VARs: Six Tips For Successful IT Projects

A survey released this week found that only one in three IT projects lives up to expectations. However, despite such dreary findings, support for implementing IT projects is not declining. Dynamic Markets conducted the research, which surveyed 800 middle and senior IT managers in large companies in eight countries worldwide, on behalf of Tata Consultancy Services.

Almost 70 percent of respondents said that their managers and their boards continued to provide the financial support for these projects. Common problems cited included overrun on time (62 percent), budget (49 percent) and higher than expected maintenance costs (47 percent). Adding insult to injury, one in four companies said that they found business users reluctant to adopt the new systems once they are implemented.

Some VARs found the statistics out of sync with their own experiences. "I would think with the current generation of CIOs who are more business-minded and now possess tools and an ecosystem that can deliver faster solutions, that the results may be better than a 33 percent success rate," said Lou McElwain, executive vice president of sales at New York solution provider BlueWater.

Still, there are always projects that fail to accomplish their objectives. Following are six tips solution providers suggest to help put your next IT project on the road to success.

#1 -- Plan well

"There are so many technological intangibles in an average IT network, that it is nearly impossible to plan for everything that may arise. Many IT service providers submit low-ball project estimates just to win the work, without considering the business impact of a poorly run project," said Ronnie Parisella, founder of Primary Support, a New York-based solution provider. Building extra time into each phase of large projects is critical to ensure the project stays on track. "Additional time is also built in for executive sign-offs and extensive testing," he added. "Of course there are exceptions to this type of planning, but for the most part, our clients enjoy smooth network infrastructure upgrades and migrations."

#2 -- Implement proper requirement gathering procedures

Projects generally fail due to improper requirements gathering, said Alani Kuye, president, Phantom Data Systems, Norwalk, Conn. Project management and implementation management are two distinct areas often confused, he noted, explaining that while the former involves requirements, milestones, relationship management and service delivery, the latter involves actual implementation deployment and configuration.

"Management may often live with this figure -- one in three IT projects living up to expectations -- if the effect on the bottom line is not too severe," Kuye said. "Usually, when there's a significant cost center attached to the project, then failure is not an option. These sorts of projects tend to involve both internal and external experts. They also tend to be validation driven in an iterative manner."

While there's no single way to solve this problem, proper requirements gathering, continuous testing and validation is the best approach, he said.

#3 -- Forge relationships

One of the reasons for the failure rate would be the disconnect between the needs of the business and the IT goals of the project. Unfortunately, that can occur at any point in the life cycle of a project. "If the CIO or his team do not pre-qualify the technical solution with the end-users and then engage the users at each step of the project's life cycle, it becomes very likely that the end-user expectations will not be met," said BlueWater's McElwain.

While solution providers may not have the political clout or the access to the end users needed for ultimate success, they can often work toward smoothing the passageways among the various players to facilitate successful project implementation, he said.

NEXT: Manage expectations

#4 -- Manage expectations

Everyone involved in the implementation of a project needs to know the project game plan and how it relates to the goal. Furthermore, everyone's goal for the project must be the same. "There is a class of users today who want the user-experience they have at home to be identical to what they see at work," BlueWater's McElwain said. "They have greater expectations than before, and as technology continues to move fast, these expectations are a moving target."

When projects go awry, it is often because the proper business metrics and measurements to define success have not been set, either overall or for each segment of the project. "That results sometimes in technical 'completion' but business dissatisfaction," he said. "Without proper measurements, the project is never truly aligned to the business objectives. The textbook 'post-purchase dissonance' on a grand scale has now occurred."

#5 -- Communicate your plan

The best-laid plans will go down the toilet if no one else knows about them. Teamwork is the name of the game. Careful planning along with effective communication is key to successful completion of the goal. Strong communication will also help strengthen relationships among the different stakeholders in an organization.

"I believe a lack of preparation and communication are the reasons so many IT projects don't live up to expectations," said Derek Gabriel, founder of Gabriel Phoenix Communications, Kaneohe, Hawaii. "I see it around me all the time. Either a client has multiple layers of project management, and they haven't done the appropriate legwork, or the left hand is unaware of what the right hand is doing."

#6 -- Spend money wisely, but spend it

Invest in IT projects. If there is not enough cash flow, postpone the project, if it's not a priority. Doing a half-baked job will simply postpone the inevitable task of redoing it later -- a waste of time and money down the road. If it is mission-critical, devote time and resources to it, even if it means putting other projects on hiatus either temporarily or permanently. And being miserly can aggravate other problems that impede IT progress.

"Penny-pinching is the biggest reason for lack of preparation. I often see project managers being forced to shop around for the lowest price, instead of spending time on developing relationships with vendors and pre-planning projects," Gabriel said. "Executive management fails to realize that the final price of a project isn't written on the bottom of a bid sheet. They don't consider the value of having something done right the first time. If they'd focus more on the quality of their vendor relationships they'll end up with vendors that know their processes and procedures and that care for their client's well being. And we'd see the reverse: Two out of three IT projects exceeding expectations."