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Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management

Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management. Nick Durrant Managing Director. Objectives. Message: Project Management is key to developing a positive brand and a growing business. Actions : How to set up a scaleable framework to enable excellent Project Management.

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Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management

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  1. Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management Nick DurrantManaging Director

  2. Objectives Message: Project Management is key to developing a positive brand and a growing business Actions: How to set up a scaleable framework to enable excellent Project Management

  3. Agenda Session 1: • Requirements for growing an IT business • How PMs can facilitate growth • The PM as part of the sales team Session 2: • Why does IT fail? • A simple project management framework • Action list for growing IT organisations

  4. Commercial Character

  5. Organic Acquisition To grow an IT business Eventually you have to DO the business

  6. To grow an IT business IT is a skills business Methods of working or processes: • Scalable • Clear • Easy to access • Pragmatic processes

  7. IT Software and Services Business Cycle

  8. PM is a vital part of the team

  9. To grow an IT business Define Market Sell Deliver Support Manage Examples, case studies, presentations Part of Sales team, trusted advisor Solid delivery – what, why, when, how, who? Provide input to continuous improvement Provide accurate revenue forecasts

  10. PM as part of the Sales team

  11. The customer

  12. Trust Understanding Respect Win / win Adding value Problem solving Partnership Collaborative Professional Pull not push Cooperative

  13. Selling styles

  14. Team selling

  15. Initial Idea Selection Investigation Buying cycle Tender Feasibility Decision to buy

  16. Positive +50 Happy to buy time -50 Negative Buyer perception model

  17. Letters Sales presentations Project meetings Technical papers Invoices Reference visits Proposal documents Appointments Joint planning session Telephone calls Project meetings Reception Moments of truth

  18. Buyer perception model Positive Decision to buy Positive and helpful workshop to develop detailed requirements Satisfactory quotation arrives Positive word of mouth referral from trusted colleague Happy to buy Promised quotation late arriving Chase up call well handled time Good initial meeting Showed understanding and relevant experience Never heard of you Negative

  19. Summary 1 Good Project Managers are critical to a growing company… But in more ways than most people think… • Embrace your PMs • Intermingle with the Sales team • Acknowledge that some of their time should be “off-charge” for selling • Teach them to communicate in customer’s language • Invest in presentation skills • Invest in consultative and team selling skills

  20. Contact to ContRact …improving performance Q & A ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

  21. Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management Nick DurrantManaging Director

  22. Agenda Session 1: • Requirements for growing an IT business • How PMs can facilitate growth • The PM as part of the sales team Session 2: • Why does IT fail? • A simple project management framework • Action list for growing IT organisations

  23. Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-8 Why do IT projects fail?

  24. What is a successful project? A project which: • is on time • is on budget • is in accordance with the specification • has a happy customer “In this sense only 2% of IT projects ever succeed!” Beam, 1994

  25. What is a failed project? A project: • abandoned before complete • is fully developed but never used • is substantially downscaled until it no longer provides the planned benefits

  26. IT project disasters “It is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” Bill Gates “It is OK to make a mistake…it is stupid not to learn from it.” Nick Durrant

  27. $500M ++ IT project disasters London Ambulance Service: CAD Wessex Regional Information Systems plan Performing Right Society: PROMS American Airlines: CONFIRM London Stock Exchange: Taurus DoE: Field system project …and many more

  28. London Ambulance Service Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) • Computerised map system • Vehicle location tracking • Auto update of resource availability • Auto identification of duplicate calls • Automatic ambulance mobilisation

  29. London Ambulance Service Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) - £10M On implementation 26 Oct 1992: • System “lost” ambulances • Ambulances dispatched non-optimally • Multiple ambulances assigned to the same calls • Led to large number of exception messages which swamped the system Report of the enquiry into the London Ambulance Service South West Thames Regional Health Authority

  30. London Ambulance Service System descended into chaos: • Public repeated emergency calls • “Stroke” call answered after 11 hours (5 hours after made own way to hospital) • Patient dead and body already taken by undertakers!

  31. Inquiry report – Project Management Overall approach: • Contracts signed late • Supplier did not regard themselves as Project Managers • Role of overall project management ambiguous Team: • PRINCE was chosen but LAS and suppliers had no experience of applying it • Constitution of the team changed from requirements to develop/implement

  32. Inquiry report – Project Management Progress and reporting: • Project meeting concerns minuted but not followed up • Supplier regularly late with software deliverables • Up to mid Dec 1991 still “hoped” for 8 Jan 92 full implementation. (CAD incomplete and largely untested) • New Systems Manager reviewed project in Nov and recommended implementation date should not change (to keep pressure on supplier) • Key supplier did not keep management fully informed of progress

  33. Inquiry report – Project Management Change control: • To please Users software changes put through “on the fly” Quality control: • No independent QA resource • Evidence of poor hardware installation

  34. Inquiry report – Project Management Lack of professional independent project management which would have: • Resolved supplier disputes quickly • Identified over-optimistic progress reports • Reviewed detail behind “cosy assurances”

  35. Other IT disasters LSE Taurus - £75M • Design by committee • Receding deadlines • Management over-confidence • American Airlines Confirm -£140M • Partners looking for different benefits • Tendency for cover up (only give good news) • Poor technical architecture

  36. Other IT disasters Wessex RISP - £43M • No clear definition of scope • Technology led project • No overall project plan developed • DoE Field System - £48M • Structural change: DoE Field offices - TECs • No end-user involvement • No Change Control Management and prioritisation

  37. IT disasters - summary • Unclear scope and definitions • Lack of clear project planning • Over-confidence in reporting • Lack of change control management This is not complex… …these are the basics!

  38. The fundamentals of IT Project Management

  39. Want to take off?

  40. Request and receive permission from tower Take off Customer Ticket Purchase Issue ticket Taxi to runway Air readiness checklist complete Allocate seat Board aircraft Prepare passengers for take-off Safety announcement complete Check all passengers embarked The process These are Gateways! Check in Prepare aircraft for take-off

  41. Framework aims Aim for happy customers • A PM approach is here to help • A PM approach should provide a framework for • consistency • efficiency • learning • PM approaches need to evolve

  42. The right balance • Pragmatic • Realistic • Useful • Consistent • Controlled • Scalable X X Bureaucratic Seat of the pants Based on appropriate best practice

  43. The PM fundamentals Marketing and Sales process Prospecting Qualification Campaign planning Pre-project management Project planning Project definition Project planning Project management Project initiation Project completion Monitoring control and reporting Project finish Project start Service delivery Structured methods Prototypes

  44. Gateways Points of control Mandatory for all projects Require appropriate review

  45. Planning - Reviewing risks: “The management of an information systems project risk is often a highly intuitive art.” Turner, 1993 “If you look at a thing 999 times you are perfectly safe; if you look at it again, you are in danger of seeing it for the first time.” Chesterton, 1968

  46. Project definition Project planning Planning Gateway Competing projects Quality Project Initiation Project Completion Inaccurate estimates Functionality Timescale Resource availability Unforeseen issues Costs Monitoring, control & reporting Project M C & report The Project

  47. Project definition Project planning Planning Gateway Project Initiation Project M C & report Project completion • Customer • deliver the deliverables • customer acceptance • initiate feedback • Team • feedback • skills update • team review Project Completion • Internal management • housekeeping tasks • brief the sales team • initiate process improvement • Finish gateway

  48. Key points • Whenever you first hear of a project… • Define it • Plan it • All projects should be reviewed • Planning • Start • Finish • Use change control

  49. Actions for growing IT organisations

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