Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management

…improving performance

…creators of

Contact to ContRact

www.ContacttoContRact.co.uk

Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management

Nick Durrant Managing Director

…improving performance www.ContacttoContRact.co.uk

Objectives

Message: Project Management is key to

developing a positive brand and a growing business

Actions:How to set up a scaleable framework to enable excellent Project Management


Agenda

Session 1: Requirements for growing an IT business How PMs can facilitate growth The PM as part of the sales team

Session 2: Why does IT fail? A simple project management framework Action list for growing IT organisations


Commercial Character


To grow an IT business

Eventually you have to DO the business

Organic

Acquisition



IT is a skills business

Methods of working or processes: Scalable Clear Easy to access Pragmatic processes


IT Software and Services Business Cycle


PM is a vital part of the team



Define

Market

Sell

Deliver

Support

Manage

Examples, case studies, presentations

Part of Sales team, trusted advisor

Solid delivery – what, why, when, how, who?

Provide input to continuous improvement

Provide accurate revenue forecasts


PM as part of the Sales team


The customer


Trust

RespectUnderstanding

Adding valueProblem solving

Win / win

Pull not pushCollaborative

CooperativeProfessional

Partnership


Selling styles


Team selling


Initial Idea

Investigation

Feasibility

Decision to buy

Tender

Selection

Buyingcycle


Buyer perception model

Happy to buy

Positive

Negative

time

+50

-50


Moments of truth

Letters

Sales presentations

Project meetings

Technical papers

Invoices

Reference visits

Proposal documents

Appointments

Joint planning session

Telephone calls

Project meetings

Reception


Buyer perception model

Positive

Negative

Happyto buy

time

Never heard of you

Good initial meeting

Showed understanding and relevant experience

Positive word of mouth referral from trusted colleague

Positive and helpful workshop to develop detailed requirements

Promised quotation late arriving

Chase up call well handled

Satisfactory quotation arrives

Decision to buy


Summary 1

Good Project Managers are critical to a growing company…

But in more ways than most people think…

Embrace your PMs Intermingle with the Sales team Acknowledge that some of their time should be

“off-charge” for selling Teach them to communicate in customer’s language Invest in presentation skills Invest in consultative and team selling skills


Q & A

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Contact to ContRact…improving performance


…creators of

Contact to ContRact


Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management

Nick Durrant Managing Director


Agenda

Session 1: Requirements for growing an IT business How PMs can facilitate growth The PM as part of the sales team

Session 2: Why does IT fail? A simple project management framework Action list for growing IT organisations


Why do IT projects fail?

Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-8


“In this sense only 2% of IT projects ever succeed!”

Beam, 1994

What is a successful project?

A project which: is on time is on budget is in accordance with the specification has a happy customer


What is a failed project?

A project: abandoned before

complete is fully developed but never

used is substantially downscaled

until it no longer provides the planned benefits


IT project disasters

“It is fine to celebrate success but it is more

important to heed the lessons of failure.”

Bill Gates

“It is OK to make a mistake…it is stupid not to learn from

it.”Nick Durrant


IT project disasters

London Ambulance Service: CAD

Performing Right Society: PROMS

London Stock Exchange: Taurus

American Airlines: CONFIRM

Wessex Regional Information Systems plan

DoE: Field system project

…and many more


London Ambulance Service

Computerised map system Vehicle location tracking Auto update of resource

availability Auto identification of

duplicate calls Automatic ambulance

mobilisation

Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD)



Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) - £10MOn implementation 26 Oct 1992: System “lost” ambulances Ambulances dispatched non-optimally Multiple ambulances assigned to the same calls Led to large number of exception messages

which swamped the system

Report of the enquiry into the London Ambulance Service

South West Thames Regional Health Authority



System descended into chaos: Public repeated emergency calls “Stroke” call answered after 11 hours (5

hours after made own way to hospital) Patient dead and body already taken by

undertakers!


Inquiry report – Project Management

Overall approach: Contracts signed late Supplier did not regard themselves as

Project Managers Role of overall project management

ambiguous

Team: PRINCE was chosen but LAS and suppliers

had no experience of applying it Constitution of the team changed from

requirements to develop/implement



Progress and reporting: Project meeting concerns minuted but not

followed up Supplier regularly late with software deliverables Up to mid Dec 1991 still “hoped” for 8 Jan 92 full

implementation. (CAD incomplete and largely untested)

New Systems Manager reviewed project in Nov and recommended implementation date should not change (to keep pressure on supplier)

Key supplier did not keep management fully informed of progress


Change control: To please Users software changes put

through “on the fly”


Quality control: No independent QA resource Evidence of poor hardware installation



Lack of professional independent project

management which would have:

Resolved supplier disputes quickly Identified over-optimistic progress reports Reviewed detail behind “cosy assurances”


Other IT disasters

LSE Taurus - £75M Design by committee Receding deadlines Management over-confidence

American Airlines Confirm - £140MPartners looking for different benefitsTendency for cover up (only give good news)Poor technical architecture


Other IT disasters

Wessex RISP - £43M No clear definition of scope Technology led project No overall project plan developed

DoE Field System - £48MStructural change: DoE Field offices - TECsNo end-user involvementNo Change Control Management and

prioritisation


IT disasters - summary

Unclear scope and definitions Lack of clear project planning Over-confidence in reporting Lack of change control management

This is not complex…

…these are the basics!


…creators of

Contact to ContRact


The fundamentals of IT Project Management


Want to take off?


The process

Issue ticket

Allocate seat

Check all passengers embarked

Safety announcement

complete

Air readiness checklist complete

Check in

Boardaircraft

Prepare passengers for

take-off

Prepare aircraft for

take-off

Taxi to runway

Request and receive

permission from tower

These areGateways!

CustomerTicket

Purchase

Take off


Framework aims

Aim for happy customers A PM approach is here to help A PM approach should provide a

framework for consistency efficiency learning

PM approaches need to evolve


The right balance

• Pragmatic

• Realistic

• Useful

• Consistent

• Controlled

• Scalable

BureaucraticX Seat of the pantsXBased on appropriate best practice


The PM fundamentals

Pre-project managementProject planning

Project management

Project planning

Project initiation

Monitoring control and

reporting

Project completion

Project start

Project finish

Project definition

Service deliveryPrototypes Structured methods

Marketing and Sales processProspecting Qualification Campaign planning


Gateways

Points of control

Mandatory for all projects

Require appropriate review


Planning - Reviewing risks:

“The management of an information systems project risk is often a

highly intuitive art.”

Turner, 1993

“If you look at a thing 999 times you are perfectly safe; if you look at it again, you are in danger of seeing

it for the first time.”

Chesterton, 1968


Monitoring, control & reporting

The Project

Timescale

Quality

Functionality

Costs

Competing projects

Resourceavailability

Inaccurate estimates

Unforeseenissues

Project definition

Project planning

PlanningGateway

Project Initiation

Project Completion

Project M C & report


Project completion

Customer deliver the deliverables customer acceptance initiate feedback

Team feedback skills update team review

Project definition

Project planning

PlanningGateway

Project Initiation

Project M C & report

Project Completion

Internal management housekeeping tasks

brief the sales team

initiate process improvement

Finish gateway


Key points

Whenever you first hear of a project…

Define it

Plan it

All projects should be reviewed

Planning

Start

Finish

Use change control


…creators of

Contact to ContRact


Actions for growing IT organisations


Your typicalProject Manager


Project Managers

Typical IT Project Management Issues

Too willing to bow to perceived pressure from sales team / clients

Do not identify and manage risks Do not complete Lack of commercial awareness


Project Managers

Why?

Don’t have the confidence to develop clear realistic plans and stick to them

Don’t always execute the PM basics Don’t have wider business acumen


Project Managers

Core issues

Technology changes creates PM myopia Best developers “rise” into project

management Technical focus No approach to “conversion” No wider commercial awareness

Lack of appreciation creates “them” and “us” relationship with pre-sales


Hints and tips

Train your PMs to be PMs! Build them into the commercial team Use PMs as “Trusted advisor” sales and

account management resource Sell the benefits of good project management Develop a clear PM framework Use gateways Learn from your mistakes!


Q & A

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Contact to ContRact…improving performance

Facilitating Business Growth through IT Project Management

Documents

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