Project Management in BPPM Implementation - Part 1: Introduction

As a certified project manager (PMP) for the last 14 years, I have always paid close attention to project management in BPPM implementation whether or not I was doing project management work.  Due to the complex nature of BPPM, BPPM implementation presents its unique challenges in both new implementation and upgrade implementation.

What makes BPPM more complex comparing to most of the off-the-shelf application software such as payroll software, most embedded self-monitoring software such as Oracle Enterprise Manager, and most "standard" system management software such as Microsoft SCOM?

First, BPPM is not one product.  It is a product suite consisting of three major products acquired from different companies at different time and numerous small products.  These three major products are: 1) PATROL, developed primarily in C (not C++), acquired in 1994; 2) Master Cell, developed primarily in Prolog (an Artificial Intelligence language), acquired in 2003; and 3) ProactiveNet, developed primarily in Java, acquired in 2007.  Your expertise with one product often has very little to do with your expertise in another product.  Understanding the background of each product would help a lot to set the right expectation and manage risks.

Second, BPPM is aggressively going through major changes with each release as BMC has been putting tremendous effort to integrate these three major products together. It is up to each BMC customer to decide whether to adopt the changes right away or wait until they are more mature, what to do if they don't work all the time, and how much extra time and cost to include to justify the learning curves due to these changes.

Third, BPPM delivers extra features if you know how to customize and integrate.  In another word, BPPM is a 'race car' not a Honda Accord.  You need to know how to drive a 'race car' in order to deliver extra performance. Just as most drivers are not race car drivers, the expertise to customize and integrate BPPM is hard to find too.  Most likely your organization paid premium price for BPPM over other "standard" products because these extra features are critical to your business.  Being able to secure 'race car' expertise is important to ensure your BPPM implementation project successful.

Before sharing some of my lessons learned in project management triangle (scope, time, and cost) as well as risk management for BPPM implementation in the next few posts, I would like to list a few common myths out there.

1) "Once installation is complete, the implementation is half way done."  Not true.  A successful installation of BPPM acutally counts for less than 5% of complettion of BPPM implementation.

2) "Let's just get it 'done' in a 'standard' way." Actually there is no 'standard' way.  Each BPPM implementation is done to help meet specific business requirements.  Because each organization has its own unique business requirements, each BPPM implementation is different.  As a customer, you need to know 'what' you expected from BPPM to meet your business requirements before 'how' can take place.

3) "Since we paid for all features in BPPM, let's implement all of them at once."  This is a common issue in new BPPM implementation.  At the beginning of a new BPPM implementation, it is hard to list all detailed requirements with a 10,000-foot view.  Many detailed requirements will become more obvious after BPPM has been running for a while.

4) "We want the entire BPPM implementation to be completed in 4 weeks."  No, I didn't make this one up.  This type of wishful thinking does exist.  I just hope there is an easy way for customers to obtain industry statistics data in BPPM implementation so that they have a realistic expectation in implementation time before purchasing BPPM software.