PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Project Rescue

Crisis Management to Project Success

Alison Wellsfry, PMP19 April 2007

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Overview

• Customer Assurance Program

• Risk Identification and Response

• Executive Engagement and Communication

• Lessons Learned

• Customer Examples

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Customer Assurance Program

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Team Existence

• Aggressive market space requirement, constant pushing out of comfort zone

• Every environment has some difference

• Despite best efforts to plan and respond, small percentage will result in crisis

• Customer Assurance Program (CAP) team created

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Team Charter

• Critical Situation Management

• Executive Engagement

• Prevention

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Team Resources

• Reports go directly to executive staff– Expected to be objective, have no business group

allegiance

• Own no resources and no budget• May involve resources from any organization to

– Identify and diagnose problems– Determine strategy and implementation plan to

achieve objectives– Execute resolution plan

• Influence without direct authority

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Critical Situation

There is severe customer business impact…

normal support & escalation channels/processes have been tried, but cannot resolve the issue.

AND…Engage

when

=

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Critical Situation

• Severe customer business impact– Technical issues– Business relationship at risk

• Normal processes not working– Review escalations to date– First 48 hours to get situation back on track

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Engagement Request

• Failing product and technical cases• Customer business impact• Our business impact• Technical description/Action plan• Assistance needed• Failing process• Exit criteria• Escalation utilized• Contacts

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

1st Few hours

1st Few hours

Engagement Request

Understand impact,

determine initial team and scope,

analyze risks

Problem Determination

Closed Loop feedback

Data Gathering and

Analysis

Implementation

Problem Resolution

Problem Identification

Develop short term action plan & attempt

workaround if possible

Identify Executive sponsor

Network Assurance

Engagement ends

Engagement ends

Typical Timeline

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Risk Identification and Response

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Risk Identification and Scope

What is the overriding deliverable?

• Address the critical technical issues

• Address the business relationship issues

• Ensure the normal process can function

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Team – First Response

• What technical and business actions are critical

• Who can help identify risks

• Who can plan and implement response plan

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Risk Response

• Identify risks

• Analyze probability and impact for both technical and customer sentiment– technical issue may not be high impact, but

customer perception creates higher customer sentiment impact

• Plan risk response

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Common Risks

• Technical problems

• Serviceability problems

• Product quality / Solution quality

• Customer escalation process

• Internal escalation process

• Operational readiness

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Risk Response Plan

• Risks drive the action plan

• Technical issues that will have the highest impact if they occur– Contingency for what-if scenarios

• Customer management – provide time to respond– Executive Sponsorship– Account Management

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Exit Criteria

Typical factors

• Stability

• Issues identified and resolved

• Fixes implemented

• No new severe issues

• Normal support processes can be successful

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Executive Engagement and Communication

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Executive Engagement

• Identify and engage executive sponsors– Business group or product owner– Sales VP– Services VP– Named Executive Sponsor

• Who owns resources

• Who benefits from success

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Executive Communication

• Communications create strategic vision– Align customer impact to actions– Align customer impact to business goals

• VP level communications put spotlight on issues– Clearly state what internal processes did not

work to resolve the issues

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Communication

• Communicate status and roadblocks

• Manage stakeholders

• Voice mail - 60 seconds

• Email more detailed

• Frequency driven by customer sentiment and actions

• Reporting level (VP up to CEO) driven by customer sentiment and risks

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Communication Components

• Critical Reason

• Executive Summary (30 seconds)

• Customer Sentiment

• Executive Sponsor and Engagement

• Action Summary

• Exit Criteria

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Response Team

• May change over time

• Develop team– Constant awareness that this team has to

function long-term without crisis manager

• Reward efforts– Individual recognition in executive updates– Feedback to performance review– Immediate bonus

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Lessons Learned

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Driving Improvements

• Lessons learned from immediate crisis

• Operational metrics for trends

• Strategic Improvements

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Lessons Learned

• Initial failing product

• Initial failing processes

• What can we do to keep our customers from getting to this critical state

• Crisis extenders

• What did we do well

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Feedback

• Lessons Learned update– Communication to VP up to CEO,

• Owners to drive improvements

• Timeline for improvements

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Operational Metrics

• Product

• Solution family

• Sales region

• Support escalation process

• Crisis extenders

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Strategic Improvements

• Systemic issues – many customers with similar issue– high risk of affecting many customers

• Scope dictated by previous cases

• Executive engagement

• Communications– strategic vision– spotlight

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

1st Few hours

1st Few hours

Engagement Request

Understand impact,

determine initial team and scope,

analyze risks

Problem Determination

Closed Loop feedback

Data Gathering and

Analysis

Implementation

Problem Resolution

Problem Identification

Develop short term action plan & attempt

workaround if possible

Identify Executive sponsor

Network Assurance

Engagement ends

Engagement ends

Typical Timeline

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Customer Examples

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Customer 1

Scenario “Trading Day”

• Risk identification and response

• Executive engagement

• Communications

• Lessons Learned

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Customer 2

Scenario “Streaming Video”

• Risk identification and response

• Executive engagement

• Communications

• Lessons Learned

PMI - SFBAC19 April 2007 Alison Wellsfry

Q & A

Alison Wellsfrywellsfry@cisco.com

+1.408.525.1184