Managing Year 2000 Projects:
The Key Issues Internal and External

by Janice Daly

Chicago, August 18-20, 1997

What’s Happening

As the Year 2000 draws near, it is becoming very clear that it is necessary to make difficult choices when prioritizing the work that needs to be done. As companies hurry to find their drop dead glitches before 1/1/2000, critical work is being done by external vendors and contractors. It is not possible to micromanage all the external vendors and their tasks, so project managers must macromanage these activities. You can have all the right software and all the right people, but if your organization cannot cope with the Year 2000, it might as well close its doors on January 1.

About This Seminar

Year 2000 is a problem that cannot be postponed, trimmed from the budget or scaled back. In addition, it may be the largest, most expensive project your staff has ever had to deal with and failure may be the end of the company or minimally, litigation. This workshop will answer the following questions:

• What steps must be taken to efficiently manage a Year 2000 project?
• How can the risks of a Year 2000 project be assessed and controlled?
• What is the importance of Year 2000 parallel development?
• What tools and techniques can be used to track a Year 2000 project?
• What are the unique organizational issues that must be addressed in a Year 2000 project plan?
• How can you estimate, manage and control external Year 2000 vendor deliverables?
• How can you monitor activity dependencies between external Year 2000 vendors or between internal and external Year 2000 staff?
• How can you focus multiple agendas into a successful Year 2000 project completion?

What Makes This Seminar Unique

This seminar provides participants with tools to better analyze the needs in an organization for Year 2000 fixes and then to prioritize them. Even if the process has been started, chances are it cannot all get done. This workshop will guide you through case studies that let you practice the techniques before you apply them to your company’s real needs. Students will leave ready to successfully manage the transition with outside vendors to the Year 2000 as well, and to make sure the business is not down on 1/1/2000.

Benefits Of This Seminar

• Discover how to create project plans to ensure a successful Year 2000 project
• Gain the ability to manage and control the scope of your Year 2000 project to ensure completion on time
• Learn how to create a step-by-step checklist to track your Year 2000 project progress
• Discover how to apply techniques to keep your Year 2000 priorities crystal clear
• Achieve success by learning to manage time and resource constraints
• Learn techniques to document the scope of your Year 2000 efforts

Benefits to Your Company

• Achieve success on time and within budget by creating a flexible plan for your Year 2000 project
• Avoid litigation by stockholders and customers by creating documentation and plans
• Ensure your critical business functions will not be ‘down’ 1/1/00 by creating a strategy for prioritization
• Ensure that all of your Year 2000 impacted systems will be addressed by communicating the Year 2000 project scope

Who Should Attend

• IS developers responsible for the analysis, coding, production and testing of Year 2000 fixes
• IS managers responsible for Year 2000 projects
• IS project managers responsible for coordinating external vendors
• Team Leaders
• IT Auditors
• Programmer/Analysts
• IT Strategic Planning Professionals

Attendees Will Learn How To:

• Create calendar schedules for parallel Year 2000 development activities
• Create Year 2000 contracts to build partnerships
• Create schedules and Year 2000 plans with clear deliverables and dates
• Determine the difference between the Year 2000 maintenance and management activities
• Accurately estimate Year 2000 project task duration
• Use diagramming techniques to track Year 2000 projects
• Determine and monitor measurable Year 2000 project deliverables from external vendors
• Accurately estimate and control the activities of multiple vendors on Year 2000 vendors
• Integrate external vendor impact into the Year 2000 Project Plan
• Build procedures that create an environment of shared risk
• Clarify the roles and responsibilities of internal and external staff on Year 2000 projects

Seminar Outline

1. Getting started with a Year 2000 project

a. What is different about a Year 2000 project?
b. Definitions
c. Implementing a Year 2000 project

2. Create a project definition

a. Steps to Year 2000 projects: Dare to properly manage resources
b. Establish the scope
c. Expanding the scope
d. Risk assessment
e. Common risks

i. Creeping scope
ii. Unrealistic expectations
iii. Changing priorities

f. Quick n’ dirty risk assessment
g. Scenario Planning: Look at your options
h. Organizational issues: Liability, accounting and auditing
i. Cultural imperatives

3. Parallel Year 2000 Development

a. The importance of Parallel Development
b. The Year 2000 Life Cycle
c. The inventory
d. The fixing
e. The testing
f. Compliance testing of purchased software
g. Resources available
h. Roles and responsibilities
i. Data administration: Where are the dates?

4. Create a Year 2000 Project Plan

a. Year 2000 complexity is its size
b. Project management techniques
c. Creating a work breakdown
d. Building a schedule
e. A lifecycle approach
f. Estimating
g. Project related issues
h. Environmental issues
i. Duration adjustments
j. Core technologies needed
k. Higher level analysis
l. Seven deadly sins

5. Overview of External Vendor Coordination

a. Aligning to Year 2000 time constraints
b. Making difficult choices
c. Quantify deliverables
d. Watching without doing
e. Managing the white space
f. Summary

6. Negotiating with External Vendors

a. Confidentiality
b. Why is conflict necessary
c. Conflict causes
d. Most common barriers to cooperation
e. Negotiating

i. Change your beliefs
ii. Techniques
iii. Start with the outcome in mind
iv. After an impasse

f. Mediating conflict
g. Getting help
h. Summary

7. Model for External Vendor Coordination

a. What are the goals?
b. Where can I outsource?
c. The 3 steps of Year 2000

i. Inventory
ii. Fixing
iii. Testing Compliance

d. Considering internally and externally developed software
e. Assessing risk
f. Estimating with external vendors
g. Responsibility and accountability: what if they’re late
h. Activity networks
i. Critical path
j. PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Techniques)
k. Gantt charts

8. Managing the Project

a. Establishing communication standards
b. Change management
c. Measurements
d. What to do if you’re behind
e. Shared risk
f. Tips for success
g. Knowledge transfer

9. Post-Project Review

About Your Instructor

Janice Daly is an instructor/consultant for Russell Martin and Associates (RMA) with more than five years experience in education and training. Prior to joining RMA, Janice was a Project Manager for 20 years, managing large systems development projects at Mayflower Transit. With a BA in Education, Janice has also managed the CBT Development Division of Management Information Disciplines, Inc., and developed training courses for Windows NT for the State of New York. Currently, Janice is serving as Facilitator for the Year 2000 User Group in Indianapolis.

Meeting Site and Hotel Information

Chicago
Hyatt on Printers Row
(312) 986-1234

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Managing Year 2000 Projects:
The Key Issues Internal and External

$1195

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