I want your implementation to cost less, I want you receive all of your desired functionality, and I want it delivered on time. This is the first installment in my blog series examining the three pillars of project management: budget, scope, and timeline for companies to achieve a successful implementation.

1. Unexpected Additional Requirements
   This is undoubtedly the area where most additional costs lie. Our consultants observe these costs arise during requirement gathering sessions, demos, and testing. During these meetings and sessions, end users begin to see the how the system works. It’s during this interactive process that additional requirements are born. In my experience, every project, bar none, has encountered unexpected additional requirements. Some additional requirements are necessities that weren’t previously accounted for, whereas others are "nice to have" additional features. But how do you discern the difference?

   Budget Saving Steps: Establishing project governance and executive alignment at the onset of the project to manage these new requests is imperative to keeping your costs down. Put in place a process to manage new requests: the criteria by which they will be documented, the person responsible for review, as well as their fit into the holistic project scope—encompassing success documentation, resource plans, timeline plans, and budget plans. Determine whether the project will suffer without this specific functionality. Also ask if there are other ways to do this work; there are always several ways to approach a solution. Communicate this process early on to all project members, staff in requirements sessions, and testers. These steps will keep your timeline and budget manageable, and separate the luxuries from necessities for your launch. Learn more about cloud governance prioritization to help your project run smoothly.

2. Documentation & Deliverables
   What are your company’s documentation standards or requirements? For instance, are there IT audits of projects done after the fact that require documentation? What is your definition of certain deliverables from the vendor? Are they the same as what your vendor believes them to be? These are some key questions to keep in mind in order to maintain clarity and consistency throughout the sales and contract process.

   Budget Saving Steps: Ask to see samples during the process to ensure that you know exactly what you’re getting. Determine what your mandatory documentation standards are; there may be standards in your Financial or IT Departments. Also determine what can your company can document in relation to what the vendor can document. Understanding documentation requirements for you and your vendor will help to avoid additional costs and surprises later.

3. Testing
   Testing can be comprised of unit tests, UAT tests, end-to-end tests, integration tests, data testing and more. It is essential that you and your vendor have the same definition of each type of testing, scripts, timeframes and testers needed throughout the process. Ask yourself: Does your company have standards on testing? Are there regulatory needs around testing and testing documentation? Do you and your vendor know the level of detail required?

   Budget Saving Steps: Be clear on what types of testing are required as well as the staff that need to participate. Determine what aspects of regulatory testing documentation your company can do, and ask to see sample test scripts to ensure alignment before you sign a contract. Knowing the detail of what you need up front and determining the people needed will keep impromptu expenses to a minimum.

4. Migrating Data
   Ensuring data quality can be one of the most vexing aspects of a project. Often we find data that is missing essential information, error laden, formatted incorrectly, or overwhelmed with duplicates. Many hours are needed to cleanse, normalize and migrate data, while clients are often surprised by the magnitude of time and budget it takes to achieve an acceptable format.

   Budget Saving Steps: One of the most beneficial things you can do before a project commences is to audit your data. This means that you will need staff who have the business and IT knowledge to review, edit, and enhance the data.