The Key to Disarming Hidden IT Project Management Problems
When your project fails, that’s it.
Your credibility takes a huge hit.
And as you increase in seniority, and the projects you’re responsible for scale up, that credibility hit grows proportionately larger and more damaging.
Mitigating Risk Remains Priority #1 for IT Professionals
Despite sophisticated new risk management models, IT projects aren’t getting any less prone to failure. Peter Sardelis, an IT Project Manager at Omnitrans, explains:
If we look at statistics for the past 20 years the average rate of failure for IT projects has not changed and hovers around the 70% range in spite of the cumulative knowledge gained implementing systems. Analysts predict more of the same in the future.
His explanation? As systems become more complex, interconnected, and integrated with the business, more opportunities for failure appear.
To ensure projects succeed, he argues, “we can no longer manage each project in a Vacuum.” Interdependencies in both technical and business processes need to be handled properly.
However, in his excellent article he neglects to bring up one point—you have to start managing risk caused by interdependencies as early in a project’s life as possible. Preferably, in the project’s planning stages.
We touched briefly on this topic in a previous article. Look ahead at your project timeline, define your external requirements, and schedule all of them during your project’s planning phase.
Do this, and you will disarm many potential land-mines waiting for your project.
Take one more step, and you will disarm the land-mines waiting for your project that you cannot see on your own.
A Simple Way to Disarm Your Project’s Hidden Conflicts
Instead of just looking at what you need from those around you, look at how your needs and the needs of others could clash—and work out ways to avoid those collisions altogether.
A quick note: The following steps assume you already have a solid project timeline set down. You know what you need, when you need it, and whom you need it from.
Assuming you have this project timeline and collaboration requirements drafted out, it’s time to reach out and meet with your external collaborators to compare your project’s timeline to all the other projects they have on their plate.
- Look at your project timeline. Pull out a list of all external collaborators.
- Pull out a list of internal collaborators as possible. Depending on the size and seniority of your team, you may need to plan around their independent projects as well.
- Schedule an individual hour long meeting with each member of each list. The purpose of this meeting? To compare your project timeline to their own professional calendars.
- During the meeting, break out your calendars. Show them what you need from them and when you need it. Compare those needs to the other projects, resource allocations and availability already on their calendar.Look for potential conflicts. Are you asking for their heavy involvement when they are already committed elsewhere. Do you want them to launch your project in the same week they are launching three other projects?
- After identifying these conflicts, work with them to find lower-conflict scheduling opportunities.
- You may not be able to fix every conflict you identify. When that happens—prioritize.
Expect a lot of shifting around, and expect to host multiple meetings with the same people, as shifting around one colleague’s schedule may create conflicts with another’s.
This process can take time, and feel frustrating, filled with back-and-forth. Just remember—it’s worth feeling frustrated now to avoid failure later.
