Situation

• Our client, the distribution business unit of a major energy company, had been working jointly with a software vendor to develop and replace two of their mission critical systems, their outage management and SCADA systems
• The project was over a year late and millions of dollars over budget, with many perceived failures along the way
• The rollouts of both systems were rapidly approaching, but business executives and users were skeptical of readiness
• New executive sponsors had taken over the project and wanted an independent assessment of the project risks of delivery and the business readiness for the new systems

Solution

• We interviewed business sponsors, project leadership and external vendors, and reviewed project management documents
• Our final report included a description of the issues and risks identified as well as a plan of action to address them
• Our recommendations included:
• Adjusting the rollout schedule to mitigate resource loading risks
• Increasing the rigor by which they managed their software vendor
• Adding additional change management and training needed to address users concerns

Benefits

• The roll-outs completed to date have gone smoothly
• Going forward, the executives had a risk management framework and metrics to evaluate project progress and business readiness