June 2008 - Keeping IT Projects On Track

Proper Planning & Communication Can Help Sidestep Project Snags

Delays and cost overruns are common for IT projects, forcing them off course or ending them entirely. So, how can data center leaders launch projects that are destined for success?

While no one thing gets an IT project off the ground, keeps it on course, and brings it to maturity before it runs out of fuel, implementing the proper mix of steps, such as getting everyone onboard, addressing common issues before the project starts, and protecting against project-spoiling pitfalls, can bring a project closer to completion.

Proper Planning & Communication Can Help Sidestep Project Snags
Delays and cost overruns are common for IT projects, forcing them off course or ending them entirely. So, how can data center leaders launch projects that are destined for success?

While no one thing gets an IT project off the ground, keeps it on course, and brings it to maturity before it runs out of fuel, implementing the proper mix of steps, such as getting everyone onboard, addressing common issues before the project starts, and protecting against project-spoiling pitfalls, can bring a project closer to completion.

Get Everyone Involved

One way to pull projects to completion is to tie them closely to the company’s business objectives, according to Thomas Christel, vice president of marketing for Yooplus (www.yooplus.it), an enterprise 2.0 collaborative and sharing technology startup. “There has to be a direct link between your project and one or more of these priority objectives,” Christel says.

To ensure that an SME ties IT projects to business, the SME should let the business side express a need and then meet it with an IT project that is tailored to that need, according to John J. Thompson, managing partner with the Sonland Company. Also, make sure you communicate the benefit of the IT project in terms business can understand, explains Daniel Tautges, president of operations for the express business unit at Global DataCenter Management (760/632-1043; www.gdcm.com).

From there, get all the stakeholders to sign a project charter. “The project charter is your cornerstone document,” says Christel; the project team creates all other documents based on this document. A good project charter lays out the scope, available resources, people’s responsibilities, the project timeline, and constraints you must adhere to, according to Thompson.

To help you create an effective charter, first define the target of the project and then work back from there, according to Tautges. “Filter down from the original goal to individual objectives and assign those out to people. By working backwards, you can define resources up front for the life of the project.”

Christel recommends using a flat project team approach throughout the project, a management style that engages resources from all functions across the organization to stimulate idea generation and cross-functional project support.

With this approach, someone from every business unit affected sits on the team and funnels information in and out between IT and the business, explains Thompson. This way, the business has input from each unit that has requirements and can apply checks and balances against project errors.

Keep Communication Lines Open

Project transparency gives the team a complete view of the whole project. One way to provide transparency is by using workflows and workflow tools that let business process owners see how each part of the project is progressing, suggests Tautges.

Transparency is possible through a common project workspace, such as a shared hard drive where people contribute their work and examine the progress of other project components. SMEs can aid transparency with tools as simple as a newsletter that reports updates about the project.

Another way to make sure everyone is happy with the results as you drive the project on is to get end users involved. Have end users create an “as is” model that demonstrates how they accomplish the business process today and then fashion a “to be” model that shows what they want the process to be as a result of the project. “The business will prioritize and [assign] weight [to] the resulting project requirements, and IT will prepare the design from those requirements,” says Thompson.

Another good way to support project success is to have upper-management buy-in and support from the beginning and throughout the project, according to Christel, who explains that someone specific from the executive team who champions your project as a cause will help see it to completion.

“The absence of senior management awareness of the project is a bad sign,” says Thompson. Adds Tautges, to keep executives engaged, it’s good to have a system of reporting to regularly update management about project progress in specific areas.

Avoid Project Creep

Scope creep, also called project creep, is a typical pitfall of IT projects. “This is when your project tends to get bigger over time,” says Christel. Scope creep happens because the enterprise hasn’t defined project requirements or design clearly enough. To avoid scope creep, finalize the business and technical requirements and have senior management, end users, IT, and the project team sign off on them.

To recognize scope creep as it happens, the enterprise has to have enough metrics in the project plan to see whether they are achieving goals within the scope and on budget, says Thompson. In addition, Tautges explains that to avoid project creep, the project team should focus on project objectives and avoid anything that falls outside those objectives.

Related to scope creep are cost overruns. To avoid them, the business should do adequate needs assessment and impact analysis in the early stages of the project, according to Thompson. Needs assessment, he explains, will help the SME determine whether it needs the project to accomplish its goals. Impact analysis determines whether the project will achieve the desired business results. It’s a sort of counting of the cost before you begin.

Other Project Pitfalls

IT staff shortages can also do damage to project progress. Internal staff may have daily operational responsibilities to tend to in addition to project duties, according to Thompson, and there may be an issue prioritizing duties to get everything done. Where prioritization isn't the issue, the enterprise can look to temporary contractors to offset the shortage for a few months.

Another pitfall is a lack of project communication and documentation. “As in anything, communication is key. Virtual and face-to-face meetings (both private and public), memos, presentations, emails, phone calls, and even the project charter are examples,” says Christel.

Equally, SMEs should document everything in meeting notes and other records. “A project blog is a perfect day-to-day record of your trip to project success. A wiki captures and updates project information as the project matures,” Christel says, adding that project documentation helps to capture use of best practices and any lessons learned.

Finally, a lack of focus on motivation can hurt projects. If the enterprise is going to ask team members to give more, such as showing up on a Saturday or staying late for application testing, they should be offered rewards and incentives such as individual recognition in meetings or team outings for dinner or sports events

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