Reducing Project Failure

Most organisations have war stories of projects that were never completed or failed to deliver on what they promised. It is far too common an occurrence. A report from The Standish Group in 2004 entitled “CHAOS Chronicles”, which studied over 40,000 projects, showed that project success rates had more than doubled to 34% from their previous study a decade earlier! 34% is still a success rate that most organisations would consider to be unacceptable.

Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) has been generating a lot of hype recently because it addresses this high failure rate. It looks not just at how individual projects are being managed but at how those projects fit in the wider context of the organisation’s strategic goals. PPM asks the question, “Are the projects being pursued the ones that should be done in the first place?”

Forrester Benchmarks
When considering if PPM is right for your organisation, consider the following key benchmarks on PPM success from Forrester, the independent technology and market research company.

· Visibility of the total project portfolio
Elimination of redundant, underperforming, low-value and poorly aligned projects
Benchmark #1: Reduced Project Cost: 1% - 5%, Forrester, 9/05

· Better utilization of resources
Efficient allocation, reduced bottlenecks and balanced workloads
Benchmark #2: Reduced Resource FTEs: 1% - 5%, Forrester, 9/05

· Improved project success
More projects delivered on-time and within budget
Benchmark #3: Improved Project Success Rate: 15% - 30%, Forrester, 9/05

· Improved operational efficiency
Reduction in manual effort required for PPM processes.
Benchmark #4: Reduction in manual effort 20 - 30%, Forrester 9/05

· Better investment decisions
Minimize the full lifecycle costs while maximizing benefits of technology investments.
Benchmark #5: Savings in total IT costs of 5% - 8%, Forrester 9/05

· Alignment of the application portfolio
Consolidate the application portfolio, replace high cost applications, and enforce standards.
Benchmark #6: Savings in application maintenance cost: 10 – 20%, Forrester 9/05

If you would like to discuss how Mariner from Serena can help your organisation achieve these kinds of results, please contact us.

Your Maturity Matters

It has been said that Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) is largely a discussion about maturity. The more mature your key processes, the better your IT governance. As an organisation’s IT governance processes mature, it becomes more successful at doing the right projects right.

As discussed in a previous article, where project management focuses on the execution of projects, PPM looks at ensuring that the right projects are selected in the first place and that there is a balance in the portfolio of projects that is congruent with the pursuit of the strategic goals of the organisation.

Now, an organisation cannot become mature over night. Maturity takes time and effort and must be done in a progressive manner. Obviously the organisation needs to know where it currently is and what direction it should head in to make this change.

QMA
The Quick Maturity Assessment (QMA) is intended to help in this regard. It takes the form of a two hour telephone survey where key people from the organisation, with the help of an expert, answer set questions about the way it operates in seven key areas.

The output of the QMA is a report that shows, amongst other things, how the organisation scores in these seven areas. This gives the organisation a sense of what its current maturity level is. The report also details which are the areas that would bring about the most advancement in maturity for the least cost. Obviously by tackling these first, the organisation gets the most benefit for the least effort.

The screenshot below shows the Future State Maturity graph from a sample QMA which maps the organisation’s current maturity and shows where it could expect to be if it was to implement the next level of the plan from the QMA report.


The QMA is a free service that Client Solutions is now offering. Please contact us if you want to talk about your maturity and getting a free QMA.