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COMPUTERWORLD March 12,2007

STRATEGIES5JACTICS
BART PERKINS

www,computerworld,com

By the Numbers USELESS INFORMATION

Middle managers spend more than a quarter of their time searching for information necessary to their jobs, and when they find it, it's often wrong, according to results of an Accenture Ltd. survey. OTHER FINDINGS: Managers said that 5 0 % of the information they obtain has novaiuetothem. 5 9 % said they miss corporate information that's valuable in their jobs almost every day because they can't find it. 4 2 % reported that they accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week. 4 5 % said they find gathering information about what other parts of the company are doing to be a big challenge. 5 7 % said that having to go to numerous sources to compile information is a difficult aspect of managing information for their |obs. 4 0 % reported that other parts of the company are not willing to share information. 3 6 % said there is so much information available that it takes a long time to find the right piece of data. 16% repoited that they gather and stoie information using a coilaboiative workplace such as IT managers are the least likely to feel that the information they receive has value, and they spend the most time trying to find it: 4 4 % of the intormation that IT managers receive for their jobs IS of no value. 4 7 % of IT managers spend nearly 30% of their workweeks trying to track down information relevant to their jobs. 3 1 % of IT managers miss valuable infonnation moie than five

12 Things You KnowAbout Projects but Choose to Ignore

HERE is no mystery as to why projects succeed or fail; people have been writing about effective project management for millennia. More than 2,000 years ago. Sun Tzu described how to organize a successful, highly complex project (a military campaign) in The Art of War.

Out of sight, out of mind. If your suppli-

ers fail, you fail, and you own it. Don't take your eyes off them.
Unnecessary complexity. Projects that

Fred Brooks' classic book. The Mythical Man-Month, offers management advice targeted at running large IT projects. The U.K. National Audit Office recently published an excellent guide to delivering successful IT-enabled business change (.www.nao.org.uk/ publications/nao_reports/ 06-07/060733es.htm). Over BART PERKINS is managthe past 10 years, virtually ing partner at Louisvilli?. Ky every major IT publication based Loveragn Pdrlners Inc.whiclituilpsorqanizahas printed articles on why iions invest w&ti in IT. Conlarge projects succeed or longer valid. Marketplace tjclliimatBartPerkins^ changes frequently infail. LeveragePartnDrs.com validate original business Despite all the excellent assumptions, but teams advice available, more than often become so invested in a project half of the major projects undertaken that they ignore warning signs and by IT departments still fail or get cancontinue as planned. When the marceled. Stuart Orr, principal of Vision 2 ket changes, revisit the business case Execution, reports that less than 20% and recalculate benefits to determine of projects with an IT component are successful, with success defined as be- whether the project should continue. The project is too big. Bigger projects ing delivered on time and on budget require more discipline. It's dangerwhile meeting the original objectives. ous for an organization to undertake a We know what works. We just don't project five or six times larger than any doit. other it has successfully delivered. Projects fail because people ignore A lack of dedicated resources. Large the basic tenets of project success that projects require concentration and we already know. Here are some of dedication for the duration. But key the common reasons and there are people are frequently required to supmany for failure: port critical projects while continuing An ineffective executive sponsor. A w e a k to perform their existing full-time jobs. or, even worse, nonexistent executive When Blue Cross attempted to build a sponsor almost guarantees business new claims system in the 1980s, nearly project failure. Under weak executive 20% of its critical IT staffers were leadership, all projects become IT projsimultaneously assigned to other projects rather than business initiatives ects. The claims initiative failed. Projwith IT components. Since the 1980s, ect managers who don't have control research has consistently found that effective executive sponsorship and ac- over the resources necessary for their projects are usually doomed. tive user involvement are critical

attempt to be all things to all people usually result in systems that are difficult to use, and they eventually fail. Cultural conflict. Projects that violate cultural norms of the organization seldom have a chance. The FBI's Virtual to project success. Case File was designed to share inforA poor business case. A n mation in a culture that values secrecy incomplete business case and rarely shares information across allows incorrect expecteams. Moreover, FBI culture views IT tations to be set and missed. Many business cas- as a support function and a "necessary evil" rather than an integral part of the es describe business benefits in far-too-broad terms. crime-solving process. The project viGoals and benefits must be olated multiple cultural norms and met with significant resistance. The Virtual measurable, quantifiable and achievable. (See "Busi- Case File wasfinallykilled after costing more than $100 million. ness Cases: What, Why and How" Computerworld, No contingency. Stuff happens. ProjJune 13,2005.) ects need flexibility to address the inThe business case is no evitable surprises.
Too long without deliverables. Most orga-

nizations expect visible progress in six to nine months. Long projects without intermediate products risk losing executive interest, support and resources.
Betting on a new, unproven technology. Enough said. An arbitrary release date. Date-driven

projects have little chance of success. Will we ever learn to plan the project before picking the release date? See anything new here? That's exactly my point. Next time, increase your chances for success by avoiding these common project pitfalls. Use the above list (and other industry guidelines) to evaluate your project. If you see too many signs of danger, cut your losses and either restructure the project or kill it. Talk to experienced project managers and read project management literature to review what works and what doesn't. Though, in fact, you already know. *

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