fusionpoint: project management approaches for marketing managers

Copyright © 2013 FusionPoint, LLC – www.thefusionpoint.com

Marketing Analytics: Project Management Approaches for Marketing Managers

NOTICE Proprietary and Confidential

This material is proprietary to FusionPoint, LLC. It contains confidential information,

which is solely the property of FusionPoint, LLC. This material shall not be used,

reproduced, copied, disclosed, or transmitted, in whole or in part, without the

express consent of FusionPoint. Copyright © 2013 to FusionPoint, LLC All rights

reserved.


• Background & Context

• Waterfall vs. Agile Methodologies

• Agile Tips

• Conclusions

Agenda


• FusionPoint is a company that helps clients build customized marketing analytic and reporting solutions. Over the past six years we have been involved with hundreds of sales and marketing data integration, analytic and reporting projects.

• This presentation is designed for the marketing managers that are taking on a new project. While this presentation title does not suggest a Grisham-like thrill ride of a read, the experience shared here can help increase your project’s chances of success and make the ride more enjoyable.

• This presentation assumes that you have had experience working on a project and that basic terms like requirements, specifications, status meetings etc. are understood.

• We hope that this information helps you design, build and maintain marketing analytic capabilities that drive a sustainable competitive advantage for your organization.

Background and Context

For more information about FusionPoint or this topic,

please visit us at www.thefusionpoint.com

Or call us at (203) 702-2100

http://www.thefusionpoint.com/


About Project Management

• Most Marketing Managers have not been formally exposed to multiple project management methodologies. Terms like Waterfall, SCRUM, and Agile are the language of Project Managers.

• We will give you the 30,000ft overview on two of the main project management methodologies in use today. The first is typically described as a “Waterfall ” and the second is “Agile”.

Waterfall Methodology Agile Methodology


Waterfall vs. Agile

• The central idea behind the waterfall model is accurate requirements and design documented up front will save significant time and effort later. Therefore, each phase of the project should be 100% complete and absolutely correct before proceeding to the next.

• The challenges with this model in the Sales and Marketing arena are twofold; first, analysts don’t always know what they want until they see it, second, the rate of marketplace (or company) change frequently impacts requirements before the solution is finalized.

Waterfall Methodology

Agile Methodology• Agile project methodology is based on iterative and incremental

development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery. This time-boxed iterative approach encourages rapid and flexible response to change.

• Given the inherent nature of the marketing landscape, we have seen that an adaptive approach like “Agile”, has a higher degree of success while greatly lowering project risk.


Adopting the Agile Methodology

• Regardless of project methodology chosen, you still need to ensure that a documented business case is in place before you initiate your project. In addition business requirements need to be gathered from all stakeholders and end-users.

• Given the inherent benefits and flexibility of the Agile methodology, FusionPoint embraces this approach to Project Management in all our client engagements.

• If you are serving as both the Subject Matter Expert (SME) and Project Manager, and you have less project management experience, you will want to embrace some of the practices of the Agile methodology described in the following slides.

• If you have a dedicated project manager working with your team, you will want to ensure that the principals and techniques being discussed on the following pages are leveraged for your project.

• We have also included links at the end of the presentation for the brave few Marketing Managers that want to understand -more about the ins- and-outs of this approach.


• A successful project implementation begins with identifying a complete project team from the start. You will want to ensure that all key stakeholders are involved.

• Identifying and informing the project team of their participation up front, allows for better schedule planning, resource allocation, and greater chance of overall team commitment and ultimately project success.

• Every project team should include these necessary participants:

– Project Manager

– Project Champion (project owner)

– Subject Matter Experts (SME) for each facet of the project

– Technical Developers

– User Acceptance Testers

– Training, Deployment, and Change Management expert

Tip #1: Staffing: Stakeholders Identified & Involved


• Requirements are the end goals and parameters against which project success will be determined and measured.

• Understand that it may take several sessions of requirements gathering and multiple iterations of the documented specifications before a finalized set of project requirements can be established.

• Business requirements and Technical requirements can and should be documented and maintained separately, as business requirements are not meant to create the technical solution design.

• Development of standard document templates for use across the entire project team will help to maintain consistency in format, understanding, and ease of use.

• It is important to receive sign-off from appropriate task stakeholders before development on the documented requirements can commence.

Tip #2: Requirements: Best Practices


• Status meetings are not designed to solve problems.

• The goal of status meetings are to monitor progress and identify barriers that can be addressed by the project team outside the status meetings. Resist the urge to solve problems during the status meetings and these calls should last no longer than 15-20 minutes.

• Technical teams are accustomed to daily status meetings. Most Marketers are not. While Agile methodologies will suggest daily “standups” (status meetings), that frequency may not fit with your marketing culture.

• We suggest that you find a frequency that is slightly higher than your typical project, but no so frequent that you will lose interest or have attendance issues from team members. Weekly meetings are optimal.

• Status meetings should be scheduled on the same day and time of the week for the duration of the project. A standing invite should be placed on everyone’s calendar at the start of the project.

Tip #3: Status Meetings: More Frequent, Shorter and Standing Invite


• If attendance is poor or status meetings become irregular and infrequent, the chances that your project will be unsuccessful will multiply.

• The status meeting itself should involve every member of the team reviewing….

– Tasks they were supposed to complete since the last status meeting.

– What they did achieve?

– What tasks are they targeting to complete before the next meeting?

– Barriers that are preventing them from finishing a task on time/budget. A barrier should be something that is out of their control and that they will need assistance from other members of the team or stakeholders to overcome.

– Do not solve the barriers during the meeting! Determine who needs to be involved and work to resolve the issue(s) outside status meetings.

• Project Manager is responsible for documenting each meeting discussion so that the team can track and review ongoing progress.

Tip #4: Status Meetings: Attendance is Mandatory & Agenda Fixed


• The Agile project methodology is designed to segment the tasks of the project plan into smaller, more manageable, portions of work referred to as “Sprints”.

• Successful sprints should be limited in duration. In FusionPoint’s experience, an optimal sprint timeframe is one month.

• It is important to note that some tasks may span across multiple sprints as they are too large and/or complex to be completed in one sprint.

• One major benefit of using sprints and the Agile methodology, is that work can be done in parallel. For example, development for task X can be worked on at the same time as design documentation for task Y by different members of the project team.

• Each sprint should have a defined end date along with a desired deliverable or “end goal”. Examples of such deliverables are:

– The production of a completed design document with stakeholder sign-off and approval.

– Completed development of new software functionality.

– Executed user acceptance testing and documented results/feedback.

Tip #5: Sprints (Releases)Managing the Workload


Tip #6: User Testing and Feedback

• Again, a successful project relies on user feedback to ensure project requirements are met.

• Testing of the deliveries from each sprint provide opportunity for project team to regularly review/assess and as needed adapt tasks/design to support project requirements.

• UAT should be performed by the appropriate SME(s) and/or end users.

• The outcome of testing is to determine if deliverables were completed/developed according to specifications. When testing results are measurable and quantifiable it makes determination of completeness/correctness less arbitrary.

• Some examples of conventional testing measurements include:

– Confirming accuracy of data values (both inputs and outputs)

– System performance checks (i.e. speed and usability of system)

– Measurement of savings/efficiency gained as a result of deliverable in terms of either time, budget, or resources.

• Feedback of testing results should be submitted to one pre-assigned team member who should review and consolidate results before circulating back to larger project team for any necessary follow-ups.


• There is nothing more frustrating that leading a project that is going sideways… especially when your bonus is on the line. Regardless of whether your project is focused on building an analytic datamart, building a new analytic tool or streamlining reporting….the project management approach you select will have a tremendous impact on the success of your project.

• While this presentation was not meant to make you an expert in various project management methodologies, we do hope that it provides you with exposure to some of the basic concepts and terms.

• If you are interested in further reading about Agile methodologies, take a look at some of the links we posted below.

Conclusions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/183-0141788-2457401?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-

keywords=agile%20project%20management&sprefix=agile+%2Cstripbooks&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Aag

ile%20project%20management


Thank You for Your Time!

For more information about FusionPoint or this topic,

please visit us at www.thefusionpoint.com

Or call us at (203) 702-2100

http://www.thefusionpoint.com/


APPENDIX


Based on the industry standard of Scrum [An Agile Methodology] - A Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK™ Guide), some of the key benefits of using Scrum in any project are:

• Adaptability - Empirical process control and iterative delivery make projects adaptable and open to incorporating change.

• Transparency - All information radiators like a Scrumboard and Sprint Burndown Chart are shared, leading to an open work environment.

• Continuous Feedback - Continuous feedback is provided through the Conduct Daily Standup, Demonstrate and Validate Sprint processes.

• Continuous Improvement - The deliverables are improved progressively Sprint by Sprint, through the Groom Prioritized Product Backlog process.

• Continuous Delivery of Value - Iterative processes enable the continuous delivery of value through the Ship Deliverables process as frequently as the customer requires.

• Sustainable Pace - Scrum processes are designed such that the people involved can work at a sustainable pace that they can, in theory, continue indefinitely.

• Early Delivery of High Value - The Create Prioritized Product Backlog process ensures that the highest value requirements of the customer are satisfied first.

• Efficient Development Process - Time-boxing and minimizing non-essential work leads to higher efficiency levels.

• Motivation - The Conduct Daily Standup and Retrospect Sprint processes lead to greater levels of motivation among employees.

• Faster Problem Resolution - Collaboration and colocation of cross-functional teams lead to faster problem solving.

• Effective Deliverables - The Create Prioritized Product Backlog process and regular reviews after creating deliverables ensures effective deliverables to the customer.

• Customer Centric - Emphasis on business value and having a collaborative approach to stakeholders ensures a customer-oriented framework.

• High Trust Environment - Conduct Daily Standup and Retrospect Sprint processes promote transparency and collaboration, leading to a high trust work environment ensuring low friction among employees.

• Collective Ownership - The Approve, Estimate, and Commit User Stories process allows team members to take ownership of the project and their work leading to better quality.

• High Velocity - A collaborative framework enables highly skilled cross-functional teams to achieve their full potential and high velocity.

• Innovative Environment - The Retrospect Sprint and Retrospect Project processes create an environment of introspection, learning, and adaptability leading to an innovative and creative work environment.

Benefits of Agile

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