Here is a short summary of Project Plan Documents you may want to consider when you have to run a CPQ project. There could be many reasons for a CPQ Project like
- Implementing a new CPQ solution
- Upgrading an existing CPQ solution
- Improving CPQ-related Processes (Business Process Re-engineering)
- Increasing acceptance of your existing CPQ solution
- Expanding the use of your CPQ solution (e.g. add it to a website, roll it out to Channel Partners, roll it out to a new location)
- Adding custom functionality to your CPQ solution
These Project may use different Project Management Methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid of the two, etc.) you should always consider if your team (and you) would benefit from the following Project Plan Documents.
1. Project Plan. This is needed (no matter what Project Methodology you use) to display timelines, milestones and work packages that need to be finished and to help the project lead to think through the project. Since this can look very different for different companies (e.g. a MS Project document with several thousand lines vs. an Excel file with a number of lines) I will not generalize this information here.
2. Risk Plan. Different people have different perceptions of risk. You may have people that want to avoid all risks and some always assume the best and don’t see any risks. It is advisable to develop a common Risk Strategy at the beginning of the project to ensure a common understanding and use of Risk Management. Objective is to minimize issues and surprises, decrease probability of issues occurring and to increase probability of project success
The seven steps you should remember are
- Identify the Risk (and assign an owner!)
- Analyze the Risk
- Prioritize the Risk
- Find an appropriate response to the risk (e.g. Accept, Reduce, Transfer, Avoid)
- Execute the response to the risk
- Evaluate how the response worked
- Document the results
3. Rollout Plan. This Plan needs to point out how you plan to rollout the CPQ solution to your users. Examples: Every User, in every region, goes live with the same functionality, at the same date OR in the first release only US based Sales Reps go live with Phase 1 functionality on Day X
- In addition to the Rollout Plan there should also be a Move-to-Production plan that shows: Who will do what when you move your CPQ solution to your Production environment. Note that this is not only about system changes but includes business process, policy and people changes too.
4. Cutover Plan. A Cutover Plan shows all activities required to successfully migrate the business operations from your current or legacy system(s) to the new (or changed) environment. Example: What happens with quotes that are still open in your current environment? OR Every user needs to have access to their quotes in the new environment. Who ensures that all users are setup correctly?
5. Communication Plan. Determine what kind of communication you need to manage and determine if a communication plan is appropriate. With whom do you need to communicate? With internal teams (e.g. CEO announcement of Go-Live)? With external teams (e.g. Channel Partners)
Identify your communication stakeholders
- Determine what your stakeholders are interested in
- Determine what communication channels work best (e.g. email, F2F meeting, phone meeting) for your stakeholders
- Determine how you measure if your communication plan works as intended
6. Contingency Plan. A plan for what you plan to do if something goes wrong. Goal number one is to guarantee that your business operations can go on if something goes wrong. Answer the following questions (related to Risk Management): What could go wrong? What will you do it this happens? Can you do anything in advance to prevent this? Prioritize the risks and develop your plan
Please note that this list is not meant to be complete but instead trigger your thinking what is or is not needed in your CPQ projects.
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