Clarety Consulting IT strategy and Project Management Solutions 2010-03-02T22:08:13Z Copyright (c) 2010, Kevin Brady ExpressionEngine tag:claretyconsulting.com,2010:03:02 Tory’s want IT Reform tag:claretyconsulting.com,2010:/15.6001 2010-03-02T21:36:12Z 2010-03-02T22:08:13Z Kevin Brady One of the big complaints about the Conservatives in recent weeks has been a growing concern about their lack of policy. I believe this is very much a real issue for the Tories and in some ways I believe they have been unfairly slated. To be fair the other parties are just as bad and aren’t showing their policy cards either. At the moment politics seems to be all about themes and no substance. However, state IT reform is an area where the Conservatives have clearly revealed some excellent Government IT policy intentions.

Today I decided to call Conservative Central Office and see if I could get details of the Conservatives IT policy. I have to say the policy statement I received was clearly drafted by someone with real world knowledge and experience of the problems which have faced government IT procurement in recent years. The policy explained to me was published in their draft document called “Delivering Change” which sets out a draft version of their approach to government IT. This was officially adopted as party policy in December 2009. Fantastic! the policies if implemented are exactly what the IT industry the Project Management profession and the State Deficit need with little downside :-

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]]> The Credo of the Spin Project Manager tag:claretyconsulting.com,2010:/15.5974 2010-02-22T12:21:42Z 2010-02-28T17:24:43Z Kevin Brady I have been reading over the last few weeks a number of blog articles concentrating on the popular question “Why is the Project and Programme Management profession so lacking in professionalism and capability ?”. Well I have to say having been involved in a Project / Programme Management recruitment programme for one of the big 5 for a year I was surprised to find some not so obvious answers to this question.
To start with our interview and selection statistics were as follows:-

About 25% of applicants failed to answer a standard domain knowledge assessment questionnaire and only 5% of those that passed this part of the interview and selection process actually passed the following scenario based interview where they were required to put together a realistic and achievable Project Management Delivery Solution. The scenario interviews were in my view and my colleagues a really eye opener and perhaps explained why so many IT projects fail each year.

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]]> The Best Project Office Books tag:claretyconsulting.com,2010:/15.5954 2010-02-15T16:19:53Z 2010-02-15T17:10:54Z Kevin Brady Last week I had a coffee with an old friend and we got onto the subject of P3O and how important this APMG qualification is currently and how overtime it is only going to become more important as the numbers of organisations setting-up or considering the set-up of Project Office’s, Programme Office’s or Portfolio Office’s (P3O) increases.

The growing problem at the moment is a shortage of experienced PO professionals available for recruitment combined with the lack of a comprehensive best practice book / methodology to make these ambitions a reality. In my view such a book should try to answer the following questions:-

  • How to write a PO business case?
  • How to sell a PO business case?
  • How to design a PO?
  • What are the different PO models together with their Pros and Cons?
  • Are there any PO methodologies.?
  • What are the different PO processes and sub processes?
  • How do you embed PO processes?
  • Strategic issues surrounding PO success and failure?
  • What really world PO cases studies are around to support answers to the above?

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]]> IT Project Failure Rates are set to improve tag:claretyconsulting.com,2010:/15.5917 2010-02-05T13:57:30Z 2010-02-05T14:27:32Z Kevin Brady I just read this morning of a land mark legal case between BSkyB and EDS which is set to change the way IT Projects are run in the future.

The Technology and Construction Court found in favour of BSKYB following the company’s five-year battle with EDS over a failed customer relationship management (CRM) system. The case is the most expensive legal dispute in the history of the IT Industry, costing both sides an estimated £40m each. I have to say with 70% IT Project failure rates (please see CHAOS survey ) it is a surprise we have not seen a case like this earlier. It is extremely rare for an IT supplier to be accused of fraudulent misrepresentation and even rarer for a supplier to be found guilty of it. Make no mistake this is a landmark decision which in my view will give rise to   suppliers reviewing sales techniques (no longer will project managers be a salesman’s flunky), contractual arrangements and what is presented to customers in terms of their capabilities, services and products. Oversell and a supplier’s days could be numbered.

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]]> Barclays Bring IT In-House tag:claretyconsulting.com,2010:/15.5873 2010-01-24T20:14:52Z 2010-01-26T18:22:53Z Kevin Brady I heard recently that Barclays Bank is going to bring its IT Application Development in-house after deciding not to renew its £400m IT Outsourcing Agreement with Accenture.

This means that some 230 staff who moved to Accenture as part of the original outsourcing deal struck in 2004 are now on their way back to Barclays. I understand that the reasons for Barclay’s refusal to renew the contract were “entirely commercial”.  However, it is important to note that this in source decision comes on the back of a strategic review of Barclays and the adoption of the best model to support their strategic needs going forward. This perhaps suggests something wider was taken into consideration when deciding not to continue their IT outsourcing partnership with Accenture.

I have to say IT insourcing seems to be a more common trend these days. Only recently Prudential insourced it’s IT development back from Cap Gemini. However, one thing seems to be a common thread to all these insourcing arrangements is the reasons for doing so are always vague and benign to all involved.

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]]> Government IT Budgets to be squeezed tag:claretyconsulting.com,2010:/15.5848 2010-01-02T23:16:00Z 2010-01-02T23:29:02Z Kevin Brady For those IT professionals and contractors working for the public sector life is going to get tough in the coming months.

The word on the street is that Local Government and Whitehall are going to make cuts in IT of between 10% and 40% in the 2010/11 financial year. It’s not a case of will cuts be made, but how much and when. The problem for any incoming government is that £180 billion borrowing requirement is not sustainable. An incoming government will either make the cuts under its own steam or the International Monetary Fund will make the decisions for them.

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]]> Another Government IT Disaster tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5838 2009-12-26T00:00:21Z 2009-12-26T02:47:23Z Kevin Brady The National Audit Office (NAO) one of the few government departments not under the direct control of Gordon Browns spin machine is investigating another IT disaster, this time at the Student Loans Company.

Apparently the problems at the Loan Company started with the document scanning equipment which set off a chain of events which caused organisational meltdown. Thousands of students did not receive loans, allowances, grants on time. What makes this worse is that the technological problems which triggered this situation have not been corrected an all to familiar story.

So how will the government bury this one?

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]]> CapGemini and Cognizant Top Customer Satisfaction Survey tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5832 2009-12-21T14:14:55Z 2009-12-26T02:50:56Z Kevin Brady I recently picked up a survey by Equaterra (outsource advisors) which looked at the customer satisfaction levels of 160 organisations representing IT outsourcing contracts worth £10bn a year. The results put Capgemini and Cognizant at the top of the charts with 79% of IT decision makers surveyed, saying that they were happy with the services the two companies provided.

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]]> IT spending set to increase tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5801 2009-12-12T23:22:25Z 2009-12-26T02:52:26Z Kevin Brady Most firms in 2010 are predicting an increase in IT expenditure, most of this extra spend is to be focused on virtualisation, e-business and customer relationship management systems.

This prediction was made by a recent Accenture /Economist intelligence Unit survey of 500 executives in the US and Europe. The survey indicates that UK and Ireland are the most optimistic; with 63% of business leaders predicting IT spend increases during 2010.

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]]> IT Job Market Improving tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5775 2009-12-06T18:06:02Z 2009-12-26T02:54:03Z Kevin Brady I read today a post from Information Week  saying that the IT job Market is perhaps on the mend.  The view from the cliff is that there is expected a 3% increase in IT staffing during early 2010, with traditional jobs in networking, security, and application development most in demand.

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]]> Transparency Project Management tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5759 2009-12-01T16:22:05Z 2009-12-26T02:55:06Z Kevin Brady A close blogging buddy Carpefactum recently asked me to participate in a telephone conference call with a number of MBA students in the US. Whilst eating some wonderful apple pie at my local coffee shop I listed the possible questions I thought I might get asked, and formulated my answers to them. Within this list some ‘killer’ questions (often asked by newbie managers) leapt out at me, and right at the top was :-

How do you manage Projects?  > $25 million? hah

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]]> Project Management Success? tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5594 2009-10-18T18:53:41Z 2009-10-22T23:28:42Z Kevin Brady This seems a simple enough question. Surely the answer is:-

Deliver successful projects Stupid!

Well this is not quite true. Most Project /Programme Managers at some point in their career discover, often too late, that the best project /programme managers rarely get the chance to manage projects or programmes set-up for success. It’s the newbie /lightweight Project and Programme managers who usually get to run these kinds of projects and programmes (the successful ones). Sad but true!

I have lost count of how many enthusiastic project /programme managers I have mentored over the years who have suddenly realised the truth. That being successful in Project /Programme Management is not “the joy of giving birth” but being the “best funeral director in town”. Many feel disillusionment and suffer burnout when they realise this awkward home truth.

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]]> Management Attributes of a Good Project Manager? tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5570 2009-10-06T19:52:40Z 2009-10-04T20:01:41Z Kevin Brady It is important to note that in answering this question I am not investigating the leadership attributes of a good Project Manager. Good leadership qualities will be covered in a separate series of articles.
The desired management attributes of a good Project Manager are derived from the four key groups of tasks that a project manager must be able to carry out in order to deliver a project successful.

These are:-

• Planning
• Organisation
• Directing
• Monitoring

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]]> Sales Pitch – Top 10 tips tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5560 2009-09-30T17:11:10Z 2009-10-22T23:37:11Z Kevin Brady It is more and more common these days for Project Managers and Programme Managers to act as salesmen once the initial cost estimation and statement of work has been produced. Increasingly client partners and sales consultants insist on such professionals getting involved in the sales process. Many of the reasons for this are obvious, but some are less so:-

  • Add credibility to the chosen technical /delivery solution offered to the client.
  • Assist the sales professionals in reshaping the technical and delivery solution to meet the more specific and changing needs of the potential client.
  • To make sure the Project /Programme Managers colours are “nailed to the post”. This means that the costings and the delivery solution are firmly recognised as coming from the Project /Programme Management Professional and not the Sales Consultant. This takes the sales professional off the hook should the project or programme not achieve its deliver objectives. Therefore strongly advise “don’t lie to fit in with demanding sales people”. Remember, they will trade commission for your friendship at the drop of a hat. If they didn’t they would not be doing their job properly. You’re the gate keeper, and as a gate keeper professional ethics are very important if you want to keep your job and reduce your stress levels.

So, when taking part in an important Sales Pitch for an IT Project what are my top ten tips :- excaim

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]]> Project Management Ethics tag:claretyconsulting.com,2009:/15.5536 2009-09-20T21:57:25Z 2009-09-20T22:09:26Z Kevin Brady This week a regular follower of PurpleProjects (twitter) asked about the importance of Project & Programme Managers following a code of ethics. The problem with this however, is where to get an appropriate project management code of ethics to follow?

I believe the project management institutes and associations of the world (such as APMG & PMI) should come together to develop a common set of internationally recognised project management ethics. With IT Project Failure more common than success these ethics are really needed at this present time.

In the absence of such a list here are my own thoughts as to what such a list might look like:-

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