A white paper from Concert Technologies takes a cold, hard look at project management in information technology (IT) rollouts, and paints a stark picture. “Companies are racing to implement technologies that increase efficiency, cut costs and deliver business value faster than ever before,” explains the paper’s author Dennis Mazaris, RTPM, Concert’s president. “Unfortunately, this technological sprint too often ends in failure. Budgets are overrun, schedules are protracted—or worse—projects are never delivered.” He then cites a 10-year study of more than 3,000 projects, which found only 6.4 percent were deemed successful. More than half were challenged by situations including budget overruns, schedule misses, or customer dissatisfaction. And more than 40 percent were failures and either abandoned or begun anew.
After citing a few more dire stats, Mazaris notes, “While there are many pieces to the technology rollout puzzle, project management remains the most important. Studies of project failure show that project management possessing the expert factor—experience and knowledge of technology deployment—is key to overcoming the dismal odds.”
The paper addresses the many heads of the project-management beast, including staffing and contracting with a project-management firm—detailing what to look for from a firm in terms of experience, credentials, scalability, readiness, reputation and other factors.
In its conclusion, the paper notes, “Having the right project manager on staff at the right time, with undivided attention on a critical project, can appear nearly impossible … The odds of project success can be optimized by contracting a project management firm specializing in technology rollouts.”
You can view and download the paper here.
