Five questions companies should ask themselves to avoid an IT project disaster

LOC Consulting's Peter Osborne identifies the five fundamental areas in which delivery issues can arise for IT projects

Every IT programme or project requires a clear and viable business case supported by effective sponsorship, proactive leadership and a firm technical skillset. However these factors do not necessarily guarantee success.

LOC Consulting has identified the five fundamental areas where delivery issues can arise - and the five main questions programme sponsors should ask to assess the health of an IT project.

1. Leadership - are the right leaders with the right skills in place?

Companies often appoint senior personnel to manage projects based on availability or cost, rather than experience or skills. This is a particular issue in IT and business infrastructure, where an exceptional project leader can hinder the programme in place simply through a lack of technical understanding.

Similarly, if the project is entrusted solely to an IT professional, they often lack the necessary awareness of the wider business. If a leader isn't suitable, the project and the team can lack clarity of purpose, governance flaws emerge and people become disengaged with the project. At this point, the delivery culture fails and the project can dissolve into disarray.

2. Clarity of purpose - do stakeholders and sponsors describe objectives and business benefits in the same way?

It is vital that all team members understand the business benefits and expected scope of a project. This can come in the form of performance reviews, the verification of delivery targets and regular assessment enabling project aims to align with current business needs.

These can be implemented either as an internal top-down authority, or through an external consultancy. However, both methods require the correct leaders to be in the correct decision-making roles to ensure consistent business objectives are kept in mind throughout the programme's lifespan.

This ultimately translates to clear requirements to be delivered by IT, without the need for expensive re-work later in the delivery lifecycle.

3. Effective governance - can you make decisions quickly and are you confident delivery milestones will be achieved in time?

There are three key components to effective governance, which focus around having the right structures and decision-making processes in place.

The first is to schedule steering groups at the right intervals with the right people. If an emergency occurs, there must also be a streamlined escalation process in place. Lastly, governance processes must be tailored to the programme's requirements; the structure must effectively manage the relationship between IT and the business.

4. Delivery culture - does your team do what it says it will, in the time agreed?

Some organisations are simply not designed to deliver IT change projects, no matter how vital it may be to their organisation.

Without this delivery culture - steered by the right management - leadership can be found wanting, meaning that challenges are not planned for pre-emptively, and the workforce can become disengaged. Without the correct culture, delivery will always lack the necessary impetus.

5. Smart processes - do your team members do things in the same way, and use their time effectively?

Having a customised, robust delivery process in place enables team members to measure their progress and performance in activities and milestones against a control framework.

This is essential not only for visibility, but to illuminate stages that are being handled poorly or where quality is slipping. If the infrastructure is not in place, then process cannot be followed, and delivering to schedule becomes more and more difficult.

Peter Osborne is managing director of LOC Consulting