Any company that carries out large projects should take the time to analyze the outcomes for failures, success or possible improvement. An IT-Project can be considered successful when the following criteria have been reached:
- The project outcome has been delivered on time.
- The project is on or even under budget.
- The IT system works as required.
Only a few projects can achieve all the criteria and this is why you should analyze thoroughly the reasons for the failure, as soon as one of the mentioned success factors failed.
Factors that are involved in any project failure
Findings show that there is no universal factor that causes a project failure. IT-Projects are normally a very complex undertaking and can be impacted by many different variables which can mainly be divided into people-related risks or process-related risks. Here are the main factors for each group:
People-Related Risks
- Lack of user involvement: This is a fatal error that can kill any process success. It is the responsibility of the project manager to make sure that all the project members are committed to the project and the corresponding project management tools.
- Lack of knowledge: Software and IT are an inevitable part of many projects. Managers, who are in charge of the product, too often have a limited understanding of how to implement the IT component.
- Experts are overscheduled: Make sure that you don´t concentrate too much work on one expert in the team as this may lead to considerable problems in the project schedule.
Process-Related Risks
- Resources are getting assigned to a higher priority project: The day that a project from this very important client comes in, your resources are reduced to a minimum. Talk to the management in advance to avoid a lack of resources for your project.
- Poor or no requirements: What happens if developers don´t have enough input from the users? They build what they believe is needed. This can be fateful for the outcome of the project.
- Bad change management: It is unrealistic to think that a project won´t undergo any changes, so be prepared for them. Uncontrolled changes in the course of the project cycle have to be documented and managed adequately. A strong business app can be a helping hand here.
This list of factors is in no case complete but they seem to be the most probable reasons for disappointed users.
IT projects fail for a variety of reasons, this writer says, but for the most part, pitfalls are either people-related (such as a lack of user knowledge) or process-related (such as poor management of the transition from one system to the next).
in my View When it comes to Finance IT, one major source of trouble is a lack of understanding between Finance and IT. Finance teams often struggle with business technology, and IT teams are not well-versed on technical finance issues. Leading companies teach influential finance leaders business architecture skills and methodologies to help them articulate system requirements. Also, they ensure all stakeholders affected by new systems are involved in planning and implementation activities.
Yes, definitely! Finance IT is a specialized branch of IT and I guess that you are totally right when you say that IT teams are not well-versed on technical finance issues and that the finance team struggles with business technology. I think a lot of trouble can be avoided with training and a good preparation of the IT team. Also a great project manager who is experienced in both fields can bring projects like that to success.