Saturday, March 8, 2014

Project Review Report

CRM Project Review by NoMo


Gustavo suggested to Amy & Alva to share their thoughts about the meeting because they never did that. “What’s your view on that very first luncheon on CRM upgrade?” Gustavao asked looking towards Amy.

Amy started looking her watch with squeezed eyebrows.

Alva remarked that I must admit NoMo ordered my favorite dishes like Coxinha & acarajé along with coke for luncheon, but I can’t enjoy the food because of the agenda of the meeting pinching my mind.

Amy started rubbing her chin as if she is uncomfortable to describe the situation  even after so many months. She fumbling to say “um..!I was late for the lunch meeting and everybody was waiting for me. I remember NoMo cracked a joke that I have to sponsor for the next leadership party”.

NoMo
Amy continued once NoMo said “Bon Appetite” we started eating silently. I was rather sure that a bomb will drop on me due to poor fiscal management because major amount payment is released to vendor.”

Gustavo has a belly laugh and leaned forward with a request to light his Havana cigar from us. After a deep inhale Gustavo looked very relaxed. He passed a remark that it will be a long & an interesting story on how NoMo gradually tricked all of us to take the ownership of the risks & issues of the CRM project. 

Alva added that it appeared that NoMo is in a very cool mood and he asked his executive assistant, Mr. Gaby to present the new commercial on our latest product targeted for the older & retired segment.

Everybody also appreciated the theme of the commercial. Gaby captured all our observations and presented them on the screen to confirm that none is missing. NoMo looked quite pleased with the details of the proceedings and quality of outcome.

NoMo  appreciated Alva’s work for putting together such an impressive ad film while managing various internal and external teams for putting together the complete execution plan for product launch, including product strategy, development, operationalization, reports to track & measure the KPIs after products, distribution of FAQ to fields, training of people, coordinate for timely financial approvals for individual departments etc.” Amy added.
There was a pause for a few seconds.

Gustavo was enjoying his cigar. Amy was looking on her wristwatch. Alva got busy in counting the number of stars in the night sky.

I did a throaty laughter to bring their attention on the unfinished story of their lunch meeting with their MD.

Gustavo started talking in a very slow voice as if he is now in a different world “ Gaby, NoMo’s assistant projected the execution plan on the screen and there are no critical risk or issues. A mitigation & contingency plan exists against all risks. NoMo appreciated again the collective work. He also updated  the operation team confirmed him the deployment of the product in production".

Alva said that the much-waited blow came on us while we are middle of the discussion of the commercial and our lunch is almost over. 

NoMo spoke with a sharp tone folding his arms across the chest "Guys! Till 3 weeks back everything was OK with CRM upgrade. What went wrong and today you are all saying that it's a complete disaster. I think all your status reports are BS." 
                
NoMo continued with a forced smile  "As per your report we lost 23 m$ and 25 months. It is NOT OK with me. This project is part of our new go to market plan and we just cannot drop it like  hot potatoes. You have a mitigation plan for new product launch with a revenue target only 2 million, but none exists for the most critical project in our company. You all have just demonstrated outstanding synergy for a new product launch that includes IT department. Why there is a complete lack of synergy for CRM upgrade."

Ms. Alva responded, "Sir, it’s just a transformation project and IT had all the requirements. Mr. Ranga promised that everything will be taken care of."

NoMo started cracking of knuckles and responded in a deep voice to me “Alva. I’m sorry this is not a JUST IT project. This is critical for better customer relationship management for large corporate customers. In today’s world, we will stop to exist without a proper relationship management. Amy, why you released the payment and who authorized the release of payment?

"Sir, as per procurement policy, Mr. Ranga authorized the release of payment based on user acceptance testing." responded Ms. Alva in a feeble voice.

"Oh! Jesus! Is this the way we are running the company? Is this our blue ocean strategy? We want to reduce organizational bureaucracy, but that does not mean we'll have no governance in place?" Nomo thumped  the table.

"Mr. Ranga what's the status of your CRM upgrade project? NoMo asked using the speakerphone on his desk.

"Sir. Last week we closed the project. There were 5 open defects. Vendor confirmed three defects would be closed within the coming 2 weeks. Other defects will be closed with the next version because those are new features and part of their roadmap. We negotiated and got confirmation that those features will be free to use. Sir... we completed the project on time, everything delivered as per scope and acceptance completed."

"Look Ranga ! You are telling project is closed & user is tested the new version of CRM. However, all your internal customers and users are telling me that project is a complete failure. Why you release payment without asking your users? Isn’t this a total management failure?"....Mr. NoMo started screaming over the phone.

Mr. Ranga responded in a very steady and low voice" Sir! We published a detailed and summary report every week. We had weekly risk and issue management meeting. Where everybody was invited, but we have challenges in regular attendance from business & marketing team. We did 3 rounds of testing and total 7239 test cases executed. We also include scenarios as suggested by the business operation team."

NoMo sighed dejectedly with halfhearted shrug asked “How did lapse happen and I got to understand it yesterday only. Let’s get together after two days. I want to have a definite action plan from all of you on how we should recover without spending any additional nickel. Remember, it should be a joint plan like the new product launch.”

NoMo walked out of the room.

Editorial Summary from Babi: NoMo should be responsible to set up proper  IT governance within the organization to avoid any  projects failure. In next post, we'll see how  MD & CEO   set up a proper how to engage with IT team for success.

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