DATA MANAGEMENT

This is the last blog post as part of the blog series explaining the top five influencing factors on a MDM project plan. In this post, it will be described how the size of the MDM problem influences a MDM project plan.

The size of the current MDM problem is related and similar to the requirements and priorities factors. During the initial discussions and analysis across the different departments within an organisation the interviewees and stakeholders may point out various issues which helps to identify all the current pain points. After the analysis you should get a good picture how big the problem is. Based on this, you may want to put some of those problems at a higher priority to deal with them first. The project plan needs to take this into consideration.

Furthermore, the size of the problem may also mean that the organisation wants the MDM consultant to resolve especially the major issues as soon as possible. So this information is something that the MDM consultant should share with the Project Manager so that he/she can devise the MDM project plan accordingly (if possible).

Depending on the size of the problem, this could also mean a longer time to implement MDM within the organisation. Similarly, it could mean that more resources may be needed – either throughout the entire MDM implementation or more likely at certain phases of the project.

With this said, this ends here the series of blog posts explaining the top five influencing factors of a MDM project plan.

The next aspect which influences a MDM project plan are the priorities an organisation has.

A MDM consultant and project manager may create a project plan which will incorporate best practices of implementing MDM solutions. Those best practices may suggest a specific order in which the MDM solution should be implemented. However, if the organisation has priorities then the project plan may need to be created accordingly.

For instance, a business which is not familiar with the concepts of MDM may first want to test the water by trying a small MDM pilot project. In this case, the MDM project plan should include this pilot project.

Similarly, various deliverables will be made as part of the MDM solution. If there are other projects being implemented which need the master data, then the project plan must take this into account and the MDM delivery time lines must be aligned with the projects’ time lines.

These are just some examples how priorities from an organisation may influence the MDM project plan. There are others which could be added to the list, but this gives a few examples of those priorities.

In the next and last post of this series of blog posts the last factor influencing MDM project plans will be explained; size of the problem. The blog post will be published in the next few days. So watch the space!

Following from the previous two blog posts, this post will explain the next factor which influences a MDM project plan; the requirements.

It is self-explanatory that requirements influence a MDM project plan – and any other type of project plan. However, what is worth noting is to be aware of anything that may impact the MDM project or requirements included in the plan.

This could include future projects. If so, it is important to find out essential details about those projects such as their purpose, architectural impacts, what impacts it will have on the MDM system, what data it will be using, project time lines etc. All this will help to align the MDM project plan with such other projects in the pipeline.

In the next few days the fourth blog post will be published as part of the series explaining the five factors impacting MDM project plans. The next blog post will explain how an organisation’s priorities influence MDM project plans.

Following on from the previous blog post, this post will explain how constraints on resources impact MDM project plans.

Resource constraints are similar to time constraints and therefore cost organisations money. Managers within the organisation may think that resources should be employed on tasks to maximise the value they get out of paying employees a monthly salary. Hence resources may only be made available to contribute to the MDM project for a short period of time or only part-time basis. This can be challenging and must be taken into consideration in the MDM project plan particularly if those resources are valuable to the execution of the MDM implementation.

Related to the above point and assuming that an organisation does have resources available for the MDM implementation, the next question is whether the resources have the right set of skills that are required for the MDM project. If not, then new resources must be recruited who do have the relevant set of skills needed for the MDM project.

Therefore when creating the MDM project plan it is important to be aware of any such constraints on resources. There  are obviously other questions around resource constraints, but this blog post only explained the most common challenges around resourcing when drawing up the project plan for a MDM implementation.

In the next few days another blog post will be published as part of the series explaining the five factors impacting MDM project plans. The next blog post will explain how requirements influence MDM project plans.

The diagram on the left shows the top five factors which influence a MDM project plan:

• Time
• Resources
• Requirements
• Priorities
• Problem Size

Each of these factors will be explained in detail as part of a series of blog posts over the next new few weeks. So watch this space!

To begin with, this blog post will explain in detail how a MDM project plan is influenced by time constraints.

Like any other IT project plan, MDM project plans are also influenced by time constraints. A MDM implementation usually takes anywhere from six months to two years with some implementations exceeding this time frame occasionally.

If you are putting together the project plan you may derive a plan which goes beyond the two year time limit. This may be for very legitimate reasons. However, to be able to convince the business sponsors to invest into the MDM initiative and bring them on board, it is best to create a MDM project plan which does not exceed beyond two years for several obvious reasons. One of the reasons is that it implies more costs associated with the MDM project. Another reason is that depending on the size of the company, a number of other projects may be in the process of being implemented or planned for the near future which will be impacted by the MDM solution. In order to keep pace with the evolution of the IT infratructure – both software and hardware – within the organisation, a two year time period is possible to plan for and is predictable. Predicting what projects and infrastructure changes will take place beyond this is not impossible, but is more difficult.

In case the project does go beyond two years it is probably a good idea to use some project management strategies to keep the implementation time frame below two years. This can be done for instance by increasing the number of resources to work on the project, applying best practices and agreeing with the business on ways of working to gain maximum efficiencies.

So this was an explanation how time influences the MDM project plan. In the next few days another blog post will be published which will discuss how resource constraints influence MDM project plans.