An Even Newer Idea to Consider

The Standish Group has been tracking the reason for project failures for several years now. Its 2010 report listed the top ten reasons projects become challenged (shown in Table 18-1). Based on my research into effective complex project management I have defined the disciplines needed by a complex project manager to be:

• Project Management (PM)
• Business Analysis (BA)
• Business Process Management (BPM)
• Information Technology (IT)

Table 18-1 maps these disciplines to the ten causes of project failure. Notice how important the roles of the BA and BPM are in mitigating so many of these reasons. For the first time meaningful client involvement (expressed as user input) was at the top of the list. We've always had client involvement but until quite recently it amounted to little more than signing an arcane functional specification document under threat of project delay if the document was not promptly signed. That characterized the relationship between the techie and the client in the 1950s and even into the 1960s. The techie's toolkit has evolved and now includes Joint Applications Design (JAD), Rapid Applications Development (RAD), prototyping, requirements gathering, use case scenarios, business process diagramming, and a host of other processes that bring the client into active involvement beginning with the scoping phase of the project and continuing through to completion and implementation. The BA has been instrumental in facilitating the meaningful involvement of the client and surely helped increase the likelihood of complex project success.

Table 18-1: Top 10 Prioritized Reasons for Complex Projects to be Challenged (Standish Group CHAOS Report 2010)

Complex projects are characterized by a high degree of uncertainty and risk. We know that these projects cannot succeed without meaningful client involvement. How to attain that involvement and maintain it over the project life cycle is not an easy matter. Each of the four disciplines is a critical part of that effort, and that effort extends over the entire project life cycle. The best advice I have to offer is for all complex project team (CPT) members to use the language of the client. Anything else will take the client further outside of their comfort zone. It is not realistic to expect the client to adopt the language of the PM or the IT professional.

Table 18-2 is the RASCI Matrix for the responsibilities of each professional over the life of the project. RASCI is an acronym that stands for Responsible, Approves, Supports, Consults, and Informs. The combined skill profiles of the four disciplines must be sufficient to meet all project responsibilities. In this book those skills might be shared between professionals or those skills might be possessed by a single professional, one who has everything needed to effectively execute the project.

Table 18-2: PM, BA, BPM, and IT RASCI Matrix

As you will note in the preceding table the deliverables are either the responsibility of the PM or the BA. Their performance goals are different. The PM focuses on process, time, cost, and resource management. The BA focuses on the deliverables from the process and meeting client needs, requirements, and expected business value. These can be at odds with one another, but it is that healthy contention that produces success. The goal of their project is to find a solution that meets the expected business value that initially justified doing the project. That project goal is the driving force that helps the PM and BA resolve the contention between their performance goals.

If you are a member of the senior management team (SMT), you should consult my recent book Executive Guide to Project Management: Organizational Process and Practices for Supporting Complex Projects (John Wiley & Sons, 2011).