My Major Project Conundrum

There are many reasons that projects fail including poor collaboration between users and IT, inflexible or slow processes, lack of integration with new and existing technologies, and lack of properly skilled teams. Our latest installment of All Things Digital details these and other project management problems plus learned advice on how to achieve project management success.

We’ve seen projects fail when:

• There is no business owner, and/or
• There is weak project leadership

Business ownership of the project is required to align authority and responsibility. The business owner, working with IT, has the responsibility to ensure the success of the project by controlling scope creep, demanding qualified resources, and providing funding. She has the authority to control these external elements, not IT.

Second, we often find projects led by people without the training, skills, and experience necessary for success. Too frequently we find a weak administrator at the helm and not a project manager with experience in planning, executing, monitoring and controlling projects, plus:

• Has the depth of knowledge to manage across disciplines and across organizations
• Understands enterprise architecture, technical infrastructure and environment
• Can manage the staffing of projects
• Has excellent leadership and communication skills
• Has the respect of the staff
• Has stature and management-presence with the ability to successfully lead cross-organizational groups

An external Project Assessment can be helpful whether you are in the middle of a troubled project or just at the beginning. We’ve assessed, managed, and turned around hundreds of complex projects. Please let us know if we can be of assistance.