High-profile technology projects are usually one of the most important elements of a tech leader’s responsibilities. These projects advance the broader organization’s strategic agenda, drive change, integrate acquisitions, or other critical tasks. They’re also usually subject to a significant amount of organizational scrutiny. Leaders and their teams are under constant pressure to meet the need to deliver on time. And within budgetary and scope constraints.
Defining Successful Failure
Much like building a perfect house that the occupants hate due to the design or room layout. Successful failures deliver a correctly-executed outcome. That ultimately doesn’t solve the right problem.
This breakdown usually occurs due to some combination of the following factors:
- The business problem was poorly defined or incorrectly defined, resulting in the project solving the wrong problem
- The environment and market country email list changed during project implementation, causing the project to deliver an answer to yesterday’s business problem but not today’s business problem
- Difficulties with the adoption of the output of the project were not adequately considered, generally due to poor training or a variety of factors lumped into the “change management” bucket
- A compelling alternative to the project was found or already existed, which allowed the end-user to effectively ignore the outcomes of the project
- The project was too focused on a novel or “cool” technology and didn’t solve a useful business problem
- The project disrupts or jeopardizes someone’s livelihood, for example, by removing a key revenue stream, creating active opposition
These factors are complex and nuanced and require the majority of a leader’s focus and diligence. Assuming that no one actively objects to a Project Charter slide your junior analyst put together is not the same as thoroughly vetting the business problem your project is solving and ensuring that you’re building the right solution to that problem.
Avoiding the Project Management Morass
Arguably, too much focus in project how to optimize your advertising campaigns to improve return on investment (roi) management is about its technicalities, and the various project management certifications and organizations that advance different methodologies focus primarily on these details. Many IT leaders earned their stripes managing complex programs, and it’s easy to fall back on concerns about WBS elements, scrum masters, and issue logs rather than tackling more difficult challenges around understanding the true nature of a business problem and making tough calls if the environment changes and renders your otherwise-successful program moot.
Replace the Charter with a Problem Statement and Regular Review
An effective project charter can canada data indeed help identify when a project is no longer meeting its objectives. To make this process effective, regular schedule reviews on a monthly basis. Where stakeholders must defend whether the problem statement is still valid.