75 Keys for Implementation Success: Don’t Risk System Implementation Failure

A Critical Checklist for Implementation Success

Implementing new systems can be complex. Careful planning and thorough preparation often means the difference between a successful rollout and adoption or costly failure and roll-back. This checklist has been designed to help surface many of the considerations critical to implementation success. While this is a great start, you should take these suggestions in light of your specific business needs, and then adjust as appropriate. 

Planning 

Define & document clear objectives 

• Define and document the purpose of the system 
• Identify painpoints implementation addresses 
• Articulate business goals you expect to achieve 
• Determine KPIs or other metrics for the above 
• Validate your findings with a broad audience 

Plan & secure your budget 

• Determined the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the first 2-3 years 
• Define and included cost of implementation, training, and potential customizations 
• Work with your finance team to secure the necessary funding 

Engage critical stakeholders 

• Secure executive sponsorship 
• Form a product selection committee 
• Establish a cross-functional implementation team 
• Assigned appropriate roles and responsibilities 
• Define RASCI documentation to outline involvement 

Assess and select your vendor 

• Evaluate potential vendors based on feature alignment, platform scalability, future roadmap, and level of support 
• Check and verify the necessary security certifications and compliance standards 
• Review service level agreements (SLAs) 

Complete a Needs Assessment 

• Conduct a thorough analysis of current process 
• Document specific system requirements 
• Identify potential roadblocks or challenges 
• Create mitigation plans for any issues identified 
• Validate your assessment with business owners 

Define, validate, and plan integrations 

• Inventory your current systems 
• Assess required compatibility with existing systems and infrastructure 
• Map required data movement frequency 
• Identify the necessary APIs or custom integrations to support the required movements 
• Create a data migration and cleansing plan with associated time requirements

Implementation 

Project timeline 

• Create a detailed implementation schedule with realistic (and validated) time estimates 
• Set comprehensive, specific milestones and reasonable deadlines for all deliverables defining implementation success
• Create a communication plan for project updates, project status, and issue reporting 

Security review 

• Implement strong authentication methods (e.g., SSO, MFA) if required by your internal policies 
• Configure or confirm that data encryption settings align with internal policies 
• Establish and configure audit trail and logging needs and capabilities 

Data cleaning and migration 

• Inventory and categorize all data to be migrated, including any data rationalization needs 
• Cleanse and validate all implicated data in preparation for data transfer 
• Create test data and perform test migrations to ensure accuracy before launch 

Testing 

• Develop a comprehensive test plan for all key roles in the new system 
• Conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) to validate critical functions 
• Perform load testing and security vulnerability assessments, if required 

System configuration 

• Complete and validate platform customization/ configuration to meet business requirements 
• Define and set user roles and permissions 
• Create/configure required workflows and automations 

Training 

• Develop role-specific training materials 
• Schedule and complete training sessions 
• Create a knowledge base for self-service support, and provide access to all system users 
• Establish train-the-trainer or ongoing traning models to account for feature updates 
• Establish internal support responsibilities to ensure end-user adoption 

Integration execution 

• Complete the implementation of all planned integrations with existing systems and data stores 
• Conduct thorough testing of all integrations, under all anticipated conditions of real-world use 
• Thoroughly document any custom integrations or non-standard APIs 

Launch 

Go-live preparation 

• Conduct and document a final system review with all appropriate team members to ensure implementation success
• Prepare and share a go-live checklist 
• Set up a command center for launch day 
• Ensure availability of all necessary functional and technical resources for go-live 

System activation/go-live 

• Activate the new system 
• Verify all integrations are functioning as expected and all transferred data is valid 
• Establish a plan and timeline for close monitoring of system performance 
• Create an escalation plan for system issues 

Data freeze and final migration 

• Define and implement a data freeze period 
• Inform all stakeholders of the data freeze 
• Preform the the final data migration 
• Verify data integrity post-migration 
• Lift the data freeze and communicate to all stakeholders 

User onboarding 

• Provide access credentials to all users 
• Offer immediate support for initial login, navigation, and other critical issues 
• Create an easy mechanism to collect initial feedback 

Support 

Performance monitoring 

• Create a detailed implementation schedule with realistic (and validated) time estimates 
• Set comprehensive, specific milestones and reasonable deadlines for all deliverables 
• Create a communication plan for project updates and issue reports 

Optimization and feedback 

• Create a mechanism for gathering user feedback for system and workflow improvements 
• Establish channels for sharing feedback with appropriate technical resources 
• Create mechanisms for identifing opportunities for process optimization 
• Develop a roadmap for future enhancements and/or system expansion based on feedback 

Continuous support 

• Establish ongoing user support channels 
• Schedule regular check-ins with key stakeholders to address opportunities and concerns 
• Plan for periodic system updates and maintenance