Quite recently, I had dinner with a couple who have been friends of my family for many years. Unfortunately we got onto a subject I am very passionate about which is IT Project Management. The topic was, “Can the government put together legislation necessary to eradicate the Wild West that is the IT industry?” My own partner Jackie and her friend Jeanett (a consultant with LOGICA) were convinced that the problems, behind the annual 70% IT project failure rate were “totally beyond the control of the government”.
Please Do Something Stupid!!
I pointed out during a challenging exchange that the only reason why the building and engineering industries had 95% + project success rates is because of strong regulation /legislation backed up by local government inspection and enforced professionalism i.e. need for chartered qualifications for architects, surveyors and engineers etc.
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Click this to download a FREE PRINCE 2 Product Description Template. This template is an example Product Description for a Project Initiation Document (PID).
The question I often get asked by IT Professionals some of whom are surprisingly PRINCE 2 accredited, is:-
What is a PRINCE 2 Product Description?To answer this question we need firstly to define what PRINCE 2 means by the term “Product”:-
Typically, a product is a self-contained project deliverable, which is either a document or a system (hardware/software)or component thereof.
The product description is, therefore, a description of a product intended to be produced and developed or obtained – even before it is planned – to ensure that the people involved in its production know:
• Why it is needed
• What it will look like
• From what sources it will be derived
• The Quality specification to which it must be built.
The Product Description is a control document. It is written as part of the planning process. It defines the deliverable, the standards to be used in its creation, and the quality criteria to be applied to ensure it is fit for purpose. Not only is this information essential for the Author, but the Product Description also forms the initial checklist for checking the quality of the finished product.
Extract from Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE 2 (CCTA)
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Posted by Kevin Brady on Tue 1st August 2006 at 06:18 PM, Filed in
Unless you do something very special, developing large scale IT systems is not, as they say in the stock market, “an investment suitable for wives or widows”.
Sad but true !
Given the failure rates and high costs of large scale IT projects I struggle to comprehend the following:-
• Why is national IT expenditure increasing year on year?
• Why has the UK Government increased its IT expenditure almost logarithmically over the past 10 years?
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Most project managers are aware of UML, even if they haven’t used it themselves.
However, having worked as a Business Analyst on a number of ‘UML projects’ I believe that many Project Managers don’t really know how to use UML requirements gathering techniques to maximise the chances of a successful project.
I am going to try to help you understand some of the pitfalls and issues that are all too often encountered when setting up a UML based IT project.
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AGILE, as mentioned in previous articles “AGILE Enough is Enough”, “AGILE Will Burn Your Arse”, is pure “Farty Floops” (a phrase coined by a good friend of mine ) as a fit for purpose approach to delivering large scale IT projects /programmes of work.
In the beginning, the scalability of AGILE methods was even questioned by some of the AGILE founding fathers and leading authors in this field.
Then the fees gravy train came and changed everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The stratospheric popularity of the AGILE has kicked these concerns /potential weaknesses quietly under the carpet, where I fear they will stay until more money is lost on failed large scale IT projects /programmes of work.
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