if required, exite will take the total responsability for the implementation of your ict solution out of your hands.

structure

large, complex projects are overseen by a programme manager.  during the entire life of the project, he/she is in charge of communication with the client and translating the client's needs to the intended solution.  moreover, he/she is responsible for controlling the project in terms of time, money, quality, information and organisation.  smaller, less complex projects are overseen by a project leader.

the organisation nominates a steering committee for the project, consisting of managers accountable for the result as well as other stakeholders.  the steering committee and programme or project manager jointly draw up the budget and plan, and approves the kick-off.  we highly recommend that the steering committee includes senior directors and board members, in order to take significant decisions expeditiously.

the project teams, depending on the size and complexity of the project, are composed of a programme manager, project leaders, experts on the matter at hand, ict architects, technical consultants, system engineers, testers, documenters and trainers.

in-depth know-how of the organisation is ensured by enlisting the very best experts from the organisation into the project teams, the so-called super users or expert users.  these ensure that the design matches the needs and requirements of the organisation, oversee the test results, and ultimately are the ones who on behalf of the organisation do accept and give their approval to delivered products.  we find it to be essential that your prime staff members are made available for these roles.

methods

as you are aware, there are several project methods in general use.  the exite experts are able to work with diverse current project methods.  here follow three examples.

• large organisations often rely on prince-2 for vast, complex projects.  there is nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately this method carries rather a lot of overhead, with all the costs associated.
• classic rapid application development (rad) is an iterative approach in which (a number of) small development teams simultaneously work to the product to be delivered in small, incremental steps.  in this manner, the super users in the teams can continually observe the growth of the products, allowing them to immediately steer clear of unintended results.  in our opinion, this method is especially suited to sizeable greenfield development projects.
• scrum is a more recent iterative project management method not only suitable for developing new software (usually by agile software development) but also perfectly applicable for managing maintenance and test trajectories.

reporting

periodically, normally every month, the programme or project manager convenes with the steering committee to discuss progress.  for such meetings, exite uses two standard reports which in a glance offer a comprehensive overview of the financial state of affairs and of potential threats to the planning.

• a standardised flash report with main financial facts, i.e. numbers realised vs. budget and so on.
  the report further covers in point form the deliveries, successes, windfalls, bottlenecks, problems, threats, exceptions, disappointments, and other issues the steering committee has to decide upon.
• a standardised dashboard which - in one A4 or A3 - offers clear overview and insight of the progress.