BF is Getting Closer

Tuesday afternoon, August 5th, Goddard kicked off the Budget Formulation (BF) project to its end users. The BF Project Team among a packed room of budget users provided an overview of the BF module, imparting to the crowd:

1) an understanding of the project and its structure,
2) the implementation time line and milestones,
3) the systems functionality,
4) the training approach,
5) the communications plan, and
6) the projects critical success factors.

Thus far, the project team has completed numerous activities that are crucial to the successful implementation of the project. In addition to participating in conference room pilots and mapping users to new system roles, gap analysis workshops have outlined the as-is/to-be Center-specific processes while System Integration Testing (SIT) enters its third and final phase.

With all that the BF Project Team has accomplished, there is still much more to do. Next week and the week following, Goddard will participate in the Agency Train-The-Trainer sessions. These sessions will further prepare the GSFC BF trainers to begin end user training in September.

As the BF Project Team readies itself for the training push, change management activities will increase. Already the change team has successfully established a network of extended team members called Change Agents. Going forward, the change team will enlist their help with training, organizational alignment and communications activities to ensure that BF has a smooth Go-Live transition, slated for October 2003.