Keep it small

It is very tempting at the beginning of a project to include loads of things in scope and plan a big-bang deployment. However, this is rarely the best way to deliver change, especially in the IT arena. Where possible, packaging the change into smaller, interim deliverables supported by full testing is a safer and more robust approach to implementation.

F R O M S M A L L A C O R N S . . .

When Paula Gardner set up her public relations (PR) business in 2002, she started small. In fact, she started marketing her etraining course in PR for small businesses even before it was written. This step-by-step approach has let her grow her business in small increments, learning from the experience as she went along.

Once a few clients had booked that first course, aware that it was part of a pilot, Gardner wrote the course material and launched www.doyourownpr.com properly. She used the pilot group to refine the course. ‘After the course, I asked for feedback by email and about 70 per cent of participants replied,’

she says. ‘By leaving it open, I got a great range of answers. My clients are time-poor so I don’t get a good result from structured questionnaires.’

The pilot and the feedback Gardner got afterwards allowed her to refine the ecourse in two ways. First, she honed the content, including things people had asked for and making sure all the terminology was explained clearly.

She made sure she was delivering exactly what her clients wanted. ‘I went right back to basics after reading the feedback,’ she says. ‘For example, I assumed people knew what a press release was, but in response to my clients’

comments I made sure I included a clear description.’

Second, Gardner made changes to the way in which the course was rolled out. She put up the price to £99. All the pilot participants had to start the modular course at the same time, and Gardner emailed them instalments as a group. The next group of customers had to wait until the next course was due to begin before they could start. ‘I invested about £2000 in my website and software to enable clients to enrol and start the ecourse on a date that suits them,’ Gardner says. ‘Many clients sign up on a Friday and want to start on the Monday, for example. Now they can.’ This change to the deployment methodology made a huge difference to the flexibility and marketability of the course. Gardner supplements that by ringing every client when they enrol to help them make the best of the ecourse.

From a small initial rollout, Gardner has seen over 450 clients take the ecourse in PR. She has also used continuous feedback to launch other courses in networking, writing articles for the media and newsletters, with each launch drawing on the experience of the previous ecourses. The company

Project Management in the Real World

has continued to grow, with Gardner adding coaching and consultancy to her portfolio.

The key to getting it right first time is keeping it small to begin with. When you plan the scope of your project, do not be tempted to include too many things. You can always have a phased approach, where your first project delivery (and so your first scope statement) covers a small portion of what you would ideally like to do, and then add subsequent phases to manage the rest of the rollout. There are very few projects that would not benefit from a pilot or proof-of-concept stage at the outset, so consider including one in your project scope. Rolling out a new system to a handful of users, asking them to test it rigorously and then making changes based on their feedback, is a lot easier than deploying the system to everyone and then managing the internal communications, bad publicity and general ill-feeling when you implement the fixes later. Your users will be asking themselves: ‘Why would this latest update be any better?’

H I N T

Piloting is also a way to contain costs. Identifying problems early gives you the chance to manage them when they are still small and can be corrected without significant cost.

T H E S I X S T E P S O F P I L O T I N G

(i) Establish how a pilot could add value to the project by mitigating risk.

(ii) Get commitment from relevant stakeholders.

(iii) Define the evaluation criteria for the pilot: how will success be measured?

(iv) Produce a project plan and other project management deliverables.

(v) Deliver the pilot: run it for a predetermined length of time.

(vi) Evaluate the success based upon the criteria established in step (iii).²²

Although being able to test functionality is normally the main reason for a phased deployment, keeping it small also allows you to learn from the implementation process. The system might be great, but could you tweak the training material? That branch opening was a success, but when the bigger branch opens could you get more local press coverage? The new product is selling well to a trial group, but how can you act on customer feedback regarding service? Take the lessons from customer feedback about the end product and the feelings of your users with regard to the deployment process to inform and improve the next phase of the rollout. Complaints are a gift:

someone has given you the chance to tweak the product and get it right before you unleash it on your customers and to confirm that all the snags

Keep it small

in the implementation plan are ironed out before you go for a huge launch.

The benefit of starting small is that you have the opportunity to make things better for next time. Use it!

G O L D E N R U L E S

Putting a pilot or proof-of-concept stage in the scope of your project and/or planning a phased rollout will allow you to fully test both the deliverables and the implementation approach, so you do not lose the support of your project customers by delivering something that is not fit for the job.