Organizational readiness, operational readiness, op model, change management…
There are many labels for readiness in the industry but the end objective is the same…ensure the client is ready to take over what consultants will be leaving behind. More often than not, however, readiness becomes a game of hide and seek with looming deployment timelines driving project teams to call, "Ready or Not, Here We Come!"
In every project I've worked on, the approach to readiness has been tackled from multiple angles, all of which have claimed victory in some way, shape or form. What is ironic is that although readiness should be at the top of the list from a delivery perspective, it is almost always an afterthought. Out of the gates, everyone talks about readiness and the importance of getting ahead of it. With each new project, I consistently hear the same themes, "we need to engage technology out of the gates in the analysis phase," or "we need to get as many business users as possible involved in testing" or, my personal favorite, "we need to lock everyone in a room to draft all workflows and procedures in the next two weeks"…sound familiar? Unfortunately, with the pressures of project timelines, readiness is always the first thing to get pushed and continues to get pushed until people start asking the dreaded question, "Are we ready?" and the scramble begins.
The concept of readiness can be daunting, but once you weed through the noise and identify the various components, readiness can easily be built organically throughout each phase of the project lifecycle. Breaking off smaller chunks vs. a big bang approach allows for early engagement, which not only results in consistent participation, alignment, and accountability but also fosters collaboration amongst the project, business, data, and IT teams.
With proper planning, readiness activities begin in the analysis phase of a project. Identifying key business processes and process owners, reviewing and documenting current state and identifying the consumers/recipients of these processes are the first steps towards readiness. As projects progress into design and development, readiness activities will also progress. Identifying changes or new processes, working with managers to start development plans for staff to support these processes, creating process flow documentation, identifying training needs and building a training plan are all examples of taking readiness to the next level.
Continuing this approach through testing and deployment vs. trying to tackle everything at the end of the project lifecycle makes for a much easier transition to BAU and demonstrates to the client that we have a vested interest in their ongoing success.
As consultants, we have an obligation to the client to deliver and readiness is a critical component of any project's success. With the appropriate focus and discipline, readiness is a natural progression through the project lifecycle and is driven by early client engagement across all impacted teams. When executed properly, your readiness planning and subsequent transition to BAU will have you calling "Olly Olly Oxen Free!"
