projects fail when they lose touch with reality apm - jan 2013
DESCRIPTION
Slides from my talk to APM South Wales and West of England Branch on 30 Jan 2013TRANSCRIPT
1
Projects fail when…
… they lose touch with reality
Projects fail when... Jan 2013
2Projects fail when... Jan 2013
hendriko
3Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Bitman
Failure can be ambiguous
4
Beware of agendas!
Projects fail when... Jan 2013
5Projects fail when... Jan 2013
pri.studio360
Projects Fail
Projects fail when... Jan 2013 6
Ville Miettinen
Projects fail when... Jan 2013 7
Time
Days until
delivery date
Slip
Lead
Earthquake
Aftershocks
Projects fail when... Jan 2013 8
Lead
Slip
• 9 months of smooth running
• Then magnitude of task suddenly hits(stress builds to point where something gives)
• PMs asked for what they thought they could get, not what they needed
• Anchored by proximity of deadline
9
Project Management
LiteratureProjects fail when... Jan 2013
10Projects fail when... Jan 2013
lsie esq.
Poor link to organisational objectives
11Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Green-Ghost
Unclear scope and requirements
12Projects fail when... Jan 2013
jurvetson
Lack of executive commitment / involvement
13Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Hamed Saber
Unmanaged change
14Projects fail when... Jan 2013
qmnonic
Unmanaged risks(often undiscussables)
15Projects fail when... Jan 2013
aturkus
Poor communications(internal and external)
16Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Unrealistic estimates, schedules, staffing, tools
17
So what?We already know all this stuff.
Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Projects fail when... Jan 2013 18
Simon Schoeters
Project failures become apparent when we run into
reality
We lose touch with reality as we estimate, negotiate,
track progress, …
Complexity, optimism, power games, cognitive biases, fear all
exacerbate the problem
Much project management is about building mechanisms to
keep in touch with reality
Note: The failure actually happened long before it became apparent.
To avoid disaster, identify the failure while it can be remedied and learned from.
19Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Marcin Wichary
Why don’t we recognise failures earlier?
Because projects are run by people…
20Projects fail when... Jan 2013
jack_spellingbacon
Overconfidence
21Projects fail when... Jan 2013
futureatlas.com
Oversimplification
22Projects fail when... Jan 2013
kainet
Anchoring
23Projects fail when... Jan 2013
annia316
Avoiding pain
24Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Antoaneta
Confirmation bias
25Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Madzik
Repetition bias
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condour
Perceptual biases
27Projects fail when... Jan 2013
lostajy
28
What can we do?
Projects fail when... Jan 2013
29Projects fail when... Jan 2013
AlphaGeek
Recommendations to improve review artefacts
Review execution
Inputs
Artefacts & otheritems to review, plus supporting details.
Outputs
Improved artefacts.
Go / No -go decision.
Baseline Criteria Reference Models
Control parameters
Feedback to improve reference models
Analysis Loop
Reviews
Projects fail when... Jan 2013 30
Lead
Slip
Projects fail when... Jan 2013 31
Lead
Slip
3 months
• Surfaced concerns earlier
• Helped people plan before asking
• Gave courage to ask for what they needed
• Sponsored an informed debate
• People generally knew what was wrong with their projects
• Reviews surfaced information, they didn’t create it
32Projects fail when... Jan 2013
oskay
Small chunks
33Projects fail when... Jan 2013
kakutani
Metrics
34Projects fail when... Jan 2013
sidstamm
Plan for change(Plan as guide, not crutch)
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Understand boundary between project and operations
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Communicate
ky_olsen
37
Summary
We engage with risks to achieve rewards
Sometimes the risks win
Complexity and intangibility exacerbate the risks
We recognise failure when we run into reality
If we keep in touch with reality, the bump is less dramatic
Watch reality, not the plan
Projects fail when... Jan 2013
Two types of failure
a) Failure you learn from
b) Failure that kills you
39
Making sense of technology… Many organisations are caught up in the
complexity of technology and systems. This complexity may be inherent to the
technology itself. It may be created by the pace of technology change. Or it may arise from the surrounding process, people and governance structures.
We help untangle this complexity and define business strategies that both can be implemented and will be adopted by people throughout the organisation and its partner network. We then help assure delivery of implementation projects.
Clients… Cisco Worldwide Education – Architecture and research for e-learning and educational systems Council of Europe – Systems for monitoring compliance with international treaties; e-learning systems Dover Harbour Board – Systems and architecture review MessageLabs – Architecture and assurance for partner management portal National Savings & Investments – Helped NS&I and BPO partner develop joint IS strategy The Open University – Enterprise architecture, CRM and product development strategies Oxfam – Content management, CRM, e-Commerce Thames Valley Police – Internet Consultancy Sony Computer Entertainment – Global process definition Amnesty International, Endemol, tsoosayLabs, Vodafone, …
Graham Oakes Ltd
Projects fail when... Jan 2013