Justifying Technology Investments: Running a Project for Success | Part 4 of 5

12/20/2011 Guest Contributor: Richard D. Janezic, TBG Security, VP Sales, Marketing & Business Development

In part 1 of this series, we discussed the mindset of senior executives for evaluating and approving requests for capital expenditures.  In part 2, we looked at the business case as a document to communicate and justify the need and value of change and in part 3, I spoke to the effects of the investment on the organization.

In part 4, we will discuss challenges and strategies for running and leading a successful project. 

Part 4: Running a Project for Success

Your business case made performance promises to your executive team and it is those promises that they purchased:  improved levels of operational and financial performance.  It is now your responsibility to assure this promise is delivered.

Undoubtedly, you will run into challenges.  Each year, there are reports of the frequency and costs of IT and IT related projects that fail.  While the risks of investments not performing as expected are a business reality, higher levels of scrutiny, inspection and analysis are applied when business cycles are flat or weak (as we are now experiencing).  Furthermore, elements including news articles of IT failures and publications such as “IT Doesn’t Matter” by Nicholas Carr, add to executive concern and skepticism.  Moreover, change is difficult.  Many IT projects are quite complicated, requiring care and quality in planning, expertise and business and technical integration.  What strategies can you use to avoid failure and ensure success?

While each project, team and situation is unique, there are common themes and actions that can help. 

Three Themes of Failure

An obvious strategy in success is to avoid failure.  When people refer to project failure, what are they actually describing?  Your business case made three important promises: benefits, time and cost.  A missed expectation in any of these can be considered a failure that affects the entire project.  Missed expectations can include:

- not delivering the promised improvements in performance.

- not meeting the time or delivery date commitments .

- not meeting the cost commitments made in your business case.

Your objective to achieve project success will be to assure that you meet or exceed these three promises.

Strategies for Success

Every project is unique, so your strategy for leading and managing a successful project should begin with a realistic, fact-based inventory and assessment of your objectives, assets and risks.  The following are elements and strategies to consider as you develop and manage your plan for success:

- It’s About the Business, Not the Technology  Aside from your technical team, most executives are less concerned with your technology choices, and more concerned about how well your choices support the business.  A technical success without a business success can be considered a project failure.  Make sure that your project and your team are focused on the correct objectives – making the business better.

- Right Recipe  Project methodology is a “recipe” for achieving a desired, successful outcome.  Most popular methodologies can be successful, but the choice of method has no inherent magic.  As you make your choice of method, consider your team’s ability and readiness to follow it, its fitness for your particular project, your ability to use it successfully and how well it addresses the necessary risks and requirements.

- Communication  Effective communication with your project team and executive project sponsors is a crucial strategy for any project; particularly for high cost and/or high risk projects.  When the news is bad, communicate it quickly and develop a prompt “get-well plan” to resolve it.  When the news is good, celebrate it and use the success to keep the team focused and back to work.

- Team  Carefully select your team members based on capability, communication skills, commitment and chemistry.  A failure in any of these elements can put your project at peril quickly yet quietly.  You must be highly aware and well engaged to understand if and when there is a problem and also be ready and willing to act if and when change is necessary.

- Vendor Support  If vendors (hardware, software and/or services) are part of your project, assure they are as committed to success as you and your organization.  They are, by extension, members of your team and should be held to the same expectations of capability, communication skills, commitment and chemistry.  Review the vendors before you select them and hold them accountable after you have them as a member of your delivery team.

- Get (and keep) the Business on Your Team  As mentioned earlier, projects are approved and delivered because they help the business perform better.  Select members of the business as part of your project team to ensure that your strategies, actions and “in-flight” results are in sync with the needs and intentions of the business.  This can help assure that your results will be effectively socialized and supported outside of the project team to sponsors and senior executives.

- Get It Right Before You Get It Great  As professionals, we have pride in our work, and want to do the best job possible.  It’s important your team understands that cost, performance and meeting the commitments on time are paramount and must be achieved before spending precious time improving.  Meeting objectives can give your team the necessary “air cover” for additional time, resources or capital to make desirable project improvements.

Part 5

In the final segment of this 5-part series, we’ll examine all of the elements together and consider the various interactions to help you not just develop a winning business case, but deliver a project that matches what you promised to your executive team.

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Richard Janezic is VP Sales, Marketing and Business Development for Boston-based TBG Security. Rick has worked with and for organizations from startup stage to Fortune® 500 enterprises, and has held senior leadership roles in general management, sales, marketing and technology. His focus is on helping organizations improve competitiveness through business and technology change and transformation. You can follow his 5-part blog series “Justifying Technology Investments” here.  Rick is also on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.