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5 reasons why your project planning may fall apart! 1. Scope unclear or undefined In large organizations, senior management often over estimate the organization’s capacity for change both in terms of willingness or ability. This error is often compounded by an expectation that significant change can be achieved without dedicating sufficient time and resources to studying the current process and carefully developing the improved process based on the knowledge gained from the analysis. This is typically manifested in slipped project milestones, added costs, and frustration on the part of the enterprise the project management team, workers and customers. 2. Failure to develop and obtain sign-off on a sound business case or charter Reasons for this failure vary. Perhaps the project team has obtained buy-in from senior management and thinks that is all they need. Perhaps the project seems to be small and simple to execute. Perhaps the enterprise is not in the habit of creating formal business plans. Whatever the reasons, this is a mistake. Articulating a strong business case forces all players to consider what benefits are expected and not expected; what effort and expenditures will be required; and how success will be measured. A formal review process should provide discussion to refine the forgoing and achieve consensus amongst the stakeholders. Finally, a sound business case should serve as a guide during the project and as a measuring stick during implementation. Without a measurement reference, results have a way of becoming subjective. 3. Failure to identify and engage a strong project executive sponsor If the initiative really supports significant business objectives, significant stakeholders should be willing to sponsor and champion it. If these cannot be identified, and/or if they do not have enough influence in the enterprise, consider stopping before you start! 4. Failure to both identify and properly manage all the important stakeholders We all know that stakeholders’ engagement and buy-in are critical. But often our concept of “stakeholders” is too narrow and our concept of “stakeholder management” too shallow. No program/project leader/manager is perfect, but if they don’t have this essential skill, there will be problems. 5. Lack of due diligence The all-important task of documenting and analyzing the AS-IS process before designing the TO-BE process. I touched this issue in Reason 1, but it deserves its own bullet, because most enterprise have never fully documented their current processes. Typically, many things are done on a daily basis simply because that’s the way they’ve always been done. But without capturing and understanding the “why” for each of these, you are flying blind in determining what your future processes should look like. Take due caution regarding your new path; often as we fix one problem, we create another. Even if you’re clear on where you want to go, you need to know where you are and determine the best possible route. Bloger: Jean-Jacques Gauvin |
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