Although organizations typically think of projects in terms of a set of interdependent tasks, technology projects are better described as being “large scale, complex, decentralised decision making activities”. Managing the decision making process effectively is the core problem that makes technology projects so hard to do.
To learn more read the following article – “What makes managing a technology projects so hard to do?” or read the abstract below…
Abstract
Technology projects are amongst the most challenging of projects. Studies shown that as many as 50% of projects encounter serious issues that result in schedule delay, budget overruns, quality problems and at times, project cancellation (see the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” for examples). Understanding the reasons behind these failures is an urgent priority for those who seek to avoid similar problems in the future.
Although projects are all unique and there are many reasons why projects fail, a large part of the problem stems from the way we think about projects. When we think of a project we typically see it as a set of interrelated tasks (as per the task oriented view captured in a Gantt chart). While a Gantt chart is a useful simplification, it masks the reality that at the most fundamental level, a technology project is a large scale, complex, decentralized decision making activity.
The four constituents of project work
All work carried out during a project can be considered as falling into one of four categories;
- Physical activities (pouring concrete, building walls, etc)
- Information acquisition and analysis
- Information and knowledge transfer
- Decision making
The relative significance of these four activities varies by project. While construction projects in the civil engineering field have a heavy bias towards physical activities, research projects are based primarily on information acquisition and analysis.
Technology projects fall into the class of projects that are decision centric. Rather than being “physical tasks”, the majority of what we refer to as “tasks” in a technology project are in fact decision making activities.
The six great challenges
Wherever decision making is the core activity a number of challenges immediately arise. From the perspective of a technology project there are six great challenges;
- Consistently asking the right questions at the right time
- Identifying the best answers
- Ensuring the compatibility of all the decisions being made
- Overcoming complexity
- Understanding and managing the uncertainty inherent in the decisions we make
- Identifying and eliminating errors and omissions in the decisions we’ve made
Although the challenges can be expressed in simple terms, in practical situations they represent very significant problems that unless approached with due care increase the chances of project failure dramatically. The “Why Technology Projects Fail” workshop looks at the many ways in which organizations and projects fail to overcome these challenges and gives participants the deeper levels of insight needed to succeed.
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