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What You Need

A successful Sensei IQ implementation is as much about people as it is about technology. The organizations that get the most out of the platform share a few things in common — and none of them are technical.

For the technical prerequisites (licensing, environment setup, consent), see Technical Readiness.

Executive Sponsorship​

Implementations stall when no one at the leadership level is accountable for success. The most effective Sensei IQ deployments have a named executive sponsor who:

  • Communicates why the platform matters to the organization — not just what it does
  • Has the authority to make decisions about scope, process, and priorities without escalation delays
  • Signals to the team that participating in the implementation is a real priority, not a side project
  • Removes blockers when they arise — whether that's resourcing, access, or competing priorities

This doesn't mean the sponsor needs to be hands-on in the system day-to-day. What matters is that they're visible and that the team knows they're backed.

An M365 Global Administrator (with Security Sign-Off)​

Before Sensei IQ can be deployed, your Microsoft 365 tenant requires configuration that only a Global Administrator can perform — including creating the Power Platform environment, granting consent for Sensei's service principals, and assigning licenses.

This doesn't need to be a full-time involvement, but you'll need a Global Admin who is:

  • Available to complete the Technical Readiness steps before deployment begins
  • Authorized to grant admin consent on behalf of the organization — this typically requires security team sign-off in environments with formal change control
  • Able to respond to deployment-day requests within a reasonable window (consent issues are the most common cause of deployment delays)

In organizations with mature security governance, your security team will want to review the permissions Sensei IQ requests before consent is granted. We recommend looping them in early — the Technical Readiness Questionnaire and the Shared Responsibility page give your security team the information they need to make that assessment quickly.

A Dedicated System Administrator​

Sensei IQ is a platform your organization owns and operates. That means one of your own people needs to develop genuine expertise in it — not just enough to get through the pilot, but enough to manage and evolve it long-term.

Your dedicated admin (often called the Application SME) is typically:

  • The primary point of contact with Sensei during and after the implementation
  • Responsible for user management, configuration changes, and first-line support
  • The internal expert who trains new users and fields questions from the team
  • The person who advocates for the platform and brings feedback to Sensei

This role works best when it's a defined part of someone's job — not an afterthought assigned to whoever has the most spare capacity. The more ownership your admin takes, the less dependent your organization is on external support.

A Committed Pilot Team​

The pilot phase is where your implementation becomes real. You'll load actual projects, configure the system around your processes, and start seeing your portfolio data in Power BI for the first time. This only works if the right people show up consistently.

A strong pilot team typically includes:

  • 3–5 project managers who are willing to load and manage their real projects in the system — not just review screenshots
  • Resource managers or scheduling leads if resource planning is in scope
  • A business analyst or process owner who can make decisions about how your project types, fields, and workflows should be structured
  • Teams who actually use execution tools (Jira, Azure DevOps, Planner Premium, etc.) if integrations are part of your deployment

The pilot isn't a demo — it's your system. The more engaged your pilot team is, the faster you reach a state where the platform is genuinely useful rather than just technically functional.

Organizational Readiness for Change​

The hardest part of any PPM implementation isn't configuring the software — it's changing how people work. The organizations that succeed treat Sensei IQ as a change initiative, not an IT project.

A few markers of readiness:

Willingness to standardize. Sensei IQ works best when project data follows consistent structures — consistent project types, status definitions, resource categorizations. If every team does things entirely differently and no one is willing to converge, the reporting value is limited. Some standardization is required; the pilot is a good time to find the right level.

A realistic view of data quality. Portfolio visibility is only as good as the data driving it. If project managers aren't keeping their data current, reports reflect noise. Establishing clear ownership of data quality — and making it part of how people are measured — is as important as the configuration itself.

A plan for adoption, not just deployment. Getting the system configured is the easy part. Getting 50 project managers to use it consistently is the work. The best implementations include a communications plan, role-based training, and a feedback loop so early users feel heard rather than just mandated.

The Right Mindset​

The organizations that get the most value from Sensei IQ share one trait: they treat the platform as something they own, not something that was installed for them.

That means:

  • Using the system to run real decisions, not just to satisfy a reporting requirement
  • Investing in their admin's growth and giving them space to develop expertise
  • Bringing feedback to Sensei — the product improves faster when customers are specific about what's working and what isn't
  • Planning for the long term — Sensei IQ grows with your organization, and the clients who benefit most are the ones who keep evolving how they use it

Ready to move forward?​