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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To learn more\u00a0read the following article – “What makes managing a technology projects so hard to do?”<\/a> or read the abstract below…<\/p>\n Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n Technology projects are amongst the most challenging of projects.\u00a0\u00a0Studies<\/a>\u00a0shown that\u00a0as many as 50% of projects encounter\u00a0serious issues that result in schedule delay, budget overruns, quality problems and at times, project cancellation (see the “Catalogue of Catastrophe”<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0examples).\u00a0 Understanding\u00a0the reasons behind these failures is an urgent priority for those who seek to avoid similar problems in the future.<\/p>\n Although projects are all unique and there are many reasons\u00a0why projects fail, a large part of the problem\u00a0stems from the way we think about projects.\u00a0\u00a0When we think of a project we typically see it as a set of interrelated tasks (as per\u00a0the task oriented view captured in a\u00a0Gantt chart).\u00a0 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\u00a0decision making activity.<\/p>\n All work carried out during a project can be considered as falling into one of four categories;<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Technology projects fall into the class of projects that are decision centric.\u00a0 Rather than being “physical tasks”, the majority of what we refer to as “tasks” in a technology project are in fact decision making activities.<\/p>\n Wherever decision making is\u00a0the core activity a number of challenges immediately arise.\u00a0\u00a0From the perspective of a technology project there are\u00a0six great challenges;<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 The “Why Technology Projects Fail”<\/a>\u00a0workshop looks at the many ways in which\u00a0organizations and projects fail to overcome these challenges and gives participants the deeper levels of insight\u00a0needed to succeed.<\/p>\n
\nThe four constituents of project work<\/h3>\n
\n
The six great challenges<\/h3>\n
\n