Implementation Bottlenecks

The Requirements are gathered, System Requirement Specification (SRS) has been jointly approved by both business and project team, Application has been developed as per the SRS and Technical Design Document (TDD), Tested as per the Test Plan but still the project is not progressing during User Acceptance Testing. Sometimes projects are stuck up at the implementation phase, few such reasons are listed as follows:

Non-involvement of Stakeholders: The key business stakeholders such as the sponsors of the project are the drivers. Their absence in general and during the project crisis situation in specific prove very detrimental for the project continuity.

Non-participation of end-user early in the project: The end users must be involved very early in the project development. Their non-participation in the early phases poses a huge risk for the project during implementation. Gaps in the requirement and scope of work are revealed at a very advanced stage leading to users’ rejection of the product.

Resistance to Change: Human beings are the biggest resistance to any change. New project implementation transforms the current organisation state into a future state. The existing organisation structures, power centres collapse to build a new structure. Few employees are dislodged from their existing position of privileges and powers enjoyed by them. The maximum resistance is experienced from such people in the organisation.

Inadequate User Training: Project implementation comes with a baggage of change. The existing structure, tools, technology, process, and workflows, etc. are rejuvenated with the new project implementation. This now calls for a very organized and efficient training of end-users to onboard them into the new system. End users with poor or inadequate training never demonstrate enough confidence for successful implementation of the project but rather cause difficulty.

New Technology: In the case of project implementation with a radical new technology, with a complete change in user experience, implementation difficulty is experienced. The end-user training on the new technology, user interface, and user experience is a must for a smooth and successful implementation.

Not Committing Adequate and Right Resources: Those who are entrusted with the responsibility of project implementation must be adequately knowledgeable and empowered to make decisions and drive the project. Also, the right number of resources must be allocated for smooth implementation. In absence of these factors project suffers from implementation bottlenecks.

Undefined Roles and Responsibility: Absence of Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) leads to chaos during implementation with either too many or too few (no one). RACI Chart, a common type of responsibility assignment matrix that uses Responsible, Accountable, Consult and Inform statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders/end-users in project activities helps resolve this issue.

No Deadline: In an ideal world, a mutually agreed schedule paves way for the business and project team to embark on the implementation. With no schedule and implementation deadline, both the teams fail to materialize the project in a timely manner leading to needless holdup.

Lack of Discipline: Even in a well-conceived project changes are suggested during the implementation phase. The scope management and change control framework instills the right disciplines to manage any such eventualities. However, in case of lack of such disciplines, incessant changes are requested and implemented without much care for the product. This leads to the failure of the project during implementation.

Underestimating the Scale & Impact of Change: Many projects suffer due to conflicting parallel initiatives within the organisation. Proper Prioritization & Coordination among different initiatives are required to ensure that the said Project implementation not adversely impacted.