On IT projects, the failure rate is unusually high – even allowing for their complexity and scale. A quarter fall flat and two-fifths fail on cost, time or scope.
That is 70 per cent of projects with a problem, says Susan Snedeker, a veteran of managing programmes at Microsoft and Honeywell, who now spends her time pointing out the weak spots in technology ventures to investors.
Disturbed by the half-hearted attempts at implementation she has witnessed in many organisations in her native Arizona, Snedeker has written How to cheat at IT project management, a guide to project management for IT professionals.
‘Technical complexity does increase the odds that a project will fail, but you can offset it by managing other risk factors,’ she says.
Snedeker found three main reasons for an IT project to crash: lack of executive support; too little user input; and inexperience in the project leader.
‘IT leaders have not done a good job in tying projects to overall business strategy,’ she says. ‘Amid all the technical challenges, it is easy to forget that you are there to serve the business. So it is no surprise when someone pulls the plug.’
There is often an equally disastrous disconnect with users. ‘Because they change their minds, don’t know what they want to do, and have unrealistic expectations, people in IT don’t want to involve them,’ says Snedeker. ‘But if you touch the user early enough, you nearly always find something that you would do differently.’
Similarly, people continue to be thrown into leadership positions in IT departments with little formal preparation or support. The softer skills involved in building a team and managing expectations take second place to the technical aspects of a project.
‘In IT, as in finance or engineering, people are often promoted to leadership positions because they are good at their jobs,’ says Gareth English, a business psychologist at consultant OPP. ‘But as they move into these roles, other areas such as interpersonal skills become more important. In fact, their technical expertise can end up holding them back.’
On large IT implementations, project leaders have to learn how to exercise their authority differently than in small in-house teams. The challenge is to influence a large number of stakeholders, many of whom you have no authority over whatsoever.
Equally, says English, you have to adapt your style of motivating people. ‘Exercising your authority will only gain average performance, particularly with knowledge workers,’ he says. ‘You have to adopt different motivational models, which often revolve round empathy.
‘You have to understand people’s emotional state. Their home life and their aspirations all have an impact on their performance, much as you might prefer them not to. You have to see the world through other peoples’ eyes.’
Some people by nature have these interpersonal and communication skills. Others may never acquire them. For most of us, says English, it is a matter of developing the self-awareness to adapt to different circumstances and different people.
A change of approach
It is a characteristic that cannot be formally taught in a training programme. Instead, psychologists such as English will typically put you through a series of stretching exercises. ‘We will simulate the challenges you are likely to face as the leader of a major project,’ he says. ‘You can then see how you might need to change your approach.’
In particular, project leaders might have to let go of their own individual area of technical expertise. That is not easy, although working with an individual coach can be an effective way to gain an insight into their ingrained habits and routines that could be holding back a project.
‘Good project leaders listen more than they talk,’ says English. ‘They seek to balance the need for thought and reflection with the need for action and decision.’
Once a leader is running a project, says English, it is important that they know where to turn when they do confront a serious challenge. ‘It might be a coach or it might be colleagues in a network,’ he says.
Even if a project does run to time and cost, its value can still easily leak away. IT is usually part of a wider programme of change, and research from analyst Gartner suggests that a quarter of the total associated costs are regularly wasted.
In Robert White’s experience of working with government departments and oil majors, as much as 60 per cent of intended value is jeopardised by poor sequencing of change programmes.
‘The complexity surrounding many IT projects means that it is difficult to identify what is truly important,’ says White, who is chief executive of Lucidus, a consultancy that specialises in getting value out of major programmes.
Be ruthless with objectives
Right from the start, organisations lumber themselves with too many objectives, he says. By consulting everyone, as they should, they end up with a laundry list of project requirements. The trick is to be ruthless and identify the half-dozen changes that are really going to matter.
‘It is the inability to identify upfront what is fundamental that causes things to go wrong,’ says White.
‘Without focus you have uncertainty, which defeats decision-making. The policy surrounding the change has to be defined. Unless you are totally clear when you are buying solutions, you can only buy on price, not value. A clear spec allows suppliers to develop solutions.’
In White’s experience, project leaders are rarely senior enough. ‘The challenge is more than completing a task on time and to budget. You want them to track value right through to delivery, so you can see exactly what value you are putting at risk,’ he says.
The Ministry of Defence is leading the way in using this kind of predictive tracking, says White.
‘For example, they were able to see that delaying a decision a week could cost them £3m,’ he says. ‘But you have to put the executive in the driving seat.
‘If you can see that £10m is at risk, but that by spending £300,000 you can reduce that figure by £7m, then you should take the decision, when previously you might have just told your project managers to hit their milestones.’
So how can IT professionals get themselves up to speed with these kinds of leadership skills without going back to school?
‘Volunteer for a team that is not an IT project, or join a team and observe a successful leader,’ suggests Susan Snedeker.
‘Then ask your boss about any other opportunities – they are often outside the IT department.’
Best practice: setting up a PMO
Forrester Research recommends a number of steps to create an effective
project management office:
Invest in project management skills in the PMO first. Train stakeholders and managers in project management and best practice standards.
Evaluate current project management practices to build a baseline for improved performance.
Recruit IT managers and business partners for a pilot project. Use surveys, workshops and communication to develop a methodology that will work for your PMO.
Begin with a meaningful project – six to nine months is long enough. Establish metrics needed to show improvement over the long term, and emphasise deliverables, processes met, and time and cost savings.
At the end of the pilot project, you should have a set of working practices for the PMO and you can begin tracking outcomes of projects that use this methodology compared with those that do not.
Create a career path for project managers to ensure a ready supply of PMO staff – constantly hiring experienced project managers will soon prove expensive.
Consider whether portfolio management or project management tools would be beneficial to the PMO. Technology can help to deliver a project more effectively, and create greater visibility.
As the number of projects delivered using new methodology grows, you will generate valuable data. Use this information to create better business cases that include hard numbers.
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