4. but IT (sometimes)
Customers want IT that ... supplies IT that . . .
enables their business constrains their business
saves time and money adds time and money
is always working is unreliable
is totally secure is insecure
is flexible and scaleable is inflexible & unscaleable
is easy to use is legacy and clunky
is cheap to implement is tricky to use
is delivered quickly is expensive to implement
is modern and sexy is delivered late
lasts for a while soon needs replacing
is implemented by helpful is implemented by grumpy
IT people who fully highly-paid IT people who
understand their business don’t understand their
business
6. IT Projects - School Report
• Harvard Business Review 2011, 1471 IT projects
o Cost overrun - 27%
o 1 in 6 is a "black swan"
Cost overrun - 200%, time 70%
• Standish Group
o Average overrun - cost 40%, time 80%
• Panorama Consulting - 2,000 projects / 61
countries, 2006-2012
o ERP Projects - 61% late
• BCS "only 1 in 8 IT projects can be considered truly
successful" - ie delivered to cost, time and quality.
8. The Malevolent 7
Poor / over optimistic planning
Inflated scope
Inadequate resources
Poor quality design/build
Hostile legacy environment
Unidentified risks
Weak project management
Left to their own devices, all projects will go wrong
and deliver late….
9. Helpful things we do
when projects go wrong
Get closer to the detail
Critique the MSP Plan
Ask for more reporting / RAGs
Add new progress meetings
Tighter control and process
Solve issues ourselves
Add more management
Bring in the consultants
Enforce overtime & tell them to work harder
Implement bonuses / penalties
Sack the vendor
Change the PM
Shout and intimidate
Demand more / increase the pressure
Take over ourselves . . .
. . . and save the world
10. Plan B
Ask not what
your team
can do
for you
Ask what
you can do
for your
team
11. Setting ourselves up for success
Create the conditions for success
More Leadership
Less Management
12. We Manage
We Lead
• Authority & Control • Influence & Negotiation
By
• Directing • Consulting
• Precision • Vision
Focussing On
• Risk avoidance • Risk vs Opportunity
• Consistency • Flexibility
• Short-term • Longer-term
• Formality • Informality
Using
• Our own experience & knowledge • Our team’s experience &
knowledge
Providing all of the . . • Answers • Questions
TASKS AND PROCESS PEOPLE & STRATEGY
13. The dimensions of success . . .
Quality
Time Cost
How do we create the conditions for success?
Scope
14. Squeeze out the scope
With the Business
Flush out real
business value
Challenge woolly With Your Team
business cases
Keep IT simple
Challenge Function
functional thinking Technology
Do the MUST Deliver in chunks
haves
15. Tell the Truth about the Timescales
Confidence
Variability in estimate
FS /
BRD / LLD
HLD Cone of
Initiati
on Uncertainty
Time
Conception
16. Lets Play . . .
Deadlines, Targets, Plans and Promises
Customer
PLAN REALITY > FAILURE
False Deadline
IT PLAN REALITY > FAILURE
Unrealistic Target
PLAN = SUCCESS PLAN = SUCCESS
Achievable Plan
Promises we Keep
17. Right Resourcing
Do - portfolio resource planning
Don’t - spread people across projects
Don’t - start without the right
resources.
18. Assemble into a team
Enabled
Squeeze scope
Truthful
timescales
Right resources
Now we need to
glue together a
team
19. High Performing Teams
Engagement / People
LOW HIGH
Enablement / Task
DETACHED MOST EFFECTIVE
HIGH PERFORMING
HIGH
5% 49%
(n 50%
= 744)
Specsavers 2010 = 46%
Hay Group norm = 46%
LEAST EFFECTIVE
WALKING DEAD FRUSTRATED
LOW
21%
20% 25%
(n = 313)
Specsavers 2010 = 23%
Hay Group norm = 27%
20. What can we Promise our team?
Enablement Engagement
Resources Calm
Scope Clarity
Timelines Honesty
Protection Trust
Support
Communication
Protection
21. Provide Protection
Be a Buffer for the Pressure – not a cause of it.
Performance
Pressure
23. We get what we give . . .
Fear (of you) Confidence
Pressure Support
Mistakes Pride
Cover-ups Honesty
Blame Trust
Failure Success
Disappointment Praise
24. Failure due to poor
leadership Promises we Keep
Success
Failure due to poor
management
Hinweis der Redaktion
And this is what we doIs this really the answer?
JFK – and he got a man on the moon. Explain diagrams.
Two things we do –we employ managers to manage – we should focus on leadership.Always answer a question with a question?
Our Favourite Tetrahedron. Quality is a given for me – and cheap (includes reliability, security, support, easy to use etc). Cost will be driven scope and timescales. So focus on SCOPE and TIME
Critical to coming up with an achievable plan. We blame the customer, but IT can be our own worse enemy – knobs and whistles, wanting features and perfect solutions.
Don’t confuse a target with a deadline – there rarely is a fixed deadline – flush this outDon’t confuse a target with a plan. Targets are fine so long as they stay as targets. Make this clear in the languageDon’t confuse a Plan with a promise.Only Promise what you can deliver, deliver it, say you have delivered.Oh – and ensure the start date is the REAL start dateWIN WIN
Resources – the main reason projects fail. Some rules here. Portfolio Planning AHEAD
Explain
Creating the conditions for success. Calm (confidence), Clarity (clear goal and purpose – see the bigger picture) Honesty (breeds honesty), Trust (delegate and demonstrate), Support (brig in the pizzas, fix the issues, defend them), Communication (be accessible)