Is Your IT Project At Risk From One Of These Commonly Ignored Problems?

As a project manager you're continually aware that large numbers of people in the businesses you go into are completely unaware of the pitfalls of IT projects.

Bart Perkins believes, less kindly, that we know about them but choose to ignore them.

He's written an article called "12 Things You Know About Projects But Choose To Ignore" where he lists 12 major points.

I may well have covered these in a previous posting. However, Bart's article makes interesting reading so I've listed the 12 points of possible project failure that Bart expands on:

1. ineffective executive sponsor
2. poor business case
3. No longer valid business case
4. Project too big
5. Lack of dedicated resources
6. Supplier failures
7. Unnecessary complexity
8. Cultural conflict
9. No contigency
10. Too long without deliverables
11. Using unproven technology
12. Arbitrary release date

 

I'd add a further two to the mix:

1. Internal teams not being treated like external suppliers
2. Lack of management response to problem escalation

It's likely that almost every company knows exactly how projects should be managed. Certainly that's why Prince 2 and sundry other methodologies and tools are used to support the "correct way" to project manage.

So the question becomes one of "Why do projects still go wrong?"

 

Technorati tags: project management, project pitfalls, project failure

You Need Project Management

Project management is a key activity in all our business lives.

That means that the one assigned the role of "project manager" isn't the only person who needs to know about "how to manage projects".

That's why the Internet is so useful because it gives people the opportunity to learn things that otherwise they might miss.

In the project management arena this is provided at a number of sites but the most extensive post I've seen so far is provided by "Project Management Source" in their article titled "Lessons from Project Management: 101 ways to organize your life." Sure many of the points are "obvious", but often they're only obvious once pointed out.

Some of the 101 things to remember/do need more explanation. For instance point 66 " Good planning alone does not ensure good implementation. Follow-through becomes vital here. As the leader, the project manager ensures that the team sticks to the plan."

Well yes, obviously. Follow-through meaning ---

1. You've allocated tasks to team members
2. You've agreed milestone dates (including delivery date)
3. You've agreed how you will monitor the tasks
4. You've agreed how your team notify you of unexpected events
5. You now do what you've agreed and continually talk to and check with your team on progress.

Do You Manage Multiple Projects Effectively?

Multi-tasking is all about handling more than one project in a day.

Yet Dan Bobinski in Management Issues reveals some interesting and worrying information on multi-tasking.

He notes that Robert Croker, Ed.D., chair of the Human Resource Training and Development department at Idaho State University says,

"It's a common misconception is that a brain is like a computer. A computer is designed to multitask. A human brain is not designed to function optimally in a multitask environment."

Dan notes multi-tasking research in a related article on the Mangement Issues blog which show problems with multi-tasking.

Both the Journal of Experimental Psychology and science journal NeuroImage have published research that shows what happens as we multi-task.

It shows that the brain goes through several steps that take up time...

To quote further from Dan's article these include:

• "a selection process for choosing a new activity,
  
• turning off the mental rules needed to do the first task,
  
• turning on the mental rules needed to do the second task,
  
• orienting itself to the conditions currently surrounding the new task"

The thing that is of most concern is that the research shows that switching between tasks means they can take four times longer to finish. Due to the extra activity the brain has to go through.

From this it instantly becomes clear as to why interruptions are so difficult to handle, because we switch from work mode to conversation to work again. Put in a few of those in the working day and our brain activity is going to go through the roof along with our stress levels.

Bethlehem Steel And Charles Schwab

It also explains why the old Bethlehem Steel story is so vitally important to managing your projects.

Remember Charles Scwab told management consultant Ivy Lee to show him a way to get more things done and he would pay anything "within reason." Famously Ivy Lee simply gave Schwab one unused piece of paper and told him:

1. 
   

   Each night take such a piece of paper

   
   
2. 
   

   Note the most important things you have to do

   
   
3. 
   

   Number them in order of their importance

   
   
4. 
   

   When you get to work the next morning start at number one (the one you decided was most important) and continue with it until it's finished

   
   
5. 
   

   When you've completed the most important task, start on number two and continue that until it's finished

   
   
6. 
   

   Work on the most important task left on the list for the rest of the day

   
   
7. 
   

   At the end of the day don't worry if you've not completed the whole list because using any other way would have been even more impossible

   
   
8. 
   

   Make this your work habit every day

   
   
9. 
   

   "Send me a check for what you think its worth."

As you're aware Schwab sent Lee $25,000. A fortune in the 1930's. That same technique is still taught by Time Management experts today.

Why Is It So Important?

So the reason this is so important is that it says focus on completing one thing at a time.

Exactly the same is true of managing multiple projects. Yes there can be some interruptions, like phone calls and emails.

The way I work is that I have two periods of time a day that I proactively make progress, issue and coaching calls so that I'm not (usually) interrupted by those.

I also turned off my regular email update. Sometimes it can be a pain when you're waiting for something but it's a small price to pay for a bit more control over what you're doing.

Focusing on the task in hand and completing it means that your brain is not constantly worrying over an unfinished task that's waiting to be finished.

This is such an important concept that I've cross-posted this from another of my blogs ("Top Achiever's Get It Done")

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Technorati Tags: Multi-tasking, Dan Bobinski, Management Issues, Journal of Experimental Psychology, NeuroImage, interruptions, gotta minute, Ivy Lee, Charles Schwab, Bethelem Steel, Time Management, coaching

Government Report Says IT projects almost always fail to deliver?

Are we really that suprised that large government IT projects almost always fail to deliver?

As Edward Leigh MP (chairman of the Public Accounts Committee) says in yet another report about project failure

"If one lesson stands out from the work of the PAC over the years, it is that government departments are masters at spending public money but often far less proficient at ensuring that this translates into better public services. Basic errors are repeated time and again."

Aren't these issues the same ones that raise their heads time after time?

The PAC report highlights the following areas that need to be improved:

• better planning
• more realistic timetables
• more realistic business cases
• stronger project management
• Better assessment of risk
• reduced complexity
• reduced bureaucracy
  

The Government Has Its Own List Of Ready Made Project Excuses

So there we go.

After all the government has issued it's own white paper through the Office of Government Commerce. Which can be used

as a great ready-made list of excuses. It's a white paper called "Common Causes of Project Failure". These eight causes may be summarized as follows:

1. Lack of links to an organisation's strategy
2. Lack of management ownership and leadership
3. Lack of involvement of stakeholders
4. Lack of skills
5. Lack of proper project plans
6. Supplier chosen on price, not ability
7. Lack of senior supplier contact
8. Lack of effective project team integration

Government already knew about lack of proper project plans.

The obvious thing to do is to set-up checklists so that people who run projects don't miss any steps out. Plus projects should be cancellable at any stage during their development and deployment.

That obvious thought seems to be pretty much why the government turned to the PRINCE/PRINCE 2 project methodology.

And this still hasn't delivered all projects to specification, schedule or cost.

What can government do?

It seems as though thegovernment trys to take account of all potential requirements. So that they can save money by not having to change the system in the future when the law and government requirements change.

If that really is what's happening it's a case of guessing what is certainly unknowable and putting in place more complexity than is really required for best operation.

Anyway off they set with these great huge projects. Ministers speaking with pride about the biggest European project for this and the largest project for that for a generation.

The answer to these project failures seems obvious.

Polish what you have, fix what is broken and don't try and bulldoze everything that's been created since computerisation began just so you can start with a fresh sheet.

Otherwise given each projects scale government is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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Do these People Know What They're Talking About?

Now this is what I was talking about in a previous post(The Awful Truth About Email Courses).

A site that reviews what gurus are like...

It has quite a few gurus listed and their bios will make interesting reading if you don't know all the internet marketing gurus/wannabes.

I like Carl Galletti. Maybe it's because on his site he gives away over a hundred hours of marketing stuff.

Mind you when would you get the time to listen to it all?

Unwritten Rules of Management

These are great rules of project management.

Obviously you'll have your favourites.

Mine is simple it's number 3 - if you're not being criticised you're not doing much.

This is the way I look at it.

If you've not making waves, or creating a bow wave, you're not moving forward. People will be disturbed from their complacency by your backwash. So criticism happens. So don't let it get to you.

Also number 24 is vital for IT projects!

Check them out...

What's The Secret To Managing Multiple Projects At The Same Time?

So, how do you manage multiple projects?

You know that's a good question to start this blog.

My answer is simple it's all about organisation and discipline.

But you also have to realise that everyone has a ceiling. By that I mean that you only have the ability to manage so many different types of projects before you go into overload.

How do you recognise overload? You're sacked, you resign exhausted or you simply deliver past deadlines, over cost or just plain and simple garbage.

The objective for this blog then is to describe the types of projects that you'll come across and whether they're easy, difficult or pretty near impossible to manage as a portfolio of projects.

A further, possibly more important objective is to give you methods, tips, techniques and strategies you can apply at work tomorrow for real results.

So if you've any questions about managing multiple projects let me know and as time goes on I'll do my best to answer it or get someone else to give their view.

Some of the topics I'll be covering include:

• presenting across different industries, don't mix terminology
• the importance of proper project audit
• keeping track of changes over multiple projects
• How managing multiple projects and programmes is subtly different
• Why you should progress projects by teleconference
• How to check that products are delivered
• When to go higher in your organisation

In my next blog I'll explain about the importance of planning how you spend your time on your different projects. Also making sure you track actual time. And the best way to record both using an Excel spreadsheet - which we'll build into a multi-project dashboard as this blog goes on.