Field Notes from the Transition: Tip #8
Peak Season Project Guardrails
The Observation: I have observed project plans where "User Acceptance Testing" or "Go-Live" is scheduled right in the heart of the client's busiest shipping month. The vendor's project manager is often focused on a Gantt chart and resource availability, while the warehouse manager is looking at a literal mountain of orders that must go out the door. The tension in these moments is palpable. The vendor wants to hit their milestone billing, but the client simply needs to survive their peak season. When these two realities collide, the daily operation always wins, but the project suffers a blow to morale and momentum that it may never recover from.
The Tip: Align your implementation milestones with your operational capacity rather than your vendor's project calendar.
The Executable Step: Perform a capacity overlay before you finalize any statement of work or project timeline. You are looking for these specific guardrails to protect your transition.
First, identify your operational "blackout dates" where no system changes, software patches, or training sessions can occur due to peak order volume.
Second, ensure that critical testing phases like User Acceptance Testing have dedicated operational leads and I.T. resources who are completely removed from their floor duties and are not attempting to "juggle" peak season responsibilities.
Third, build a formal "go or no-go" milestone into the schedule at least eight weeks before your peak begins. If the system is not stabilized by that date, you must have the contractual authority to pause the project until the volume subsides.
I can help you negotiate these operational guardrails into your vendor agreement so your technology investment supports your business rather than threatening it.
Why This Matters: When a project forces an operation to choose between shipping orders and attending system training, the training will always be the first thing sacrificed. This leads to shallow learning, poor adoption, and a team that resents the new technology before it even launches. Protecting your peak season is not a project delay. It is a vital risk mitigation strategy that ensures your team has the mental bandwidth to actually learn the new way of working.
This post is part of the Field Notes from the Transition series. You can review previous Field Notes in the series on my blog site. Stay tuned for my next observation from the middle of the operation.
