By: Sue Savage, Restaurant Technical Strategy Expert
We have all heard the age old; “Eat your peas if you want to grow big and strong.”
Although not always pleasant, ensure your 4 P’s of technology projects are served up-front for a healthy project win!
Here is some easy to swallow, food for thought…
1. Project
Ask the core question – what’s the project positioned for?
Many times it is assumed that all aspects of the business’s project recipients will get a mutual result. How do we know unless we define the requirements?
In a recent study conducted by The Standish Group across major technology sectors, they cite the top 3 contributors to project success as:
- User involvement
- Executive management support
- Clear statement of requirements
Define the goals of the project and the acceptance criteria from the get go and you won’t be left guessing if you delivered on target.
2. People
An enterprise POS project may not be a single outsourced stream of project tasks with a given set of participants; so considering the people factor will keep your project fluid.
Involving and communicating to stakeholders across multiple business functions with minor parts to play is part of the new game. Identify anyone and everyone who will touch your project, from the end users in retail and restaurant locales, to the vendor’s key personnel.
Clarify their roles up front and introduce them to each other. Often people on the same project may not be sure of who the other players may be until the project is well underweigh. As this often gets overlooked, prime your people for project engagement and the work output will flow.
3. Product
With application sociability and and web delivered solutions becoming core requirements for any operation, it’s important to be clear on what your project will deliver to the business.
Your product will not be an off the shelf traditional application sourced from a single vendor, but an integrated series of tools developed across multiple software and solution providers serving a multitude of touch points in your business.
Before committing to the project, take the time to scope the product your end users will receive the most value from and build everything else around this.
4. Process
Despite having a well scoped project, product design and a fabulous team of people; it all hinges on a process that guarantees completion on time and within budget. Ask yourself:
- How are we going to engage the teams?
- What are the inputs and outputs of each?
- How will we handle changes and who is going to approve them?
These points seem trivial, but if not clearly defined, they will develop into project toxins. Giving ample attention to defining the processes up front will save time, energy and resources throughout the project while keeping the project balanced and aligned with the defined goals.
Ensuring that your project recipe includes the 4 P’s as the main ingredients will produce a satisfying result and a successful delivery, and once you have had your peas, you can indulge on something sweeter. Cheesecake anyone?
Find out more about what MICROS can do for you! For more information contact us at info@micros.com Phone: 866.287.4736 (US and Canada)
