Customers at the beginning of their Extend Journey, some who have already acquired Extend, and some of them considering it, often ask what their First Extend Project should be. Should they start with a modest experimental use case or go big with their first app? Both options have their pros and cons. I’ll try to condense my observations and some opinions here.

Starting with a modest mini project:

Benefits

This lets the customer test the waters, assessing their team’s appetite for the new technology. The framework has new Development terms, Objects, development methodology, and migration lifecycle all of which take a little bit of getting used to, which is easier to do on a smaller project.

If the customer is interested in ramping up their internal team on Extend, this allows them to spend time in upskilling or resource adjustments (identifying skilled/interested resources and planning their bandwidth for major projects down the road). Rollout of New apps involves change management within the organization. Warming up for change management with a smaller change sets the path for the following major Project-induced changes down the road.

Challenges

Spending a few months on a project with low impact might be a distraction from a major project that the organization might have invested in Extend for in the first place, leading to opportunity cost and impatience from stake holders over ROI delay.

Starting off with a major project:

Benefits

Usually, this ‘major’ project is one of the prime reasons why the organization decided to invest in Extend. So delivering this project as soon as possible ensures faster ROI and avoids opportunity costs to the organization. Some customers choose to up skill their teams in Extend while some are not interested and opt for a partner to develop it for them. Nothing wrong with either choice. But if the customer is not looking to up skill the internal team, there is little risk in confiding with an experienced development partner to execute even a complex first project. This could accelerate results and will lead to better Stakeholder satisfaction.

Challenges

Depending on how complex the project is, the appetite for a new Technology Framework, and the bandwidth of the Customer HRIS and Business teams, there is a risk of getting overwhelmed by Extend and going into a mode of avoiding or reconsidering other planned Projects, which would be an unfortunate situation to be in.

Like most things in Technology Strategy, no one answer fits all. A detailed discussion of the Clients’ Objectives, bandwidth, timelines, and stakeholder expectations needs to happen with an experienced partner to decide on the choice of your First Extend app, as that could set the tone for the support you get for future Extend projects in the Organization.

Happy Extending!

Kastech is a certified Workday Partner. For a free consultation on the What Extend is and if it can benefit your organization’s use cases, let’s connect.