When troubleshooting sick IT projects /programmes and departments, I have always tried to introduce into client organisations measures that help foster the development of cultures, values, and associated processes conducive to making successful project delivery a repeatable proposition. It is without doubt the most challenging and difficult aspects of any troubleshoot.
I have become more and more convinced over the years that the following values and behaviours are crucial components of successful project /programme management :-
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Posted by Kevin Brady on Mon 16th October 2006 at 10:29 AM, Filed in Industry News
Yesterday was an interesting day. After a hectic morning and late afternoon shooting at Bisley where I failed to achieve anything close to my average scores at 50 metres, I sat down at my desk to get involved in a telephone conference with 35 MBA Project Management students from Drake University. The invite to participate in this conference came from my good blogging buddy Timothy Johnson who regularly teaches Project Management to this enthusiastic bunch of young professionals.
Drake University
Whilst presenting and answering questions, I could not expunge from my mind the thought that the IT project management profession is in a lot of trouble.
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With annual IT Project Failure Rates running at 70% + it is clear that improvements in the professionalism of IT project staff and management should be a part of the solution.
In my post Can Government Policy Reduce IT Project Failure Rates Part 2, I described how the government could assist in making this disgraceful state of affairs a thing of the past. One of these was to make it a legal requirement for certain key IT Professionals to have Chartered Qualifications before being allowed to work on IT Projects /Programmes of work above a certain budgetary value.
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When I think about this subject, the first thing which comes to mind is a saying coined by my partner:-
“If the sex in a relationship is good then it feels like 30% of what is needed to make a good relationship”
“If the sex in a relationship is bad then it feels like 70% of what is needed to make a relationship good”
It might seem strange mixing up sex with Project Management philosophy 
but it is clear to me that if you have happy motivated & skilful staff it feels like they are only 30% of what is needed to make an IT project successful. If your staff are poorly motivated and unhappy then it feels that they are 70% of what needs to be corrected to make an IT project successful.
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Posted by Kevin Brady on Sun 1st October 2006 at 11:17 PM, Filed in Industry News
I was recently looking over Scott Berkin’s Blog when I came across a statement made by one of the project managers working on Microsoft Vista:-
“After months of hearing of how a certain influential team in Windows was going to cause the Vista release to slip, I, full of abstract self-righteous misgivings as a stockholder, had at last the chance to speak with two of the team’s key managers, asking them how they could be so, please-excuse-the-term, I-don’t-mean-its-value-laden-connotation, ignorant as to proper estimation of software schedules.”
Apparently they told their VP that Vista was going to slip big time. “And he, possibly influenced by one too many instances where engineering re-routes power to the warp core, thus completing the heretofore impossible six-hour task in a mere three, summarily sent the managers back to figure out how to make it work.” “The managers re-estimated, nipped and tucked, liposuctioned, did everything short of a lobotomy — and still did not have a schedule that fit.”
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