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COMMON ERRORS IN IT PROJECT

MANAGEMENT AND HOW TO

AVOID THEMPMI Montreal

04-FEB-09

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Introduction

Olivier Abécassis, PMP, ITSM

Svetlana Sidenko, PMP, ITSM, MSc (Admin)

IT CHAPTER : training & consulting

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IT Projects keep failing…

� Standish Group research:

� Only 29% of IT projects are completed successfully

� 2007 study by Dynamic Markets Limited

� 62% of IT projects fail to meet their schedules

� 49% suffered budget overruns

� 47% had higher-than-expected maintenance costs

� 41% failed to deliver the expected business value

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5%

12%

14%

14%

55%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Misalignment between business and project objectives

Project Team gets powerless by going through too much

processes

PM processes being viewed as extra overhead

Project Team doesn't follow a standard, repeatable

project management process

Lack of executive support; project sponsor is not 100%

committed to the objectives, lacks understanding of the

project and is not actively involved

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES AND METHODOLOGY

1 - Lack of executive support

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1 - Lack of executive support

� IMPACT

� Unlikely to assign needed resources

� Lack of company-wide visibility of the project

� Executives less likely to defend the project

� Difficult to engage cross-functional teams

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1 - Lack of executive support

� SOLUTION / AT PROJECT INITIATION

� Build your executive summary

� Build a business case (ROI)

� Have GANTT Chart with hard milestones

� Clarify roles and responsibility of the sponsor.

� SOLUTION / AT PROJECT EXECUTION

� Manage the sponsor as you would manage any other project resource

� TIP

� Executives want numbers, status reports and no surprises

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12%

20%

28%

40%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Insufficient or non-existent approval process

Unclear or unconvincing business case

Lack of thoroughness and diligence in the project start-

up phases

Lack of business ownership and accountability

PROJECT INITIATION ISSUES

2 - Lack of business ownership and accountability

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2 - Lack of business ownership and accountability

� IMPACT

� Tasks slippages , low quality of deliverables, team/project conflicts

� SOLUTION

� Define your RACI chart

� Make project tasks VISIBLE among stakeholders

� Use a defined communication mechanism

� Engage the end-user/client

� Eliminate excuses!

� TIP: One task , one owner.

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5%

5%

12%

12%

20%

46%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Wrong or inappropriate technological choices

Unfamiliar or changing technologies; lack of required

technical skills

Product owner unclear or consistently not available

Long and unpredictable bug fixing phase at the end of

the project

Integration problems during implementation

Lack of user involvement (resulting in expectation issues)

TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS ISSUES

3 - Lack of user involvement

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3 - Lack of user involvement

� IMPACT

� Unrealistic expectations about how and when things will be done

� Scope creep

� SOLUTION

� Involve Users very early

� Look for Subject Matter Experts and User representatives

� Set clear expectations about User’s participation

� Set requirements “in stone” to prevent scope creep

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2%

17%

20%

24%

37%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Project schedules are incomplete

Insufficient time or money given to project

Lack of sufficient planning

Lack of understanding requirements

Failing to see the dependencies between projects

PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT

4 - Failing to see dependencies between projects

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4 - Failing to see dependencies between projects

� IMPACT

� Unrealistic project completion times

� Missed opportunities to address potential problems early

� Domino effect across the pipeline of projects

� SOLUTION

� GANTT chart, Critical Path

� Find your Subject Matter Experts

� Take dependencies into account during project planning, via project diagramming

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7%

21%

32%

40%

0% 20% 40%

Not tracking changes to the scope of the project

Scope of the project is too vague

Not taking enough time to define the scope of the

project

Scope creep; lack of adequate change control

PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT

5 - Scope Creep - lack of adequate change control

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5 - Scope Creep - lack of adequate change control

� IMPACT

� The budget for the project explodes. So does the timeline.

� SOLUTION

� Establish a formal change request process: at the IT project initiation phase

� Evaluate the effects of changed requirements on: timescale, cost and risk

� Use phased approach: change will have less chance to affect development

� If change is inevitable: follow change control process

� Project Sponsor has to sign off the change-in-scope request

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21%

31%

48%

0% 20% 40% 60%

IT does not push back on unreasonable deadlines

Project deadlines are ignored by the project team

members

Projects are rushed in order to speed through

development efforts and systems implementations

PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT

6 - Projects are rushed to speed through

development efforts and system implementation

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� IMPACT

� Quality is compromised and budget is impacted

� Customer Requirements are not met

� SOLUTION

� Track and review progress regularly

� Documenting important decisions, deliverables and milestones

� Re-plan and reschedule to accommodate new initiatives

� Issue a procedure for schedule change

6 - Projects are rushed to speed through development efforts and system implementation

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7%

22%

32%

39%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Project Cost over-run

Project budget is mismanaged

Project budget is not managed by the Project Manager

Project budget is underestimated

PROJECT COST MANAGEMENT

7 - Project Budget is underestimated

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7 - Project Budget is underestimated

� IMPACT

� Project may be cancelled

� Project will not be able to face unplanned issues

� SOLUTION

� Involve the right people in budget estimation exercise

� Allocate enough contingency in the budget

� Do deep analysis of the current technical environment

� Do NOT accept budget cut upfront under executive pressure

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2%

17%

29%

52%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Projects lack experienced Project Managers

Projects lack the right resources with the right skills

IT staff are not dedicated to project-work (inability to

estimate their availability to work on a given project and

inaccuracies in task estimation)

Team members have other multiple priorities in

organization

PROJECT HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

8 - Team members have other multiple priorities

in organization

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8 - Team members have other multiple priorities

in organization

� IMPACT

� Puts stress on the team members

� Reduces productivity and quality of deliverables

� SOLUTION

� Discuss the project with the line manager

� Come to agreement about how you will handle conflicting priorities

� If conflicting priorities will start to affect your project performance, rely on your agreed-upon procedures

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22%

26%

52%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Inadequate testing

Test plan development and implementation can be

viewed as wasted time or overkill

Poorly defined Project Quality criteria

PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT

9 - Poorly defined Project Quality criteria

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9 - Poorly defined Project Quality criteria

� IMPACT

� Decisions to act on non-quality (bugs) are difficult to take

� Early versions of project deliverables do not meet quality standards

� Team spends time and $ fixing the wrong problem

� SOLUTION

� Agree up-front on project success criteria and measures

� Put a quality measurement and reporting system in place

� Address quality issues immediately

� Reassess quality criteria (if necessary)

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7%

19%

19%

22%

33%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Communication to stakeholders and executives is too

technical ( i.e. hundreds of pages of specs)

Poor collaboration, communication and teamwork

Inadequate visibility of project status

Insufficient attention to stakeholders and their needs;

failure to manage expectations

Lack of communication planning

PROJECT COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

10 - Lack of communication planning

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10 - Lack of communication planning

� IMPACT

� Even best managed projects, delivering on all their promises can still get a bad reputation and be perceived as failures

� SOLUTION

� Identify the different category of stakeholder and define communication methods that best suits the group:

� Executive Sponsor/Business Sponsor

� Project Team Members

� Customers/Users

� Project Management Office (PMO)

� Project Manager-yourself!

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20%

21%

23%

36%

0% 20% 40%

Risk Management strategy is poorly identified from the

beginning of the project

Project Risks are ignored

Project Risks are poorly managed

Project Risks are poorly identified from the beginning

of the project

PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT

11 - Project risks are poorly identified from the

beginning of the Project

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What is Murphy’s law?

� “If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it” (Edward A. Murphy Jr, 1947)

� Anything that can go wrong, will – at the worst possible moment.

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Train wreck at Paris Montparnasse 1895Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

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Bread & Butter Law

I never had a slice of bread,Particularly large and wide,That did not fall upon the floor,And always on the buttered side.

American newspaper in Norwalk, Ohio, 1841

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11 - Project risks are poorly identified from the

beginning of the Project

� IMPACT

� Project delay, cost over-run, early termination of the project

� SOLUTION

� Brainstorm with stakeholders to predict possible threats to the project

� Focus on the quantity of risks

� Record all mentioned risks

� Build risk management plan and maintain it.

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Conclusion : How to avoid common errors in IT

Projects

1. Obtain executive support

2. Ensure project accountability. One task – one owner

3. Manage expectations of your End-Users by involving them early in the projects

4. Use help of your SMEs to identify dependencies between projects

5. Introduce formal Change Control procedure to avoid Scope creep

6. Introduce formal procedure to track your schedule and document all important decisions regarding re-scheduling

7. Carefully estimate your budget with contingency

8. Agree with line department manager about how to handle conflicting priorities of project resources

9. Clearly define Project Quality Criteria

10. Use Project communication methods that best suit your various groups of project stakeholders

11. Include your stakeholders from all levels of the company to predict project risks. Issue a Risk Log and maintain it

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References

� Project Management: The 14 Most Common Mistakes IT Departments Make , July 23 2008, Meredith Levinson, www.cio.com

� Project Communication: how to keep your team engaged and informed. November 13, 2008 | Author: PM Hut http://www.pmhut.com

� How to cheat at IT Project Management , 2005, Susan Snedaker, www.syngress.com