8. Lack of Adequate Testing
Problems will always pop up if you haven’t adequately tested not
only the completion of your project, but also the use cases of those who will
be interacting with the software on a daily and periodic basis moving forward.
Be sure to build a test plan that includes both the day-to-day activities and
the periodic activities – financial reporting, currency revaluation, patch
application, and so forth – so that ongoing product support and success isn’t
compromised. Make sure that your testing includes reports, upstream and
downstream interfaces, customizations, enhancements, and workflows. Be sure to
budget for testing resources in your up-front planning and resource allocations
as well.
9. Change of Personnel
Especially for long-term and complex projects, it’s inevitable
that the people involved will change. Key people get hired away, change
organizations, quit, retire, or otherwise leave the project. Without adequate
planning, documentation, and role definitions, these personnel changes can not
only grind execution to a halt but also make it incredibly difficult to pick
back up the project and/or key components without adversely affecting execution
and budget.
Ensure not only complete documentation of each contributor’s
role but also ongoing status reports of what’s been done, what’s left to do,
what issues new personnel need to be aware of, etc. If possible, ensure that
comprehensive transition reports and meetings between departing and incoming
personnel are completed as well.
10.
Trying to Implement Overly Complex Solutions
It is tempting in many Oracle EBS implementations to
over-engineer custom solutions, especially when unique business needs and
requirements are involved. However, the more custom you make your
implementation, the more you get away from the core functionality of E-Business
Suite, and the more difficult future implementation and execution will be. Don’t
assume that what couldn’t be done two, three, or five years ago can’t be done
now. Start with your business requirements and research specific solutions on
the current market that can more elegantly address your needs while staying as
close to the native functionality of Oracle and E-Business Suite as possible.
11. Not Understanding
the Business Drivers for Change
Too often, IT projects become a standard part of doing business
(especially in large organizations) without being rooted in business drivers
and objectives. Take the time up front to plan the project and to ensure
consistent understanding and consent on the business drivers requiring change.
Engage the business users directly, at the beginning of and
throughout the project, to avoid isolating IT projects from the business users
and their objectives. Leverage your product champion and ensure the right
people are all engaged and on board up front. The IT department of one of our
large customers had planned to consolidate their instances for several years;
however, it wasn’t until the business made a case that the project got funded.
Just as important, keep those business drivers top of mind for
the entire execution team over the course of the project to ensure that changes
and triage don’t happen in a vacuum. Constant reminders of business drivers
help to prevent consideration of overly-cumbersome changes when a more elegant
implementation (simpler reporting, single instances) can serve the same
purpose.
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