When Project Plans Go Awry or “Cherries Happen”

Over the past few years, as the owner of Demystified IT (an IT consulting company in Olathe, Kansas, USA), I have been able to peek inside many projects and project plans to review the things that have gone right and what has gone wrong — projects that may or may not have worked according to plan (or no plan). I have also reviewed quite a few well-intentioned plans, where the forces behind the change knew exactly what they wanted and where they wanted to go but just couldn’t figure out how to get there.

There are typically five players in all IT development: the business owner/sponsor, the business analyst, the project manager, solutions architect, and the Q&A tester. In each and every case, communication is the primary problem.

For example, let’s start with a simple (or not) project.

Starting with the business owner (in this case, he sells ice cream), who has decided he wants to start offering free toppings based upon what the customer purchases. Sprinkles will be added to all one-scoop sales, fudge/liquid toppings to all two-scoop orders, and for all three scoops and above, the customer will get both toppings for free. We will call this the 1-2-3 Project.

The business analyst puts together a requirements document based on the 1-2-3 model. The business analyst documents the overview, the design, the way the register should …