IT chiefs told to just say no

IT managers should learn to prioritise in order to avoid failing projects

IT directors must learn to say no to unreasonable or unviable requests from business executives if they are ever to tackle IT project's chronically high failure rate.

That was the message for attendees at IT governance software specialist Mercury's conference on IT business risk yesterday, where several speakers warned that IT executives' traditional eagerness to please was actually contributing to project failures and damaging their standing in the business.

Speaking at a roundtable debate after the event, Adrian Dabell, application development director at ACE Insurance, said it was frustrating to see IT criticised for project failure rates of around 50 percent when it was the unreasonable demands and specification changes imposed by the business that often caused projects to fail.

"People point to complex industries that manage to operate with very low failure rates and ask why half of IT projects fail," he said. "But how often does an aircraft pilot look at the plane on the tarmac and take off when he thinks from the start there is a 50 percent chance of failure?"

Dabell said that if IT leaders are to improve their project success rate then they must be willing to tell the business when projects are likely to fail. " You need transparency between IT and the business," he said. "You need to say if you have too much else on or if it is just not possible."

Bob Marsh, head of IT strategies at Friends Provident, agreed there was a need to reject more project proposals, particularly when many IT departments were currently being swamped by various Web 2.0 and SOA-based projects. Though he also argued that in some cases the risk of project failure is one IT chiefs have to accept if they are to help the business improve.

IT chief's traditional position as corporate "yes men" is due to the sector's on-going status as a support function, according to Dabell. "IT came from engineering, but as it evolved we didn’t step up to the mark and develop clear business processes and governance," he said. "Now we are part of the business we need a place at the top table."

James Stevenson, Mercury's vice-president and managing director for the UK, Middle East and Africa, said that refusing business requests and letting executives know that projects would not deliver on expectations may be tough but that it would help avoid failures further down the line. "As business and IT become more connected, we are likely to see more project cancellations, but in many ways that will be a sign of success," he said.

Marsh said firms can avoid the blow to self confidence that comes with project cancellations by adopting modular project structures where regular assessments allow the project to be finalised after each stage.