First, why even create an implementation plan ? what do we achieve ?
The main reason for completing a good implementation plan is to provide key stakeholders with sufficient information to make a ‘Go’, ‘No Go’ decision allowing the initiative to proceed into implementation.
Up to this point the initiative has been largely theoretical. If it’s agreed that the initiative goes into implementation, resources will be allocated, costs will be incurred, and processes changed resulting in both benefits, hopefully, but also potential adverse impacts depending on the risks.
This is a critical decision – especially given that some initiatives may carry risk or be hard to reverse once underway. The implementation plan is effectively a ‘business case’ with the required information to make the decision including:
- Benefits – what’s the upside ? what will we get ?
- And costs, risks and dependencies – in other words what’s the downside – both in terms of expected costs but also what could go wrong in terms of risks or dependencies ?
A second reason for the implementation plan is to enable stakeholders to understand resourcing requirements – essentially
- Who is needed ?
- For how long ?
Stakeholders can determine if the workload can be absorbed into existing resourcing or if additional resourcing is needed.
Lastly – the implementation plan provides a high level workplan defining key milestones which:
- Allows stakeholders to check nothing significant is missing from the workplan and that the major work tasks and milestones include the critical work tasks needed to deliver the intended benefit whilst also mitigating any significant implementation risks.
And also…
- Enables progress tracking during implementation by providing a set of critical dates against which progress can be tracked and reported.
There are five key components of a good implementation plan:
- A good description of current state and future state – so we know what we’re trying to do
- ‘Measures of success’ – defining the goals of the initiative
- Tasks and milestones – defining the work plan itself
- Key risks – identifying major risks and actions to address those risks
- Ownership – both by the sponsor and also the initiative owner
Read more of our blogs for further detail on each of these components.