IT project failure starts with demanding the project maintain its budget and delivery times in the absence of a Plan to go along with the Schedule of the work.
Failure starts with the lack of an adequate description of what capabilities are needed for the business to reap the benefits of the IT project. Missing capabilities and a credible plan prevent the schedule from being credible.
The capabilities description states what the business would do with the results of the project if they were to appear. If I had a hammer I’d hammer in the morning … is a capability. If we could process transactions at $0.07 instead of our current $0.11, we could expand our product offerings using existing systems, is a capability statement.
Capabilities provide a home for the requirement; they answer the question why do we need these outcomes described by the requirements.
The Plan is the strategy for the development of these capabilities. The Plan is not a schedule; it’s a description of the processes and resulting products needed to produce the capability. The Plan describes the “value flow” of the work effort, the increasing maturity of the work products.
Only with the Capabilities and the Plan for when those Capabilities are needed to meet the business strategy, can requirements and the schedule be connected to the business strategy, mission, and vision. Only then can the CIO state what Done looks like in units meaningful to the participants.
Only then does the project have a credible chance of success.
