In law firms across the country, new technology projects are undertaken every day.  Unfortunately, statistics suggest that approximately 74 percent of projects fail, exceed budget or miss the original deadline.  Survey statistics also tell us that 60 percent of organizations utilize project managers who have little or no project management training and don’t follow any formalized methodology. 

While these statistics are troubling, successful technology projects do occur often—and frequently that success can be directly attributed to the IT project team having followed a standardized set of project management processes and techniques.  Two key components of all good project management methodologies are the initiation and planning processes.  Only by starting off on the right foot can projects have a chance of being completed on time, on budget and with the expected deliverables produced.

Kicking Off a New Project
Before a project is undertaken, its existence should be acknowledged and justified in writing.  A defined set of goals should be established, specific resources assigned and a single project manager engaged.  The completed document should be signed off on by those authorizing and/or sponsoring the project and distributed to anyone in the firm affected directly or indirectly by the project.  This formal announcement indicates the project’s importance and its need to be supported.  This written document is referred to as the project charter. 

Scope of the Project
Next comes the project scope statement, the documented basis for confirming or developing a common understanding among the stakeholders of the project’s current scope, and the guide for future project decisions. 

The project scope statement answers the questions: who, what, when, why, where, how and how many.  Included is an overview of the project, clearly articulated project goals, deliverables and the requirements to produce those deliverables.  Resources, time and cost estimates should be included, along with other relevant information such as assumptions, constraints and project exclusions.  (The availability of a specific person as project manager might be an assumption, whereas a go-live deadline would be a constraint.  Exclusions would include such things as forgoing a process review when a financial system is being implemented.)

Finally, project stakeholders should sign off on the scope statement indicating that all interested parties have agreed on the project parameters and that any differences in scope will be addressed through a change management process.

Measure Twice, Cut Once
The next step is planning how the project will be executed.  The “Measure twice, cut once” approach helps ensure success—the more thorough the planning, the lower the likelihood of rework.  Planning should be a comprehensive undertaking that focuses on all areas that will help ensure the success of the project, not simply a list of tasks in a specific order.

Organizational and resource planning is necessary to ensure that the proper staff and tools are available at the appropriate time and place.  Additionally, procedures for escalating issue resolution should be defined, and the responsible party at each escalation level should be clearly identified.

To help ensure a successful outcome, project communications must be considered and decisions made on what information about the project should be provided to whom, in what format and at what frequency.  A determination has to be made whether project status meetings and reports are sufficient or department and management level presentations are needed at crucial points.

Risk planning should also be undertaken to proactively identify, prioritize and define the firm’s response to situations that may arise and affect the project, either positively or negatively.  Risks can be highly probable events, such as staff turnover during the project or as unlikely as a blackout.  While you may not need to incorporate tasks in the project plan for addressing all identified risks, just knowing they exist and documenting possible responses to those risks ensures they have been given consideration.

Virtually all technical projects involve the procurement of hardware, software and services.  Software may be purchased from one company, while the hardware and conversion or custom enhancement development services may come from elsewhere.  Procuring resources can involve developing a statement of work or functional specification necessary to obtain bids from candidate vendors.  Additionally, project teams must determine what criteria will be used to evaluate the bid responses.  Once the vendor is selected, you must decide whether you will be utilizing the supplier’s standard contract with some revisions or have a contracts department that finds it necessary to dictate the components of a contract.

Regardless of whether the project work and deliverables are provided by a vendor or internally, the topic of quality must be considered as an important part of the planning process.  The level of quality product or services provided may determine how and when the supplier is compensated.  The quality of the overall project deliverables can determine whether the project is considered a success and whether funding for phase two will be approved.  It’s also a criterion for judging the effectiveness of the project team.

At the start of a project, you may have the urge to itemize every single task you can think of and order them in what you consider a logical sequence; but resist the urge!  Only by following a methodology that comprises a project charter, the development of a project scope statement, a comprehensive planning process, a risk response plan and a detailed action plan can you successfully complete an IT project—or for that matter, any project.

About our author . . .

Judith M. Katany is the Executive Director of Field Operations for Thomson Elite, a certified project management professional and an evangelist for strong project management practices.  She can be reached at katany@elite.com or 713.623.8804.