Have you been selected to manage a Kronos project in your organization? Congratulations! Leading a Kronos project is challenging, fast-paced and sometimes trying. But in the end, it’s a lot of fun to cross the go-live finish line with your team and deliver a unique and valuable WFM solution to your organization.
I’d like to share with you some project management methods and tools I’ve found useful in large and complex WFM implementations and upgrades.
Initiating your project (sometimes called the chartering phase)
Requirements Definition phase: clearly defining the features of the system you’ll be building
Then onto the Design phase
The Development phase—where you Build the solution
The Testing phase such as: Unit, System, Integration, User Acceptance and Parallel
Deployment phase: which is going live with your Kronos solution
Scope – what will be included in this project, and what’s not included
Schedule – determining the time needed to deliver the requirements
Cost – also known as budget. The cost of all resources needed to complete project tasks
Your Kronos project is being undertaken to create a unique result for your organization. The project must meet the specific requirements for your users and business processes. During the initiating phase, you may want to pinpoint key success factors for the project; and it’s helpful to describe both the current state, and the future state. In your project charter, specifically list what problems you are trying to solve.
Examples of Project Success Factors: Current Future
-More relevant data to Management quicker Labor hours posted weekly Labor hours posted daily
-Supervisors spend same amount or less time 2 to 4 hr/wk 1 to 3 hrs/wkprocessing payroll and scheduling activities
As you build your charter, it becomes a pact between all involved—the project team, sponsors, and all users of the Kronos tool—describing the parameters of engagement for the project.
Throughout your project you’ll want to identify and continually revisit project risks (potential points of failure—causing your project to not go as planned), issues, dependencies and constraints. And I’ve found it’s important to be discussing these critical project deliverables early on in the project:
Determining your Testing approach,
Developing Training tailored specific to all users, and
Change Management: How will you manage the change that this Kronos project brings?
We’ll dig deeper into the project phases in future posts, but now I’d like to hear from you. What project phase are you currently in—Chartering? Building the solution? Testing?
And what’s your greatest project management challenge now? That is, what’s keeping you up at night?
Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below. Thanks!
Here’s to your successful project planning,
Cindy
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