Strategic Project Management

Over the weekend, I read a blog post by Shim Marom, author of the quantumleap blog, titled Projects Failure Rate—The Conventional Wisdom is Wrong! Shim suggests that "...expert reports, published in the last 10-15 years, all of which suggesting that the number of projects failed to meet some sort of criteria is nearing 70%! Got that? 7 out of every 10 projects are a failure..."

Marom suggests that reports like the Chaos Report, OASIG survey, KMPG Canada Survey, the Conference Board Survey, Robbins-Gioia Survey and Dr. Dobb's Journal misrepresent the actual condition of projects. His contention, which I think I agree with, is that we need to come to clearer terms about what project "success" actually means. Although I believe that whether or not a project delivers the specified requirements, is completed on time and on budget are an indication of whether or not a project is successful, I don't think they are only measures of success. In fact, I believe they are an incomplete measure of success.

In my opinion, I'm convinced that the real measure of successful is whether or not the project provides business value to the organization. Now, the definition of value could be measured differently from organization to organization. For some organizations, the success of a project might be measured in terms of ROI gained by income earned with the project, for others it might be money saved or even an increase in the ability to monitor and track processes. (For example, government projects might be less concerned with ROI than they are with governance.)

Whatever business value the project is supposed to provide should be identified and agreed upon before the project begins. If the project fails to provide the identified value, the project failed. This type of measure allows for scope and possible time-line changes, provide they do not negatively impact the projects ability to provide the specified value.

Project leaders that focus on providing business value have a clear measure of whether or not their projects are successful (and this applies to projects that are IT-related and those that are not). As project leaders, we need to start thinking more in terms of business value if we hope to have a lasting and productive project environment. In that sense, Marom is absolutely right, the conventional wisdom is wrong. Let's give the "experts" something else to measure besides time-lines, specifications and budgets.
 

During the first 85 years of the Tour de France, no American had ever won.

In 1986, Greg LeMond was the first American cyclist to win the Tour de France. He won again in 1989, and again in 1990. This makes LeMond one of only nine cyclists to have won the Tour three or more times. A powerful competitor and fantastic racer, LeMond has said, "Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time."

I think the same can be said of successful work management. Experience comes after fundamentals. Let me suggest a few of the fundamentals I think apply to successfully managing projects and project teams:

1. Make sure the project has a clearly defined business objective—and that everyone involved in the project understands what it is: It's important for stakeholders and project teams to understand the business value of what they're doing. Keeping the project vision visible and accessible enables everyone involved in the project to stay focused on what's important.
2. Make sure the project has executive commitment to see it through: One of the quickest ways to kill a project is to pull the funding out from under it. A committed executive can also help promote the merits of the project to others within the organization to build a broader base of stakeholder support.
3. Make sure there is a shared sense of determination to finish the project: If the only member of the team committed to finish is the project manager, it's not likely the project will ever be completed. Individual team members and executive stakeholders need to have the same determination. Without a shared sense of determination to finish, projects languish and eventually fail.

Mastering (and practicing) the fundamentals isn't very exciting, but it's often the difference between someone who is successful and someone who isn't.

Project and portfolio management software, along with other project management tools, offer both experienced and new project leaders a number of valuable tools to help them establish work management best practices and methodologies. That being said, nothing can substitute for establishing a good work management foundation.

Do you have any fundamental skills you would add to the list?