In last month’s issue, we talked about the
fact that developing a superior business
strategy, one that facilitates the proper use of technology, provides a launch pad to
greater heights.
“A strategy without execution and implementation looks good sitting on the coffee
table,” says Chris Spivey, Vice President of
Business Process and Project Leadership
Services for MIS Group. “But don’t forget
than an implementation without a strategy
results in a train wreck.”
Smart Business talked to Spivey about
guiding businesses and keeping them on
track as they move from framing to fulfilling their strategic IT initiatives.
Once a company has developed a strong
business strategy, what’s the next step?
When you have a strategy, it’s vital to prepare for and enable execution so your
implementation projects are structured for
success. According to some well-recognized studies, almost seven in 10 IT projects will fail. Statistically, your project is
like a train heading the wrong way down
the track. While the project may appear to
have momentum behind it, unless it’s on
the correct course, disaster is almost certain. All it takes is another locomotive coming down the track going the right way
and, ‘Boom!’
Why do seven out of 10 technology projects
fail?
Due to lack of project management and
alignment when moving forward from the
point of strategy. The good news is, when a
disaster is foreseeable, it may also be
avoidable. What’s necessary is a common
sense approach to project implementation,
one that gives you true locomotion, instead
of a lot of ‘loco’ and little ‘motion.’
How do you do it right?
It’s not enough to have a Microsoft
Project plan. The successful implementation and integration of technology requires
three essential components — leadership,
governance and management — all of
which must be in place if you want to keep
your business train running down the
track. First is leadership. Key players
must have the ability to both formulate and
communicate a company’s vision. Executives must also leverage sponsorship and
influence to generate the kind of movement that produces results. Team members must be invested in the chosen course
of action and all parties must be clear on
both the business case and the cost justifications for each process. Second, there
must be proper governance. According
to Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross, the
authors of ‘IT Governance: How Top
Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for
Superior Results,’ governance means having clearly defined authority to make decisions and having accountability related to
the project. This part of the implementation process cannot be left to chance or
assumption. And, there must of course be
solid project management. This requires
carefully and formally establishing the
scope of each project as well as laying out
a budget, timeline and procedures for issue
resolution. The proper tools must also be
put in place to provide status updates and
overall communication across divisions.
If your scope, plan and budget do not
include significant time and formal definition for each of these areas or if you fail to
include rigorous testing, the project will
progress, but you’ll eventually find yourself in a deep hole. And as Will Rogers
once said, ‘If you find yourself in a hole,
stop digging.’
So what about alignment? It seems that mis-alignment would introduce significant risk.
Yes. That’s why it’s critical to have a
methodology that focuses on helping you
manage risk, while at the same time giving
you the control you need to maintain
momentum. It’s all about proper alignment
and leadership. We say the alignment
needs to be ‘from strategy to desktop.’
What that means is that strategy gets
refined into specific goals and objectives.
Processes must produce outputs and
measurements (reports, alerts, etc.) to
meet those goals. The process requirements drive what applications (packaged
or custom developed) the organization will
need to run their operations. The application will run using a database, and of
course there’s an operating system that
must work on computer hardware. The
network connects the systems together so
everyone can communicate, and all of
these components must be compatible and
have enough ‘horsepower’ to run smoothly.
The risk is that if any of these components
are inadequate or incompatible, the whole
thing falls apart.
Managing risk also includes formal definition and thorough testing to identify
potential issues before they go ‘live.’ Of
course, there’s a great deal of work
required to define and test, so the human
element of incentive and motivation must
also be considered. Basically, there are a
whole bunch of cats to herd. I like saying,
‘Herding cats with a broom is a losing battle. But, open a tin of tuna, and try getting
them not to herd.’ Executive leadership
governance and management will keep
your train on the right track, and your cats
in a happy herd.
CHRIS SPIVEY is Vice President of Business Process and Project Leadership Services for MIS Group, www.misgroupusa.com. Reach
him at (800) 454-0993 or [email protected].
