An ERP or digital project needs a lead who keeps scope, cost and schedule under control and gives management decision papers instead of status slides. That is the role I take on: on a daily-rate basis, contracted directly or via placement agencies, as part of interim project management.
What that looks like in practice: at ZARGES in Dresden, a pragmatic project management structure delivered +18 % throughput in 16 weeks and cut schedule overruns from 35 % to 8 % within six months. The full case study, with a reference you can contact directly, is on the references page.
Steering means making things decidable
Scope changes, budget deviations and schedule risks do not belong in meeting minutes. They belong on management’s desk as a decision paper: options, consequences, recommendation. Whoever decides needs one page that holds up, not forty slides.
Bringing the project lead in from outside is often the cleaner solution, not a stopgap. Why the internal IT department is rarely the right choice for this role is covered in Why the IT Department Is the Wrong Project Leader. In ERP projects, leadership also reaches directly into ERP change & migration: mapping, test runs and cut-over are steering tasks, not just technology.
Handover discipline
Interim means I leave again, and the project has to keep running without me. Handovers are therefore documented, not verbal: decisions, open items and responsibilities are written down before the engagement ends.
On long projects I add a deputy model: a named person inside the company who stays involved throughout and can take over, whether as planned at the end or unplanned in between. A project whose knowledge depends on one external person is not a managed project. It is a risk.