Last week I discussed the importance of planning when it comes to Product Lifecycle Management software implementations in my blog "PLM Implementation-No Big Red Easy Button". I wrote about how on paper things can look fairly straightforward but once the process was underway that things can get complicated. This point mirrors another experience I had while on vacation in Colorado. Against my better judgment I was persuaded to accompany a couple of avid cyclist up the mountain at Durango Mountain Resort. In the summer they use the ski lifts to ferry bikers to the top of the mountain and then they can ride down. I am all for using gravity to my benefit so this sounded like the way to cycle in Colorado. There were numerous trails at the top of the mountain and they were rated, beginner, intermediate and advanced in a similar manner to ski runs. I sought advice from one of the employees at the bike shop and he assured me if I didn't mind a "little" climbing the Paul's Park, a 6 mile intermediate trail would give me and my fellow bikers the best experience on the mountain. I grabbed a map and reviewed it with my fellow bikers and we decided that it looked reasonable. Just like we discussed last week with PLM implementation we established our objective and set up a plan, we even had a well drawn map detailing the direction we would be heading. Having a plan and a map is great but what do you do when reality is applied to your plans. People don't cooperate, schedules slip, emergencies arise, and you encounter surprises . This blog will discuss how to deal with setbacks along the way and still emerge with a successful PLM implementation.
The first thing we learned on our journey was that things on the map look a lot flatter and closer than they do in real life. A fifteen hundred foot elevation gain over a 6 miles doesn't sound that bad until an out of shape sea level dweller starts riding up the mountain. About a mile and a half into the ride things started to fracture. One of my companions was a diabetic and while he had been riding Colorado for several days it was mostly road riding and downhill. He started to fall behind and we had to wait for him to catch up a couple of times. We kept looking at our map but it was difficult to reconcile where we actually were in relationship to what we saw on the map. After promising him a couple of times that this was the last switchback he failed to show up. We debated about what to do and my other companion, concerned about his health decided to head back and check on him. I was reluctant to give up so I elected to press on. The lesson here for PLM is two-fold. It is impossible to completely factor in the human element when making a plan for PLM. People get sick, people take longer on tasks, they get distracted on other projects etc. You have to try and allow for this when creating you project plan and setting up your timelines. Many times companies set up aggressive timelines with little margin for error. When something happens it blows the whole schedule and with things being interdependent it can really create havoc. The saying for PLM planning is "Expect the best but plan for the worst". The other lesson is; do not underestimate the difficulty of the tasks at hand. Business process typically evolves in most companies over a period of time. Going in and restructuring process is going to require some time and energy and while it may look flat and short on paper once you get into it you will find that the going can get pretty rough.
I am now alone on the mountain spinning my brains out in "granny gear", the smallest gear on the bike convinced that at any moment the climbing will end and I will be able to once again benefit from gravity as it pulls my 200 pounds down the mountain. Finally I started to descend and the speed was frightening and exhilarating. It was frightening because at one point I got going too fast and went over the handlebars. I thought about taking pictures but didn't think the audience would appreciate the gore. I also had a short delay because a bug flew in my ear and didn't seem to want to come out. I really hope he did but if not maybe we can have another blog article. The other problem was that I was so excited about the momentum after crawling along that I didn't really pay close attention to my map or the posted signs. In fact I blew right by the trail marker and eventually ran out of trail finding myself on a steep embankment with no clear way off the mountain. To make matters worse the weather was starting to deteriorate. Did I mention that I only had one water bottle and no food since I was only expecting to be up there for a short period of time? The lesson for PLM projects is that just because you have momentum doesn't mean you should ignore the plan. Sometimes getting a project to move at all is so exciting you tend to forget the reasons why you are implementing in the first place and allow yourself to be diverted down rabbit trails that can untrack the project. It is important to stay focused and keep the project on point. How do you accomplish this? In my case I had a choice. I could keep floundering around and try and figure out a way down or I could backtrack to the point I went off track and follow the map and signs. Given the fact that I had descended two or three miles it was pretty tempting to just keep going but I really wasn't sure where that would lead. So even though I was pretty tired I ended up retracing my steps back to the sign I missed and then continuing on. The way you stay on point is to always revisit the plan and make the necessary correction no matter how painful it might be.
After retracing my steps I was able to complete the trail. There were a few more unpleasant surprises like the nasty little climb at the end and the fact that I had to take another 2 mile trail down from the ski lift that was pretty technical and might have been fun two hours earlier. Obviously since I am writing this blog I survived. I received a stern lecture from my wife and was informed that they were minutes from sending out a search party for me. I learned not to underestimate tasks, to pay attention to signs, that haste makes waste and never ride through the middle of a puddle because you just don't know how deep they might be. As you embark on PLM and other enterprise software implementations keep in mind that no matter what happens try to stick to the plan and when you make that plan try to allow for some flexibility. If you keep this in mind you can finish your journey and not be covered in mud and scratches and your friends or significant other might be willing to buy you lunch.[clear-line]