It is all to easy be seduced by the hype surrounding new solutions
- look before you leap.
What will the next big thing be? The truth is it does not really
matter. Unless the industry changes its attitude towards
implementing technology - whatever the next must-have technology or
must-do thing is (let us call it X), you can bet your last dollar
that a few months down the line articles will start to appear
stating that X has not delivered the benefits expected.
Or they will say that X has been more costly to implement than
envisaged and that the whole concept needs to be carefully thought
through to ensure that it fits in with the existing organisation
before embarking on it.
There have been many bandwagons to jump onto over the past few
years: business process re-engineering; workflow; customer
relationship management; e-commerce; e-everything; B2B (business to
business) and B2C (business to customer); wireless application
protocol; m-commerce, and so on.
The introduction of new technologies is inevitable and generally a
good thing. It potentially allows businesses to become more
efficient and hence profitable. However, with all the new fads and
hype that surrounds each new technology it seems all to easy to
lose sight of why a company should invest in X.
The not-so-good reasons unfortunately feature much too high on the
reasons-we-did-this list. Just because other companies are having X
is no reason for implementing it in your organisation. Similarly,
just because X is the hottest thing in IT, if it affects the
business (and it probably will) it should not be an IT-led project
if there is no business benefit.
Regardless of what X is, the impact on the bottom line has to be
one of the primary aspects to take into account. Indeed, the
reasons for doing anything should be sacrosanct:
- The total cost of having X should not exceed the total expected
benefits
- The organisation would clearly suffer without it.
That's it. Simple, isn't it? Well, no. A sound business case is the
only way to start although, despite volumes of case studies, it is
incredible how many multi-million pound projects start without one.
As far as any implementation goes there are two elements to a
project - technical and business. Technical implementation,
unfortunately, is the element that in most cases gets the primary
focus. The assumption, presumably, is that if the implementation is
successful it will work.
What rubbish. Just because a system works does not mean that it
will be used in the way intended. The business project is the key
part of any project as this is the element that will determine its
ultimate "userability".
The new system or working practices will be used by the business
and it is there that its eventual success will be determined. Users
will either work with it, or around it.
The key to any successful project is to address (and sort out) the
old chestnuts. So, regardless of what X is, it is the change that
users will experience that needs to be managed. People are
generally change-averse and just dumping a new system or way of
working on them, as is all too common, will not produce the
benefits or the return on investment expected.
Things to do before jumping on the next bandwagon
So
what are the key points to maximising project success? They
are:
- Educate the user community to the appropriate level so that
they can meaningfully participate in discussions
- Actively and genuinely involve the end-users in a structured
manner from the outset (lip-service involvement does more harm than
good)
- Be open about the extent of change that the business will
undergo and welcome feedback
- Provide mechanisms for feedback from the business for ideas,
comments and, importantly, to address any fears and concerns
- Be as open as possible when disseminating project information
and timescales
- Ensure that the project objectives are known and that key
project personnel are known to the business.
Gary Burke is director of Metamorphosis Consulting