SAP Consultants: Beware of Project Landmines

By Richard Larrabee
Vice President of Business Development, Optimal Solutions Integration, Inc.

You’re only as good as your last performance – a tough adage that may not be always be true but one that cannot be ignored when it comes to SAP consulting. Reputation is everything in this business, and one bad project can derail an otherwise stellar career. While the specific tactical reasons for a failed project can be many and varied, there are but a few leading root causes that, when left unchecked, will most assuredly send a project south. It behooves SAP consultants to do everything in their power to avoid these leading project landmines.

Scope creep

A reputation for completing projects on time, on target and on budget is perhaps the best calling card an SAP consultant can have. Earning such a reputation and keeping it unblemished, however, is no easy task. It requires a disciplined process including a process for controlling scope. This is especially important if offshore or distributed development is involved.

Even those who strictly adhere to solid project management practices can fall victim to scope creep. Identifying and agreeing upon budgets, deliverables and timelines upfront cannot always prevent scope creep. As projects move forward, unforeseen challenges arise, new priorities surface and the projects’ focus can shift accordingly. Project leaders must be diligent about documenting and communicating when business users make major changes that impact scope, cost and timelines. Project leaders also need to communicate clearly and regularly on a project’s status. While it may not prevent scope creep, the transparency afforded by regular reporting can lessen the possible negative impact when a project grows beyond what was initially planned.

Business disconnect

Perhaps the biggest project killer is a consequence of when IT initiatives fail to deliver needed business improvements. This is generally the result of poor communication or an incomplete understanding of affected business processes. It is critical that SAP projects only move forward with clear specifications from business users on precisely what they want. Talking in generalities and then hoping consultants can figure out what business users need is a surefire recipe for failure, and this happens more often than one might expect.

For SAP projects to remain aligned with strategic business objectives, it is essential that business people with deep knowledge of the company's processes are dedicated to the project and work side by side with SAP subject matter experts (SMEs) who possess a three-dimensional understanding of the technology. Only when business goals are clearly translated into IT goals can the desired results be achieved.

Lack of support

All projects, especially those that require a lot of time and resources, are doomed to fail if they lack the active involvement and support of senior management.

Project leaders must work hard and persistently to maintain good communications with all top executives, whether or not they report directly to them. Developing a solid business case and performing a thorough cost-benefit analysis at the beginning are good ways to secure executive sponsorship at a project’s outset. Sustaining this sponsorship – which is needed to clear the inevitable logjams and ensure decisions are made and implemented quickly – requires both savvy with and sensitivity to corporate politics. On this score, a consultant’s experience navigating complex political landscapes is vital. To sustain executive buy-in throughout the duration of a project, it is also important to continually have in place objective measurements that both IT execs and non-IT execs can use to monitor how well a project is tracking against specific goals.