Project Management - Failing to Perform
The Standish Group is a world-leading research consultancy company specialising
in project and value performance with particular interest in cost, risk, return
and value for ICT investments. Beginning in 1994, the researchers have published
their annual CHAOS report that looks how well ICT projects are managed. The aim
of the research is to inform IT and business managers on ways of improving success
rates and increase the value of IT investments.
The Standish Group defines challenged projects as being late, over budget and or
with less than the full features, functions or benefits. Failed projects are
defined as cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used.
The latest survey results were published in April 2009 and showed a continuation
of the dismal history of project failure. In the 15 years since the survey began,
the level of successful projects has only risen from a base of 16% of projects
started to only 32% in the year to April 2009. That means that two-thirds of all
projects started failed to complete on time, to budget or deliver all the benefits. Almost as bad is the fact that almost half of all projects that started were
completed over budget, late or with reduced benefits. And all this in spite of
better project management expertise, better training and better tools.
One of the reasons why there appears to have been little improvement over the
fifteen years is that IT projects have become much more complex and IT environments
much larger. Similarly, the time available for IT project to be completed has
shortened as the pace of business change has increased.
In our experience, IT
managers and project managers will argue that the unexpected will always jeopardise
such as changes in technology, changes in business circumstances or loss of key
members of staff. However, good project managers should have thought about the
unexpected and have worked up scenarios to deal with the issues. We also believe
that, if external circumstances are likely to change quickly the internal rate of
return for projects must be sufficiently high to match the high risk of failure.
It is essential that Project Sponsors and the senior management team clearly
understand the risk and rewards profile of projects that they are asked to approve.
The Project Proposal document is key to communicating this information to Project
Sponsor and/or Board of Directors for approval.
If you would like more information on how to improve project success rates,
please contact Sandy Pratt.
You can contact him by email at
Sandy.Pratt@4-consulting.com
and you can click here to view his profile.
