Is this really a “Project Plan”?

Indeed the project plan items are real, necessary and valid but this is NOT a final project plan. What the sample project plan rows represent are raw “activities” and “milestones.” To convert them into a real project plan, you will still need to assign start and finish dates, mark dependencies, estimate effort, and align resources. That is when “Sample” project plan with a list of “items” will become an actual project plan.

How should we use the CRM Transformation Sample Project Plan?

A project plan is one of the critical ingredients for CRM success. More often than not, in every large (and sometimes medium-sized) enterprise, a cross-functional team of business/technology/architecture teams spend countless hours in conference rooms trying to whiteboard and write project plan items from scratch. The more time they spend on basic and obvious planning things, the more likely they will miss out on something unique and relevant to the project. Instead, using our CRM Software Implementation Sample Project Plan Items, you can focus on what’s different and unique about your situation. That is, you can spend 90% of your time on the 10% of the CRM Project Plan components that matter. And only 10% of your time on the 90% of planning items that are table stakes.

But, our Company is Unique – will it fit us?

Of course, you are unique but not as unique as a unicorn!
We understand and acknowledge each company is slightly different concerning some project planning approaches and methodologies. However, while there may be divergence at the edges, there is a lot of convergence at the core between most firms. At the end of the day, you conceptualize, plan, define, design, develop, deploy and run your systems – the differences may be in the relative emphasis on the critical processes as well as the development methodologies and project planning frameworks.

Last but not the least, we don’t expect our CRM Software Implementation Sample Project Plan deliverable (or any other sample deliverable, in fact) to fit you 100%. We expect you to take this set of project planning items as a straw model or a base set of project needs, and use them as a springboard to achieving the level customization and specificity in a project plan you desire.

If you need professional services help to tailor the project planning items into an actual project plan, based on your needs and capture your firm’s unique essence, we can also help. Contact Us for Advisory Service details.

But, what if we have a Project Plan already?

Well, in that case, either you can go with it, or if you need to validate and cross-reference, you will still find our Project Plan items valuable. After all, the price is less than the one-hour of time spent on the combined brain power assembled in the room.

What is my ROI?

The Value of Time Spent:

Typically, it takes a team of 4-6 to draft the Project Plan

Now you can multiply the average hourly cost of the team and the hours spent, and you’ll get the story.

Opportunity Cost:

In addition to the time spent and the associated costs of drafting routine Project Planning Items, you also have an opportunity cost.

By quickly adding/deleting/modifying the base set of the Sample Project Activities, it will allow you the luxury of spending the balance of your quality time in conceptualizing and crafting the unique and specific Project Planning Activities, based on your company’s project planning methodology.

Of course, let’s not forget the “Day Job” each of the SMEs (subject matter experts) could be doing, instead of spending many hours on this activity.

Acceleration:

Instead of spending countless hours stretched across weeks or months, you can have a baseline of Project Plan Items in a couple of sittings. That helps you expedite and accelerate the transformation planning.