The Sweet Spot for Timing a Project Launch

Project Planning

When is the best time to start implementing a significant district project?

School calendars have a rhythm. Different departments have their busy months and their slow(er) months. Understanding this rhythm helps partners and district leaders know when to start a project. Good planning is everything when it comes to success.

January through March is one of the best times to kick off district projects.

These were the months I always relished as a CTO. I had time to think through the details of a good project plan, the steps involved in achieving success, and the team I needed to bring to the table to handle the essential parts of change management. Most school districts start their academic and fiscal clocks on July 1st. Late winter and early spring planning ensured that we stepped up to that starting line rested and ready.

January through March also started the budgeting process for the upcoming school year. Understanding the fiscal flexibility and budget constraints impacted what I could execute in a given year. Budget discussions are usually political, centered around opportunity costs and core objectives for the year. The better I could articulate a need, the more likely I could earmark funds.

Does that mean you can’t start a project at other times of the year?

Not necessarily! There are many reasons and use cases to start projects at different times of the year. Beginning in January and February is a good default for planning. Especially if a district would like to implement Abre at the start of a school year.

As a CTO, I knew my summer would be dedicated to equipment deployments and software upgrades, security refinements, and all sorts of work requiring significant attention. Chromebooks needed to be cleaned and debugged (sometimes literally debugged of occasional critters). Access points needed replacing and servers swapped. Curriculum and Instruction needed rosters prepared for their projects (a particular flavor of frustration that actually spawned the creation of Abre).

If a vendor had everything in order for an August deployment by April, my respect for them grew tenfold. It was always a joy to work with companies that decreased my workload or the workloads of my team.

Roll Out Example
A sample example: The first few weeks of an Abre rollout.

A Practical Example

When a district partners with Abre, we begin the onboarding process. I’m simplifying a bit, but the onboarding process works as so:

  1. We meet with our customer to identify their immediate goals (we usually have a good understanding from the sales process).
  2. We identify the initial data sources we need to integrate with Abre. The most important integration is with the Student Information System (SIS).
  3. We identify how we connect to those data sources.
  4. We and the customer make the integration happen.

It sounds simple. And it usually is! But sometimes we encounter bumps in the road. A district may have just started a new SIS and struggle with integrations. Or the head of data systems has gone on maternity leave. Or an SIS or state assessment system is changing its user interface. Little hiccups.

All of which are very solvable. Abre is very experienced at solving these problems.

It’s also not uncommon for a district to increase its understanding of Abre during onboarding and find its eyes open to a host of wonderful opportunities and ideas. This increase in understanding brings a shift in priorities.

For example, Alief ISD’s growing understanding of how Abre works led them to have us create an analytics dashboard showing the financial effect of chronic absenteeism.

Feature Image

But, and this is key, solving for bumps and finding opportunities is best done when there is time for effective project planning. We’ve found late winter and early spring to be the best time to start with Abre.

What About the Budget?

School budgets typically start July 1st, and it’s not uncommon for our customers to want to align their budget year with our contracts. Sometimes, this leads leaders to hold off on deciding until July. Starting in July means onboarding is happening during the busiest time of year for schools and for Abre.

This is why we encourage districts not to wait.

Districts get a true partner with Abre. We care deeply about the success of students and staff. We’re always happy to find ways to work with customers to make a successful launch happen at the right time.

Want to Learn More?

We’d love to talk about our customer’s success stories. We’re always happy to connect interested districts with customers who’ve launched Abre in the early spring.

Learn More!

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