Before a project starts, the overall business goals of our clients are defined and communicated. These business goals are translated into concrete project objectives. The objectives are defined as SMART as possible (Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic, Time-Bound) and provide the overall guidelines for the entire project and should map with the results after finishing the project.

A. Structuring
A.1 Agreements
When concrete project objectives have been defined, the roadmap to realization is formulated within the agreements. These agreements cover:

• Scope: what will be covered within the project and explicitly what not;
• Milestones: planning of
  • Phases
  • Activities
  • Deliverables
• Quality standards: what acceptance standards can be set for deliverables, what quality monitoring structures will be used and which evaluation points within the project will be set?
• The scope, milestones and quality agreements will lead to the estimates of the project budget.

B. Monitoring
B.1 Scope control
All issues and requests will be managed. This means identifying issues/requests, evaluating whether or not it is within the agreed upon scope of the project and categorizing it into absolutely necessary scope changes (with project impact) or nice-to-haves. The last category will have no project impact and will be handled outside of the project.

B.2 Milestone control
Milestones are time-bound and absolutely necessary achievements. These achievements are made up of phases, activities within phases and deliverables resulting from these activities. Milestones will be closely monitored to establish deviations as early as possible.

B.3 Quality control
Quality standards and structures are closely linked to the project objectives and the deliverables and aim to guarantee as much as possible high quality end results. All deliverables identified should contribute to one or more project objectives.

Scope, milestone and quality control will all have their impact upon budget; as such budget control tools are used during the project to have a constant and clear view on actual efforts spent, estimates to complete and probable budget deviations.

C. Operational control
Operational control in technology driven change management can be defined as the process of managing the acceptance and adoption of a new technology during implementations.

Mieloo & Alexander provide frameworks, work packages and methodologies with which operational control can be introduced during implementation projects. The focus on operational control during implementation projects reduces the implementation risks for our clients.