Best Practices for Approaching IT Projects
Unfortunately, IT project failure is very common and very expensive. A recent Standish Group survey said 24% of IT projects will fail by significantly exceeding budgets, missing deadlines, or neglecting key benefits and features.
Building a strategic IT plan that includes the right IT projects is essential to beating these odds and making the most of the IT budget. Many companies take the wrong approach to choosing these projects, and that mistake can be very costly.
As an experienced Denver IT Services vendor, Mission Critical Systems provides a virtual CIO to every client to help choose the right projects and set the right goals. The following four steps essentially define our approach.
Step 1) Identify the business problem
We start with the business problem that needs to be resolved. Is a process inaccurate, inefficient, ineffective, or needlessly difficult? What’s broken?
The difference between an IT toy and an IT investment and is that an investment fixes an existing problem. A toy creates a problem to solve. Toys are expensive and usually useless. Investments return more than they take.
Step 2) Create criteria for evaluating solutions
Once we’ve identified the problem, we create goals that match priorities. What’s most pressing? What’s critical? What goals are less important because they help fewer users or have a slighter impact?
This prioritization and formal design of goals helps create criteria for interviewing products in an objective and measurable way. Our Virtual CIO works with clients to establish these parameters and spot these opportunities for using IT services for business advantages.
Step 3) Consider products
Sometimes, the products that need to be considered are obvious. If email is an issue, Exchange is usually the solution. Other times, there may be many viable solutions. A document management need, for instance, could be addressed with many different products.
Established products that are the right size and cost for the business are almost always the best fit. If the product requires little or no customization, that’s even better. Good IT consulting helps to direct the search to the right products and create criteria by which products should be evaluated.
The best product may only solve 80% of the goals, but fit better into the budget and deliver the fastest return. More expensive products that do everything for the company may be too complex or expensive. Balancing business needs with budget is key.
Step 4) Choose an implementation plan along with the project.
Implementation shouldn’t require everyone in the office to get a PhD. It shouldn’t take 3 years from start to finish, and it shouldn’t rely on “a little luck.”
The Implementation plan is almost as important as the product itself, since it is such a key to user adoption and success. The plan should minimize the disruption to the company and have demonstrable objects at every milestone.
Formalizing these steps and recording expectations and goals helps to keep the project on track and get everyone, from internal employees to outside IT services contractors and vendors, on the same page. A formal project plan also will help in evaluating how successful the project was.
For more information on strategic IT planning, please contact us.
