Introduction

The purpose of this document is to define the Project Management policy for BookingLive, providing an understanding of the steps required to initiate, monitor, deliver and evaluate projects in a controlled way.

Project Delivery Process

BookingLive use a proven approach to produce a quality deliverable whilst minimising the effort required and the impact on key staff to provide input and support. An agile approach based on an adapted Prince2 framework streamlines project management, change management, testing, training and a prompt return to as usual.

All projects over 37.5 hours of effort or that cost £5,000 or more are required to adhere to this policy. Project Sponsors sign-off at project order, specification of works, project schedules, UAT, post project evaluation while Account Managers are only assigned if they are capable of managing a team, communicating with senior executives and stakeholders and have sufficient product knowledge.

The BookingLive team works together to manage operational delivery as follows:

Scope & Discovery

  • Workshop sessions to review business case and gather key requirements
  • Produce a Statement of Works including wireframes and technical specification
  • Show and tell of proposed solution
  • Sign off and agreement from key stakeholder

Project Delivery

  • Produce a Project Plan detailing key milestones, resources and deliverables
  • Produce a User Acceptance Test Plan
  • Produce a Training Plan
  • Allocate resource and setup system tools
  • Development delivered in accordance to agreed release cycles

Testing & Assurance

  • Internal automated and functional testing
  • User Acceptance Testing by Client against the specification of works
  • All other agreed testing procedures
  • Quality Assurance review by key stakeholders

Go Live

  • Client training
  • Complete internal go live procedure
  • Documentation produced
  • Deployment from staging to live environment
  • Initiate support agreement and Service Level Agreements
  • A smooth and rapid return to business as usual
  • IT Audit and Quality Assurance review

Change Management Process

A change management process is used to control scope changes during project delivery. Change can impact quality, budget and timings and therefore must be assessed before it is made. BookingLive follow the best practises and processes of ITIL and can be defined as:

  • Complete a change request form and record the request for change
  • Complete a technical review and impact assessment
  • Agree a revised project plan including time and cost revisions
  • Update the project plan and close change record

Incident Management Process

An incident is any interruption to the service provided. BookingLive rate these incidents and notifies clients if the incident is of high severity. BookingLive operate 3 levels of monitoring in parallel to ensure disruptions are known in advance of any emerging problems prior to them becoming a real time threat to customers. The goal of incident management is to restore normal service as soon as possible. The following incident management process outlines the steps to restore operation to normal:

  • Incident identification
  • Incident logging
  • Incident prioritisation & categorisation
  • Investigation to identify issue or cause
  • Fix identified issue
  • Implement recovery process if applicable
  • Close and report incident if applicable

Release Management Process

BookingLive have adopted an agile approach to successfully manage release cycles during delivery on both staging and live environments. The primary objective of release management is to ensure that the integrity of the live environment is protected and that minimum disruption is caused during the release process. The following release management process outlines the steps involved:

  • Release planning and preparation
  • Build and test release
  • Verify and review deployment
  • Acceptance tests and vulnerability scanning
  • Quality Assurance review
  • Deployment and release closure
  • Roll back, if applicable

Problem Management Process

Problem Management is the process responsible for managing the lifecycle of all problems. The primary objectives of Problem Management are to prevent problems and minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented. BookingLive ensure that problems and errors are managed effectively and that potential service impacting issues are identified pro-actively. BookingLive maintain communication directly with clients, typically via a central account management or via the online ticketing helpdesk. The following problem management process outlines the steps involved:

  • Identify and report the problem
  • Log, manage and communicate the problem
  • Monitor and observe any recurring patterns
  • Report and provide updates
  • Escalate the problem if applicable

Training

BookingLive provide training during the roll out of the software easing the return to business as usual and are offered to help maximise business potential. BookingLive tailor training and tutorials sessions to suit requirements and skill level with a typical training plan being delivered across various sources:

  • Videos and User Manuals
  • Regular webinars
  • Onsite training

Business As Usual

After successfully supporting the Go Live procedure, BookingLive provide additional support to ensure a smooth return to business as usual (BAU).

Key Services:

  • Additional training to support staff through the early stages of implementation
  • Reporting and data quality expertise to support the production of reports
  • Intelligent support on the ground to show staff how to best use the system, with all the right processes in place
  • Rapid training response teams to ensure that any gaps in training are filled
  • Delivery Assurance and IT audit to capture feedback and help you maximise benefits

Key Benefits:

  • A smooth go live with a rapid return to business as usual
  • Fast optimisation and embedding of the system in your organisation
  • Assured evolution for the future, to continuously improve and manage the system
  • Organisation confidence in the new system from an early stage
  • Maximising the investment made in the system