Fresh off of a deployment to 400 users where we simultaneously merged source systems, developed a data warehouse using technology that was new to the team, and built multiple dashboards sourced from the new warehouse. We were building the plane as we flew it, and we accomplished all of this work in just over 3 months. If this sounds like an aggressive project to you, you’re right.
Our team was staffed* with 1/4 project manager, 2 Tableau developers, 2 1/2 data warehouse staff, 1/2 database manager, and 1/2 Tableau Server administrator. The project had the full support of executive management and was even viewed as a key piece of the business’ go-forward strategy. We had support from numerous subject matter experts (SME), from Accounting & Finance to Sales & Sales Operations and their associated supporting technology teams. These SMEs were key to helping us understand the data and use it appropriately.
Despite an aggressive deadline of just 16 weeks, we had enough assets on our side to achieve success. These are some of the lessons that I will take with me.
* Headcount is adjusted to reflect partial assignment of staff that was concurrently assigned to other projects.
Immovable deadlines can be a good thing
With 16 total weeks allowed to accomplish a ton of work, we were forced to be focused and efficient. We had zero tolerance for scope creep, delays, and unresponsiveness of those we relied upon. Because our leadership knew the deadline was aggressive, we had their full attention to help us move beyond barriers and to support us where we needed it. Because our SMEs knew the deadline was immovable, we were able to get on their calendar when others couldn’t. On a number of occasions, they organized destination meetings so that we could discuss the project with their entire team all at once. This was done to protect our time from multiple smaller, time consuming meetings and it proved effective.
Mountains can be moved when the right executives are on board
On a number of occasions we were forced to escalate issues that were obstructing our progress on the project. Among these issues were: we couldn’t access a significant portion of our data, our testers couldn’t get access to the dashboards, rules around the data changed mid-way through the project, and essential employees weren’t reliably available, among other issues. Because we initially had the full support of one key executive, and later many, all of those obstacles were surmountable. It is certainly worth the effort to do a thorough sales job on the front end of the project to ensure that the support will be there when you need it.
Project Management cannot fully replace commitment to the project
Despite having a highly capable, engaged Project Manager on the team and despite having consistent weekly status meetings, we could have done better. A subset of the project team attended project meetings, reported out on issues that they faced, and received support, while the remainder of the team was not in the room. The staff on the project reported up through three different chains of command and they were committed to attend their own status meetings aside from this project. Some members of the team did not buy in to the success of the overall project, but were focused only on their individual contribution. This did not help coordination among the team and nearly resulted in a missed deadline.
Online surveys are your friend
When the project began, we knew who our customers were and we had an idea of what their needs were, but we needed to hear their voices directly. An online survey proved to be the most efficient way to accomplish this. Not only did it provide the specific input that we needed to design the dashboards, it also provided the support we needed when particular items were challenged along the way. We were able to point to customer feedback that supported our plan. This information was worth its weight in gold, and by making it easy on people to complete and submit the survey, we were able to collect feedback from a broad sample of our future users.
Did we do everything right? Certainly not. But, overall the project is viewed as a raving success. To have accomplished as much as we did in as little time as we had, with as many complexities as we faced was nothing short of impressive. I’m proud to have been a part of it. The work we accomplished will benefit the business for years to come. To find out more about managing an efficient, effective analytics project, email us at info@empowerboc.com.
Melanie Manning is the founder and Managing Director of Empower Business Optimization Consulting in Atlanta, Georgia. After a 20-year career in corporate finance and operations, Melanie recognized the value of business resources who could see the big picture and were also capable of implementing BI solutions. To address the need, she founded Empower with the mission of supporting growth through analytics. Melanie earned a degree in Finance, with a focus in Mathematics, from the University of Florida and an MBA, with concentrations in Finance and Management, from Emory University. After Emory, she went on to earn the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.