A long (long) time ago, when I was blond-haired and considerably slimmer, my annual family holiday would be to some UK seaside destination where I would build sandcastles, put 2p coins in the one-arm bandits, eat fish and chips, and play cards in the caravan when it was raining. My Dad planned in advance, and in meticulous detail, the route we would take, felt-tipping it in our AA roadmap, when we would leave, which picnic areas we would stop at en-route, and when we would arrive. Petrol, tyres, water, and oil would all be topped up, and Mum would tick off endless lists of things to take, allowing for seemingly every eventuality, such as a bumper batch of homemade sausage rolls, an extra flask of coffee (“just in case”), torches, insect bite cream, and cagoules.
Decades later, and looking back, I can see they were great organisers and were mindful of all the potential “bumps in the road” that might throw us off course, or otherwise thwart our smooth trip towards the promised donkey rides. But the numerous toilet stops and sandwich breaks, the biro-tracing our route on the dog-eared map as we went on our way, and attentively listening to radio traffic reports, also meant we were regularly “checking in” to see how we were doing, whether we were still on track, and whether there were potential problems ahead.
But in today’s modern world of Apple Maps, and Starbucks at seemingly every motorway junction, and where wired-bound map books and Little Chefs are long-forgotten, planning and monitoring the journey are just as important.
Virtually all businesses would not dream of failing to prepare an income and expenditure budget for the financial year ahead, to help plan, inter alia, for the required people resources, necessary marketing activities, and cash needs for the journey ahead … and then use that budget to assess how they’re doing as the year goes by, monitoring actual performance against that plan, and then re-planning as required to take into account new opportunities or unexpected “bumps in the road”.
It should be no different for any major business activity; and particularly so a business systems change project in the construction industry which could span the entire organisation, all its processes and controls, and how critical data is prepared, stored, and analysed.
Just like that budget, it’s imperative to plan for a business systems change project, and to plan well. Determining the timings and the implementation approach. Preparing detailed project plans, with dates, activities, and required people, and getting those Outlook Calendars and Meeting Rooms booked well in advance. Establishing a comms strategy to keep everyone informed and engaged.
And just like management accounts, comparing actual financial performance against budget, it’s also vital to monitor – to pause, “check-in”, and look around you – on a regular basis to see how you’re doing, what’s new, what’s changed, what might go wrong, what you’re doing about things which have gone awry. And then assess that against the original plan, and determine whether that needs to be updated.
For your business systems change project, “monitoring” could include the following key control documents:
- A Risks Register, so everyone has visibility over the “big picture”: things which might go wrong (“risks”) and things which have gone wrong (“issues”), together with the mitigation steps / impact / corrective actions.
- An Issues Log. Held in a shared Excel document, or in SharePoint Lists, DevOps, or some other tool, this is very granular list where every single reminder, query, problem, User Acceptance Testing issue, or unknown is recorded. Consider analysing it by status, by module, by person responsible, by criticality. And keep it up-to-date (every day).
- A Changes Register to fully document formally-agreed alterations to the original plan. For example, requirements for new software features, changes to “go-live” timings, or a re-ordering of priorities.
- Prepare a Report to the Board / sponsoring stakeholders on a regular basis. Simply creating this document each month often helps to focus on where you’re up to on your implementation journey, because you know you’ll be asked questions if this document isn’t complete and crystal clear.
- Track costs in the original plan against actual progress and re-forecast regularly.
- Hold regular Project Team Meetings (perhaps last thing on a Friday, or first thing on a Monday helps focus everyone for the week ahead). Create a Teams Chat Channel for effective, quick-fire communications.
- Maintain laser-focus on the list of objectives which led to the original approval of the business systems change project. Assess whether they’re still on track to be delivered, and, if you’ve not done so already, document how you’ll know, or be able to measure, that they’ve been achieved.
- Finally, nearer “go-live” time, prepare and track a Cut-Over Plan which will help you with the most critical stage of your journey of all: when you actually come to the point where you leave your old systems behind and start using the new ones. More on this in a future blog article.
In my many years working in the construction industry and leading major business system change projects, the things that hit me the most were: how fast you have to grasp new knowledge and apply that; how intense the requirement is for decision-making; the criticality of the availability of internal resources, and how quickly the weeks and months go by. Without great plans, forecasts, and a selection box of monitoring tools, I know for sure those projects wouldn’t have been as successful as they were.
Thanks for the training, Mum and Dad!
Article Series
This is the fourth in a series of blogs about the systems change journey by Steven King, Eque2’s Head of Change Management. Steven is a Big Four-qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience in senior finance roles in construction businesses and groups. He has led major business systems projects within the industry several times, including at 4 of Eque2’s existing customers. Steven has the benefit of real-world implementation experience, super-user hands-on systems knowledge, and a record of success in delivering big change projects involving our solutions on-time and on-budget.
Read Now: Recognising the need for systems change within a construction business
Read Now: Making the systems change decision
Read Now: Fail to plan, plan to fail
Next time: Analysis (non-paralysis)
Eque2 provides modern solutions allowing all types and sizes of construction, contracting, housebuilding and maintenance businesses to manage the full lifecycle of a project from anywhere, on any device. For more information, visit www.eque2.co.uk or call us on 01628 702 702.