After the merger of two organizations, multiple self-developed legacy applications from both companies are to
be replaced by a new common platform. Which of the following would be the GREATEST risk?
A.
Project management and progress reporting is combined in a project management office which is driven by
external consultants.
B.
The replacement effort consists of several independent projects without integrating the resource allocation
in a portfolio management approach.
C.
The resources of each of the organizations are inefficiently allocated while they are being familiarized with
the other company’s legacy systems.
D.
The new platform will force the business areas of both organizations to change their work processes, which
will result in extensive training needs.
Explanation:
The efforts should be consolidated to ensure alignment with the overall strategy of the postmerger organization.
If resource allocation is not centralized, the separate projects are at risk of overestimating the availability of key
knowledge resources for the in-house developed legacy applications. In postmerger integration programs, it is
common to form project management offices to ensure standardized and comparable information levels in the
planning and reporting structures, and to centralize dependencies of project deliverables or resources. The
experience of external consultants can be valuable since project management practices do not require in-depth
knowledge of the legacy systems. This can free up resources for functional tasks. It is a good idea to first get
familiar with the old systems, to understand what needs to be done in a migration and to evaluate the
implications of technical decisions. In most cases, mergers result in application changes and thus in training
needs as organizations and processes change to leverage the intended synergy effects of the merger.