Describing IT project success

IT organizations have a problem when they talk about project success. That success is almost always described in terms of the project itself, yet the reason why the project was undertaken was a business reason. The business wanted to improve the outcomes that they received from one of their processes.

Project success is normally measured by:

• The project was completed on time.


• The project was completed within 10% of budget.

The real issue is: "did the business receive the value that they expected?" If the answer is no, then the project was a failure. If the business can't answer the question, then the project was a failure. Significant time and efort has been spent in the last 30 years to improve project success. All of it has been placed on success as measured by the project team, not by the business.

In this example, the project team considered the project a success. The business considered it an outright failure, because:

• The solution increased workload.
• The solution did not cater for exceptions.
• The job roles were changed. The staff were trained on the software, but not their changed roles.

The result? Negative productivity impact on the business.

Technology value through Focus and Will

Years ago, I went on a course that presented three steps for achieving results:

• Focus
• Will
• Capability

I read about cultures that achieved great things. They lacked the skills or capabilities to move forward, but had the focus and will. They eventually developed the capabilities.

The same is true of technology. I see many small business owners that are frustrated wth technology. They don't have the interest and abdicate their responsibilities to others who are comfortable with it.

I understand the frustration that these business owners have. Most technology based solutions are presented as technology solutions in their own right and not as business solutions.

When a business decides to buy software, they start with a business problem. As solutions providers, we jump right in and assume that the software is THE solution. The business peopl lose interest, because they don't care about the technology. They care about their business problem. This is the way it should be.

The three words listed above offer the solution to the problem.

Focus: on the business problem, not on the software. What problem are you trying to solve. If it is important to your business, keep this focus. Don't get distrated. When the software supplier tries to teach you everything about the software (fire hose training), resist and get them to focus on the features and functions that will help solve your problem.

Will: This will be painful. The technical support people will try to get you away from your focus, to get their approach and become technical. Resist. Maintain your focus. Learn what you need to know to succeed at solving your problem.

Capability: If you can maintain your focus, you will learn what you need to know. You don't have to be a technician. You need to understand how to manage technology so that it helps your business.

Business Process Consulting and Software as a Service

With the growth of software being provided as a service, for rent rather than purchase, some consultants have the opportunity to make themselves experts in the processes behind these software products.

In the past, many consultants have provided support for specific software products, because there was revenue available by selling the hardware and software as well as installing and configuring the software. In his article on "SaaS drives business consulting", Michael Vizard describes some of the opportunities. Software products have seldom been utilized to their full capabilities. If consultants start to focus on helping businesses understand the processes behind the software and extend the use, so that they get better value, they become much more closely tied to the processes rather than the software product.

This is a good thing.

Too much time has been spent on the technology or the specific software product, and not enough on the business process. Improved business processes help to drive business value. Focusing on trying to get the software to deliver more value to the process can only help to improve performance and reduce costs.

I haven't seen many consultants with a business process focus, but if more get into it, I think it's great. To see Michael's full article click here.

Is Vista about money or Value?

A Computerworld article describes the reason why Microsoft is having trouble getting businesses to upgrade to the Vista operating system.

It describes the problem as being about money. Because of the recession, most large businesses cannot afford to take on a project to convert from Windows XP to Vista. It costs money for licenses, it costs time and money to do the upgrade. And after upgrading, you get a new slate of problems that you have to diagnose. This means that reliability goes down, productivity goes down. On top of that users have to be retrained.

Now if there was value to be gained by the upgrade, it may make it worthwhile. Traditionally, people in IT have taken upgrades as a normal thing. But upgrades have always cost money, and time, and training and releaqrning how to solve the new set of problems that come up.

Maybe it's time we start thinking differently. Just because the software supplier wants more revenue, is not a good enough reason for users to be buying new licenses. It has to have business value! The cost of upgrading is far too high to waste money and not get business value!

Maybe we need a new model to work with. There are elements of this new model out there in open source and Software as a Service. At least this may keep the upgrades in the realm of the people who may find value from it, the people who provide outsourcing or applications for rent. The average business person has nothing to gain.

The full article can be viewed here.

Getting to the Business Goal

Many technology related projects get stuck in the technology world. They start with a business goal, but by the time they get to doing something, the goal is totally wrapped as a technology related project. The end result is that although the technology related project is delivered, the business goal is missed, or the effort to deliver it exceeds the value.

A recent project provides an example of how the business goal can easily be missed.

I was called in to help a small construction company. They were growing rapidly and went from small jobs to much larger ones. These larger projects required more sophistocated tools. As a result, they purchased new software. After a year of trying unsuccesfully to implement, they called me for help.

In analyzing the situation, I found that the software was probably the right one for the job. However, the approach was wrong. The focus had been to implement the complex functions first, ignoring was was their bread and butter operation. The complexity of the new function required significant effort, meanwhile, they had problems with day-to-day operations.

In digging into the issue further, I found that they were unable to invoice their customers ina timely manner. Since everything was being done manually, they had no records until after a job was invoiced, no ability to follow up on what was billed or not billed. Invoicing was 3-6 months late.

The delayed invoices meant that customers were not being billed and therefore not paying their bills until months later. This created a cash flow problem. lack of cash flow meant that the business could not take on the bigger, more profitable jobs. Lack of bigger jobs meant that the growth of the company was stopped.

So the real business goal was to grow the company. In order to grow, the company needed cash. In order to get cash, the company needed to invoice more quickly on the small jobs. In order to bill more quickly, they needed to start tracking jobs when they were started, when a quote was given.

We were able to capture all existing jobs and and create a follow up process for planning and executing the jobs as well as invoicing most jobs within days of completion in less than 3 months. This meant that the company could focus on growing the business quickly. The new functions to handle to large jobs could be done during quieter times.

If the original goal of fully implementing the software had been maintained as the priority, it would have taken a lot longer and cost a lot more. During that delay, the company might not have survived its cash flow problem.

Herding Cats, Buffalo, Geese and Information Technology

These three types of animals are very different in their makeup, and the way that they can be managed. This makeup also means that they deliver very different results.

Herding cats is a real challenge. Even though they are a common house pet, they are very difficult to control. Cats will do what they want to do, whenever they want to do it. Working with one cat is manageable. When you get a second or third or more, they are impossible. Where some animals, such as cows or buffalo, follow a common path, cats don't. They do whatever they please and when you try to exert control they scatter.

Buffalo are another matter. While much bigger and stronger, buffalo are very easy to control. They follow the leader. They don't think and choose for themselves. Before controls were established, they almost became extinct. All a hunter had to do was control the leader, and the others would follow.

Geese, on the other hand are very different. Each goose knows where it is going and what is needed to get there. They work as a team. When one tires or falters, another quickly takes over. Split them up and they continue to function, and eventually get back together. They know that their strength is in their support of each other, whether its two, five or ten. There is strength in numbers, if those numbers understand where they are going and how to get there. When a weaker member gets in the lead, they don't have to be the strongest. They can lead for a short period, yet know that another is ready to take their place.

In a business, we have cats, buffalo and geese. I have seen many organizations that function with mostly buffalo. As a result, they succeed for a while, because of the strength of their leader. But when their leader falters, they lose.

Many organizations prefer to manage buffalo, because it's much easier than trying to herd cats. But cats are free thinkers. They have ideas that can help an organization, but there is no common direction in the organization. Each cat has his own views and approach, and since there is no common goal, there is no way to measure success. Since cats are fighting the system, managers attempt to put controls on them. This succeeds in one of two things: the cats become buffalo; the cats leave the system. Both result in a loss for the business. Buffalo will become extinct, unless their system is managed for them.

The solution is to help cats become geese. This means common goals and a system for reaching those goals with the strength of each individual. What is that system? It may be slightly different for each business, but the process for achieving that goal must be understood by every individual within the business. They must know how what they do affects every other step in the process. This may sound difficult, but it isn't. It's a matter of focus.

What does this have to do with Information Technology? When you change the software in your business, you are changing the system for meeting the goal. Cats, buffalo and geese will all react differently. This is what change management specialists are trying to manage. If you don't understand what animal you are working with, you are going to have problems. No matter what you do, you can't herd cats. No matter what you do, you can't get buffalo to think and act independently.

My next post will talk about what you can do to handle a major change such as software implementation.

Eliminate the problems of computer support - Part 3

My last two posts talked about the benefits of a good computer supplier. My last one talked about the problems caused by buying and installing software on your computers.

This one will look at the benefits of an alternative solution: Renting your software. If you are not convenced yet, go back to my last post and ask yourself if you want to solve these problems. If you don't, then let me describe the benefits, and why you should lease software.

First of all, let's talk about what I mean by leasing software.

There are a number of software products that are available on the Internet. To use these products, you don't buy them and install them on your computer. You simply access them via your browser. Some are free, like google applications, others you pay for using them every month. There are a number of very good products that are available this way and this is the direction that the industry is going.

While you may have to pay something every month, there are significant advantages.

• You pay for only what you use. This means that a large and a small business might use the identical product, but the big business will pay more because they have more users.
  
• When a new version comes out, the supplier is responsible for upgrading it.


• If it doesn't work, you call support and they have the problem of fixing it.


• The exact same software with all of the fixes is used by everyone, so you don't have to worry about keeping it up-to-date.


• Your files are stored on their computers, so they are responsible for backup. If you want to protect yourself more, you can take a backup yourself. You don't have to worry about offsite backup.


• Whether your office is in one location or many, you all have the ability to share it, without having to worry about designing a network.
• Software is not being installed on each of your computers, so you don't have to worry as much about computer maintenance and support.



• No matter how big the software gets, you don't have to worry about upgrading your computer's memory or hard drive. Your PC could last a lifetime.
  

Do all of these benefits make it worthwhile to rent instead of buying? It at least must make it worth considering.

There is another issue that may make it worth considering. When a software supplier sells you a big complex software product, they often surprise you with a big training cost. This package is never enough and even though you get training (see fire hose training), it is never enough. With some of the software that I have tried, they are simple to use. You can use as much of the product as you want, which means less training required and a gradual approach. I intend to look more into this to see how easily a small company can convert all of their business to these products. Some are very comprehensive.

Do you have a business problem?

Running a business is an ongoing challenge. There is constant change in technology, in the structure of communities, in customer requirements. New problems crop up all the time.

I see stress in people as these new problems come up. You can no longer solve the problems in the same way you did last year. You come up over the hill of solving one problem and think that you can relax, but you can't. Another problem is there waiting for you.

You can approach it in two ways:

• Continue to think of it as a problem, and continue to get stressed by the problems.
• Look at it as an opportunity. Every problem is an opportunity in disguise. Every problem creates the opportunity to learn, to solve a problem in a better way, so thata it doesn't come up again.

Opportunities create excitement and interest. Wouldn't you rather go around being excited about opportunities, excited about learning new things, meeting new people, identifying even more opportunities?

The difference between problems and opportunities is attitude. What affects your attitude is your ability to focus. If you don't have a goal and focus on achieving that goal, every problem is an independent issue and doesn't really mean anything to you, other than being a problem.

If you have a goal and you know what the problem is stopping you from achieving, then it is no longer a problem. Overcoming it is an opportunity to reach your goal.

Do everything computer support

I've recently read a number of ads and articles from ccomputer support companies that claim that they can provide all of your computer support from hardware and software purchases to strategic planning to website development.

In this day and age, technology is changing and growing rapidly. In order to stay up to date, you must specialize. When you try to sell your services to a customer, what is he impressed with?

• The fact that you can do anything, but not particularly well?
• The fact that you are a specialist and you can solve his or her problem the fastest?

No single person or company can be the best at everything. With the frustrations that most of us face with computers, it is tempting to "abdicate" our responsibilities as business owners to the kid down the street who is comfortable with computers.

Don't do it! He will be managing your business for you!

Even companies that get into this and try to do everything can't be good at it. Even if they have enough staff to keep up-to-date on everything, every company needs a focus. They need to be known to be REALLY GOOD at one thing. They may be able to do other things for you, but they work best for you if they help you to find other specialists.

On top of that, there are three different types of consultant or support that can be valuable for you. They are:

• Computer and technology support
• Business planning support for effective use of technology.
• Websites

These three types are very different, and someone who is really good at one, is unlikely to be really good at another, because they are very different skillsets.

• Websites are not about technology, they are about marketing. Any technician can build a website, but if it doesn't produce a return on investment, it is not worth the price that you paid for it.
• Business planning for technology is not about technology, it is about business results. If you buy software and it doesn't produce a return on investment, it is a waste.
• Computer and technology support is not about fixing computers, it is about keeping your systems up and running, so that the other investments that you make can produce the return on investment that you expect.

The next time somebody tells you that they can do it all, run for the nearest exit! Find somebody that has your interests at heart and get help you to meet your goals, not try to be everything at the lowest price. You can afford the cost.

• some support companies tell you they do everything.

Too much specialization, can't do anything well.

Eliminate the frustration - Part 2

Many business people are frustrated by the problems that we have with computers. They don't do what we want, they have problems, they are complex to learn and understand. They take time away from running our business.

My whole career has been spent in IT, and I feel that way as well. I know how to go about solving these problems and I still get frustrated, because they get in my way.

The other day, I described how a good computer support company can improve the quality of service that you get. Today I want to take a look at another side of the problem and describe what you can do as a small business owner to solve these problems. I will not describe any technical solution, because I know that this would simply frustrate you more and take you away from what you really want to do. Go find that supplier! This relates to what you can do in your business.

In order to address this, I have to start with the attitude of most small business owners. When we go out to buy software, we want to OWN it. OWNING IT puts us in control. Or so we think. If we own it, then we can do whatever we want with it. When we rent it, we pay and pay and pay. So we want to own it.

Microsoft and other PC software suppliers love us for this. Because we buy and install our own software, they can upgrade it and even though we think we can put off the upgrade, they know that in order for people to work together, they often must have the same version. And look what they do to us. We can't buy the old version, so they make major changes to it, causing us a huge amount of effort to change. Look at the Vista fiasco. Not only were there many problems, but we had to relearn everything. Huge cost for NO VALUE. Problem #1.

Windows is a messy system and every time you install something, you update the registry. The more installs and deletes of software, the messier it gets. Not only that, but every software supplier is responsible for cretaing the "package" to install their own software. Some do it well, some make a mess. I worked with a large business to improve the installation process to prevent errors. We had to repackage everything to make it work properly.

Who is responsible for solving this problem? You are! All of these software developers are creating this problem and they want you, the computer user to solve it.

The more change you make on your PC, the more space is taken up, the more problems are potentially created, the more support problems you will have. Unless you feel that you are in a position to solve the problems created by software suppliers, you should be looking for another way.

Wouldn't you know it? There is one. And that future is being discussed by many technicians today, and many suppliers. They call it Software as a Service (SoaS. As a business owner, you don't care about SoaS and this is the last time I'll talk about it. But the benefits to the small business are significant, and that is what you should be interested in.

The solution and its benefits will be described in my next post.

Eliminate the frustration of managing computers - Part 1

As a small business owner, it is difficult to get the expertise necessary to manage computers well. The cost of an experienced technician is too high and even if you could afford to hire him or her, you couldn't keep them happy or satisfied.

Hiring a computer support company is a better and cheaper solution. They have the expertise and can solve problems much faster than a less experienced person. The good news is that this improves your productivity, because your computers are down less time.

As small business owners, we are often concerned that we can afford the downtime while we wait for a technician to get on site. The problems can be solved by the time that the technician arrives. If you are having this problem, then you have the wrong supplier. A good support company manages your computers for you and prevents these problems from occuring. This means that you have fewer incidents and therefore you don't need immediate response.

Most suppliers today also have remote management tools. They can diagnose and resolve problems without coming on site. With the preventative maintenance and remote support, you get more reliable service and faster response at a cheaper rate.

Why would anyone not want to have this? There is only one issue here. And that is the relationship with your supplier. Unfortunately many suppliers see themselves as technicians and not as partners in your business. You get the most value if they treat your business issues as their issues and help you to solve them, without costing you a fortune. This is an area where an employee may have a different attitude, or at least you might help them to learn to have a different attitude.

Having a supplier that you can trust and cares about your business is a great solution. But there is another question. Why do you need so much support and preventative maintenance? Why can't those computers just run.

To quote Jef Raskin, a human/computer interface expert:
"Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining."

There are a lot of reasons why we have these problems. But this is another topic and I'll describe them in a future entry.


the problems of PC based applications.

What do you expect from your IT supplier?

A recent incident with a client, brings me to this discussion and what a business should expect from their IT supplier.

This IT supplier advertises themselves as a small business' IT department.

First, some background. This client is very non-technical as are many small businesses. I had helped to define the original requirements, since the organization didn't have the understanding of what they required. The supplier installed the complete suite of hardware and software, and had recommended the anti-virus, backup hardware and software, etc. So they knew and understood the situation completely and knew the skill levels of the staff.

When the organization needed to expand, they purchased an additional 3 PCs. They knew that they wanted Microsoft Office and specified the additional licenses. What they didn't understand was how the Anti-Virus licenses worked. When they ordered the PCs, the supplier did not say anything, just ordered exactly what was asked and installed the additional PCs with no Anti-Virus. Of course they encountered a problem, after which the supplier said "well, you didn't order the Anti-Virus".

For an organization that advertises itself as "your IT department", this is unacceptable. As far as I'm concerned, it is unacceptable for any supplier.

As the specialists, we need to help our clients do what is best for them. They don't know or understand the complexities of IT and they shouldn't have to. If we are to do the job, we need to understand the client's needs and specify exactly what is needed to address the problem, clearly (non-technical) the issues, the benefits and risks of the recommendations. If the client is willing to take the risk because of the costs involved, we need to understand and offer them options which mitigate those risks.

I doubt if any client would risk losing their business because of a $35 expenditure.

This is just another case of poor customer service.



Talk about the issue of buying a computer and not being told that they need anti-virus