better, you could install the Marketing Effort Refresh tool that Brightvine built. This tool will look at any new revenue that’s come in and build a queue of only the marketing efforts that need to be refreshed. Click to find out more about the FREE Marketing Effort Refresh Process Automation

Data conversion is an enormous task — not just in terms of the amount of information being transferred from one database to another like Blackbaud CRM™, but also the time and energy your staff will spend to make it all happen. Don’t let the size of the project distract you from the fact that it can be boiled down into a few (but important) steps. When you’re planning to convert new data into an existing Blackbaud CRM™ database, it’s important to consider four things: What data you should convert Where should that data live in Blackbaud CRM™ Can the data be improved And how you’ll know that you’ve successfully converted everything of importance. Let’s look at each one individually: 1. What can you convert? Look at the records that exist in the target database. Does the database you’re converting contain the same records? If the source database stores data that doesn’t have a logical home in the target database, decide if it makes sense to bring that data over at all. While hoarding data can sometimes feel like the safest thing to do, it may not be the smartest move if it perpetuates a junk-drawer approach to managing data. 2. What should you convert after giving it some attention? And when is the best time to tend to it? Having a place in the target database may not be enough to warrant converting data from the source database. If the data is incomplete or potentially incorrect, this could be an opportunity to start fresh with data you can trust to be accurate. If data is of value and can be cleaned and/or appended, determine where this cleanup will be easiest. Your options are pre-, mid-, or post-conversion, and certain cleanup may be easier to do at different stages of the conversion. The BrightVine Data Link can be an excellent resource for converting and transforming your data mid-conversion - after you've gotten out of the source system, but before it's committed to Blackbaud CRM™. 3. What is missing? Determine which fields are required in your target database and if the source database houses that data. If not, you’ll need to append that data during your conversion. Aside from writing custom conversion code, if you're using the BrightVine Data Link, you can stage data from your legacy systems and use those values to default or add the information required for record creation. Adding data as an attribute or as a default setting during your conversion are two options for adding the data required to generate a record. 4. How do you audit your conversion? While you want your source data to fit in nicely in the target database, you also want a way to distinguish the data from the existing data in your target database. Consider adding a prefix to record IDs such as constituent, revenue, and interaction lookup IDs. If you can easily query on the records you converted, you can accurately keep track of what you brought over. This will allow you to audit your conversion and ensure that you are migrating what you expect to bring over.

By: Bethany Avery & Pavan Nayini Have you ever needed to grant a user permission to run just one particular queue in Blackbaud CRM™, without giving them access to all queues in the list? Contrary to what many assume after browsing the queue permissions, this is possible with just a few simple Page Designer steps. Since the feature permissions for “running a queue” pertain to all queues, and cannot be partitioned one by one, the basic approach to this solution is to work around that fact by granting your user permission to run queues, but- rather than permissioning the standard datalist (which would, in turn, give them rights to all queues), you will configure a new task (named whatever you like) that points to the Recent Status page of just the queue you have in mind. For example: This task will take the user, not to the full queue list you’d typically see when clicking on “Queue” in Administration, but instead the instance of the queue you have in mind. So let’s break that down. To start, you’ll want to create a base system role to contain the basic Queue permissions. Typically this would include the “Business Process” feature which essentially allows someone to click start and run, and the View forms for the queues. Notably, this role should *not* include access to the main queue “task” (only the feature permissions), as the regular queue would in turn give them access to the full list. Here is a sample: From there you need to create a new task that your user(s) will launch the standalone queue from, and add this to the system role created above.To start, navigate to and drill into the desired queue; at the very end of the URL for that queue you will see a “record ID.” Copy that value to your clipboard as shown below as you’ll need to paste it into your configuration momentarily: To create the task go to Administration > Application > Shell Design >Tasks > Add. Enter the basics such as the name of the task, icon to display, and which functional area. Then, to point the task to the single queue, enter the following in the “Page” section: Page = Queue Process Page Tab = Recent Status ContextType = Expression Expression = the Record ID of the queue you copied above After saving the task, click “Refresh Shell Navigation” in the left-hand menu of Shell Design so that the new task becomes visible in the UI. You’re now 90% of the way there. All that’s left to do is add permissions! Simply go back to the System Role you created in Step 1, and on the “Tasks” tab of the role, add the task you just created. In my example I’d placed my task in the “Constituents” functional area, and named it “Customer Service Queue” which I find here: With that, you are all set and can assign the new role to the appropriate users. It’s always a good idea to test running as their use to ensure it’s visible and completes as you expect before handing it over. For my users their task looks like this: And takes them to this page: With this simple configuration, you can rest easy that teams have access to only the queues required for their daily responsibilities, without overexposing the full queue functionality that is so critical to most organizations' database integrity. For any questions with this solution, please reach out to our team.

by: Heather Todd Often projects close with a cheer and pat on the back, or in this age of social distancing, a virtual high-five. After the virtual high-fives, it is time for the project retrospective. The project retrospective is a review of a project and learning from both the successes and the failures so the team and organization can improve going forward. The timing and cadence of the retrospective are dependent on the size, scale, and complexity of the project. Retrospectives may occur at the end of a sprint/iteration, project phase, and/or project. Below are some best practice tips on planning your next retrospective: Preparation At the beginning of the project suggest to key team members to proactively keep a log with input and notes with specific examples for successes and challenges. It is difficult to recall specific things that worked well or that needed improvement at the end of a project. Especially if the project duration is lengthy. Identify, schedule, and invite participants: Invite everyone involved in the project, including internal team members, remote team members, contractors, technology partners, etc. Schedule the retrospective using video conferencing such as ZOOM, WebEx, or other platforms so participants can have a greater presence. Pre-session communication, which can be included in the meeting invite, to be sent out to participants beforehand with a link to a collaboration document to answer the project review questions with notes prior to the retrospective session: successes, what went well; challenges, what could have gone better; and what action items need to be taken to improve in the future. Recruit a neutral third party to help facilitate the meeting. This will encourage greater participation and uncover more insights. This could be a team member that has a facilitator or project management experience that was not directly involved in the project. Retrospective session Welcome, setting the stage, and creating a safe space Provide an overview of the retrospective goal and objectives. Review the project milestones, achievements, share any funny stories, and team “shout outs”. Lighten up the session and celebrate the good. Create a safe space: Make it clear to participants that everyone’s viewpoint needs to be respected. The questions use the word "we", rather than "I" or other singular phrases. The goal of a retrospective is to reflect on the team’s ability to collaborate and improve. Therefore, when a challenge arises, it isn't the fault of a specific team member, but of the team as a whole. Project review and discussion. Focus your questions on three main areas and document the thoughts in a collaboration document. Successes: What went well? Start with the positive. Have each team member write down what the team did well, and group similar or duplicate ideas together. Discuss each one briefly as a team. Success example: The API initial mapping was completed and sent to the team for review prior to the mapping session, which resulted in a productive and efficient mapping session. Challenges: What could have gone better? As the American Philosopher, John Dewey once said, “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” No project is perfect. In every project, no matter the complexity, you can find areas to improve. Often, the team will identify areas around communication that could use tweaking. Have each team member write down challenges, and group similar or duplicate ideas together. Discuss each one briefly as a team. Challenges example: The 8 am daily stand-ups were too early and regularly participants were late to join the stand-ups. Action planning: Identify specific ways to improve future work. Your team should engage in dialogue to identify possible remedies for the areas in need of improvement. The solutions should be as specific as possible. For example: The project manager or technical lead to schedule daily stand-ups at 8:30 am to ensure all participants attend. Turn each prioritized idea into an action plan. Get specific. Document who will do what by when, and when the team can check back to see results. Close, Results and Follow-up Thank everyone, recap what you’ve accomplished, and tell everyone when and how they can expect to see the meeting notes. As a final step before you leave, or in a follow-up email, get feedback on your meeting. You want to know if people found it useful and how to improve the meeting design next time. Document every retrospective and the outcomes your team agreed on. Include a list of who attended, the purpose of the project, and any other details to explain the context of the retrospective. The motivational aspects of celebrating wins, recognizing individuals, and encouraging growth takes the concept of “lessons learned” from a negative review of the past to a forward-looking meeting to improve the team's execution. By integrating the practice of retrospectives into the project management life cycle, teams are empowered to own their growth and leverage organizational knowledge.

by: Heather Todd Retired NBA player and coach, Phil Jackson once said, "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." A Blackbaud CRM™ implementation team effort is the sum of all individual members. Each team member has a role that contributes to the team’s implementation progress and success. Whether initiating a new Blackbaud CRM™ implementation, upgrade, or post-go live project, a Blackbaud CRM™ delivery is a team effort. Each of the team roles should be identified during an initiation phase with an Organization and Staff Management Plan to provide the project with the right level of staffing, skills, and management support through the project lifecycle. Who to include in an Organization and Staff Management Plan? It depends on scale, complexity, and organization governance. If a system implementation or a consider a project board or steering committee as well as identifying project roles. If a new customization, integration or upgrade, then only key project roles to be identified. Project Board/ Steering Committee If you are embarking on an implementation start with your project steering committee or project board. Identify who will be on the committee or board, define their role on the project. Include the role name, person fulfilling the role and responsibilities. For example Key project roles Key project team members identify each role by name, such as Project Manager, Subject Management Experts (SMEs), Developers, Testers, and detailed list of project responsibilities, which can be scaled from project to project. If required, highlight time commitments, include the project allocation percentage with a note that the allocation percentage will vary based on the project phase. TIPS: Create a project escalation matrix and tolerances. Be clear on how risks and issues will be handled by the project team and steering committee. Your committee will likely meet on a regular cadence during the implementation, such as monthly or twice monthly. Identify the process for when risks/issues/escalations occur outside the meeting with the name of escalation point, acceptable resolution time, and description of mitigation resolution and communication path. Staff attrition is likely during a project, the recommendation is that the organization and staff management plan document is amended to reflect staff updates. This will also assist with any onboarding or knowledge transfer with the new team member. Completing this exercise, for smaller projects is recommended, even if just the key project roles to assist with staffing needs and time allocation.

by: Heather Todd You scream, I scream, we all scream for testing? In the world of software, testing comes in many flavors: Data migration/conversion, system configuration, customization unit testing, QA testing, End-to-end testing, Performance, Disaster Recovery, Parallel testing, and more. But why do we test? What is the difference between a test strategy and a test plan? This blog post answers those questions and more. Why do we test? We test to find problems that risks the value of the platform, or that risks the on-time, successful completion of any kind of development work. We test to help the business, managers, and developers decide whether the platform or custom feature is working as per the business requirements. Approach to testing: Strategy vs Plan The below table reflects the high-level difference between a test strategy and test plan. Test Strategy Goal A technique to follow and which module/features to test.How to test, when to test, and who will verify. Objective Describes how testing needs to be executed (the approach). Level Organization/Platform Changeable No Management Project Manager/Business AnalystTest Manager Test Plan* Goal How to test, when to test, and who will verify. Objective Describes the scope, objective, and specific details on software testing. Level Project Changeable Yes Management Test Manager *Note, in a small project test strategy can be incorporated into the test plan. Test Strategy A test strategy is a high-level document that derives from the business requirements specification document. Usually, a project manager or a business analyst creates the test strategy to define software testing approaches used to achieve testing objectives. A test strategy document answers the following questions: What is the product? What part(s) of it should be tested? How should they be tested? When should testing begin? What are the start/end criteria? The main components of a test strategy are: The scope of testing Test objectives Budget limitations Communication and status reporting Testing measurement and metrics Defect reporting and tracking Configuration management Deadlines Test execution schedule Risk identification Test Plan A test plan is a document that describes what to test, when to test, how to test, and who will do the tests. It also describes the testing scope and activities. Usually, the Test Manager creates the test plan. If a smaller project, then the project manager or business analyst to create the test plan. The test plan includes the objectives of the tests to be run and helps control the risks. A good test plan should include the schedule for all necessary testing activities in order to control your team’s testing time. It also should define the roles of every team members so that everyone is clear about what is required of them. A test plan document should contain the following information: Test plan identifier Introduction References (a list of related documents) Test items (the product and its versions) Features to be tested Features not to be tested Item pass or fail criteria Test approach (testing levels, types, techniques) Suspension criteria Deliverables (Test Plan, Test Cases, Test Scripts, Defect/Enhancement Tracking system, Test Reports) Test environment (hardware, software, tools) Estimates Schedule Staffing and training needs Responsibilities Risks Assumptions and Dependencies Approvals

by: Heather Todd & Selena Fowler Fact: Over 46% of people read blog posts on their mobile device. That’s quite a large proportion of the population, and in today’s on-the-go digital environment it’s a statistical fact we can’t ignore, particularly when it comes to marketing and communications. Recency, Frequency and Monetary (RFM) direct marketing/behavioral segmentation and analysis has been a powerful method/ formula to identify, target, and score prospects and donors based on transaction history. But equally important are levels of engagement, constituent habits, and the cadence of their interactions with an app, website, or organization. So why is segmentation so important? Well, segmentation is a grouping tool that allows us to send targeted communications. And there’s nothing quite like making each individual constituent feel like the interaction they’re part of is meaningful, authentic, and worthy of their time and hopefully their money. Targeting communication allows us to personalize, predict and prioritize our contact with the constituent. Those of you who work in Higher Ed are very aware that the online interactions your young alums have with the University through social media, are a great place to start when it comes to predicting interest and intent. There are many software options out there that can help you identify the success of your Facebook and Instagram posts by measuring the interactions of individuals to your posts and photos; software that identifies the most engaged users from their online behavior. By tailoring your communications to their interests and likes, you reach for a higher level of success because behavioral segmentation allows you to target constituents at a more refined level than the previous broad category approach, leading to an improvement in messaging accuracy. Acquisition, engagement, and retention are all important factors to keep in mind when analyzing constituent/donor behavior. Understanding the ways your users can interact with your organization will help you accomplish a sustainable and constructive behavioral segmentation strategy. Take your Facebook page as an example, it’s a great place to test out a story. If your audience is engaged you’ll be able to judge by the number of “likes” or the number of clicks of a hyperlink whether it might lead to a great marketing email. And data analysis like this goes hand-in-hand with Predictive marketing, or looking to the future. Determining what strategies work with each of your segments will lead to greater success. Contact BrightVine Solutions today, to assist with your multi-channel marketing strategy.