Staffing
Internal Staff
The implementation project team will require in-depth knowledge of the new system so that the system functionality can be overlaid onto the user requirements and new ways of working can be devised to use the new system.
Implementing a new system calls for the best, brightest and most dedicated staff. A successful project requires detailed knowledge of how the institution operates, clear headed analysis of current shortcomings, creative vision for improvement, ability to bridge user requirements and software features and willingness to work for months, even years, under intense scrutiny and pressure. The best, most knowledgeable and genuinely committed employees should be assigned to the role of champion for the area of the business and the software to which they are best suited.
Usually such people are available within institutions, although policies may have to be revised to reward them or compensate their departments to retain their services or to fill key vacancies. These individuals must be identified, assigned responsibilities and involved as early in the process as possible to ensure their support and commitment later. People will not cooperate fully if they feel that a new system has been forced upon them.
In addition, technical experts from the IT department must be part of the implementation team so that the marketing claims previously made by suppliers can be balanced against the technical realities that will be faced during the implementation, as well as providing resource of assistance in maintaining the hardware and software.
Undertakings such as the development of an MLE require collaboration between the learning and teaching, administrative and technical areas of the organisation and the skills of staff who can 'translate' across these different functional areas are invaluable. The JISC infoNet 'When Worlds Collide' conference explored some of the issues this raises and the resulting publication records these.
You should be aware, however, that some of the most knowledgeable functional and technical staff may be too allied to the status quo to make effective project participants. Some of them might best be deployed on the important tasks of maintaining the legacy system.
Internal staff must have the aptitude to carry out the project and it must be remembered that it is not always the most senior person in a department that is the best suited to a systems implementation.
External Consultants
If the necessary resources are not available internally, external resources will be required to help staff the project. These may come from the software supplier, an implementation partner or independent contract staff.
External consultants and contractors are undoubtedly very expensive and it is understandable that an institution will have to limit its reliance upon external consultants to a minimum. However, external consultants can and do play invaluable roles in the implementation process and an institution must understand how best to manage and utilise them within its culture.
Project control must not be relinquished to outsiders. The institution will have to live with the results of the implementation and it must retain overall control of the process. Also, while external consultants can fill key roles, often faster than might be possible by recruiting permanent staff members, they do not solve the problem of who will fill these positions when the consultation is over. A good guideline is to use consultants as much as possible for temporary assignments that will not continue throughout or after the implementation. In other words, try to use them as true consultants not as long term additions to permanent staff.
If external consultants are to be appointed, the institution must carefully select them based on the relevance and success of their implementation experiences and be very clear about the job they are expected to perform. Clear objectives and terms and conditions must be included in their contracts from the start. JISC infoNet has produced a short article on Managing Consultants.
Other Institutions
There may be other institutions that have already completed implementations of the same system, and an alternative to appointing external consultants may be to commission staff from one of those institutions to carry out some activities (e.g. initial project planning, project initiation, functionality discussions). The members of such a team not only contribute to the institution's process, but also learn from it and extend the systems implementation knowledge available to the whole educational community.
