Using Agile Techniques
in Traditional Projects
SECOND EDITION
By Jennifer F. Jones
Texas, USA
Abstract
When the go live date is 100% inflexible, how do you achieve success when faced with seemingly insurmountable barriers? The program team for Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) had to overcome incredible odds to bring cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) and Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) systems live on dates mandated by the Executive Steering Committee (ESC). This case study will explore how CNO used agile techniques in traditional projects to manage benefits delivery, critical issues, and keep the timeline on track.
CNO is a United States tribal government that supports its programs with multiple commercial enterprises in addition to grant funding. At the start of the Hoshonti program, the Nation employed more than 10,000 employees, and had an annual budget of almost $2 billion. The program was critical to optimize CNO’s entire hire to retire lifecycle, core accounting, and core purchasing processes for expected exponential growth.
The budget for the program was USD $12.9 Million for professional services from 4 separate vendors. The go live dates were staggered for HCM/Payroll and ERP/Purchasing, as the two primary projects in the program. There were multiple smaller projects created for ancillary systems to support the new systems. All were structured in a traditional, waterfall approach to manage implementation.
The program successfully met the go live expectations with zero scope reduction even with the challenges brought on by Covid 19, and agile techniques made all the difference.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to identify agile techniques that can be used in traditional projects to manage benefits delivery, critical issues and other barriers to an inflexible timeline.
Turning on a Dime: Using Agile Techniques in Traditional Projects
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) is a United States tribal government that supports its programs with multiple commercial enterprises in addition to grant funding. CNO’s Vision is “Living out the Chahta spirit of faith, family and culture.” Its mission is “To the Choctaw proud, ours is the sovereign nation offering opportunities for growth and prosperity.” The Hoshonti program contributes to all 3 strategic drivers of “Commitment to Our People,” “Financial Stewardship” and “Operational Excellence.” At the start of the Hoshonti program, the Nation employed more than 10,000 employees, and had an annual budget of almost $2 billion.
The human resources and financial system being used by CNO at that time was Oracle’s JDEdwards suite. This was implemented as an on-premise system that had been highly customized to support the incredibly diverse business interests of the Nation, and that customization resulted in unnecessary complexity, poor usability, and loss of vendor supportability due to inability to apply software updates. Additionally, the complexity prevented CNO from optimizing basic employment and financial processes across the organization. CNO’s exponential growth rate was expected to continue and necessitated a reduction in complexity and improved training and documentation to support long-term sustainability. Therefore, CNO made a strategic decision to invest in the implementation of a cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system as a platform to enable transformational change across the shared services’ functions at CNO, and I was hired to manage the Hoshonti program.
Hoshonti is the Choctaw word for cloud and was selected as the program’s name to represent the cloud-based nature of the software systems being implemented. The Hoshonti program’s primary objective was to implement the Oracle Cloud HCM and ERP systems to optimize CNO’s entire hire to retire lifecycle, core accounting, and core purchasing processes.
The capital budget for the program was USD $12.9 Million for professional services from 4 separate vendors. The go live dates were staggered for HCM/Payroll (1/1/20) and ERP/Purchasing (10/1/20). I established these as the two primary projects, with multiple smaller projects created for ancillary systems to support the new systems. For example, the time clock system (Kronos) had to be reconfigured to support the new Payroll system, so that was a subproject under HCM.
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Editor’s note: Second Editions are previously published papers that have continued relevance in today’s project management world, or which were originally published in conference proceedings or in a language other than English. Original publication acknowledged; authors retain copyright. This paper was originally presented at the 14th UT Dallas PM Symposium in May 2022. It is republished here with the permission of the authors and conference organizers.
How to cite this paper: Jones, J.F. (2022). Turning on a Dime: Using Agile Techniques in Traditional Projects; presented at the 14th UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in Richardson, TX, USA in May 2022; republished in the PM World Journal, Vol. XI, Issue VII, July. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/pmwj119-Jul2022-Jones-turning-on-a-dime-using-agile-techniques-in-traditional-projects.pdf
About the Author
Jennifer F. Jones
Texas, USA
Jennifer F. Jones, PMP, PgMP is Director of Program Operations with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and has over 30 years project and program management experience in various industries. She formerly held numerous volunteer positions within PMI, including VP Communications for PMI Dallas, Vice-Chair of the PMI Information Systems Specific Interest Group, PMI Global Congress Project Action Team (CoPAT) Member, and Lead Editor of Project Landscape, a Grassroots Project Management Thought Leadership Monthly Journal. She can be contacted at Jen@grcbydesign.com
