It’s 12 o’clock, midnight. You’re hunched over a spare desk in the dimly lit room housing your company’s data centre. The only sources of light come from a few overhead lights by the door, left on by the last employee to be sent home after a dismally long day, and the laptop screen in front of you. Against the backdrop of the whizzing and whirring of servers, the room is practically silent, and as you contemplate your surroundings, you come to a terrible realisation about the new implementation you’re supposed to have finished last week.
The numbers simply don’t add up—you’re way over budget.
For many CIOs and IT heads, this scenario is all too familiar. Despite even the most meticulous planning, some projects simply seem to have a will of their own, and that will often works against the end-users, throwing up delays and added costs. Sometimes it’s simply a case of overlooking something simple, while other times, problems with implementation come about because of totally unforeseeable circumstances. It doesn’t really matter what kind of technology you’re dealing with—at some point, any project can bring up a nasty surprise.
According to Marc Jessiman, Solutions Director, Dimension Data UAE, the statistics say that the majority of new implementations do not in fact meet time or budget requirements, meaning that most CIOs are often grappling with large problems.
“According to a 2009 study by the Standish Group, only 32 percent of all IT projects ‘succeed’, which means they’re delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions. Forty-four percent are ‘challenged’ (late, over budget, and/or with less than the required features and functions) and 24 percent ‘fail’, meaning they were cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used,” he says.
Jessiman explains that there are plenty of reasons for projects going over-budget or taking longer than expected. Indeed, sometimes the issues that arise are often thrust upon CIOs by outside forces.
“CIOs find themselves engaged in an on-going struggle to deliver their IT projects in line with expectations. To stay at the top of your game, you need to constantly consider a myriad of new solutions,” he says.
“Managing an IT project is very much a juggling act. Information technology is always moving, changing. Limited staff, smaller budgets and fewer resources are some other key reasons for project failure. IT project management is complicated further by shifting business needs and demanding stakeholders, the combination of which creates the perfect storm for project inefficiencies and failures. And the problem only intensifies as IT grows ubiquitous.”
Despite the numbers being against them, however, there are things that IT professionals can do ahead of implementation to avoid falling into the ‘fail’ category. Surprises may come up, of course, but there are at least precautions that can be taken to minimise the effects of them. First and foremost, proper planning should be considered as a cornerstone to any successful project, Jessiman says.
“Successful projects don’t just happen. Without proper planning, organisations have little chance of completing their projects on time, on budget or with the required functionality. These are three common factors for project success,” he explains.
“Planning is critical for all IT projects. Organisation, rigour and discipline are non-negotiable. You need to consider the resources you need to devote to a project, the skills required and realistically consider the time it will take to develop, test and implement the project deliverables. Without proper planning, you will have little chance of completing your project on time, on budget or with the required functionality. Using sound project management techniques and processes will increase the chances that your project will be completed on time, within budget, and to an acceptable level of quality.”
According to Jessiman, no matter what a new project entails, a standard planning framework should be applied so every eventuality can be accounted for. Naturally, it is up to the CIO to adopt the role of project manager, and he or she must establish the rules for going forward, while also managing the expectations of the line-of-business managers. For this, he says, CIOs should adopt what he calls a project management methodology.
“It is critical to adopt a standard approach to managing your IT projects. A project management methodology is a knowledge base containing guidelines, standards, procedures, tools and techniques to support the successful execution of IT projects,” he says.
“By adopting a standard approach to project management, you are able to establish ground rules and expectations for the project team. You’ll also provide project managers, functional managers and operational staff with a common language around project management that facilitates communication and helps ensure that everyone is on the same page.”
But before the project has even started, Jessiman says that proof-of-concepts and test runs are essential. He says that skipping the test runs is often at the root of many problems when it comes to implementation, adding that it tends to lead to a culture of rushing through things that need to be more carefully considered.
“IT projects often fail because they’re rushed. Because so many companies today rely on IT for a competitive advantage, they speed through development efforts and systems implementations in order to be first to market with new, IT-based products, services and capabilities. But projects that are tackled without sufficient time being set aside for planning, risk assessment and testing will be doomed from the start,” he explains.
So how do businesses avoid the risk of failure? According to Jessiman, it simply comes down to the project management methodology. He says that the framework should be built to be applicable to any project, but should also be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of any specific project going forward. According to him, this is the key to successfully implementing something on time and to budget.
“Good IT projects that are delivered on time and to budget are those that build a sufficient degree of flexibility into its project management methodology. The project management methodology must be well-thought-out and customised both in terms of national and organisational culture,” he says.
Jessiman also adds caution when it comes to trying to replicate projects seen elsewhere in the world. After all, things work differently everywhere, so it might not be as easy as it seems to copy and paste ideas across companies. This makes a personalised project management methodology even more important.
“Remember what ‘fits’ in Europe or in Asia will not necessarily work in other regions, individual countries, economies or industries. It comes down to context. Success requires a project management methodology that applies to all projects, while allowing each kind of project to be performed in accordance to its specific needs,” he says.
