Project Should Have Clear Goals, Strong Management and Timeline
Executive Roundtable is a weekly column by TEC Worldwide, an international organization of more than 7,000 business owners, company presidents and chief executives. TEC members meet in small peer groups to share their business experiences and help each other solve problems in a round-table session. The following question and answer is a summary of discussions at a recent TEC meeting in Southern California.
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Question: I run a $20-million professional services firm that recently undertook a major information technology project. Thanks to constant changes--on our part as well as the software vendor’s--we’ve gone way over budget and missed deadline after deadline.
After six months and nearly half a million dollars, there’s still no light at the end of the tunnel.
My employees are frustrated, the project team has lost all credibility and I’m at wit’s end. Should I pull the plug and start over or forge ahead and try to salvage what I can from the situation?
Answer: Keep repeating to yourself, “Technology makes our lives easier, technology makes our lives easier.” Then take a deep breath, step back and try to figure out what went wrong.
The first step, said Suzanne Frindt, a principal in the consulting firm of 2130 Partners in Villa Park, involves determining the cause of the delays.
Do you have clearly defined goals for the project? If so, have you clearly communicated those goals to your vendor?
Equally important, does your vendor have the experience and expertise to deliver the goods and help you achieve your goals?
If you can’t answer yes to these questions, you’re doomed from the start.
Next, look at your project management process. Do you have one person in charge of the project or are you attempting to manage by committee?
Too many cooks in the kitchen will ruin any chances for success. If it’s one person, does this manager have any experience handling IT projects or are they learning on the job?
More important, does this person have enough time to commit to the project or is he or she attempting to squeeze it onto an already full plate?
Managing a large IT project requires a major investment of time and energy. When nobody pays attention to the big picture, things can easily get out of control.
Do you have a series of timelines and deadlines to measure progress on the project?
Are you sticking with the original plan or constantly trying to add new bells and whistles?
Finally, how many people have access to the software vendor and permission to approve changes?
Nothing slows down an IT project like having half a dozen people running to the vendor with new changes and work orders every day.
Once you have pinpointed the causes of the delays, said Mark Van Ness, Chief Executive of Sperry Van Ness in Irvine, then you can decide whether to move forward or scrap the project altogether.
“Go back to your original plan,” he said, “and ask the following questions: Why did we set out down this path in the first place? What did we hope to accomplish? Does our initial plan solve the problem we originally wanted to solve? Can we still accomplish those goals with this vendor?
“If your answer is yes, get very clear agreement from your staff and the vendor that you will complete the project according to plan.
“Break the project down into specific phases and set mandatory deadlines to accomplish each phase. Get a firm commitment from the vendor on how long each phase will take and how much it will cost.
“Make sure only one person--preferably the project manager--has access to the vendor, and have that person sign off on every phase,” he said.
“Most important, set the expectation that once you complete the project, everyone will have to live with the new system a while before you start tinkering with it again. Otherwise, it will never end.”
When should you pull the plug? When things get so out of hand that it becomes impossible to accomplish your original goals, or when the amount of time and money required to complete the project endangers other strategic priorities, or if both occur, said Jim Muse, CEO of Muse Presentation Technologies in Santa Ana.
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If there is a business issue you would like addressed in this column, contact TEC at (800) 274-2367, ext. 3177. To learn more about TEC, visit www.teconline.com.
