After a break spending sometime on designing an upgrade to the current Clarety site (to be released towards the end of this year) I am now back doing what I enjoy and that is writing for Clarety.
A lot has happened in the world since my last post. The credit crunch now looks more like a depression than a recession with few solutions other than a battening down of hatches and riding out the coming storm of rising unemployment and corporate failures.
Despite this backdrop I feel the changes in the world economy will have a positive effect on the world of Project and Programme Management. This I believe will take place through changes in people’s attitudes as they deal with its consequences.
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It’s a Disaster
A good starting point for answering this question is the CHAOS (US) survey compiled by the Standish group, where it was noted from a significant sample set, that 70% to 91% of IT projects /programmes of work were judged as failures each year, with 40% of these cancelled prior to delivery.
Obviously, a project cancelled prior to delivery is surely in anyone’s books a failure. The criteria used to judge the rest as failures were based on whether the projects delivered systems which materially fell short in terms of required functionality, or significantly overshot targeted Time, Quality and Cost coordinates. In a previous post entitled – “Truth about IT Project Failure - How Big is the Problem” I cover this subject in more detail for those interested.
So what is IT Project /Programme Failure Costing The Nation ?
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Some weeks ago I published a post entitled - Management Consultants Friends or Foe where I reported on an article I had read in the Daily Mail. In it Dr Paul Miller, leader of Britain’s hospitital doctors (Chairman of the British Medical Association Consultants Committee), mocked Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt’s recent boast that the HNS has had its best year ever. “How deluded can one get?”
The core of the article was the fact that the NHS was spending some £1 billion on Management Consultants last year, and the NHS was getting precious little for this money in terms of efficiency savings /fully functioning IT systems.
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Further too “Can Government Policy Reduce IT Project Failure Rates? PART 1” it is clear that the UK Government needs to transplant US legislation to the UK with specific legislative adjustments in order to ensure that both the government and non-government sectors are treated equally i.e
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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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