The Imperative for complex IT projects

We see an increasing number of IT projects that aren’t delivering the intended result. Why? Business has become more complex and especially volatile in recent years. As a result, the requirements are changing more rapidly during the execution of projects, so a lean and agile approach is getting more and more essential to guarantee success.

If this isn’t managed in a right way, budget overruns will occur and ultimately a fraction of the intended result will be delivered. In addition to the need for an agile approach, we describe three other points of attention of a contemporary complex project below.

“Agile, but Manageable”

SCRUM/Agile versus PrinceII/IPMA/PMP

As stated, the first condition for success is that a methodology is used to manage a project in an agile manner. Agile, but manageable. Experience shows that a combination of, for example, a project management framework combined with a SCRUM approach makes a complex project more manageable. For example PrinceII/IPMA/PMP provides structure and a framework to manage projects, while SCRUM/Agile ensures that the products are developed in a flexible manner.

Think Big, Act Small

The second item is time. Projects that last longer than three months have a higher risk to not meet the intended result. The dynamics within today's organizations ensure continuous advancing insight. This increases the chances of budget constraints, resource shortages and organizational changes during your project. Obvious, the risks increase as the project takes longer. Short cyclic projects are therefore more successful and thus provide more added value for the organization. When these projects are used as part of a larger strategic program, the changes will act as a kind of catalyst within the organization.

Participation and Engagement

A third issue could be the availability of the resources. Projects always involve an organizational change and we as human beings, tend to stick to habits. So, by definition we don't like changes. This partly ensures that participation in a project is often seen as a necessary evil. When a project is started, it's often the expectation of the management that the end-users carry out all sorts of activities for a project in addition to their job.

“Manage the Engagement of Stakeholders”

As we know this is usually not possible and causes tension within the organization. The larger the projects, the more end-users are involved and there is a greater chance of them being unavailable. Continuous communication is very important to increase the engagement, but also the ability and time to participate in projects must be present.

Quality over Quantity

The last point of attention is the availability of different disciplines within a project. Without compromising the previous three points, this is perhaps the most important issue. The more different roles within a project, the more communication and knowledge transfer is needed. From business analysis to implementation is often like a bumpy road, where different professionals with different skills are active. This results in a lot of knowledge transfer and communication, that as we know is very time consuming and will put the quality of the end product under pressure.

“More is Less”

In addition, there are also organizations that outsource the development of systems to cheaper parts in the world. This means that a lot of time has to be spent on writing specifications. The hourly wages are lower, but in the end the amount of extra time is enormous and on average the costs turn out to be the same or even higher then a local project. Also, there is no direct relationship with the end user and products are thrown over the imaginary wall. Many large consultancy organizations now have outsource centers in countries like India, Ukraine, Romania, etc. These outsource centers have excellent programmers, but are often not familiar with the local business rules, which result in faulty products that must then be adjusted locally.

The Approach

At a time when we are used to quickly get an answer to our questions, it's increasingly challenging for IT suppliers to meet customer expectations. The increasing wave of data and the way in which it has to be refined into information is a complex issue for many organizations. From a competitive perspective they have to solve this issue fast against minimum cost.

Our experiences at Praesto Consulting are that a minimum number of good specialists can do all the work of a large project team. By using state-of-the-art cloud technology and the use of all-round specialists, a lot of time is saved on transfer and communication. In addition, the relationship and the trust with the stakeholders are strengthened by carrying out the project with the same specialists from beginning to end. Cloud technology is ideal for fast implementation and incremental development. Both take care of a lean and mean project approach.

“All-round Specialists and Cloud Technology take care of Quality over Quantity”

We see the above approach is more and more required for meeting the contemporary demand from the market. The consequence is that organizations have to impose higher demands on their employees and that their training programs should become more intensive and broader. In short, more investment in gaining knowledge, but also the conducting skills of a specialist is becoming more and more important. Ultimately, we are convinced that the investment is paid back by delivering more quality and less quantity.