Here’s a blinding flash of the obvious that you may find useful (I do): an implementation is not a project. Sure, you can (and should) use various project management tools such as schedules and risk management when you’re implementing a new initiative. But here’s the problem: projects are defined as “temporary endeavors” and implementations aren’t. The difference is that some activities in an implementation should never be “done.” At what point should you stop measuring how you’re doing? At what point do you stop communicating expectations and results? These are activities that should continue into the future.

So go ahead and construct your implementation plan, but keep another plan too — your ongoing activities. Call it a “communication plan” or a “sustainment plan.”

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Change Management, Project Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.