During implementation, the initiative owner needs to be across key initiative components:

• Actions: Manage weekly actions (short term actions needed to complete main plan steps)
• Issues: Manage implementation issues and escalate issues if needed
• KPIs: Update process/risk KPIs throughout implementation to see if initiative is working and no adverse results
• Risks: Review risks to determine if existing risks can be closed out or new implementation risks have been identified
• Initiative health: Define if initiative needs help and, if so, what help is needed (based on progress on actions, issues, KPIs and risks)
• Workplan: Update plan steps as each step is completed
• Impacts: Update impacts with actuals at ‘Delivering’ and ‘Locked-in’ gates
• Gates: Submit initiative for approval at ‘Delivering’ and ‘Locked-in’ gates

Whilst this list can seem daunting, in practice most of the daily effort is actually on managing the actions and issues required to complete the main plan steps in the implementation work plan and ensuring that the process/risk KPIs are meeting target.

Updating workplan steps, risks and initiative health status might happen briefly at the end of each week before weekly progress reviews whilst updating gates and impacts might only happen every 4 weeks or so (gate progress is an output of the workplan progress and similarly impact progress is an output/lagging KPI showing the overall outcome).