Projects with great potential always get bigger and more complex than originally anticipated. In many cases, the most enthusiastic people on a project drive this expansion as their ambition to make the project a huge success gets out of control.
It is tempting then to move the launch dates until the grand dream is accomplished. In the face of a looming deadline, reduce scope to make the launch date. Postpone features and communicate the change in scope. Getting a project completed and in production gives a company concrete benefits from having a working system as well as a wealth of information about how to get it right.
Be realistic. Use the 8/2 rule, in which 8 percent of the value comes from 2 percent of the features. Be careful, though: 80 percent of pie in the sky. Projects dealing with new technologies are a magnet for excitement, scope creep, and unreasonable expectations. Simplify and reduce scope at every possible moment. Even successful projects can be considered a failure when they are measured against implicit, unrealistic expectations. Choose pilots that have definable scope, and then use the results to carefully scope larger projects. Communicate the scope widely.Steering committees populated with a large number of people have to reconcile a large number of interests. This situation frequently makes cutting scope impossible because one person doesn’t get what he wants. Clear priorities are hard to set and decision-making slows to a crawl because each issue becomes a political dogfight. Steering committees must be created from business, IT, and practitioners on a project, empowered explicitly by top management to make far-reaching decisions without delay. Keep this group as small as possible. Face political issues directly. Set goals for the project, and the steering committee move quickly toward them.When gas vendors are worried about sustaining and nurturing relationships with clients, they are fearful of delivering bad news. Unless vendors are directed to be openly critical, they will hope for the best. When a vendor is told to do a narrow job and not think about the larger success of the project, it doesn’t help and manage risks outside this domain.When vendors are worried about sustaining and nurturing relationships with clients, they are fearful of delivering bad news. Unless vendors are directed to be openly critical, they will hope for the best. When a vendor is told to do a narrow job and not think about the larger success of the project, it doesn’t help find and manage risks outside this domain. Choose vendors who are seeking, and have established, long-term relationships with their customers. Bring them into the team and encourage them to seek out problems. Be a demanding but rewarding customer.
With RFID, Think Process and Not Just Technology
As always, the very real danger is that managers themselves will become seduced by the new technologies and then appreciate them only superficially and misunderstand their true purpose and potential.
How are Firewall Systems Incorporated in Remote Monitoring?
Firewall implementations are available today from a wide array of vendors. With the ever-increasing awareness of network security and the costs of lost information, many new firewall implementations continue to emerge.
What is ITSP Sourcing?
An entire library could be written on this topic. In the ITSM world, sourcing is considered part of the service design model and something every business customer plans well before the service requirements are finalized.
