1. Base Currency Conversion Implementation Guide
  2. Conversion Project Team

Conversion Project Team

Many companies establish a conversion project team consisting of a project team leader, application administrators, system administrators, end users, IT personnel, and so on. The project team defines the scope of the conversion and creates a project plan to ensure a successful conversion. The project team should set up a method to track the progress of the project, making sure that issues are handled in a timely manner and that the project stays on schedule and within budget.

The conversion project team is responsible for running and testing the base currency conversion in a test environment before running it in the production environment. First, the project team should complete the preconversion, conversion, and postconversion tasks in a test environment, correcting any data issues in both the test and production environments. Later, when the team is satisfied with the results of the conversion in the test environment, they should complete all of the tasks again in the production environment.

Prior to running the base currency conversion, the project team should review and complete the preconversion tasks documented in this guide. The preconversion tasks can take weeks, or even months, to complete. If you clean up the tables and review and correct the integrity reports on a regular basis, you can expect to spend less time completing the preconversion tasks.

After running the base currency conversion, the project team should review and complete the postconversion tasks documented in this guide.

This is a list of some suggested project team tasks. Use this list to generate discussion within the company and help you plan the conversion strategy:

  • Set up project objectives, scope, assumptions, resources, roles, and responsibilities.

  • Define the skills required by the project team and assign people to the team.

  • List the milestones and target dates for the project.

  • Plan a reporting method to keep management informed of progress.

  • Schedule a kick-off meeting to discuss and finalize the project plan.

  • Create an issues list.

    Include risks, questions, concerns, and so on, and assign a project person to each issue.

Throughout the conversion, the project team should review and update the project plan, track the progress of the conversion, and identify and resolve issues.