Planning

Selection - Choosing the Right Project

In most business environments there is no shortage of stakeholder (or vendor) inspired ideas for new or upgraded applications or infrastructure to be implemented, or new services for IT to provide, but only limited person-power and financial resources. Armed with a clear, prioritized list of strategic initiatives the next step is to select the actual projects.

Classifying proposals by using simple schemes to group and contrast projects can aid in the selection process. The goal is to produce a ranked list of projects to be funded in that order.

Project Selection: Factors to Consider

  • Alignment: What strategic initiatives are supported by the project?
  • Financial Impact: What are the costs and benefits?
  • Risk: What are the specific risks associated with the project?
  • Resource requirements: What are the required skills and are they available in-house?
  • Need: Must-have to nice-to-have

In some cases projects are approved and funded without an understanding of how the result will contribute to the overall organizational strategy. Sometimes there isn't a clear analysis of the real implementation and operating costs. Answering these and other questions are essential in choosing the right projects.

Definition - Scope and Requirements

Many, if not most, IT projects fail to meet expectations for delivered functionality, schedule and budget. One important key to success is making sure that everyone is working on the same project and that expectations of all stakeholders are as aligned and realistic as possible.

Project definition: Key Questions

  • Has the "voice of the customer" been clearly heard and documented?
  • Is there a clear, well documented, understanding of what will be delivered that is shared by users, executives and developers?
  • When the time comes will everyone agree that the project is "done"?

Some methodologies allow scope to be progressively defined as more detailed requirements are determined. This works well in some situations, but is rarely successfully unless it is done by intent. Plunging ahead without sufficiently detailed requirements, or a solid plan for their development, assumes that they will reveal themselves in a timely fashion. This is a recipe for rework and disaster.

The solution is to recognize the importance of, and adequately allocate time and funding for, the definition phase. Investing in the development of a complete scope statement and comprehensive, detailed requirements will provide sponsors, users and developers the opportunity to fully understand what is to be implemented. It will also give project managers and planners the basis they need to create a realistic plan and schedule.

Planning - The Work, Resources, Schedule and Budget

It's been said that scheduling IT projects is a black art. It is probably more correct that time estimates and schedules are created either arbitrarily e.g. "finish by the end of the fiscal year," or on the basis of too little information, therefore yielding a result that has little bearing on reality. Another classic pitfall is to create a detailed schedule and fail to revise it when tasks early in the plan take longer than expected, hoping that somehow the time would be recovered later in the project.

Project Planning: Key Questions

  • Is the work required to satisfy every in-scope deliverable adequately understood?
  • Is the work plan broken into appropriately sized phases and very well delineated for at least the current (or upcoming) phase?
  • Is there a schedule and budget, free from wishful thinking and ungrounded mandates, that has been created by the project team?
  • Are human resources with the key skills necessary for project success available?
  • Is there a component of the plan for any required organization change and training?
  • Is there a communication plan that describes how each stakeholder group will get the information they need, in a timely fashion, in a form that they will find useful?

Selection, Definition and Planning Services

Healthy Technology can provide these selection, definition and planning services:

  • Establishment of IT governance processes
  • Project selection techniques and best practices
  • Scope definition and management
  • Requirements analysis and documentation/RFP development
  • Project planning from inception to closure
Healthy Technology can lead, or advise, your organization though the selection, definition and planning processes. We'll work with you to create a strong foundation for the success of your IT projects.