Navigate Systems Implementation Center

Plan the work, and work the plan!

Roles & Responsibilities

Roles	Responsibilities
Sponsor	An executive management position experienced in leading organizations through change. This person(s) is ultimately responsible for funding the project, prioritizing goals, authorizing the project manager, and resolving organizational conflicts/issues. Key duties include: Securing the funding Choosing the project manager Staffing the project team Acting as a mentor to the project team Removing obstacles and roadblocks Generating support among all stakeholders to maintain the timeline and success of the project. Participate in Gate reviews and Milestone sign-offs. Championing the project and raising awareness and understanding at peer level. Providing project direction on scope, schedule, priorities, and cost variations. Setting and communicating the project's vision, direction and goals and relating them to the strategic goals and objectives of the organization as a whole. Ensuring strategic project alignment to business objectives, including analysis and negotiation with executives for cross-project integration. Approving the Project Charter. Resolving escalated issues from the Steering Committee.
Steering Committee Member	A senior management position experienced in leading organizations through change and system implementations. This person(s) is responsible for resolving project gridlock among team members and/or decisions, and ensuring tight alignment with the organization’s strategic goals. Key duties include: Arbitrating pending decisions Resolving conflicts Aligning project direction with strategic goals of company Supporting the standardization of company policies Ensuring all sites’ interests are taken into consideration Participating in Gate reviews and Milestone sign-offs Ensuring project's alignment to the operational and technology strategies. Balancing conflicting priorities and resources. Reviewing, monitoring and providing guidance on critical risks and their related mitigation strategies. Resolving escalated issues from the project team.
Project Manager	An experienced manager with a successful track record for implementing enterprise-wide change and system solutions across departments/locations/employees. This the person ultimately responsible for the project; authorized to spend budget and assign resources to realize project goals. Key duties include: Keeping the team on-task, on-time, on- budget, and in-scope Communicating effectively at all levels of the organization Ensuring business procedures are documented and the users are trained Creating and managing a detailed project schedule, plan, and budget Managing issues and ensures resolution Ensuring that the appropriate project team members and key decision makers are identified and available to fulfill their project responsibilities Identifying and estasblishing communication channels to additional end-user staff as needed to support specific areas of expertise not represented by the core project team Coordinating adequate facilities and resources available for the implementation Facilitating regular project meetings to discuss project status Managing and tracking task assignments and related deliverables Managing change requests, issues, risks, and resources Creating the Project Charter Creating the project's cost/outcome and ROI models Coordinating planning, management, execution and closure of an individual project Coordinating scope and schedule adjustments within the project to ensure project efficiency Validating estimates, risks, assumptions, constraints and interdependencies for viable solution options Allocating resources (money, staffing, technology) to deliver the project Defining the project plan’s structure into manageable work units Coordinating the efforts of all team leads Coordinating project status reporting in conjunction with the team leads Identifying, managing and escalating risks.Responsible for developing the related risk mitigation strategies. Managing change control and defect/quality management process Establishing processes, repositories and policies for the project. Escalating issues to the steering committee member(s) and sponsor(s).

Functional/Process Team Lead	An experienced individual responsible for owning/leading a departmental/functional/process delivery team based upon the affinity structuring of the project. Key duties include: Managing the assigned project tasks and deliverables for their affinity area on time and within the quality guidelines Managing team members to perform the detailed project work (i.e., requirements, design, configuration, testing, data conversion, training, deployment, support policy and procedures, documentation, etc.) Identifying and raising key issues and risks within their affinity area Ensuring creation and maintenance of project documentation Working with organizational departments to secure staff or resources for their affinity area Managing the team members within their affinity area, including having the authority to delegate/assign tasks and require progress reports Determining and providing the measures/metrics required by their affinity area to define success Adhering to the project methodology Participating in project planning (approach, options, plan, schedule, design) and estimating (by effort, duration, cost and risk) for their affinity area Coordinating and monitoring project task's execution, interdependencies and progress for their affinity area Implementing corrective actions for small project deviations which do not affect scope, schedule or cost Partnering with the appropriate team leads to produce the necessary deliverables Escalating to the Project Manager risks, issues and/or defects that would affect the scope, schedule or cost of the effort Providing communication and consolidated status reports for their affinity area to the Project Manager and project team Providing affinity area knowledge expertise and guidance to team members Balancing the objectives and tradeoffs between the project team and their affinity area and/or their functional organization Identifying and recommending business process improvements with associated defined measurements and savings Identifying all stakeholders impacted by the current and desired business processes Coordinating the creation of the test scenarios and test scripts Preparing for and ensuring the successful adoption of the changes to the business
Business Analyst	An experienced individual who is successful in translating the requirements (Business, User, System Functional and Non-Functional) into architectural and design specifications through detailed process, technology, environment, & end-user comprehension and engagement. Key duties include: Modeling business process and work flow analysis to define the current and desired processes Completing gap analysis and root-cause analysis activities Understanding the business environment, and ensuring that the technology solution meets the business requirements Researching and recommending the solution option to the project leadership Collaborating with the business as well as other project members to analyze, design, test, and support the solution Approving the readiness and migration of code and environment changes from one environment to another Creating the test scenarios, test scripts/cases and test data for all test cycles Preparing for and coordinating Acceptance testing and working with the business area to define the acceptance criteria Communicating status and approval of test results Completing and maintaining design, test, training, and support documentation
Subject Matter Expert	An experienced individual in the business with an expertise level of understanding pertaining to one or many affinity areas of the project scope. Key duties include: Guiding the creation, analysis, representation, validation and sign off of Business, User, System Functional and Non-Functional requirements Contributing to the creation of a high level requirements definition document Contributing to the creation of a detailed requirements definition document Ensuring the testability of the requirements Communicating changing business needs and collaborating with his/her Project Lead to address the impact of these changes Ensuring alignment of the requirements with the solution's design Submitting change requests for any changed business processes Updating requirements documentation for any approved change requests Generating and/or providing content for communication and training materials as needed
Technical Team Lead	An experienced, hands-on individual responsible for owning/leading the technical team of the project. Key duties include: Understanding the architectural aspects of a system such as databases, web servers, application servers, networks, file systems, transmission protocols, security standards, data integration, business functions, scripts, programming, testing, disaster recovery, hosting, backups/restores, and performance tuning Overseeing the creation and maintenance of all system environments, ensuring the appropriate environment infrastructure is procured and setup to meet the requirements of the project Coordinating the successful completion of all technical deliverables Monitoring and reporting on project technical status Resolving and/or escalating technical project issues Managing the translation of the functional solution design into a technical solution design Managing and tracking the custom development list of objects Managing the build of the solution Monitoring the execution of unit testing and other quality control functions, as needed Controlling source code management Guiding performance tuning of the system’s application code Communicating issues related to the vendor, requirements, design, development, configuration, testing, infrastructure, and/or architecture to the project manager Providing technical guidance to the developers, configurators, and administrators Putting the appropriate system monitoring is in place Adhering to project change and defect control processes and procedures Establishing and controlling deployment processes and procedures Collaborating with Help Desk, project leads, and/or support resources as needed to troubleshoot project and/or production support issues
Configurator/Developer	Individual with product/system expertise who handles the configuration and/or development aspects of translating approved designs in to tangible, working solutions. Key duties include: Participating in design workshops Creating technical documentation Providing effort estimates to the Technical Lead Tracking and providing actual effort durations to the Technical Lead Adhering to naming conventions and development/configuration standards Performing coding Performing system setup and configuration Performing unit testing Presenting at QA review sessions Performing peer QA/code reviews Assisting with test data setup Advising on any technical product/system limitations Alerting the Administrator of any deployment instructions Troubleshooting test failures and/or ad-hoc issues Fixing defects Transferring knowledge and providing technical assistance to the project team and the support team Communicating status, risks, and/or issues to the Technical Lead
Administrator	Individual with product/system expertise who handles the administrative aspects of the system. Key duties include: Setting up, maintaining, and monitoring users & security Monitoring system availability Ensuring system scalability Performing network and database tuning Setting up and maintaining infrastructure equipment, software, and tools Creating and maintaining environments Controlling all data refreshes Coordinating data backups Establishing a disaster recovery plan Developing, running, and maintaining the deployment process Orchestrating cut-over, maintenance, service packs, and/or patch application plans Establishing and coordinating maintenance windows Coordinating equipment delivery, setup, and support in the field Ensuring a code control mechanism, tool, or manual process is being used Establishing and governing any project collaboration and/or documentation repository tools, such as Sharepoint Transferring knowledge and providing technical assistance to the project team and the support team Communicating status, risks, and/or issues to the Technical Lead Providing effort estimates to the Technical Lead Providing actual work effort durations to the Technical Lead Providing status updates to the Technical Lead

Communications Lead	An experienced manager position experienced in leading organizations through change and system implementations. This person is ultimately responsible for the communications prepared and delivered to all stakeholders of the project. Key duties include: Identifying the right audience, message, channel and timing to orchestrate the coordinated communication of a clear, concise message to the organization Developing and executing the Communication Plan Communicating the project's results to the organization throughout the project Developing communication related deliverables and distributing per te Communication Plan Ensuring message consistency throughout all communication and training materials Providing input and direction on the development of visual concepts for communication materials Coordinating the logistics and delivery of all communication and training materials Communicating status, risks, and/or issues to the Project Manager Providing status updates to the Project Manager
Support Lead	An experienced manager position experienced in leading production support and Helpdesk teams after a system implementation has gone ‘live’. Key duties include: Identifying and preparing the support team Designing and implementing the post go-live support process and structure Developing and executing a support transition plan Ensuring that the solution (people, process and technology) and all supporting documentation is ready for transition to the support organization Negotiating and publish any service level agreements Providing ongoing communication and training regarding the support process Providing input in to the deployment strategy Communicating status, risks, and/or issues to the Project Manager Providing status updates to the Project Manager
Training/Change Lead	An experienced manager position experienced in leading organizations through change and system implementations. Key duties include: Determining the organizational change impacts due to the project Ensuring that the stakeholders understand and support the impacts to the organization Defining the business organizational structure and roles and how each supports the solution Orchestrating an integrated approach for organizational change Determining and designing the best approach for the organization to successfully adopt the solution Fully understanding and managing any changes to current work processes, any adjustments to staffing in business areas, and/or any work process philosophy changes (i.e., the people and process changes) initiated by the solution Developing and executing the Organizational Change Management Plan Providing input for the deployment strategy/plan to support the solution Coordinating the creation of training content Coordinating and scheduling the delivery of training to the identified audience, both internal and external, who will participate in or be impacted by the project Integrating and aligning with existing training programs Developing and executing the training plan Creating the processes for monitoring and tracking of training, as needed Collaborating with the Communications Lead to align communication and training materials Coordinating the logistics and delivery of training and supplemental material (i.e., job aids, quick reference cards, user manuals, etc) to all audiences Communicating status, risks, and/or issues to the Project Manager Providing status updates to the Project Manager
Implementation Consultant	Provides industry, functional, technical, subject matter, solution, and/or product professional services to a project based upon a predefined and approved Statement of Work or Scope of Services, contract. Reports to one or many of the project’s lead positions.