Strucutural and Strategic Planning

Posted on April 4, by admin

In theory projects are initiated by the creation and formal approval of a Project Charter. The Charter details the projects objectives, outlines the scope of the project and establishes the authority for the Project Manager to proceed. In practice few of the organizations I visit use a formal Project Charter and instead a hotchpotch of different methods is used. Theses informal methods of initiating a project often turn into a long drawn out activity. From the sea of ideas, options and p...

The Incentives Infrastructure

Posted on March 21,December 23, by admin

One of the pillars of successful Project Management is the need for a project to have a clearly defined goal. Establishing a goal provides a basis for the project’s scope to be established, provides a way to measure success and provides a reference point for use when making project related decisions. There’s no doubt that establishing clear, measurable objectives is an important step in setting a project on the road to success, but a clear goal is sometimes insufficient to ensure that everyon...

Fear of Commitment

Posted on March 7,February 28, by admin

One of the fundamentals taught in Project Management class is the need to define what the success of the project will look like. Only by establishing a picture of the desired end state are we able to establish project scope properly and make effective decisions about how to manage the project. In Project Management class we’re taught to express project success as specific measures that define the project’s goals. These measures are often captured using SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Ach...

An Essential Question

Posted on March 1,March 1, by admin

When directly asked, most Project Managers recognise that the level of success their project teams are likely to achieve is directly correlated to the team’s ability to make effective decisions. If the team can consistently make good decisions, the chances of success are high. If they make a bunch of bad decisions, the chances of success are greatly reduced. Despite the obvious correlation, the role of decision making in the project environment is generally poorly understood. If we can agree ...

The Requirements Excuse

Posted on February 15, by admin

Studies into the failure of IT projects almost always make reference to poor requirements as a leading source of failure. Requirements are of course a vital part of any project. Without knowing what you’re building how can you build something of value? Although I agree that getting the requirements right is a central pillar of project success, I do have a problem in pinning project failure on poor requirements. As those who have run IT projects know, establishing requirements can be a tricky ...

Department of Transport – UK

Posted on December 1,June 6, by admin

Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world. Department for Transport - UK Project name : Shared Services Date : May 2008 Cost :$160M Synopsis : Program to improve efficiency in the UK's Department of Transport ends up costing more than it saves. By sharing hardware and software services across the department the project was intended to save the organization $114M. A May 2008 study the the UK National ...

The Leadership Pendulum

Posted on November 7,October 14, by admin

One of the trends I’ve noticed over the years has been the growing importance of the Project Management role. When I first started work more than 20 years ago, many projects were lead by a Technical Leader rather than a Project Manager. Today most projects have a dedicated Project Manager. The change is likely a reflection of the fact that many past failures could be attributed to poor planning and control. While appointing a dedicated Project Manager has clear benefits, we need to be careful...

Qantas

Posted on November 1,June 6, by admin

The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world. Qantas - Australian airline Project name : Jetsmart Date : Feb 2008 Cost :$40M Synopsis : "Jetsmart" engineering parts management system is renamed "Dumbjet" by aircraft engineers because the system is so difficult to use. Failure to engage the engineers who would be the eventual users of the system into the requirements and design processes resulted in a system t...

Firearms Registry

Posted on October 23,January 29, by admin

Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world. Canadian Federal Government - Canada Project name : Canadian Firearms program Date : Jun 2006 Project Cost :$1,000M CAD Synopsis : In what may be the worst budget overrun in history, the costs to implement a registry of firearms balloons from $2M to $860M. Original plan called for the program to cost $119M of which all but $2M would be covered by license ap...

State of Wisconsin