Monday, April 22, 2013

How To Avoid IT Project Failures | IT Strategies For Future Cities

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  Monday, April 22, 2013
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5 Steps To Avoid IT Project Failures

My debut column for InformationWeek exposed some big, hairy reasons IT projects fail. It should comfort you to know that I don't pretend to have all the answers, or at least I won't until I'm trying to sell you something. So instead of answers, let's focus on the direction in which we need to walk to get to that shining goal on the horizon -- not the "city upon the hill" that Reagan and JFK spoke about, but the nondescript office park at its center.

1. Stay clear of cheese. Don't get me wrong. I love the smell of cheese. My favorite is a seasonal offering from Vermont that contains horseradish. But one smell I can't stand is the ingratiating stench of management consultants who prey on the vanities of the elderly by saying things like "IT project success demands that you get support from senior management."

If you're in that kind of company, then you're already a lost cause. And not just because you hire a fleet of consultants to sell you cheese and another fleet to tell you who moved it.

You're lost because in most organizations "senior management" is code for those random few whose gut-based decisions have been right in the past. Careers advanced by lottery. Because if anything deserves the warning that "past performance does not predict future returns," it's senior management, not mutual funds.

The older I get, the more I wish that there were some folksy home remedy for it, like rubbing oatmeal on your elbow. But for those of us genuinely interested in transforming our orgs, step one is to change the talent that drives it.

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