Complex IT Projects

There are four aspects:

1. You strategise about how the organisation will change and what it will be able to achieve as a result of the solutions being successfully implemented.
2. Determine, through early market engagement with potential suppliers, where your expectations can be achieved within the time, resource and financial constraints you are operating within.
3. Refine your expectations, procurement and contracting strategy based on your early market feedback and go through the formal procurement process, and contract for the appropriate advice from your solution providers, separately to the solutions they provide you with.
4. Commence implementation with clear roles and responsibilities, then move into optimising the solutions procured.

There are many challenges in successfully implementing these types of major/complex IT projects, namely around the people, processes and technologies involved. They include:

• An unwillingness from the key decision makers to support the project strategy
• Key decision makers having fears about the project not being successful (a lot fail outright)
• Unclear requirements and expectations
• Problems with scope and cost creep
• Key technical resources not being given enough airtime to make the project successful
• Poor stakeholder communications
• Lack of supplier business analysis and technical skills
• Lack of timely client decision making through poor project governance
• Poor due diligence by suppliers during the procurement process
• Poor client and supplier project management
• Unclear user acceptance testing (UAT) process where supplier provides poor quality solutions for client UAT.

Having a clear target operating model (your future operating state) and a ‘go to market’ (procurement, contracting, mobilisation and supplier management) strategy, means you are more likely to achieve a successful implementation and operating benefits much faster.