Risk management for IT projects :
Lientz, Bennet P.
Risk management for IT projects : how to deal with over 150 issues and risks / Bennet P. Lientz, Lee Larssen. - Amsterdam ; Boston : Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, c2006. - xviii, 331 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 323) and index.
Preface -- Issues and Risk Management -- Introduction -- Common IT-Related Problems -- Why IT Efforts Fail -- IT Differs from Other Types of Business Work -- How IT and the Business Have Changed -- IT and Politics -- The Management View of IT -- Issues and Risk -- Types of Issues -- The Life Cycle of an Issue -- Some Common Problems in Issues Management -- Issues Across Projects -- Problems Versus Opportunities -- The Goals of IT -- Process Improvement and Reengineering -- General Approach to Issues and Risk Management -- Organization of the Book -- Conclusions -- Effective Issues Management and Coordina -- Introduction -- General Management of Issues -- The Issues Databases -- Getting Started -- Defining Issues at the Start of Projects and Work -- Tracking of Issues and Risk -- User and Vendor Issue Coordination -- Issue and Risk Communications and Reporting -- Handling Issues Within the IT Organization -- Decision Making and Follow-up -- Dealing with Multiple Issues -- Coping with Recurring Issues -- Conclusions -- Analysis and Measurements of Issues and -- Introduction -- Problems with Standard Measurements -- Management Critical Path -- Multiple Project Analysis -- Tracking Status Using Issues and Risk -- Total Issues -- Open Issues -- Uncontrolled Versus Controlled Open Issues -- Aging of Open Issues -- Average Time to Resolve Issues -- Distribution of Open Issues by Type -- Issues by Type over Time -- Selection of Issues for Decisions and Actions -- Perspective on Different Issues -- Project Evaluation -- Project Termination -- Conclusions -- Internal Issues and -- T -- Introduction -- Lack of Teamwork -- Team Members or Departments That Do Not Get Along with One Another -- Team Members That Are Difficult to Manage -- Wide Range of Experience and Knowledge Among Team Members -- Project or Work Leader Who Is Junior and Lacks Experience -- Substantial Turnover Among Team Members -- Lack of Motivation -- Not Much Communication Among Team Members and Outside of the Team -- New Team Member Has to Be Socialized into the Group -- Team Member Performance That Does Not Seem to Improve over Time -- Too Much Time Spent in Meetings -- Conclusions -- The -- Introduction -- Limited or No Guidelines for Using Methods and Tools -- Tools That Are Used with No Structured Methods -- Lack of Formal Reviews of Work and Too Much to Review -- Methods That Are Too Informal -- Faulty Reporting on the Work -- Lack of Planning for the Work -- No Gathering of Experience from Performing the Work -- New Tool to Be Introduced -- Repetition of the Same Mistakes in the Work -- People Who Work in a Single-Tasking Mode -- Conclusions -- Business U -- Introduction -- Users Who Resist Change -- Users Who Want the Technology but Do Not Want to Change -- Business Processes That Have Too Many Exceptions -- Many Shadow Systems in the Business Units -- Many Variations in Use of the Same Process -- Difficulty Getting Qualified Users to Join the Effort -- Users Who Do Not Want to Assume Responsibility -- Users Who Do Not Resolve Issues Quickly or Adequately -- Users Who Dictate Solutions -- User Management That Is Attempting to Manipulate IT to Gain More Power -- Users Who Change Requirements Frequently -- Users Who Are Unwilling to Sign Off -- Conclusions -- Manag -- Introduction -- Management's Unrealistic Expectations of Benefits and Impacts -- Lack of Clear Goals -- Management's Frequent Changes of Direction -- Decisions Being Made Without the Advice or Involvement of the IT Managers -- Substantial Turnover of Management -- Management's Pulling of Resources from Some IT Work and Reassigning Them -- Management's Attempts to Micromanage the Work -- Management's Lack of Interest in IT Matters -- Management's Failure to Resolve Issues -- Lack of a Strategic IT Plan -- Lack of Alignment of IT to the Business -- Conclusions -- Pro -- Introduction -- Projects That Do Not Seem to Start Out Right -- Too Many Surprises in the Project -- Too Much Unplanned Work in the Project -- Difficulty Managing and Tracking Multiple Projects -- Time-Consuming Project Administration -- Project Leaders Who Lack Skills and Knowledge -- Lack of Standard Project Reporting -- Small Projects Not Being Treated as Projects -- Larger Projects Being Divided Up in the Wrong Way -- Too Many Projects -- Not Knowing What Is Going On in the Project -- Conclusions -- Resistance to C -- Introduction -- Change That Does Not Fit Our Work -- Having Tried Similar Things Before That Did Not Work -- Lack of Incentive to Change -- Change That Means More Work for the Same Compensation -- Lack of Available Resources or Time to Support the Change -- Technology or Change That Is Too Complicated -- Possible Job Loss -- Resisting Change Because What Has Been Done in the Past Worked Well -- Inability to Teach an Old Dog New Tricks -- Change That Is Too Risky -- No One Taking Responsibility When the Change Does Not Work -- Conclusions -- External Issues and -- Vendors, Consultants, and Outsou -- Introduction -- Inadequate Vendor Performance -- Vendor Staff Who Do Not Share Information -- Vendors That Use Their Own Proprietary Methods and Tools -- Vendors That Do Something Different from What They Agreed to Do -- Substantial Vendor Staff Turnover -- Unstructured Vendor Communications -- Vendor That Was Politically Selected by Management -- Vendor That Does Not Resolve Issues -- Vendor Team Leader Who Miscommunicates to Vendor Staff -- Vendor That Overpromises -- Vendor Staff Being Thinly Spread over Multiple Clients -- Highly Unqualified Vendor Staff -- Conclusions -- Headqua -- Introduction -- Headquarters Dictating a Solution -- No Allowance for Resource Needs at the Local Level -- Headquarters Attempting to Micromanage the Work in the Business Unit -- Lack of Understanding of the Cultural and Political Differences Between Locations -- Poor Communication Between the Business Unit and Headquarters -- Too Frequent Turnover and Change of Headquarters People -- Headquarters Changing Direction Often During Implementation -- Headquarters Being Inflexible in the General Implementation of the Work -- Headquarters Providing No Direction for the Work -- Headquarters Not Providing the Necessary Funding -- Issues and Questions Raised with Headquarters That Are Not Being Addressed -- Conclusions -- Techn -- Introduction -- Merging and Combining of Technology Vendors -- Lack of Integration with the Technology -- Lack of Time to Adequately Learn the New Technology -- Unclear Benefits of the New Technology -- Need for a Decision as to Whether to Adopt a New Technology -- Incompatibility of the Technologies in Use and of Potential Use -- Privacy Concerns -- New Technology Being Only an Incremental Improvement -- Wide Range of Potential Technology Solutions -- Vendor That Is Forcing an Upgrade -- Lack of Standards -- Technology That Is Changing Too Slowly or Too Rapidly -- Conclusions -- Issues and Risks in Specific IT Activ -- IT Strategic Pla -- Introduction -- Lack of Management Interest Once the Plan Is Approved -- Difficulty Linking IT Planning Factors to the Business -- High Management Expectations of the Planning Effort -- Lack of a Defined Business Vision or Mission -- Difficulty Showing the Benefits of Technology Projects in the Plan -- Limited or No Resources to Do the Planning -- Failure of Past Planning Efforts -- Deciding Whether the IT Plan Should Be Business Driven or IT Driven -- Business Being Unclear About What They Would Get from the Plan -- Challenge in Turning Action Items in the Plan into Actions -- Conclusions -- Ana -- Introduction -- Incomplete Requirements -- Inadequate Time to Gather Requirements -- Users Lacking Knowledge of Their Own Processes -- Users Not Being Creative in Developing Solutions -- Unclear Benefits of the Work -- Lack of Real Overall Measurement of the Process -- Overly Formal and Unscalable Analysis Methods -- Original Stated Problem Not Being the Real Problem -- Real Problems Being Political and Not Technical -- Lack of a Real Downside If the Project Is Not Done -- Conclusions -- Software Pac -- Introduction -- No Software Package That Fits the Requirements -- Lack of Vendor Support in the Client Location -- Software with No New Releases in Some Time -- Deciding Whether or Not to Move to a New Release -- Lack of Vendor Support for the Product -- Software Package Vendor That Was Acquired by Another Firm -- Promised Features and Functions That Are Not There -- Inadequate Product Documentation -- Lack of Qualified Training in Use of the Software Package -- Limited Flexibility of the Software Package -- Substantial Hidden Costs of the Software Package -- Conclusions -- Develo -- Introduction -- Overreliance on One Person -- Departure of a Key Person -- Development Performed ad hoc Without Adequate Design -- Lack of Emphasis on Testing -- Inadequate Tools -- Developers Who Do Not Share Knowledge -- Lack of In-Depth Review of Work -- Users Who Regularly Contact Programmers Directly -- Lack of Teamwork Among Developers -- Developers Who Cannot Agree on the Details of the Technical Approach -- Few Guidelines for Doing the Work -- Lack of Applying Past Knowledge and Experience -- Developers Who Are Concentrating on the Easy Parts First. Conclusions -- Implement -- Introduction -- Users Who Refuse to Accept Responsibility -- Users Being Unavailable to Participate in the Implementation -- Last-minute Requirement Changes -- Lingering Issues -- Resolved Issues That Become Unresolved -- Incomplete or Unsuitable User Training -- Users Who Resist Change During the Implementation -- Users Who Continue to Work with the Old System -- Problems with the Data Discovered During Data Conversion -- User Management That Is Unwilling to Enforce Turnover to the New Process -- Inadequate User Testing -- Conclusions -- Operations and Su -- Introduction -- Many IT Staff Members Preferring Operations Support to Projects -- Too Much Emergency Work -- Some Staff Using Maintenance as a Chance to Redevelop Software -- Overly Cozy Relationship Between Some IT Managers and Staff and Users -- Overly Specialized Support Requirements -- Lack of Measurement of Support and Maintenance -- No Differentiation Between Maintenance and Enhancement -- How Operations and Maintenance Should Be Managed -- Conclusions -- The Results of a Survey on IT Issues -- The Magic Cross-Reference -- Websites -- Bibliography -- Index.
In this book IT Management experts Ben Lientz and Lee Larssen show you how to identify and track the recurring issues leading to failure in IT projects and provide a proven, modern method for addressing them. By following the recommendations in this books readers can significantly reduce the risk of IT failures and increase the rate of success. The rate of failure of IT projects has remained little changed in survey after survey over the past 15-20 years—over 40-50%. This has happened in spite of new technology, innovative methods and tools, and different management methods. Why does this happen? Why can’t the situation be better? One reason is that many think of each IT effort as unique. In reality many IT projects are very similar at a high, strategic level. Where they differ is in the people and exact events—the detail. If you read the literature or have been in information systems or IT for some time, you have seen the same reasons for failure and the same problems and issues recur again and agai
9780750682312
2006040906
CIT.
MOT.
Information technology -- Management.
Risk management.
004.1681
Risk management for IT projects : how to deal with over 150 issues and risks / Bennet P. Lientz, Lee Larssen. - Amsterdam ; Boston : Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, c2006. - xviii, 331 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 323) and index.
Preface -- Issues and Risk Management -- Introduction -- Common IT-Related Problems -- Why IT Efforts Fail -- IT Differs from Other Types of Business Work -- How IT and the Business Have Changed -- IT and Politics -- The Management View of IT -- Issues and Risk -- Types of Issues -- The Life Cycle of an Issue -- Some Common Problems in Issues Management -- Issues Across Projects -- Problems Versus Opportunities -- The Goals of IT -- Process Improvement and Reengineering -- General Approach to Issues and Risk Management -- Organization of the Book -- Conclusions -- Effective Issues Management and Coordina -- Introduction -- General Management of Issues -- The Issues Databases -- Getting Started -- Defining Issues at the Start of Projects and Work -- Tracking of Issues and Risk -- User and Vendor Issue Coordination -- Issue and Risk Communications and Reporting -- Handling Issues Within the IT Organization -- Decision Making and Follow-up -- Dealing with Multiple Issues -- Coping with Recurring Issues -- Conclusions -- Analysis and Measurements of Issues and -- Introduction -- Problems with Standard Measurements -- Management Critical Path -- Multiple Project Analysis -- Tracking Status Using Issues and Risk -- Total Issues -- Open Issues -- Uncontrolled Versus Controlled Open Issues -- Aging of Open Issues -- Average Time to Resolve Issues -- Distribution of Open Issues by Type -- Issues by Type over Time -- Selection of Issues for Decisions and Actions -- Perspective on Different Issues -- Project Evaluation -- Project Termination -- Conclusions -- Internal Issues and -- T -- Introduction -- Lack of Teamwork -- Team Members or Departments That Do Not Get Along with One Another -- Team Members That Are Difficult to Manage -- Wide Range of Experience and Knowledge Among Team Members -- Project or Work Leader Who Is Junior and Lacks Experience -- Substantial Turnover Among Team Members -- Lack of Motivation -- Not Much Communication Among Team Members and Outside of the Team -- New Team Member Has to Be Socialized into the Group -- Team Member Performance That Does Not Seem to Improve over Time -- Too Much Time Spent in Meetings -- Conclusions -- The -- Introduction -- Limited or No Guidelines for Using Methods and Tools -- Tools That Are Used with No Structured Methods -- Lack of Formal Reviews of Work and Too Much to Review -- Methods That Are Too Informal -- Faulty Reporting on the Work -- Lack of Planning for the Work -- No Gathering of Experience from Performing the Work -- New Tool to Be Introduced -- Repetition of the Same Mistakes in the Work -- People Who Work in a Single-Tasking Mode -- Conclusions -- Business U -- Introduction -- Users Who Resist Change -- Users Who Want the Technology but Do Not Want to Change -- Business Processes That Have Too Many Exceptions -- Many Shadow Systems in the Business Units -- Many Variations in Use of the Same Process -- Difficulty Getting Qualified Users to Join the Effort -- Users Who Do Not Want to Assume Responsibility -- Users Who Do Not Resolve Issues Quickly or Adequately -- Users Who Dictate Solutions -- User Management That Is Attempting to Manipulate IT to Gain More Power -- Users Who Change Requirements Frequently -- Users Who Are Unwilling to Sign Off -- Conclusions -- Manag -- Introduction -- Management's Unrealistic Expectations of Benefits and Impacts -- Lack of Clear Goals -- Management's Frequent Changes of Direction -- Decisions Being Made Without the Advice or Involvement of the IT Managers -- Substantial Turnover of Management -- Management's Pulling of Resources from Some IT Work and Reassigning Them -- Management's Attempts to Micromanage the Work -- Management's Lack of Interest in IT Matters -- Management's Failure to Resolve Issues -- Lack of a Strategic IT Plan -- Lack of Alignment of IT to the Business -- Conclusions -- Pro -- Introduction -- Projects That Do Not Seem to Start Out Right -- Too Many Surprises in the Project -- Too Much Unplanned Work in the Project -- Difficulty Managing and Tracking Multiple Projects -- Time-Consuming Project Administration -- Project Leaders Who Lack Skills and Knowledge -- Lack of Standard Project Reporting -- Small Projects Not Being Treated as Projects -- Larger Projects Being Divided Up in the Wrong Way -- Too Many Projects -- Not Knowing What Is Going On in the Project -- Conclusions -- Resistance to C -- Introduction -- Change That Does Not Fit Our Work -- Having Tried Similar Things Before That Did Not Work -- Lack of Incentive to Change -- Change That Means More Work for the Same Compensation -- Lack of Available Resources or Time to Support the Change -- Technology or Change That Is Too Complicated -- Possible Job Loss -- Resisting Change Because What Has Been Done in the Past Worked Well -- Inability to Teach an Old Dog New Tricks -- Change That Is Too Risky -- No One Taking Responsibility When the Change Does Not Work -- Conclusions -- External Issues and -- Vendors, Consultants, and Outsou -- Introduction -- Inadequate Vendor Performance -- Vendor Staff Who Do Not Share Information -- Vendors That Use Their Own Proprietary Methods and Tools -- Vendors That Do Something Different from What They Agreed to Do -- Substantial Vendor Staff Turnover -- Unstructured Vendor Communications -- Vendor That Was Politically Selected by Management -- Vendor That Does Not Resolve Issues -- Vendor Team Leader Who Miscommunicates to Vendor Staff -- Vendor That Overpromises -- Vendor Staff Being Thinly Spread over Multiple Clients -- Highly Unqualified Vendor Staff -- Conclusions -- Headqua -- Introduction -- Headquarters Dictating a Solution -- No Allowance for Resource Needs at the Local Level -- Headquarters Attempting to Micromanage the Work in the Business Unit -- Lack of Understanding of the Cultural and Political Differences Between Locations -- Poor Communication Between the Business Unit and Headquarters -- Too Frequent Turnover and Change of Headquarters People -- Headquarters Changing Direction Often During Implementation -- Headquarters Being Inflexible in the General Implementation of the Work -- Headquarters Providing No Direction for the Work -- Headquarters Not Providing the Necessary Funding -- Issues and Questions Raised with Headquarters That Are Not Being Addressed -- Conclusions -- Techn -- Introduction -- Merging and Combining of Technology Vendors -- Lack of Integration with the Technology -- Lack of Time to Adequately Learn the New Technology -- Unclear Benefits of the New Technology -- Need for a Decision as to Whether to Adopt a New Technology -- Incompatibility of the Technologies in Use and of Potential Use -- Privacy Concerns -- New Technology Being Only an Incremental Improvement -- Wide Range of Potential Technology Solutions -- Vendor That Is Forcing an Upgrade -- Lack of Standards -- Technology That Is Changing Too Slowly or Too Rapidly -- Conclusions -- Issues and Risks in Specific IT Activ -- IT Strategic Pla -- Introduction -- Lack of Management Interest Once the Plan Is Approved -- Difficulty Linking IT Planning Factors to the Business -- High Management Expectations of the Planning Effort -- Lack of a Defined Business Vision or Mission -- Difficulty Showing the Benefits of Technology Projects in the Plan -- Limited or No Resources to Do the Planning -- Failure of Past Planning Efforts -- Deciding Whether the IT Plan Should Be Business Driven or IT Driven -- Business Being Unclear About What They Would Get from the Plan -- Challenge in Turning Action Items in the Plan into Actions -- Conclusions -- Ana -- Introduction -- Incomplete Requirements -- Inadequate Time to Gather Requirements -- Users Lacking Knowledge of Their Own Processes -- Users Not Being Creative in Developing Solutions -- Unclear Benefits of the Work -- Lack of Real Overall Measurement of the Process -- Overly Formal and Unscalable Analysis Methods -- Original Stated Problem Not Being the Real Problem -- Real Problems Being Political and Not Technical -- Lack of a Real Downside If the Project Is Not Done -- Conclusions -- Software Pac -- Introduction -- No Software Package That Fits the Requirements -- Lack of Vendor Support in the Client Location -- Software with No New Releases in Some Time -- Deciding Whether or Not to Move to a New Release -- Lack of Vendor Support for the Product -- Software Package Vendor That Was Acquired by Another Firm -- Promised Features and Functions That Are Not There -- Inadequate Product Documentation -- Lack of Qualified Training in Use of the Software Package -- Limited Flexibility of the Software Package -- Substantial Hidden Costs of the Software Package -- Conclusions -- Develo -- Introduction -- Overreliance on One Person -- Departure of a Key Person -- Development Performed ad hoc Without Adequate Design -- Lack of Emphasis on Testing -- Inadequate Tools -- Developers Who Do Not Share Knowledge -- Lack of In-Depth Review of Work -- Users Who Regularly Contact Programmers Directly -- Lack of Teamwork Among Developers -- Developers Who Cannot Agree on the Details of the Technical Approach -- Few Guidelines for Doing the Work -- Lack of Applying Past Knowledge and Experience -- Developers Who Are Concentrating on the Easy Parts First. Conclusions -- Implement -- Introduction -- Users Who Refuse to Accept Responsibility -- Users Being Unavailable to Participate in the Implementation -- Last-minute Requirement Changes -- Lingering Issues -- Resolved Issues That Become Unresolved -- Incomplete or Unsuitable User Training -- Users Who Resist Change During the Implementation -- Users Who Continue to Work with the Old System -- Problems with the Data Discovered During Data Conversion -- User Management That Is Unwilling to Enforce Turnover to the New Process -- Inadequate User Testing -- Conclusions -- Operations and Su -- Introduction -- Many IT Staff Members Preferring Operations Support to Projects -- Too Much Emergency Work -- Some Staff Using Maintenance as a Chance to Redevelop Software -- Overly Cozy Relationship Between Some IT Managers and Staff and Users -- Overly Specialized Support Requirements -- Lack of Measurement of Support and Maintenance -- No Differentiation Between Maintenance and Enhancement -- How Operations and Maintenance Should Be Managed -- Conclusions -- The Results of a Survey on IT Issues -- The Magic Cross-Reference -- Websites -- Bibliography -- Index.
In this book IT Management experts Ben Lientz and Lee Larssen show you how to identify and track the recurring issues leading to failure in IT projects and provide a proven, modern method for addressing them. By following the recommendations in this books readers can significantly reduce the risk of IT failures and increase the rate of success. The rate of failure of IT projects has remained little changed in survey after survey over the past 15-20 years—over 40-50%. This has happened in spite of new technology, innovative methods and tools, and different management methods. Why does this happen? Why can’t the situation be better? One reason is that many think of each IT effort as unique. In reality many IT projects are very similar at a high, strategic level. Where they differ is in the people and exact events—the detail. If you read the literature or have been in information systems or IT for some time, you have seen the same reasons for failure and the same problems and issues recur again and agai
9780750682312
2006040906
CIT.
MOT.
Information technology -- Management.
Risk management.
004.1681