As an IT Manager, with the in-house intricacies of planning for and facilitating new hardware rollouts, security programs, maintenance overhauls, cloud initiatives, and more, you often find yourself stepping into an IT Project Management role.
Naturally, a percentage of these projects require the aid of external vendors, and, as a result, you do double duty to ensure that the project is completed to your specs. As you work with your vendors, you find that their teams operate very differently than your own: some being immovable sticklers to industry protocols, others adopting the “fly by the seat of their pants” methodology.
Neither one is exactly what you need, so you adjust yourself to make the best out of each situation.
Standardization + Flexibility with IT Project Management
ADAPTURE approaches project delivery a bit differently.
Before beginning a project, we map out the client’s demands and requirements into four main phases: Planning, Implementation, Validation, and Closing/Acceptance. Each phase is designed to provide industry structures and compliance assurances as well as the critical flexibility necessary to accommodate the unique needs of each company. By aligning ADAPTURE best practices with our customer’s needs and expectations, we provide the agility and customization necessary for the greatest output and success.
Most importantly, however, we provide a dedicated, certified Project Manager with each project we take on.
Planning Phase
Because we believe that seamless communication and collaboration is essential to successful projects, our Project Managers are involved from presale assignments all the way to delivery.
From the very beginning, an ADAPTURE Project Manager meets with the client’s Project Manager to ensure that we understand the scope of the company’s technical resources as well as the scope of the project as a whole. We want to familiarize ourselves with the internals of the company; when we know workflow, employee culture, and company-specific protocols, we can complete the project that much more smoothly.
To gain this necessary information, our ADAPTURE Project Manager begins working alongside the client’s management team to better implement Change Management at the development, production, and quality assurance levels. We administer our standardized questionnaire that enables us to gather the critical information from each client, ensuring that we do not overlook anything. Some of these questions include:
- What is a typical day for your data center team?
- What is the availability of the engineer(s) on-site?
- Will this be a change in production to complete the project?
- How critical is this environment?
- How can we mitigate downtime and inefficiencies during the rollout?
Through additional meetings with the client, we determine the availability of the engineers and technicians we will need to complete the work for scope, admin access, security, and compliance structures, etc. Again, to establish the most streamlined communication and project-work environment between our team and the client’s, it is essential that we know who will be involved in the project and when (as well as the hierarchy and seniority of those involved).
Depending on this availability and the workflow flexibility of the company itself, ADAPTURE engineers and the dedicated Project Manager will finalize a launch date and prepare all project scheduling and planning documents. By establishing a strong dialog with the customer from the very beginning, our experts can architect and complete a custom strategy to meet the specific needs of the client.
Implementation Phase
As the project begins, the ADAPTURE Project Manager will establish a communication plan between their team and that of the client’s.
- Will regular check-ins be weekly or daily?
- What accountability is necessary to stick with the established timeline?
- What incremental, mid-project deadlines should be set?
While official structures are necessary to a successful project, ADAPTURE believes that the human interaction between ADAPTURE and the client is just as critical. Because we genuinely care about the customer and want the project to succeed, our engineers and Project Managers spend a great deal of time adapting to and augmenting our clients’ team dynamics.
Over the years, we have learned how to match the customer’s culture. While staying in touch can be a bit of an art, we strive to keep in consistent contact during a project while not becoming overbearing. If someone needs more motivation, we will be direct and professional in attempts to keep up the project momentum. Conversely, if we notice that a client’s team member is overly stressed or overwhelmed, we take the time to encourage and work alongside them.
We take our jobs very seriously. And we firmly believe that it’s not just about the tech; it’s just as much about the people who manage it. The blueprint, technology, and implementation plan might be there, but if there is dissension in the ranks, a project can go south quickly.
Validation Phase
This is one of the most critical points of the project lifecycle. One of the outcomes of the planning phase is to identify the criteria that will need to be validated during and after the implementation. The key piece is getting on the same page with the customer so that both vendor and customer have aligned success criteria. In this phase, typical activities include quality assurance work, documentation creation, as well as final milestone and deliverable verification. All of these activities ultimately are preparing the team for a concise and smooth project closeout process.
Closing a Project
Once we have reached “project completion,” the ADAPTURE Project Manager presents the closeout materials to the customer including deliverables,
Much like our introductory procedures, ADAPTURE has a standardized process in place for customers to review and confirm their satisfaction with the end-product—these exit questionnaires and meetings determine whether our definition of “completed” is the same as the client’s. At this final stage, scope details can be flexible depending on the needs of the company (within reason). These final touchups leave room for mitigating any miscommunication as well as any last-minute troubleshooting and resolution.
At the final closeout meeting, the client signs a completion form once all criteria have been met.
Why are ADAPTURE Project Managers Valuable for Customers?
We invest in our clients for the entirety of the project.
We help you manage everything throughout the process. Even after our pre-project meetings, IT Project Management collaborations, and documentation sharing at the beginning of each project, ADAPTURE Project Managers are always looking for opportunities to increase efficiency and to better learn the company landscape of our active clients.
No customer or business is alike, which means that a one-size-fits-all mentality will not do. Being overly standardized limits a vendor’s ability to accommodate their client’s needs; being overly lackadaisical leaves room for overlooked protocols and sloppy execution.
ADAPTURE standardizes where possible, but we are flexible to the needs of your company and situation. And by assigning each project its own dedicated Project Manager, ADAPTURE enables you to further customize what a solution needs to look like for their business model and processes.
For more information about IT Project Managers at ADAPTURE, click here: Professional Services Team.
