tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13146101667299126492024-03-13T03:42:02.599-07:00Stop Blaming the Software! Avoiding IT Project Failure through Corporate Profiling Posts by Sarah Jane Runge - we are concerned about IT Project failures and are dedicated to helping you achieve IT Project Success by discussing the causes and providing you with Tips and Solutions about avoiding failure.ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-57751024128934321642012-07-25T18:43:00.001-07:002012-11-20T17:07:35.636-08:008 Popular Misconceptions about IT Projects<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b><u></u></b></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YanfZ0hlbVM/UBCPWX7MbAI/AAAAAAAAAG4/C1Ta3JOZ69I/s1600/koolaid+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YanfZ0hlbVM/UBCPWX7MbAI/AAAAAAAAAG4/C1Ta3JOZ69I/s400/koolaid+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="color: #6aa84f;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Steering clear of the Kool-Aid Drinkers in Project Planning!</span></h2>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b><u></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">As the two
certainties in life are “Death & Taxes”, so too in IT Projects are the
certainties “Success or Failure”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">At some
point in our lives we will have been involved with a Project, either the project
planning, project delivery or perhaps another phase. Whether it was an IT
project, business planning, change management or a construction project, the
difference is irrelevant. Because projects will either succeed or fail, it is
just the amount of variation between the outcomes that provides us with the
grey pieces in the middle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">And no
doubt at some point during that project you will have heard blatant excuses by business
executives for making the wrong decisions, had discussions driven by decibel domination or encountered one of the
scenario’s described below</span>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Enjoy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;"> 1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">Believing
3<sup>rd</sup> Party Vendors know your business better than you do </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It’s
alright to delegate and outsource tasks, but you absolutely cannot delegate or abdicate
from your responsibility of identifying your business requirements to a third party
vendor by allowing them to dictate their notion of the business requirements for
your IT project are.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Kool-Aid time is over. You need to identify your own
business intelligence experts and free them up to undertake your business planning
and business requirements gathering work. They have to know exactly and
accurately where and from whom your business requirements should be sourced.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">The
Top-Dog must be right <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(or How to stop the
H.I.P.PO “Highest Paid Persons Opinion” mentality dead in its tracks)</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Hippo’s
have either the authority, expertise, or power to edify themselves </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">and their decisions to the point where no one
questions or challenges them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Ask the hard, overly obvious or dumb questions regarding
their decisions because they never expect to be challenged. And make sure that they
understand that they are held accountable for their decisions.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">Incompetent
Vendors and 3<sup>rd</sup> Parties or inadequate software packages cause IT
Project Failures</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The fact is
that vendors are rarely incompetent and software packages are very seldom
inadequate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">You will be
amazed at how many IT project</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> failures have
occurred simply because one or two people insisted on a course of action that
was flawed and the vendor selection was based upon a bias selection process by
C-level executives. Or a self appointed expert inaccurately deemed business
requirements to be accurate and comprehensive based upon their understanding of
the business. And based upon those requirements a solution was selected or the
external party was asked to deliver to those requirements</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Stamp out the H.I.P.P.O. mentality, promote meaningful
and intelligent collaboration and establish a rigorous vendor selection process
rather than just appointing an incumbent provider for the sake of “One Stop
Shopping”, or because of exclusive relationships with key decision makers or
the lowest quote (that never works).</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">Build
it and they will come! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">If it
doesn’t meet business objectives, business won’t support it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">If end
users don’t like it, they won’t use or adopt it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">If it does
not include external customer & supplier requirements, they can’t use it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Create
visibility to identify, ask, involve and collaborate with the appropriate people
and parties. Otherwise you are flying blind and will end up with a very
expensive White Elephant.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">The
vendor, systems implementer or developers didn’t deliver what we asked for!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">More than
likely they did. But what business asked for was possibly inaccurate or lacked adequate
scope at the outset. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is the
risk you run when you either delegate requirements gathering to 3<sup>rd</sup> parties
or alternatively, if business doesn’t have the required visibility across your business
architecture to identify correct and complete requirement sources, they will
garner inaccurate and incomplete business requirements with obvious disastrous
consequences. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Get </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">back into the drivers seat of your IT Project business planning, create
visibility and transparency to identify accurately what the business needs <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i></b>
involving external parties which inevitably only muddies the waters. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">6.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">Our organization’s size, massive
budget and the resources committed to this Project will guarantee it’s success
(or size matters)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">How many times have you seen unlimited money thrown at a problem? No, it
absolutely won’t guarantee success! More
likely the opposite will happen because a big budget and long time frame (more
than 12 - 18 months) is a recipe for failure! No other way to tell you. Sorry!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">The universal law of IT failure is big + expensive + long delivery =
failure. And the recipe for IT success is simplicity, incrementalism and small
budgets. Take a look at Roger Session’s information about <a href="http://simplearchitectures.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/web-short-relationship-between-it.html" style="color: red;" target="_blank">Project size</a> and why it matters.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">7.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">IT
Departments must always be in charge of all aspects of IT Projects because they
know better</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Well this response is fine as long as they are installing hardware,
upgrading software licenses, developing code or something other than planning
or implementing a business solution. IT driving business projects is the tail
wagging the dog.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> You need to put Business in charge
of the business requirements and business outcomes of IT Projects. IT (and yes
I am looking at you PMOs) can claim to know everything about business and to understand
business better than business (which they often claim to). But what would
happen if we had business experts claiming to know everything about IT just
because they may be proficient at networking, routers and Visual Basic. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">8.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">When
it comes to IT project planning, Business doesn’t know what they need which is
why IT has to step in</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">The truth of the matter is that business generally does know what it
needs, but what they articulate is not fully comprehended by IT, 3<sup>rd</sup>
partys or vendors. This is due to a tendency for premature elaboration and
interpretation of what other people understand about the business needs. To
make matters worse, specialists shroud communications with jargoneze that only
they understand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial;">HOW TO TAKE ACTION:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> C</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">ut to the chase by ignoring IT and specialist jargon. If they cannot
tell you in plain language what they understand business to require, then go
back to the drawing-board.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Business
planning for IT projects requires a cross functional team, IT and business.
However, the IT guru’s need to sit down, zip it and listen very hard to what
business is saying and asking for. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Kind regards</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Sarah Jane Runge</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> <b>PS. </b>Do you need to put the "B" back into the business planning for your IT Projects? Then take advantage of our complimentary 30 day free trial to our Profiling-Pro cloud solution at <a href="http://www.profiling-pro.com/" style="color: red;">www.profiling-pro.com</a><span style="color: red;">. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>PPS. </b>Or <a href="http://www.profiling-pro.com/products-services/attend-a-seminar/" style="color: red;" target="_blank">register here</a> to attend our upcoming Seminar:</span><br />
<div style="color: #38761d;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial;">"The Path to IT Project Success through Business Architecture Genius!" </span></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-76930089527120770872012-07-24T08:00:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:07:52.930-08:00IT Project Failure and The Art of Scapegoating<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With Scapegoating still high on the agenda of Executives, Boards and CEO's I figured it was time to readdress this issue and ask the question:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"Is your organization geared up for IT Project Success or will a Scapegoat suffice?"</i></b></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yZNpWNCRQkg/T9Fno18c_VI/AAAAAAAAAGE/roI6uopeCJo/s1600/scapegoat2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yZNpWNCRQkg/T9Fno18c_VI/AAAAAAAAAGE/roI6uopeCJo/s320/scapegoat2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3>
<span style="font-size: small;">IT Project Failure and The Art of Scapegoating</span></h3>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Have
you or someone you know ever been the scapegoat for a failed IT
project? If so read on. This may give you a déjà vu feeling.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
And as the saying goes, “A good scapegoat is nearly as welcome as a solution to the problem”!<br />
<br />
This
is often a sorry consequence of derailed or failed IT projects.
Everyone is responsible for the project and no one is accountable for
its outcomes. This issue will become even more apparent through the project life-cycle. Over a period of 1, 2 or 3 years people will either leave
the organization/project or will otherwise forget who was actually
accountable for having made the critical IT investment and project planning
decisions in the first place. Time has a tendency to blur the facts! So
what can project sponsors do when they get that sinking feeling that an
IT project is heading into deep waters? Hunt for scapegoats! (shhhhh
people don’t readily admit that this is what actually happens). Who
wants to be held accountable for a train wreck of that magnitude? Nobody
– hence the scapegoating!<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, organizations
typically identify vendors, project managers and CIO’s as the obvious
parties (read scapegoats) responsible for under-delivered and
over-budget IT projects.<br />
<br />
In actuality, the causes generally lie in
the camp of the C-Level, senior executives and presidents themselves.
Why? Firstly, because often the business executives lack visibility of critical business architecture information and business intelligence upon which to base vital project planning decisions. And secondly, because strategic decisions to invest in IT systems are always made
at the top level of an organization.<br />
<br />
They should instead be asking
themselves where they messed up and analyze whether, why or how their IT
investment and project planning decisions were under-analyzed, under-scoped,
under-supported, under-communicated or under-trained. Did they make the
critical strategic project decisions and follow through with an
execution strategy to establish key project procedures or not?
Information cannot be expected to be communicated via osmosis or
hearsay.<br />
<br />
Ask yourself who was responsible for
identifying and collecting project requirements and were they empowered
and accountable? Were they the most appropriate people or just the most
senior or worse still – self-appointed experts?<br />
<br />
The other key
question that vendors and customers should be asking themselves is “did
we assume that extensive requirements were collected and correctly
documented from the most pertinent and pivotal parties?” Most of the
time both parties just assume that the important task of requirements
gathering has been diligently carried out (which is where the slippery
slope begins and scapegoats are sought out).<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 6pt 0in;">
<b>PS. Do
you need to put the "B" back into the business planning for your IT
Projects? Then take advantage of our complimentary 30 day free trial to
our Profiling-Pro cloud solution at <a href="http://www.profiling-pro.com/" style="color: red;">www.profiling-pro.com</a><span style="color: red;">. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<b>PPS. Or <a href="http://www.profiling-pro.com/products-services/attend-a-seminar/" style="color: red;" target="_blank">register here</a> to attend our upcoming Seminar:</b></div>
<div style="color: #38761d;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial;">"The Path to IT Project Success through Business Architecture Genius!" </span></b></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
Kind regards<br />
Sarah Jane Runge</div>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-47734168880500662372012-05-22T05:39:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:08:28.768-08:00Overcoming IT Project Complexity with Business Simplicity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cccccc; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">Albert Einstein said:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">“Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler”. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">However, all too often, organizations seem to ignore these sagely words preferring to “complicate everything as much as possible, and no less so”.<br /><br />Why is it then when so many industries strive to adopt simplification measures (or a "<a href="http://budurl.com/grys" target="_blank">Simplify and Repeat"</a> process) to create consistent quality outcomes that deliver "stakeholder delight", eliminate superfluous handling, reduce costs, and minimize wastage, when at the same time the IT industry consistently does precisely the opposite?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Meaning that layers of unnecessary complexity applied through methodologies, frameworks and processes that promise to ensure project success rarely ever do so. On top of this, although IT project failure is a consistent outcome, it is obviously not the outcome we seek but it continues to happen consistently.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />There are several opinions as to what exactly defines complexity. <a href="http://budurl.com/u6qj" target="_blank">Roger Sessions </a>focuses on the unnecessary overcomplexity of architecture, or technical aspects. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://budurl.com/km7f" target="_blank">Peter Kretzman </a>on the other hand, identifies complexity as more cultural and sociological in that people want too much functionality. There is poor implementation (technical debt) and a lack of leadership. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">More recently, <a href="http://budurl.com/tqkm" target="_blank">John Zachman</a> has responded to organizations' objections about costs, the time and complexity of adopting EA frameworks for the purpose to which they are not intended. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">These definitions of complexity provide insights as to how organizations are changing their mindset from cumbersome, costly and complex solutions to looking for a more cost efficient, simplified and fresh solution to delivering up corporate information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">In my opinion we have facilitated this complexity by over-specialization of every aspect of IT planning and delivery. Don't misinterpret me. There is a time and a place for specialization but it cannot take precedence over the business planning process for IT projects. If specialization has crept in, you can bet dollars to donuts that business has crept out and have wiped their hands of any involvement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Have you ever taken a long hard look at how complex the process of planning and delivering an IT project has become? I am not talking about the complexity of IT systems themselves, rather about the exclusive frameworks, processes and methodologies required for the supposed successful delivery of IT projects that we have allowed to morph from smart simplicity into corporate complexity (or perhaps a better word that I came across the other day is Dumbplexity). <br /><br />“<a href="http://budurl.com/6e9s" target="_blank">Dumbplexity</a>” sums up how organizations habitually add unnecessary and dumb complexity when in actual fact what they really need is “Smart Simplicity”. And in the IT industry we have Dumbplexified what were and still should be relatively simple processes. <br /><br />Unfortunately corporations and <a href="http://budurl.com/62kz" target="_blank">government tend to follow suit with a blind belief that complexity is a guaranteed recipe for IT project success</a>. But with this additional and unnecessary complexity comes communication and collaboration issues, poor visibility, no accountability and over-inflated costs (which to most organizations is also another measure for success). But nothing could be further from the truth. <br /><br />As a key decision maker, CEO, Business Owner etc, you are probably frustrated by the number of people required to pass around pieces of information regarding their views on the facts and accurate status of your IT project. And more than likely, you're up to your eyeballs looking at extravagant Gantt Charts with overdue tasks. Coupled with the complexity of the above mentioned processes, your time spent filtering through the many versions of the truth still cannot guarantee the successful delivery of your IT project.<br /><br />In this day and age of cloaking simplicity with complexity, it possibly takes an Enterprise Architect, Information Architect, Business Analyst, Project Manager and an “Information Sanitizer” to provide you with the information you’ve waited days (or weeks) for. And it still may only be the information that they want you to hear.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Unnecessary complexity results in delayed information which in today’s environment does not support a nimble, agile or timely decision making process. Complicated processes and frameworks that underpin IT delivery are unlikely to be a guarantee for success, and they also certainly have little chance of putting you and your colleagues on the same page. Particularly when everyone is singing from a different Hymn book and speaking in jargon related to their own particular specialization.<br /><br />Another key issue for CEO’s and business enterprises when there are various IT specialists is that it also fosters a culture of "Kingdoms", Silo’s and disparate entities that pride themselves on sole proprietary and exclusivity of information that is not readily shared or made accessible to business. When in actual fact business are the people that absolutely need it, and it is them that need it in plain business English not in some jargon that they cannot understand.<br /><br />How do you cure “Dumblexity”? By applying “Simplicity”. See the process for what it is and remove the additional layers that have made the process unnecessarily complex.<br /><br />The <a href="http://budurl.com/jxu5" target="_blank">three key pillars for IT project success</a> that you need in place are: <br />• Visibility across your organization upwards, downwards, right and left;<br />• Accountability for quality information and decisions, and empowerment;<br />• Collaboration with the appropriate people, parties and layers of your organization. <br /><br />When you have these pillars in place you can remove the majority of unnecessary complexity that strangles successful IT project delivery as well as your business's profits. You will have your finger back on the corporate pulse, timely access to accurate information, <a href="http://budurl.com/uqun" target="_blank">open communication</a>, bi-directional feedback and one organization pulling together to achieve the vision – IT project success, instead of “Us and Them”. <br /><br />If you are serious about the success of your organization and your IT project outcomes, ensure that you take measures to mitigate against dressing simplicity up as complexity, "Prima Dona’s" masquerading as "Self appointed experts" and jargon that business executives cannot understand and therefore feel that they don't need to be involved because it belongs in IT's domain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Kind regards</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Sarah Jane Runge</span><br />
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ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-55434106263469988412012-02-13T13:15:00.000-08:002012-11-20T17:08:46.067-08:00Gearing up for IT Project Failure!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">You sometimes have to wonder why Government and even Corporates think that they are immune to the risks of IT project failures. One would think that prior to making such a massive IT investment decision they would at least have understood and applied the simple rule of IT success:<br />
"The 1st law of IT project outcomes" - Big budget & Long time frame = Guaranteed failure. You can choose one or the other - but not both.<br />
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Even where "Agile" or "Incremental" development methods are applied, they will also fail when the plan is extravagantly "Grandiose", typically with deep pockets, no plan and<span class="text_exposed_show"> very likely no accountability. Even Prince2 or Gateway Methodology are not silver-bullets to solve such large-scale endeavors (as is evidenced by numerous UK Government IT Project failures).<br />
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History has shown time and time again that throwing big money at a big problem almost always end in tears (except of course for the beneficiaries of the tax payers' dollars who are cajoling Dunne down this doomed highway to Hell).<br />
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I am not sure how the IRD (Inland Revenue Department) come up with the figures and statistics or why the New Zealand Revenue Minister, Peter Dunne is apparently agreeing with the statistics and facts referenced in this article at <a href="http://budurl.com/q5yx" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://budurl.com/q5yx</a>, but this project is already on the road to Hell by virtue of his budget from Hell. </span></span></span></h6>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="text_exposed_show">Kind regards</span></span></span></h6>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="text_exposed_show">Sarah Jane Runge</span></span></span></h6>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-61283429188093645912012-01-16T08:25:00.000-08:002012-11-20T17:09:07.103-08:00Bridging the IT and Business Terminology Chasm.<div class="MsoNormal">
With CIO’s becoming more business oriented and CFO’s becoming more IT savvy, where does this leave the CEO and how should they change or adapt to fit into the IT planning puzzle. </div>
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How can your technical teams adapt and change to help bring your business and CEO into IT pre-implementation planning discussions?</div>
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I attended a Prince2 User Group meeting in New Zealand late last year where presenters and attendees discussed typical issues that they encounter when communicating IT project planning needs to business or non-technical executives. </div>
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One example given was in: </div>
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‘Discerning what “Tolerances” to factor into a project’.</div>
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Business people not versed in Prince2 terminology didn’t grasp the significance and implications of “<a href="http://budurl.com/6fkf" target="_blank">Tolerances</a>” leaving IT hanging without a satisfactory response that they could factor into their planning. </div>
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Another instance was where the terms “<a href="http://budurl.com/2ftg" target="_blank">Actors, Artifacts and Use-Cases</a>” were thrown into the conversation at a business meeting. Needless to say – Blank looks abounded!</div>
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One key issue with having so many different technical and methodology specific terms and jargon, is that the chance of business executives understanding what you are talking about is pretty remote.</div>
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In the event that business doesn’t understand what IT is talking about, often the question will be side-stepped or they may even agree with what you are suggesting without even knowing what it is that they are agreeing to because business executives are not inclined to question<a href="http://budurl.com/y2p2" target="_blank"> techno-speak</a>!</div>
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Acknowledging that qualifications in Enterprise Architecture, Process and Business Analysis, and Project Management methodologies are hard won, it is no wonder that we like to use our specific terms when we can. It is also certainly handy to have commonality of terms across IT teams.</div>
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However, business and executives require business terminology for understanding and clarity in order to be more involved, committed, and accountable for the “pre-implementing planning and IT investment decision making phases” of IT projects. </div>
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This is where "<a href="http://budurl.com/d66y" target="_blank">Profiling-Pro</a>" comes into the picture.</div>
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In a nut-shell, Profiling-Pro is a cloud computing service that produces presentation quality reports in business-speak aimed specifically at the pre-implementation planning and decision-making phase. It bridges the chasm between IT people struggling to get their IT Projects approved and on the right track and C-Level executives who need to be reassured that all bases have been covered and that matters such as diligence in <a href="http://budurl.com/klmn" target="_blank">requirements gathering</a> have been addressed.</div>
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Because these phases are critical to project success it is a very good idea to ensure that business, IT and executives are all speaking the same language and understand what is being proposed or asked for at the outset.</div>
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Consequently, CEO’s need to have a very clear picture and a broader view from a business perspective of what elements need to be addressed during IT project <a href="http://budurl.com/bg52" target="_blank">pre-implementation planning phases</a> if they want to begin bridging the chasm rather than just going along for the ride with their cheque book.</div>
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Additionally, we need project teams that can not only think like Architects, Analysts and Project Managers but can also relate specialty technical concepts in business terms to mitigate any cross communications or understandings.</div>
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A small change can make a big impact!</div>
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Kind regards</div>
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Sarah Jane Runge</div>
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ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-3668865902679192762009-11-18T17:50:00.000-08:002009-12-16T14:41:10.155-08:00Top Down Accountability For IT Project Success<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IlrChUIAqMQ/SwSf07Io0LI/AAAAAAAAACg/C9rEjrt3KZw/s1600/top-down-pyramid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IlrChUIAqMQ/SwSf07Io0LI/AAAAAAAAACg/C9rEjrt3KZw/s320/top-down-pyramid.jpg" /></a><br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">So how can we manage C-level executives of organizations before their next IT Projects commence?<br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Specifically, they need to be kept fully accountable for their initial input and project decisions that they make *before* the project commences. This is because these are the critical investment and pre-implementation decisions that will drive subsequent business processes for these IT projects.<br />
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As <a href="http://budurl.com/3uxg">HP CEO, Mark Hurd</a>, went on to say about the job of the CEO: "At the end of the day, [the CEO has] gotta get this part [business processes] of the business right to be able to align IT throughout the company. It's no different than aligning your sales organization, aligning your R&D, aligning any other piece of it."<br />
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Rather than letting CEO’s and Chief executives lay the early foundations for IT project failures (through poorly made, unfounded and unaccountable decisions), organizations needs to manage and delegate upwards. This will prevent them sitting back while their minions, who actually execute the project, take the fall for what they could have prevented at the projects outset. By making better decisions and hence ensuring robust project processes, accountability of all executive strategic project decisions will be assured. <br />
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A point that James Taylor makes in his article, <a href="http://budurl.com/5mr3">“Make Better Decisions”,</a> is that organizations, and especially senior executives, should conduct some form of decision making discovery. This is a critical issue that I support and one that I believe should predominantly also include C-level executives.<br />
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Even the best Project Managers and project management tools, cannot ensure the success of a project if the initial strategic investment and project decisions made by C-level and senior executives are poor, devoid of input, lack hard facts and where the executives making them are not held accountable.<br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Critical project discipline decisions, as outlined below, all result in the development of important pre-project planning and business processes. If these decisions are delegated, glossed over or taken without sufficient collaboration and input from the *appropriate* parties, then the supporting business processes will thereby also lack substance.<br />
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* Communications<br />
* Requirements gathering<br />
* Stakeholder support and involvement<br />
* Management support<br />
* User support and involvement<br />
* Strategy alignment<br />
* Success and Progress Metrics<br />
* IT Risk and Governance<br />
* Solution and Vendor Selection<br />
* Change Management<br />
* Training and development<br />
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Each of these strategic project disciplines and business process decisions should be orchestrated at the top of the organization by the CEO and C-level executives. In order that these disciplines don't become "Reasons for Failure", critical decisions about "Who" and "How" to execute and manage each discipline must be made at the top of the organization.<br />
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Because many of these disciplines and business processes are already incumbent within organizations, a general blaze attitude to addressing them can become prevalent. For this reason, C-level executives unfortunately often abdicate any responsibility for making these discipline decisions, thereby removing most of their accountability.<br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">This may all seem a bit harsh, however I have rarely (if ever) seen any CEO or C-level executive become a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat">scapegoat </a>for a failed IT Project - (other than the unfortunate CIO).<br />
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</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Kind regards<br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Sarah <br />
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</div>ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-78729139459401391412009-10-07T15:25:00.001-07:002009-10-31T17:19:57.760-07:00IT Project Success through Corporate ProfilingCheck out this SlideShare Presentation: <br />
<div id="__ss_2156750" style="text-align: left; width: 425px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sjrunge/it-project-success-through-corporate-profiling" style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0pt 3px; text-decoration: underline;" title="IT Project Success through Corporate Profiling">IT Project Success through Corporate Profiling</a><object height="355" style="margin: 0px;" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=corporateprofiling-091007160000-phpapp02&stripped_title=it-project-success-through-corporate-profiling" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=corporateprofiling-091007160000-phpapp02&stripped_title=it-project-success-through-corporate-profiling" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br />
<div style="font-family: tahoma,arial; font-size: 11px; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/" style="text-decoration: underline;">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sjrunge" style="text-decoration: underline;">Sarah Runge</a>.<br />
</div></div>ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-60999071850226809652009-09-21T19:40:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:10:19.613-08:00IT Project Failure - The Root Causes behind every Reason for IT Project Failure<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Simply put, IT projects fail not because of what we do, but because of what we haven’t done!<br />
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Conventional wisdom suggests that we can identify a set of reasons for project failures post implementation. As <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=5981,">Michael Krigsman</a> highlighted in his blog "Six types of IT project failure", classifying the reasons for failure can often illuminate Root Cause for project failure. However, in my opinion by simply categorizing failures often leads organizations to incorrectly believe that there were only one or two aspects of their project that caused it to fail.<br />
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My research has identified that the genesis of project failures is in fact an organization's pre-implementation strategic decision making (or lack thereof). The <a href="http://itpsb.blogspot.com/2009/04/it-project-issues-and-causes.html">symptoms or reasons </a>for the failure are easily classified but the root cause is often buried because it becomes almost impossible to unravel the causes after a protracted period once the project has failed.<br />
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Furthermore, I have found that simply identifying reasons for IT project failures can in itself lead to <a href="http://itpsb.blogspot.com/2009/04/art-of-scapegoating.html">"Scapegoating" </a>of the parties that were responsible for that element of the project (e.g. the Project Sponsor, Vendor or Project Manager ).</span><br />
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In the case of the <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=5981,">Project Sponsor</a>, mentioned in Michael Krigsmans blog, they need to be given the authority and accountability to make project decisions otherwise they will not remain actively and positively involved in the project. If they are not actively involved (with skin in the game), then they are just the "Go To” person, (which can be a pretty unenviable and arduous position to be in). This is just one example (not assigning accountability) of how poor strategic decision making by the organization before the project is initiated puts IT projects at risk.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>"Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day" Jim Rohn.</i><br />
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More often than not, what I have found is that the "Root Cause" is generally embedded in the organization as an underlying and fundamental flaw in its pre-investment strategic planning and pre-implementation strategic decision making processes.<br />
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These are executive decisions that provide the strategy for How the project will commence and What and Who needs to be included or involved.<br />
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Many of the reasons for IT project failures that I have identified, and that <a href="http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/madgreek/10-reasons-why-enterprise-initiatives-fail-24082">Mike Kavis</a> has covered extensively, can be eliminated by addressing these key strategic decisions at the outset of a project, because the potential Root Cause will thereby be identified and addressed before the project has even begun.<br />
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Kind Regards<br />
Sarah Jane Runge</span></div>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-927961473860763752009-05-12T17:53:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:10:56.619-08:00Taking the risk out of IT Risk and Governance<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #330099;">,Do IT Risk and Governance measures really help organizations to avoid IT Project failures?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #330099;">To coin a phrase used by a fellow Twitterer “No process at all is better than a bad process”.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #330099;">So how many resources, either dollars or human, do organizations invest in establishing IT risk and Governance frameworks? How much time is spent administering, managing and monitoring these processes and what is an organization’s ROI for their IT governance investment?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #330099;">For all of the above, most organizations would probably respond “Too much”! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #330099;">It is surprising to find that many large organizations and government bodies that claim to have or would be required by stakeholders to have stringent IT Risk and Governance frameworks still have rogue, run-away or failed IT projects. The following are some of the many examples of organizations and government bodies who experienced the chaos of rogue IT projects:</span><br />
<br /></div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=660&tag=nl.e539">The USA Census bureau $2bn in IT project overruns for a project that will probably need to be scrapped! </a></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Avis-bins-PeopleSoft-system-after-45m-IT-%20failure/0,139023166,139164049,00.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">A</span></a><a href="http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Avis-bins-PeopleSoft-system-after-45m-IT-%20failure/0,139023166,139164049,00.htm">vis Car rental –Europe ERP Project - €45m IT failure as ERP Project is cancelled.</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23155542-15319,00.html">Melbourne Transportation Authority Australia – Myki project$1bn later and 18 months behind schedule delivering Project “Myki”</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,17011260-15317,00.html">Australian Ports – Integrated Cargo system$217bn cost blowout for a system that still does not work to the extent it was intended to.</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701485_pf.html">FBI - VCF project $170m for an IT project that had to be cancelled</a></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=506">Sydney Water – CIBS project estimated $97m blowout and lengthy delays for a project that was scrapped</a></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #000099;">If an organization’s IT risk umbrella covers IT governance with a comprehensive IT risk portfolio, then how do organizations still get lumbered with runaway and failed IT Projects? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">An underlying cause is that IT Risk and Governance frameworks are focused almost exclusively on the “tangibles” of the organization and the direct outcomes of projects giving insufficient attention to the important “soft” intangibles of their organization. This is most critical at the crucial “pre-investment” IT decision making and process planning phase when identifying and determining how to achieve these project outcomes needs to take place.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #000099;">IT governance will take into account the amount of human and financial resources required for the project and an IT risk portfolio will monitor IT projects, IT service continuity, service providers, information assets, new and emergent technologies, software applications and infrastructure to ensure they are integrated with management, the business benefits and their alignment with strategy. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">As critical as these governance and risk measures are to the success of an IT Project, they will fail to deliver if left to act in isolation. Simply put, IT risk and governance measures do not address the internal psycho-analytical aspects of an organization, including its decision making process. Nor do they analyze the “What”, “Why”, “Who”, “When” “Where” and “How” decisions needed in investing in or undertaking IT projects. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #000099;">These key decisions are fundamental to organizations in determining whether projects will succeed or not and are the foundations and key drivers for determining IT project success. They must therefore be diligently made by C-level executives and senior management *before* projects commence.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">In short, all of these key decisions are uncovered and addressed when applying Corporate Profiling to an organization before initiating an IT Project. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">Indeed, Corporate Profiling can assist organizations in achieving their expected ROI and other benefits from their IT and Risk Governance processes in delivering IT projects.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #000099;">“Nothing and nobody fails as badly as when undertaking something that someone else has failed to plan” (Sarah Jane Runge). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">Kind regards</span><br />
<span style="color: #000099;">Sarah Jane Runge</span><br />
<br /></div>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-47840771603021268782009-04-24T18:08:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:11:19.627-08:00Do the decades differentiate IT Project failures?<div style="color: #000066; text-align: justify;">
So, how does Corporate Profiling influence the successful outcomes of IT Projects – including Agile Development, Cloud Computing, SOA’s and any other type of IT project?<br />
<br />
Today's technologies are a far cry from the times of paper tape input and card deck readers of mainframe computers that required real estate approximately the size of the White House in the early 1970s just to supply a fraction of the computing power of a single modern server.<br />
<br />
In the famous words of Albert Einstein:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” </span> </div>
Albert Einstein<br />
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Has technology outsmarted us and exceeded our ability to keep pace in today’s information age?<br />
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Are organizations fooled into believing that a natural outcome of these technology advancements is that their next IT project that utilizes Agile Development, Cloud Computing, SOA or other advanced packaged solutions will have more chance of succeeding than IT projects of the ‘70s?<br />
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Most top level executives can conceptualize how technology works and what it is capable of delivering, but very few actually comprehend the complexities involved.<br />
<br />
The fact remains that these technologies still rely on human factors. Unfortunately they therefore still face the same risk of failure and are still subject to ongoing issues regarding support, communications, requirements, management and poor decisions.<br />
<br />
So, what does Corporate Profiling change and do differently that can help organization to minimize the risk of project failures?<br />
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As we have all come to realize, there is no panacea, no silver bullet and no “10 point plan” or easy path to guarantee an IT project’s success. Corporate Profiling, however, does reduce the risk of a “ready, fire, aim” approach.<br />
<br />
In a nutshell, it is a pre-implementation/pre-investment process undertaken by organizations before they embark on their next IT project. This is done ahead of and is not a replacement for methodologies such as process modeling.<br />
<br />
And according to Plato:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">“The beginning is the most important part of the work”</span> Plato</div>
<br />
Firstly, Corporate Profiling provides an extensive framework of key decisions and questions that need to be addressed by an organization’s leaders and executives. Their answers validate the decision to pursue the project and underpins its success by mandating core strategies vital to the project’s execution and flow.<br />
<br />
These decisions require collaboration between relevant parties and peers to ensure consensus that leads to fully supported decisions. All decisions require executive accountability to ensure the quality of these decisions. The resulting decisions and derived information at this initial stage of an IT project forms the basis for further development of a Corporate Profile which will then provide the answers and input required for each subsequent critical step within the pre-implementation framework and process.<br />
<br />
Corporate Profiling promotes three key principles: Visibility, Collaboration and Accountability. All three are required to ensure that a solid foundation is established before a project commences.<br />
Visibility of an organization’s key elements and processes is critical to developing a blue-print of the organization and allows for the accurate identification of correct and extensive project requirements, communication points, information sources, interlinked relationships, strengths and weaknesses and the most appropriate people or parties to be involved in the project.<br />
<br />
Often it is the less obvious or indirect factors that adversely impact upon a project if they are not identified at the outset. Visibility also alerts an organization to other not so obvious parties that need to be involved in providing input into the key project discipline decisions.<br />
<br />
Collaboration on all strategic project decisions by C-level and senior executives is critical to ensure that unbiased quality decisions are arrived at, consensus is achieved and that decisions are fully supported. Collaboration is also a prerequisite for requirements gathering to ensure that all input and feedback is received and correctly processed.<br />
<br />
Accountability empowers employees to drive change and to feel involved rather than becoming cynical or resistant to change. Responsibility for key decisions more often than not just promotes issues such “agreement for ease of an answer”, “deferring to a higher power” or “self appointed decision makers for the group” to name a few. On the other hand holding parties fully accountable for results and outcomes is critical to ensure that quality input into strategic project planning decisions are obtained.<br />
<br />
If you look back on your experience and encounters with IT Projects, I am willing to bet that the majority of the causes for failures would have been avoided if a Corporate Profile had been established at the outset.<br />
<br />
Kind regards<br />
Sarah Jane Runge<br />
<br /></div>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-31416640317017368392009-04-21T17:53:00.000-07:002009-04-21T18:21:13.369-07:00Best intentions will not guarantee IT project success<div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><div style="text-align: justify;">So why do IT projects continue to keep failing when there are so many Project Management and Quality Assurance tools out there to manage them?<br /></div><br />Recently I heard of an organization that decided to invest in EVM (Earned Value Management) software so that they could monitor the progress and budget of their forthcoming major IT project. However, the EVM software implementation became troubled. And since this was their silver bullet to help them avoid an IT project failure in the first place, there was no software or processes in place to tell them when, where and how the EVM implementation began to go off the rails.<br /><br />Simply put it doesn’t matter what variety of IT system, software or SOA initiative an organization is looking to undertake, the risk of IT failure remains the same. If due diligence on an organization’s strategic decision making processes has not been undertaken at the pre-investment or project pre-planning stages, failure (in one form or another) is almost guaranteed.<br /><br />When an IT Project fails due to human factors, (which is most likely the case), often the causes can be traced directly back to poor or a lack of strategic decision making at the pre-investment or pre-planning phase of the project.<br /><br />The “What”, “Why”, “Who”, “When” “Where” and “How” decisions of investing in or undertaking IT projects are critical to organizations in determining whether projects will succeed or not. As these decisions are the foundations and key drivers for determining project successes, they must be diligently made by C-level executives and senior management *before* projects commence.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:arial;" >Questions such as:</span><br /><ul style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-align: justify;"><li>What is driving the investment decision, what key strategic processes do we need in place, what do we need to do to initiate the project and what outcomes do we expect?</li><li>Why are we undertaking this project?</li><li>Who is driving the investment decision and project, who supports the project, who needs to be involved and who is accountable for what?</li><li>When do critical project initiatives and actions need to be initiated?</li><li>Where are our key information, communication and requirement sources?</li><li>How will we secure and retain project support, how will the project proceed and how will we measure progress and success?</li></ul><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:arial;" >If these questions cannot be adequately answered by C-level executives and senior management and communicated both verbally and formally to their organizations *before* projects get underway, there is little hope that answers or corrective actions will materialize once the project is in full swing.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:arial;" >Kind regards</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);font-family:arial;" >Sarah</span><br /></div>ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-32458670761896481472009-04-17T15:14:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:15:20.851-08:00Unbundling complex organizations to simplify IT Projects<div style="text-align: justify;">
How to simplify organizational complexities in order to understand and analyze the “What”, “Why”, “Who”, “When” and “How” of an IT project.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The first step is to “Unbundle” an organization</span> into it’s constituent categories, functions (or business units/departments), and processes. In so doing you are then able to profile these components and analyze and understand how and where they are interconnected with each other and their relationships.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Unbundling the processes</span> will also give you visibility into what, where and how manual (and often undocumented) processes are interconnected with automated computer-based processes. This is important because as one interconnected process is changed it will likely impact upon other processes which will in turn impact on further processes and so on creating a ripple effect (the butterfly effect). It is essential to identify common interfaces between manual and/or computer-based systems in order to better understand what and how processes are influenced.<br />
<br />
Once the functions, departments, business units and processes have been unbundled, you are then able to identify the most appropriate parties that need to be involved and included in the IT project. Often only the most obvious or prominent parties are identified as essential for the project, however, by unbundling we are able to identify the more obscure or indirect parties and processes. These additional parties and processes can often be a key source of project requirements and will need to be solicited for their input and involvement. It is also helpful to identify key communication points, informal and formal information sources, possible areas of change resistance or support and who needs to be involved in the decision making process.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Unbundling the external value chain</span> will identify if, where and how suppliers and customers integrate into an organization’s incumbent IT systems, functions, departments and processes. This is also a major source of project requirements and will allow the parties to understand precisely how they will be impacted and what they need to do to adapt to the change.<br />
<br />
Remember 80% of an iceberg is out of sight and similarly the vast majority of project requirements are largely hidden.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Unbundling the Pre-implementation process</span> enables us to break each step down into specific disciplines. At the outset of a project these disciplines all require strategic decisions to guide them so that they can be successfully established, executed, managed and adopted by an organization throughout the projects life-cycle.</div>
<ol>
<li>Pre-investment decision making process</li>
<li>Communications </li>
<li>Executive, stakeholder and user support</li>
<li>IT governance and risk </li>
<li>Success metrics and strategy</li>
<li>Change process</li>
<li>User input and requirements gathering </li>
<li>Training and process development</li>
<li>User adoption</li>
<li>Vendor and solution selection</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In my next post to this blog I will investigate the first of these disciplines the all-important “Pre-investment decision making process”.</div>
<br />
Kind regards<br />
Sarah Jane RungeProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-47572793158541660422009-04-15T18:47:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:14:14.511-08:00IT Project Issues and CausesIt is still incredible that people expect IT projects to proceed successfully when they have not done sufficient planning at the outset?<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
It’s a bit of a Catch-22 – you cannot plan if things that have not yet been fully decided and agreed upon and at the same time you cannot manage something that has not been planned.<br />
<br />
When a project starts to go off the rails, chances are that the root cause of the problem can be easily traced back to poor project decision making processes before the project commenced. So in order to understand the many possible reasons and causes for IT projects failing (to varying degrees), we need to review events at the *inception* of IT projects rather than analyzing problematic outcomes *after* the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan!<br />
<br />
Specifically it is an organization’s pre-investment decision making and pre-implementation planning processes that needs attention – not scapegoating and other such unproductive exercises. If these strategic processes are either not established or lack structure and rigor, decisions will be insubstantial with a lack of accountability for the outcomes. The flow-on effect of weak decisions is guaranteed to adversely impact the project once it gets underway.<br />
<br />
My in-depth analysis of failed IT projects clearly demonstrates that problematic project outcomes are almost always directly attributable to insufficient or poor strategic project decision making at the outset.<br />
<br />
The following issues and associated causes may well ring a bell!<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="720" src="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p_cnDUhUrRAJVYwOpiyROVw&output=html&gid=0&single=true&widget=true" width="500"></iframe><br />
<br />
The above sample of issues and causes is by no means exhaustive but is indicative of common causes of IT project failures.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
A final word on strategic decision making is that these decisions *cannot* be made in isolation by a single person who “deems” themself to be the chief decision maker. For decisions to be accurate and also supported by an organization and peers they require collaboration and accountability.</div>
<br />
Kind regards<br />
Sarah Jane Runge<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-77848026968345925032009-04-14T15:19:00.000-07:002012-11-20T17:15:58.060-08:00The Art of Scapegoating<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IlrChUIAqMQ/SeUVp9fmOeI/AAAAAAAAABA/lrieKqsRdWY/s1600-h/photo_1243_20081018.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324685945061390818" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IlrChUIAqMQ/SeUVp9fmOeI/AAAAAAAAABA/lrieKqsRdWY/s320/photo_1243_20081018.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 188px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 252px;" /></a>Have you or someone you know ever been the scapegoat for a failed IT project? If so read on. This may give you a déjà vu feeling.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
And as the saying goes, “A good scapegoat is nearly as welcome as a solution to the problem”!<br />
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This is often a sorry consequence of failed or derailed IT projects. Everyone is responsible for the project and no one is accountable for its outcomes. This issue will become even more apparent as the project progresses. Over a period of 1, 2 or 3 years people will either leave the organization/project or will otherwise forget who was actually accountable for having made the critical investment and planning decisions in the first place. Time has a tendency to blur the facts! So what can project sponsors do when they get that sinking feeling that an IT project is heading into deep waters? Hunt for scapegoats! (shhhhh people don’t readily admit that this is what actually happens). Who wants to be held accountable for a train wreck of that magnitude? Nobody – hence the scapegoating!<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, organizations typically identify vendors, project managers and CIO’s as the obvious parties (read scapegoats) responsible for under-delivered and over-budget IT projects.<br />
In actuality, the causes generally lie in the camp of the C-Level, senior executives and presidents themselves. Why? Because strategic decisions to invest in IT systems are always made at the top level of an organization. They should instead be asking themselves where they messed up and analyze whether, why or how their IT investment and project decisions were under-analyzed, under-scoped, under-supported, under-communicated or under-trained. Did they make the critical strategic project decisions and follow through with an execution strategy to establish key project procedures or not? Information cannot be expected to be communicated via osmosis or hearsay.<br />
<br />
Ask yourself who was responsible for identifying and collecting project requirements and were they empowered and accountable? Were they the most appropriate people or just the most senior or worse still – self-appointed?<br />
<br />
The other key question that vendors and customers should be asking themselves is “did we assume that extensive requirements were collected and correctly documented from the most pertinent and pivotal parties?” Most of the time both parties just assume that the important task of requirements gathering has been diligently carried out (which is where the slippery slope begins and scapegoats are sought out).<br />
<br />
Kind regard<br />
Sarah Jane Runge</div>
ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-10158669301152306932009-04-13T17:29:00.000-07:002009-04-13T18:22:49.887-07:00Causes for IT Project Failures<div style="text-align: justify;">A lot of blogs out there are dedicated to analyzing IT projects once they have failed and the cause nearly always tend to be the same. I want to make a difference!<br /><br />I am a Kiwi (New Zealander) born and raised, which makes me a straight talker, no BS and you won’t need to read between the lines. In 1985 I moved to Australia to pursue my IT career. Back then NZ didn’t have a lot of opportunity for IT professionals to advance (things have changed now). Being a “pseudo” Aussie means I am objective, confident, don’t mind being wrong and love to hear other people’s opinions.<br /><br />This blog, myself and my company (ITPSB) are dedicated to helping organizations minimize the risk of their IT projects failing, under delivering business benefits or the dreaded budget and time overruns. Most of these issues are avoidable provided that sufficient pre-implementation planning and execution of strategic decisions are undertaken before projects commence.<br /><br />Having been involved with both the business and technical side of IT projects for over 24 years and also having conducted numerous research investigations and interviews into why IT projects continue to be hindered in some way or another – there always appears to be a myriad of reasons given as to why individual projects failed. Reasons that are identified in hindsight: such as poor management, communication problems, lack of project support, lack of technical expertise, over-promised and under-delivered, vendor issues and so on.<br /><br />However, the single key issue that I have isolated as the primary cause is the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Strategic IT Project Decision Making and Execution</span> (or lack of) in those decisions. If strategic project decisions such as “why are we investing”, “who is responsible”, “how is the organization is going to secure project support”, “actively involve users”, “communication strategy”, “identify requirement sources”, “training”, “project sponsorship”, “management support and leadership” are not made before the project commences then planning their execution becomes mission impossible!<br /><br />Over the next 10 days I will post to this blog on the subject of Corporate Profiling.<br /><br />Corporate Profiling will detail the various organizational disciplines that must be addressed by the organization and its executives before they undertake their next IT project. So I look forward to your feedback and comments.<br /><br />For a preview of my book “Stop Blaming the Software – Corporate Profiling for IT Project Success” please feel free to view my <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sjrunge/minimize-it-project-failures">SlideShare</a>.<br /><br />Kind regards<br />Sarah<br /><br /></div>ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1314610166729912649.post-7681017438235625572008-02-26T16:14:00.000-08:002008-04-29T14:33:33.060-07:00Welcome to IT Project Starting BlocksWelcome to Stop Blaming the Software - Corporate Profiling for IT Project success.<br /> <p class="style4">IT Profiling is a simple yet comprehensive process that delivers an in-depth blueprint of the organization, its people, its process, its customers and their relationships. </p> <p class="style3">This is the first step to undertaking an IT implementation.</p> <p class="style3">Only after an Organizational Profile has been established should the company even contemplate investing its hard earned IT budget.</p> <p class="style3">Only then will you know that the investment decision is based upon comprehensive accurate organizational information from the appropriate sources. </p> <p class="style3">Profiling identifies where the interlinked relationships occur within the organization and its immediate external value chain. Profiling also identifies any common or causal factors between corporate, business and IT and more significantly it elucidates hidden or not so obvious factors that would normally be over looked.</p> <p class="style3">In order for comprehensive Profiling to be undertaken there must be a common objective between the three business components and a level of executive support and cohesion that will drive tri-directional communication channels throughout the business components. </p> <p class="style3">Since each component contributes to the development of the organization’s operational, management and implementation processes, they are the key identifiers to profiling the Organization, the enablers of a successful IT Project and ultimately the "sustainers" for future IT change. </p>ProfilingProhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08697195725680574092noreply@blogger.com2