How to Assess Risks on a Salesforce Project

Whether you are working as a solo Salesforce Administrator or Salesforce Consultant, you need to know how to lead a Salesforce Project. 

Beyond Salesforce Technical Skills, the key professional skills you need to lead a project include Business Analysis, Agile Project Management and Change Management. We teach these skills on the Supermums Consultancy Skills Course, alongside equipping our students with the right knowledge, tools and templates to confidently lead a Salesforce project. 

As part of our ‘How to Lead a Salesforce Project’ content series over the next 5 weeks, we are sharing some top tips from our Supermums Consultancy Skills Course. These include: 

• 10 Documents to produce for a Salesforce Project
• How to Estimate Time & Budget for a Salesforce Project
• How to Assess Risks on a Salesforce Project 
• 5 Communication Tools to use on a Salesforce Project
• 10 ways to optimise your Salesforce End-User Training Strategy

This week we are talking about how to assess risk on a Salesforce Project

For a Salesforce Consultant there is nothing worse than…

• Implementing a Salesforce system which is not adopted
• Having a project that goes beyond the go live date
• Working with a client team who do not have the time and capacity to deal with a new system
• Having mis-aligned expectations about how the project is going to run.

Instead, you want to do everything you can to mitigate these risks, which is why I developed a risk register when working with my clients. On our Consultancy Skills Course I provide a wide range of templates, tools, and scripts to help you get set up for success. Having overseen 700+ projects I have built up quite a list of common risks from seeing Salesforce projects go wonky.

I now think that one of the most important elements of any project is educating a client about all the risks upfront and helping them to mitigate the risks where possible. We want the client to feel prepared for implementing and managing a CRM long-term. Quite often they have not participated in a CRM implementation before, so they do not know the risks. It is therefore hard for them to put together their own risk register and so it is much easier if we give them a template to complete with risks, impacts and mitigation strategies so they can understand, assess, act, and rank the risks accordingly.

To help my clients, I’ve put together a comprehensive 20 point Risk Register that I encourage them to complete. Here is a quick summary of the risks:

1. Have they appointed an Internal Project Manager at the client?
2. Have they identified an Internal Salesforce Admin(s) at the start of the project?
3. Is the Salesforce Admin going to be equipped with adequate training?
4. Is there enthused Salesforce Champions appointed per department/team?
5. Is there commitment and buy-in to completing Salesforce trailheads?
6. Is their buy-in to the Train the Trainer approach with champions?
7. Do they have resource appointed to manage data cleansing?
8. What is the level of Salesforce experience amongst client stakeholders?
9. What is the capacity of staff to evaluate their processes and business needs in readiness for the design process?
10. Do they have suitable Wi-Fi and IT hardware to access Salesforce CRM?
11. Is the organisation ready for change and are employees bought in?
12. Is there any evidence of concern or negative resistance to a new CRM?
13. Is there a lack of clarity or alignment with Agile Project Management?
14. Is there lack of clarity on tangible business goals and benefits of the CRM implementation?
15. Is there lack of clarity on the roles and responsibilities of an Executive Sponsor?
16. Could decision making take longer than usual due to remote planning and team working?
17. Is there a risk that project tasks that be delayed that could impact timelines?
18. How complex is the technical solution and are there risks in the unknown/decisions/resources?
19. Is there adequate resource/budget to manage the CRM post implementation?
20. Has this risk register been completed and understood by the client?

If you want to feel better equipped to consult with clients, then join one of my training courses below.

Empower yourself by signing up to my four-month Consultancy Skills Programme starting in April. The course equips you with Business Analysis, Agile Project Management, Change Management and Coaching Skills. Find out more here

How confident are you to lead a Salesforce project?

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If you want to lead Projects confidently then find out more about our 12 week Consultancy Skills Course where you can build your career with an industry recognised certification, and get the skills, confidence and mindset of a Salesforce consultant.

• 3 month programme with 12 months access to materials.
• Group coaching, mentoring and one to one support.
• Receive full employability support.
• Available in EMEA, USA, Canada and ANZ.
• Payment plans available.

The next cohort starts on the 2nd May 2023. The deadline to enrol is the 23rd April.