Leading a Successful Software Implementation

Featured article by Mike McCarthy, Tools4ever

According to a recent report from BusinessWire, the market growth of identity and access management solutions is expected to be $5.18 billion over the next five years. Identity and access management solutions provide a competitive edge in many industries, including increased efficiency, better security and protection of corporate data. Organizations that haven’t implemented such technology may find themselves at a disadvantage when managing the data in their systems for a variety of reasons such as automating a manual process, and they may wish to consider taking immediate action.

IT leaders who aren’t well versed in the use of these solutions may find the vendor selection task daunting at first glance, for example, as is a clear conception when dealing with the implementation of any new software solution. However, this is only one reason for organizations deciding not to move forward with implementation.

Once the decision has been made to implement a solution, the following five-point approach should be considered, and adopted, to move the process forward. These five points provide a high-level overview of the short path to project success when implementing IAM or other software solutions.

Vision and Goals

Organizations must ask themselves what they really want out of identity and access management solutions (or other technologies) by asking and answering questions such as: What is the perfect outcomes scenario? Doing so may help IT leaders realize that much of what they want is easily achievable. Stated differently, this is the brainstorming phase. Leaders should not be afraid to think big. Poll and interview all concerned parties and maintain lists of priorities for further discussion and planning.

Critical Requirements

This is a critical path step for the project since the next step cannot be taken until at least one item has been identified and selected as a critical requirement. Projects have the propensity to linger in this stage for fear of missing a requirement or choosing incorrectly. This can be abated by keeping in mind that project requirements will shift over time and that it’s okay to start with the broad strokes; details often present themselves as the project evolves. Once some critical requirements have been defined two new questions must be answered: “What systems are affected by the project and who are the owners,” and “Are there so many requirements that a formal request for proposal (RFP) should be composed?”

Identify System and Project Owners

In practice, anyone deemed to be a system or project owner should be identified and included in the decision making process before the first step is taken. What this step really focuses on is formalization of accountability. Who in the organization is responsible for what aspects of the system? The question seems simplistic but the answer is quite deep. Identity and access management solutions touch processes in virtually every department within an organization and are often comprised of multiple sever technologies; e.g. directory, mail, application, web and database. How does an organization quickly answer questions like, “When a freelance consultant needs access to the marketing and service shares, plus Outlook active sync and web-based self-service enabled, who do I speak with to get answers?” The fact of the matter is answer may need to come from four different employees: marketing manager, service manager, Exchange admin and web master. Clearly illustrating pathways to this type of information prevents what would otherwise become repeating pools of unproductive time.

To Phase or Not to Phase

With steps two and three addressed, everything required to author a scope of work (SOW) is now in hand. It’s during this phase that an estimated implementation timeline should be constructed with specific delineation included for components, sub-components and milestones. Once a timeline has been established it should be scrutinized and cross referenced against pertinent employee calendars to verify availability. Depending on the answers to these questions it might make sense to phase the project; three quick wins may prove more efficient than a single gigantic one.

Begin

Yes, it can be that simple. You can always come up with a reason to delay a project. If you find yourself in this position don’t delay further, start taking action against your project plan right away.

The X factor in this path is selecting a partner because it can be attached to any step. However, not every vendor is aligned to provide the resources required to coach organizations through successfully completing each step. This can be for any number of reasons. Some organizations may be unable to provide the requisite consultancy services because of lack of appropriate staff or they have no desire to be involved in any stage prior to the implementation as per company strategy.

Mike McCarthy, technical services manager, Tools4ever, a global provider of identity and access management solutions.