August 2020 – This CIO Checklist proposes a structured approach for instituting objective success criteria and metrics for CIOs who are embarking upon or already implementing a core system replacement project.

Proactive business expectation management and project status messaging take considerable time and effort. Program managers and CIOs often overlook these elements when beginning core system replacement projects. However, prioritizing these tasks is vital to the actual and perceived success of core system replacement initiatives.

The Checklist

• Agree to a statement of scope that includes context
• Communicate success criteria in business capability terms
• Document high-level assumptions
• Establish and track accountabilities and milestones
• Allocate estimated project costs to each workstream
• Establish a change management budget
• Separate change requests from support requests and technical debt
• Develop a risk management and contingency plan
• Establish a support resource forecast and budget
• Establish a mechanism for communicating accomplishments proactively