Decision-Making Frameworks

A crucial step in planning an implementation is the development of a decision making framework. Implementing a system across a large institution often requires significant changes that impact relatively independent departments and different groups of learners. For the implementation to proceed at the right pace, important decisions regarding these changes often have to be made quickly and be well-informed.

Such decisions would stress the acumen of the most experienced Project Manager, assuming he or she has the authority to make them. However, in many institutions, such decisions are debated by project teams, discussed by coordinating committees, deliberated upon by steering groups and revisited several times. In other words, a decision is often viewed as only a temporary or possible indication of direction and ultimately results in indecision.

Implementations require a new approach with a decision-making procedure being agreed as early as possible, documented, put into action and fully supported by the institution's principal officers throughout the project. Furthermore, the procedures must be adhered to even when the project suffers problems.