Bucolo Consulting Group
Forensic Case Studies

What the SI missed. What changed when a client-side voice was in the room.

Every study below is anonymized but drawn from real engagements. The framing is deliberate: the situation, what the system integrator was doing (or not doing), the intervention, and what actually shifted for the sponsor.

Mid-program takeover on a stalled Workday deployment.

Situation

A high-profile Workday program at a private equity firm managing over $72B in AUM was drifting: dates slipping, scope quietly expanding, and executive sponsors losing confidence in the SI's status reporting. I was brought in mid-flight as Program Manager.

What the SI missed
  • Status reports were green on activities the sponsor cared about — and silent on the ones actually blocking go-live.
  • Testing entry criteria were being waived without a documented decision trail.
  • Change orders were being drafted as scope discovery, not scope change.
Intervention
  • Rebuilt the risk register with named owners and dated decisions — replacing the SI's RAG-only view.
  • Re-baselined the timeline against real testing throughput, not planned throughput.
  • Introduced a sponsor-only readback: 15 minutes per week, no SI in the room, no slides.
Outcome
  • Timeline and scope stabilized within the first two reporting cycles.
  • Executive sponsor regained confidence in the number on the page.
  • Change orders that were in flight were re-classified, re-priced, or withdrawn.
“Mario didn't just get us back on schedule — he gave us back the confidence that we were actually in control of the program.”
Client Name, Title · Organization

30+ person team, one go-live, zero surprises to the sponsor.

Situation

A multi-hospital health system was deploying full-suite Workday HCM, Payroll, and Financials on an aggressive timeline. The SI was capable — but the client had no independent read on whether 'on track' actually meant on track.

What the SI missed
  • Cutover readiness was being asserted rather than evidenced.
  • Testing defects were being deferred into 'phase 1.5' without sponsor visibility.
  • Adoption risk was being tracked by training completion, not by actual manager readiness.
Intervention
  • Ran a parallel readiness track feeding directly to the client sponsor — the same signals the SI saw, translated into sponsor language.
  • Instituted an evidence-first Go/No-Go using a redacted version of the artifact now published on this site.
  • Held the SI accountable to defect classifications in writing, not in Slack threads.
Outcome
  • On-time go-live with no post-cutover payroll incident.
  • Post go-live defect burn-down proceeded on the SI's originally quoted cadence — not the renegotiated one.
  • Client retained a documented, portable record of every readiness decision.

Taking the wheel three months from go-live.

Situation

A second healthcare go-live needed a new Project Manager with the timeline already locked. The SI's plan looked comprehensive on paper; the actual dependencies between workstreams told a different story.

What the SI missed
  • Integration testing was scheduled to start before source-system data was contractually available.
  • Security role design was 'in progress' three separate weeks in a row with no measurable delta.
  • Cutover rehearsal was scoped as a walkthrough, not a real run.
Intervention
  • Immediately re-sequenced integration testing against real data availability, not planned availability.
  • Forced a security role sign-off gate with the client's IT and compliance leads before the SI could progress.
  • Converted cutover rehearsal into a full technical dry run with rollback criteria.
Outcome
  • Go-live delivered on the original date with minimal disruption to operations.
  • Rollback criteria were never invoked — but existed, which is the point.
  • Client sponsor kept a clean line to the truth throughout the final 90 days.

20+ person deployment kept honest to the business, not the backlog.

Situation

A rapidly scaling construction firm was standing up Workday for the first time. The risk wasn't the SI's competence — it was scope drift toward what was easy to build versus what the business actually needed on day one.

What the SI missed
  • Backlog was being prioritized by build complexity, not business criticality.
  • Release-management thinking was absent from a first-time Workday client.
  • Reporting design was deferred because 'reports come last' — a common SI reflex.
Intervention
  • Reset the backlog against business objectives with the sponsor in the room, not the build team.
  • Introduced a lightweight release governance model so biannual Workday updates wouldn't blindside the client.
  • Pulled reporting design forward so day-one operational visibility was actually there.
Outcome
  • Go-live aligned to the operating model the client actually runs — not the one that was easiest to configure.
  • Client entered the first Workday release cycle prepared, not reactive.
  • Ongoing optimization work continued into new domains after cutover.
Sample Deliverable

Ask any advisor for their paper. Here's mine.

Below is a redacted Go / No-Go readiness decision from a live Workday program I led — the document I bring to the room the week before go-live. Every workstream lead and executive stakeholder puts their name on a vote against defined readiness criteria. No hand-waving, no "we'll figure it out in hypercare."

Why it matters
System integrators are incentivized to launch. Clients live with the consequences. This artifact shifts the decision back to the people who own the outcome.
What it covers
System readiness, integration & E2E testing, training completion, communications, cutover rehearsal, hypercare plan, and industry-specific compliance.
How it's used
Circulated 48 hours ahead, walked through live with the steering committee, and signed. The final decision — and every dissenting vote — is documented.
Download the redacted deckAsk about your program

Client name, stakeholders, and outcomes redacted.

Go/No-Go decision slide — readiness criteria
Slide 1 — Readiness criteria
Go/No-Go decision slide — stakeholder vote
Slide 2 — Stakeholder vote
What clients say
“Having Mario on our side of the table changed the entire dynamic with our SI. We finally had a senior voice who could challenge the plan without breaking the team.”
Client Name
Title · Organization
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