New Year Resolutions of a BPM project manager: Resolution #3

Resolution #3: I will execute "Lean" projects!

Our BPM & Imaging project began in Jan'06 and went live in 11 months later in Nov'06. We implemented BPM & Imaging system in our New Business area integrating BPM system with our new business data entry system, core insurance system, automated underwriting system and policy printing system. Besides integration, we also had to migrate our imagebase of applications from our existing system into the new content management system. However, the biggest challenges during the implementation were not really technology challenges but rather soft issues such as managing user expectations, ever changing user requirements and overcoming user resistance. I feel we could have done a better job at managing these by keeping the project lean. By lean project I mean the project with leaner scope, leaner timelines and leaner costs. In future, I will always keep the project timeline not more than 3-4 months; i.e. divide the overall project into multiple projects with smaller scope so that each sub-project can be completed in not more than 3-4 months!