Goede en slechte redenen om je aanpak te bepalen

Op het moment dat je een klus aanneemt krijg je al snel de vraag of je een project of een programma opstart. Mischien ben je wel bezig met de “Corporate Portfolio”.

In een korte serie artikeltjes hoop ik te kunnen bijdragen aan deze discussie en hoop ik dat men beter in staat is om de verschillende aanpakken te onderscheiden.

Wat zijn slechte ‘drivers’ of redenen om de typering van je project te bepalen?

Project failure most of the time the sponsors fault

Translated from: www.computable.nl
Results of a Computable survey shows that Dutch ICT personel believe that when ICT projects fail often the sponsor and the performer are the mayor cause.

Computable says:”Many factors play a role in the failure of ICT projects. This is evident from the company’s annual research into the image of ICT service providers that has been carried out by TNS NIPO among more than two thousand ict’ers. The complete study (in dutch) can be found in the ICT Services Guide.”

Computable respondents gave the following reasons for project failure:
- 19% of the respondents say: because the customer does not state clearly enough what he wants.
- 15% of the respondents blame the service provider: because the provider communicates too little communicates with the client.
- 12% of the repondents state: the projects fail because the focus is not (or not enough) on the users.

Other reasons for project failure:
- Service providers lay the blame at the client side: “The sponsor is trying to outsource his own problem, but must first solve his problems himself before outsourcing.”
- and: “The client often is sabotaging his own project by giving too little space to the service provider for its work.”
- “the contract does not reflect the real business need”
- “careless analysis at the beginning of the journey”
- “Trojan horses in contract”
- and “projectscope is not sufficiently secured and guarded.”

On these reasons a strong reaction follows:
- “service providers focus too much on their own products and see other solutions as a threat to the projects. Even if it is a better solution for the customer.”
- “clients, define their projects too large, so the provider does not have sufficient knowledge / skills in a person or team available.”

A lot of sadness speaks from this remark:
- “service providers often have no business knowledge. Our experience shows it is of vital importance, and that is the main reason why projects fail.”

Another customer with little positive experiences with service providers:
- “The client is often not sufficiently aware of the contract and the service provider cannot place himself in the position of the users, thats why the gol of the project slips out of sight, the service provider does not respect mutual made agreements and doesnot deliver what is asked. ”

Ofcourse, states computable, the truth lies in the middle.
“A lot of respondents state that there is usually more than one reason in the game:
- It often involves a combination of reasons, but mainly because the service providers appears unable to act as system integrator, such as when it is contracted.”

Similarly, many respondents indicated that the fault lies mostly with both parties and the truth in the middle. This respondent expresses the beautiful:
- “at the start of projects the supplier and customer should commit to make the project a success.This is evident but in the daily practice it is easier said than done ….”

Why is HealthCheck-Online created?

For many years I’ve been using appendix D in the Prince2 bible. In this appendix D of the OGC’s Prince2 (Managing Sucessful Projects) there is a wonderful health check which I have used for years to check the state of my projects. As programme manager I have used it to check my project managers and help them perform better.

Every time I switched jobs I was surprised that I was the only one who had an automated Prince2 checklist. With this website I found an easy way to share my automated checklist with the world.

To use the Online Prince2 health check select the desired check from the submenu. Fill in your name and email. Select the ’send me a copy’ box, to receive the results by mail.

I must warn you if you want to perform the whole Prince2 HealthCheck. It has 202 questions. I can advise you to start with a partial check. Like the ’start up’ health check.

Prince2 project management weblog for healthcheck-online.com

Today I opend this Prince2 project management weblog. The weblog comes together with the free online Prince2 Healthcheck at http://www.healthcheck-online.com.

In this weblog you will find articles that are interesting for project managers or other Prince2 addicts.

What is HealthCheck-Online about?

HealthCheck-Online offers the possibility to review your Prince2 projects and ITIL processes using an automated checklist.
HealthCheck-Online currently offers checklists in the following categories for you:

• Prince2
• ITIL (under construction)

The basics of the checklist are the same:

1. Fill in your name and email address;
2. Answer the multiple choice questions
3. Result of the check is presented,
   and if you indicated that you want the results received by mail: results are send by email.

Perform a Prince2 or ITIL health check now (clik on the healthcheck-onlinelogo) and leave a message.

Recently opened: the HealthCheck-Online Facebook Group.

Have fun!