Information technology project risk often comes from non-technical aspects of the initiative. Assessing the impact of technology on people, management systems and other initiatives is essential to assure project success.
"We automate problems"
This department slogan was posted on an office door (the inside) for several months while managers in the department struggled to break out of a string of failed projects. It was apparent that we were not being successful because our clients and management told us exactly what they thought of our work and it wasn't good. It was felt strongly that those managers were not a collection of dunces that had stumbled into IT management and we took no solace in studies that report typical project failure rates of seventy-two percent.
Lessons Learned
Following are lessons learned that we built into our Project Engineering Process:
What value will be derived from this solution?
- Increase Revenues?
- Cost Savings/Avoidance?
- Cost Reduction?
- Cycle Time Reduction?
- Improve Productivity?
- Labor Reduction?
- Head Count Reduction?
- Improved Performance?
- Improved Cash Flow?
- Improve Customer Satisfaction?
- Enable Teamwork?
- Enable Quality Improvement?
- Supplier Relationship?
- Establish Competitive Barrier?
- Establish Competitive Advantage?
- Create or Enable a New Product/Service/Capability?
- Improve Planning Effectiveness
What are the environmental impacts/requirements?
- Can failure interrupt or damage critical daily business operations?
- Can failure in this effort damage the company's reputation?
- Can this effort incur/cause significant other financial losses?
- Is this effort in search of a clear champion?
- Is this effort in search of a clear project leader/manager?
- Is this a large project effort? (> 6 months or $100,000)
- Will this effort be on an accelerated or tight time schedule?
- Does this address a longstanding difficult issue or problem?
- Has this problem/issue been unsuccessfully addressed in the past?
- Is more than one organization involved (not including I/S)?
- Will more than one organization be impacted by the outcome?
- Are any stakeholders opposed to/highly skeptical of this proposal?
- Is the outcome dependent on experimental technology?
- If so, will more than one supplier of critical components be involved?
- Is a high level of technical complexity involved?
- Is this a first time effort at this company for a project of this kind?
- Will outside contractors lead or provide key project deliverables?
- Will > 5 persons be on the project team or Steering Committee?
- Does a project plan/responsibilities still need to be established?
- Does the project team lack needed skills/related experience?
- Is the project team matrix managed/controlled by many managers?
- Do key team members reside in separate departments/buildings?
- Will implementation require significant formal user training?
- Will this require implementation and training at >1 site?
- Are there doubts about commitment/availability of key participants?
It is essential to have the entire enterprise know: why such projects are being undertaken, the breadth and depth of impact across the enterprise, the risks that will require diligent attention and management and what each department manager will be accountable for to result in a success for the enterprise, not just for the project team.
