The crisis in project management has become a running sore which
damages public confidence in the IT industry. Now CW360.com readers
have their say in pinpointing the problem and seeking effective
solutions.
Read Colin Beveridge's column on project management
>>
CW360.com columnist Colin Beveridge certainly raised some sand with
his analysis of why so many high-profile, high-cost IT projects go
belly up with such monotonous regularity - and they're just the
ones we hear about.
Colin's critique focused on the lack of training available to
fledgling project managers and the consequences of the lack of
value placed on practical experience by companies today. Our
mailbag shows that he hit the spot with an awful lot of people
who've seen it all for themselves.
At 30 years old and with work on 20 IT projects under his belt, you
might think Ian Marples would be justified in considering himself a
seasoned veteran of the project management scene. On the subject of
the "project manager" handle, he says: "There appears to be an
unseemly need for this "fashionable" job title among ill prepared,
poorly trained, young professionals in order to achieve this
status.
"I have experience of systems analysis, design, programming,
testing and implementation. I can operate Microsoft Project, draw a
Gantt chart, am capable of doing presentations and attending, even
chairing, meetings. I do not consider myself a project
manager.
"As my experience grows, the more projects I work on, the more
companies I work with, the better I am able to analyse what tasks
will need completing, assess any risk, estimate the effort needed
to complete a task, and so on.
Skills + experience = success
"This is done
on the basis of my experience and that of other experienced
professionals I work with. This has to be coupled with project
management skills that will be acquired over time, the chief one
being application of previous experience on a project.
Stephen Prowse who moved into IT full-time after 10 years in the
military where he spent time on a "fair share of projects" believes
that having a more experienced person to turn to on the way up is
vital.
"I shadowed other project managers and had them available to ask
and assist whenever necessary," he says. "I have found that it is
all too often pride on the part of the individual who is not
willing to show that they do not know something, or not liking to
be guided/managed, that tends to be the root cause of failure.
"It is imperative that each individual has a deputy, by name not
necessarily by rank, as this can throw up sensitive issues for
staff. Strong guidance and leadership is essential."
Life in the hurry-up culture
Peter Ioannou
agrees but reckons companies' short-sightedness will be a tough nut
to crack. "The world wants things quicker. No one has time to
breathe," he says. " Fixed price contracts with penalties if not
finished on time. There doesn't seem to be any time to train
managers. When things are slow, people are being made redundant.
All this rushing around is making companies short-sighted when it
comes to training.
"Perhaps now with the slow down in business and where IT has to
justify a return on investment, like all other sectors of the
business, we will slow down long enough to think about training.
Getting people who know what they want and training them
appropriately. This may insure that fewer projects tail-spin out of
control.
"But then again we are only human and make the same mistakes time
and time again."
Project consultant Robin Adamson feels the memo mentality is
wreaking havoc in the world of project management. He writes: "Many
project managers are not fully trained and the main criteria for
being put in charge of a multi-million dollar project is that you
have a degree, you call yourself a project manager, you can use MS
Project and you know what a methodology is.
The guys in the Teflon suits
"Time and time
again I come across project managers with the above placed in
charge of delivering projects, but without the true skills to
actually make it happen. These PMs tend to know they are unable to
deliver should issues arise and generally wear suits made of Teflon
so the proverbial does not stick.
"These individuals feel that as long as they sent the e-mail or
memo raising a point they are covered when the proverbial hits the
fan. This type of attitude is generally responsible for the
enormous amount of projects that fail to meet their
objectives.
"Project management is a serious business, but to make it work, it
needs two key elements. The first is the ability to communicate.
This means using more than just e-mails, memos or big group
meetings, but one-to-ones, the telephone and proper information
flows filtering out informative communication from decision-based
communication. The second requirement is the ability to take
responsibility for the project and direct management of issues,
rather than deferring decisions to higher levels of management or
committees."
Start on the right foot
With 15 years
experience of leading projects, John Cowell reckons projects which
fail do so right from the start. "The problem lies in the initial
estimate," he says. "Once into the design phase the estimating
tools can work on the number of databases, the number of
inputs/outputs but on Day One of a project how big is, for example
a billing system?
"In truth the estimate is a guess based globally on earlier major
developments. Factors such as return on investment and what the
available budget is come into play.
"Such problems are not limited to IT. Look at Wembley
Stadium!"
Too old by 40?
A major point Colin Beveridge
made was the lack of value placed on experience, while
methodologies, however clumsily used, are all the rage. Independent
IT consultants Moraig and John Kennedy have learnt this the hard
way. "As two old wrinklies with many years of successful and
on-budget projects under our belts, without the aid of all the new
methodologies, we now find it difficult to obtain project
management contracts because so much emphasis is placed on these
methodologies while giving no credence to general business acumen
and experience.
"I have read many articles recently which suggest that by one's
late thirties one is over the hill. Only in IT is there such an
attitude and blatant disregard of hands-on experience. Our brains
are still perfectly capable of understanding the new technologies
and although we may now wear glasses to read, it does not alter our
ability to digest.
"Age does indeed mellow one and with experience comes the ability
to handle the unexpected (the MD acquiring two new companies which
have to be online in two weeks time!) while keeping the project on
track.
"It's time the IT industry dropped its ageist (and sometimes
sexist) policy and realised there is a lot of talent being put out
to pasture that could give a lot better value for money."
A matter of course
Unfortunately the
designers of IT training courses also fail to harness the wealth of
project management experience that's out there. Wyn Jones recently
completed a BSc in Multimedia Computing so knows first-hand how IT
is taught. "Not once in all this study was project management even
mentioned," he says. "I left employment to study, due to a
perception in my own mind that my way of developing solutions was
rather haphazard and that there had to be more formalised methods
for development. Well, I learnt a lot during all that study but am
still in the dark over the best ways to run a development
project.
IT management consultant Richard Fox can't see why today's project
managers seem to make such a song and dance about things. "Project
management is just the same as it was centuries ago," he points
out. "We are just building IT solutions, not cathedrals.
"Project management is about people skills and resource management,
things which are lacking in IT management - full-stop."
The last word goes to senior consultant Charles Dowie who sees
cause for optimism, so long as care is taken in the early stages of
a project. "It takes a well prepared and trained team to ensure
success," he says. "If you miss any of the stages out then you
might get away with it - but choose that bit carefully.
"Get it right up front and the rest should be easy."
Read Colin Beveridge's column on project management
>>Thank you to all who responded - our apologies if your views
were not quoted directly. All reader feedback on CW360.com is
published only with the specific authorisation of the
correspondent.