Projects fail when they lose touch with reality apm - jan 2013

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Projects fail when…

… they lose touch with reality

Projects fail when... Jan 2013

2Projects fail when... Jan 2013

hendriko


Bitman

Failure can be ambiguous

4

Beware of agendas!



pri.studio360

Projects Fail

Projects fail when... Jan 2013 6

Ville Miettinen


Time

Days until

delivery date

Slip

Lead

Earthquake

Aftershocks


Lead

Slip

• 9 months of smooth running

• Then magnitude of task suddenly hits(stress builds to point where something gives)

• PMs asked for what they thought they could get, not what they needed

• Anchored by proximity of deadline

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Project Management

LiteratureProjects fail when... Jan 2013


lsie esq.

Poor link to organisational objectives


Green-Ghost

Unclear scope and requirements


jurvetson

Lack of executive commitment / involvement


Hamed Saber

Unmanaged change


qmnonic

Unmanaged risks(often undiscussables)


aturkus

Poor communications(internal and external)


Unrealistic estimates, schedules, staffing, tools

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So what?We already know all this stuff.



Simon Schoeters

Project failures become apparent when we run into

reality

We lose touch with reality as we estimate, negotiate,

track progress, …

Complexity, optimism, power games, cognitive biases, fear all

exacerbate the problem

Much project management is about building mechanisms to

keep in touch with reality

Note: The failure actually happened long before it became apparent.

To avoid disaster, identify the failure while it can be remedied and learned from.


Marcin Wichary

Why don’t we recognise failures earlier?

Because projects are run by people…


jack_spellingbacon

Overconfidence


futureatlas.com

Oversimplification


kainet

Anchoring


annia316

Avoiding pain


Antoaneta

Confirmation bias


Madzik

Repetition bias


condour

Perceptual biases


lostajy

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What can we do?



AlphaGeek

Recommendations to improve review artefacts

Review execution

Inputs

Artefacts & otheritems to review, plus supporting details.

Outputs

Improved artefacts.

Go / No -go decision.

Baseline Criteria Reference Models

Control parameters

Feedback to improve reference models

Analysis Loop

Reviews


Lead

Slip


Lead

Slip

3 months

• Surfaced concerns earlier

• Helped people plan before asking

• Gave courage to ask for what they needed

• Sponsored an informed debate

• People generally knew what was wrong with their projects

• Reviews surfaced information, they didn’t create it


oskay

Small chunks


kakutani

Metrics


sidstamm

Plan for change(Plan as guide, not crutch)


Understand boundary between project and operations


Communicate

ky_olsen

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Summary

We engage with risks to achieve rewards

Sometimes the risks win

Complexity and intangibility exacerbate the risks

We recognise failure when we run into reality

If we keep in touch with reality, the bump is less dramatic

Watch reality, not the plan


Two types of failure

a) Failure you learn from

b) Failure that kills you

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Thank You

[email protected]

@GrahamDOakes


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Making sense of technology… Many organisations are caught up in the

complexity of technology and systems. This complexity may be inherent to the

technology itself. It may be created by the pace of technology change. Or it may arise from the surrounding process, people and governance structures.

We help untangle this complexity and define business strategies that both can be implemented and will be adopted by people throughout the organisation and its partner network. We then help assure delivery of implementation projects.

Clients… Cisco Worldwide Education – Architecture and research for e-learning and educational systems Council of Europe – Systems for monitoring compliance with international treaties; e-learning systems Dover Harbour Board – Systems and architecture review MessageLabs – Architecture and assurance for partner management portal National Savings & Investments – Helped NS&I and BPO partner develop joint IS strategy The Open University – Enterprise architecture, CRM and product development strategies Oxfam – Content management, CRM, e-Commerce Thames Valley Police – Internet Consultancy Sony Computer Entertainment – Global process definition Amnesty International, Endemol, tsoosayLabs, Vodafone, …

Graham Oakes Ltd


Business

Projects fail when they lose touch with reality apm - jan 2013