“What should our project team look like?”
It’s a good sign when a business about to undertake a D365 F&O implementation asks this question.
The fact is, selecting and contracting an implementation partner (aka system integrator) is only one part of the puzzle when it comes to getting underway with your project. Successful projects require an investment of people and time from the business as well.
To be clear, this is not about trying to do the implementation in-house; that’s a whole different (and potentially high-risk) approach. Rather, this is about collaborating properly with your chosen partner, and ensuring they have all the information they need to make your project a success.
This is best achieved with a combination of:
- ambitious, knowledgeable, and change-minded secondees from the core business, ideally on a full-time basis; and
- experienced contractors, who bring knowledge of both the D365 F&O platform, and the implementation lifecycle.
But how many people do you actually need? And what sort of skills should they bring? Let’s look at three different scales of implementation to consider some ideas for resourcing:
Small scale
Of course, there’s no straightforward, cookie cutter answer to this question, because teams depend on the individuals that they comprise, and by their very nature, individuals bring different knowledge, skills and experience.
However, if we start with a team for a simpler implementation for a smaller business – with a total budget around £2m or less – we might reasonably expect to see the following full-time roles:
Project manager
Recognised today as a critical component to any initiative that is not “business as usual”, a project manager holds the team to account, and focuses everyone’s minds on the project’s tasks and objectives, guided by the project management triangle; the critical balance between time, cost and quality. They are accountable to the project sponsor.
Product manager / Solution architect
This individual can go by many names, but the principle is the same; they are responsible for owning the solution as a whole. This means full understanding of all integrations and cross-workstream aspects, together with one eye on the product roadmap and another on the key focus areas of each workstream. A product manager might be accountable to the head of IT.
Business process owners (BPOs)
These key individuals represent each of the operational pillars or workstreams of the business. Depending on the business, this might include procurement, finance, HR, projects, or manufacturing. Regardless, they should be acutely aware of the unique challenges of the business and should either be the subject matter experts themselves, or well-connected to the people who are. Business process owners commonly evolve into trainers and/or super users as a project goes live.
Remember these are all full-time client-side team roles, who should be prepared to work with the implementation partner, on behalf of the business. They should also be expected to interface with IT colleagues, nominated testers, and other such part-time project members.
The middle ground
We’re stepping up a gear now, with a model for a medium-sized project, maybe with a budget circa £5m. Here are some of the additional client-side roles we can start to expect in a project for a bigger business:
Project support officer
The bigger the project, the bigger the task to manage it – even the best project managers need help! This role may be another individual, or it may be a centralised PMOProject Management Office More with standardised tools and processes. As a rule of thumb, 20% of your overall project team should be P3MProject, Programme and Portfolio Management More resources.
Change manager
The bigger the project, the more impact it will have on business as usual when it goes live. The inclusion of a professional change manager will ensure that key areas of impact are correctly identified and communicated to the wider business.
Technical lead / Integrations manager
In the smaller scale implementation, this responsibility sat with the Product manager / Solution architect, but larger implementations typically mean more integrations, calling for a dedicated lead for this area.
Data lead
In the smaller scale implementation, this critical area might be shared between the Product manager and BPOs. A specialist becomes more important as the scope increases and hence the volume of data.
Test lead
This might be a part-time role or just reside within the Project manager’s remit on smaller projects. For our medium-sized model, expect a dedicated test manager, who instinctively understands all the phases of testing, as well as areas like accessibility and non-functional concepts.
Training lead
If you’re looking for a compromise, the responsibility for the training of all your staff on the new system could be owned by your Change manager, in conjunction with the BPOs. However, a dedicated training manager will bring the discipline of training needs analysis, and learning design, as well as having a finger on the pulse of the best new ways to impart knowledge.
Although the organisation chart doesn’t reflect it, there’s a strong case for splitting the Solution architect and Product manager roles at this scale, as the remit grows.
N.B. I’m conscious that reporting lines can be very subjective, especially in “non-hierarchical” organisations. The mapping here is purely indicative of what might be.
Full enterprise
We’re now entering the territory of big businesses, such as listed companies and/or global corporations, with project budgets well into double figures. There’s no sample organogram here, because the options are just too many and varied.
Programme director
Going by the book, a programme is a group of projects with a common purpose, not just a large project. Nevertheless, when an ERPEnterprise Resource Planning software is used by businesses to manage day-to-day activities. More project gets to a certain size, there is a tendency to start calling it a programme. In our large scale team model, this role is the new head honcho, potentially reporting directly to the board.
Project managers
We can now expect to have multiple project managers, which correlates somewhat with the concept of having a programme director. Each project manager in our large scale implementation will likely have responsibility for different areas, be that countries, workstreams, or even individual process areas.
Integrations team
At this scale, our technical lead needs more hands, so their team might have responsibility for certain named integrations or specific technologies.
Data team
Similarly, the volume of data in a project of this size can be astronomical, so sharing the load of different datasets across a team is beneficial, given the number of ETLETL (Extract, Transform, Load) is a process that extracts data from sources, transforms it for analysis, and loads it into a database. More rules and data fields to be understood.
Training team
When we reach enterprise scale, there is value in having dedicated trainers. These might be aligned to specific workstreams, or have specific training disciplines, such as elearning developers.
Security lead
Security is a huge topic in D365 F&O (and ERPEnterprise Resource Planning software is used by businesses to manage day-to-day activities. More in general), so when you’re operating at scale, it can be prudent to include a lead in this area, to ensure the whole team are keeping access controls and segregation of duties in mind.
Conclusion
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to building your in-house team for a D365 F&O implementation project, but if there were to be a rule, it would be to absolutely ensure you do have a comprehensive in-house team.
Would you instruct a painter to decorate your home, but not even tell them what colours you do and don’t like. Of course not! You’d get swatches, try testers, and keep a keen eye on the overall progress.
A useful rule of thumb that I like to work by, is aiming to mirror the partner’s resourcing on a near one-to-one basis.
Be sure to consult multiple sources, including your implementation partner, to determine the right approach for your project – and as ever, be prepared to change as the project progresses and the landscape evolves.
…If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… the A-Team.
John Ashley’s opening narration to The A-Team