project success stories

Linky

Project Success Story: National Point of Sales System Upgrade

By Linky van der Merwe

Success Story SharedThis project story from project manager, Anwar Rawoot, is about the migration from a legacy Point of Sales (POS) system to a new POS system at 265 retail stores nationally that took three years to complete.

The complexity was in the fact that the project team only had a 12-hour window from the time a store closed until the next morning it opened to do the replacement, which included network infrastructure, shop fitting, POS and testing. A shop’s data would be migrated overnight and once the new system is in, it was migrated back to the new system.

Challenges

The project’s biggest constraints were that when server problems were experienced, it would take 8 hours to rebuild and in the case of till problems, it would take 3 hours to rebuild.

The way it was executed, was to do one store each night. All work had to be done after hours and there was only one team per region to do the work. They had to sleep during the day and work at night which had a family impact.

Working after hours

The challenge was how to work a 5-day week back-to-back and then an additional 24 hours shift. People became overworked, and the quality of work dropped. Some people even became ill over time. It also took three months to train people to the right level of expertise.

Eventually the plans were changed….. Read on

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Part of the Success Stories Shared initiative to collect Success Stories from experienced project/programme managers in order to share experiences and to promote learning across the project and programme management community. If you would like to share your project story and make a contribution to the bigger project management profession, contact me on linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com

Success Stories Shared
Success Stories Shared
Linky

2015 – Project Managers are you up to a great start?

At the beginning of the year, we are motivated for new beginnings. We want to do new things, or we want to do things that worked in the past, even better.

sundowner-Sedgefield
Sunset beach picnic, Sedgefield, South Africa

After a period of holiday fun with the family doing camping, swimming at the beach, hanging out with friends and enjoying our wonderful summer weather, it’s time to get back into gear. Sometimes you have a slow start, other times you hit the road running.

I look forward to many challenges at work and initiatives from Virtual Project Consulting this year. We will launch our very own Podcast series in 2015! I am a contributing author to a book on “Social Media and Project Management” to be compiled by Prof Silvius of the University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Also look out for guest post contributions from well-known project professionals.

When you’re responsible for projects you work with people and to have great results you need to be a good leader. In a recent article I discovered these leadership lessons learned from nuns, which touched my heart. I want to make it part of my path to success in 2015:

  • Love the journey.
  • Live and work your passions.
  • Always be grateful.
  • Make mistakes.
  • Integrity is your most powerful asset.
  • Vision, no matter how right, can only be delivered through relationships.
  • Success is only success if everyone feels the win.

At Virtual Project Consulting we are working full swing on making new things a reality. To help with two of the most pressing questions project managers have, this is what we cater for:

  1. Where can I find the best project management training, software, products, books etc?
  2. How do I become a Project Manager, a PMP or maintain my certification?
Knysna, South Africa
Knysna, South Africa

Take a look around and discover:

Please let me know in the comments what specific topics you’re interested in? What would benefit you in your search for information about project management?