It’s not time to celebrate when the system goes live. Nor is it time to celebrate even if it’s on time or on budget. It’s only time to celebrate if the benefits in the business case have been realized. Ideally the benefits are in the form of a measurable metric or a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) such as the time it takes to process an order. However many organizations don’t identify these measures of success and even if they do, they promptly forget about them as soon as the implementation starts as they have enough on their plates to consume each day and then some.
So what do you do to keep the KPIs relevant? We recommend that the goal KPIs be embedded in the project from the start so that everyone is aware of them. Subject matter experts involved in designing and testing should be questioned whether the goal metrics are attainable at various times throughout the implementation. Steering committee meetings should include updates of whether the goal metrics are at risk of being attained. Sometimes attaining the goal KPIs puts the budget and schedule at risk. When this happens, you need to get the steering committee to consider budget and schedule variances.