Module 5: How Can We Effectively Implement Technology Projects?

Developed by The Ada Center in partnership with Complete College America

Getting Started

The goal with all technology projects is for them to ultimately achieve and sustain their intended impact at scale. Anyone who has participated in a degree audit data clean-up, been tasked with “boosting morale” around a clunky technology gadget from the 1990s or looked too closely at the inner workings of their institution’s SIS, knows that achieving this milestone requires a great deal of time, effort, and luck.

It is an unfortunate and common misconception that many student success software products can be “fully implemented after 3 months!” While software firms are incentivized to share these wowing data points, the on-the-ground reality looks a bit different. After working with many institutions on many technology tool implementations, we can confidently say there has never been a student success software implementation in our field that has taken less than 6 months to achieve its intended impact at scale. In fact, many institutions that are lauded as technology project exemplars had to engage in at least one technology re-implementation to achieve the success they now experience.

This work is hard, but there are things you and your team can do to make it faster, easier, and more impactful. This module will cover the basics of technology implementation success and provide resources for those hoping to rescue a technology initiative gone adrift.

Who Would Benefit From This Module

This resource will be useful to those tasked with leading technology implementation on behalf of their department, senior leaders, and individuals actively engaged in implementation planning

What You’ll Learn:

How can we prepare for an effective student success technology implementation?
What type of implementation support do we need, if any?
How can we rescue and plan for putting a technology implementation back on track?