It’s important for the vendor

It’s not just about your needs, clear success criteria save time for everyone. Should they be met, it's a worthy investment of the vendor’s time. If a product doesn’t meet a potential client’s needs, everyone can shake hands and move on!

It’s important for the information professional

Success criteria help you focus your attention and provide you with metrics. As one project manager remarked, there are many positive reasons for constantly measuring the effectiveness of a project - metrics and the stories behind them can really help you justify your investment in time and resources.

Migration projects are massive undertakings. Your team is probably running at capacity, so to keep moving the project forward, you need a dedicated project leader in place. They don't need to be a formal "project manager". They don't even need to be located within the library team.

One library manager explains that they were fortunate to find an experienced project manager within the firm’s business development team. This helped them to scope out an initial project plan to find a replacement software solution, and then to implement the new solution.

They need time, energy, and the right balance of skills. They need personality and drive. They need to make the rollout fun and engaging, whilst maintaining control and purpose. As the project progresses, a project manager can host regular sessions with groups of end users to assess progress and get feedback. 

No matter how great the technology is, if no one is using it, then it doesn’t matter. People need to know about all the benefits of the new platform. Here are some practical ideas to get you started:

• Consider a teaser campaign and “stop press” news releases everywhere people are reading.
• Carry out demos of the new system’s features and benefits. Get a session in the firm’s annual general meeting or similar.
• Host Q&A sessions, workshops, or informal meet-ups where your end users can ask questions and provide feedback.
• Put together surveys or focus groups to understand the specific needs, challenges, and expectations of end users. 
• Give the people what they want!