There are hundreds of factors that can affect the outcome of any IT project. After years of managing all types of projects I have come to the conclusion that failure is often due to a lack of balance between three competing forces.
- How fast you try to finish the project.
- How frugal (or cheap) you are being.
- How much you want the system to do.
There are many variations on the three legged stool analogy but they all state that you cannot have all three “legs.” I don’t agree. In fact, this type of thinking is dangerous. It only deals in extremes.
With so many things to go wrong, it is hard to get it right.
Although it is true you cannot build a highly complex system in days for a dime, you can build a system that has reasonable functionality in a reasonable time on a reasonable budget. The minute you move one of those factors closer to the extreme, the more likely you are to have a failed project.
So what is reasonable?
Reasonable is subjective and changes with each project. There is no magic formula to figure out what is reasonable. Each project does tend to have one “set in stone” factor.
- If I need to replace my routers because they are old, and I don’t need any new functionality, then I know for sure what my functional requirements are. Now I only have to find a reasonable timeline and budget.
- If I need to replace a CRM system with something new and unknown, I can set an upper and lower budget for the project and then keep the timeline and functional requirements within that budget.
- If a product, like Windows XP, is being retired and must be replaced, I have a firm timeline. I only need to find the right balance between cost and functionality.
In most cases you only have to balance two factors, not all three.
Finding balance
This is not a joke: If everyone is a little unhappy, you have probably done well. Balance is about finding the middle ground which means someone will be disappointed. The budget conscious will feel like it was slightly more expensive than they wanted. The time conscious will feel it took too long. The rest will feel like some “nice to have” features are missing. Although this sounds bad, it is really project nirvana.
If one group is really happy, you focused too much on them. You gave them too much which throws the project out of balance. You have all the killer features but blew the budget or timeline.
Balancing a moving target
The most complicated projects I have worked on are software implementations like CRM or ERP. They always have an incomplete list of functional requirements. They always have a budget and timeline based on estimates from a vendor with an unclear understanding of the unclear requirements. The entire project is based on nothing but guesses which is why they often fail to meet expectations. The requirements always grow, the budget always grows, and the timeline always grows yet both the vendor and customer blame each other for the overage.
For projects like this, you must have (or be) a project manager that keeps all three factors in everyone’s mind at all times. You can’t add features without adding time and budget. You can’t set a deadline in stone unless you also freeze your requirements.
Who owns the leg
Just to make things more difficult, each leg of the stool, or factor, is generally managed by different groups. A senior manager or executive may be in charge of the budget while the IT team might be in charge of the timeline while some department head may be in charge of the functional requirements. They each look almost exclusively at their leg of the stool and say “My leg is the wrong length, fix it!” They don’t always care about the other legs and that means you have to balance requirements by getting three or more groups to understand each other’s needs. The project manager may need a degree in counseling to get some groups to work well with each other. If you can’t get all the groups to work together, the project will almost certainly fail to meet expectations.
Think balance, every day
You have to start a project in a balanced state. You have to consider how every decision you make affects the balance of the project. You have to communicate how each decision affects the project balance. If you end with a reasonable balance between cost, timeline, and functionality you hit a very small moving target. It feels like nothing less than a miracle.
Decomplexification 