November 16th, 2009

Resistance to change: The real Enterprise 2.0 barrier

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 10:29 am

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Enterprise 2.0, Failure 2.0, Governance, IT issues, Project strategy, Research and statistics

Tags: Barrier, Enterprise 2.0, Michael Krigsman

Large organizations continue to embrace Enterprise 2.0 as a viable addition to the corporate business process toolbox. As evidence, look no farther than the rapid growth of The 2.0 Adoption Council, which was founded this past June and currently boasts more than 100 member organizations, each of which has more than 10,000 employees.

Despite clear interest from the enterprise, discussion persists around obstacles to large-scale adoption of Enterprise 2.0 approaches, tools, and methods.

ZDNet’s Joe McKendrick summarized key obstacles in blog post at Fast Forward:

Resistance to change	52%
Difficulty in measuring ROI	42%
Integrating with existing technologies	41%
Security concerns	32%
Budget	25%
Product knowledge	23%
Tools not enterprise ready	22%

It should not surprise us that the top issue is resistance to change. Readers of this blog know that business projects of every kind suffer from issues related to poor communication, conflicting agendas across information silos, and related organizational causes of failure.

A recent study from The 2.0 Adoption Council also describes resistance to change as the significant barrier. This compelling slide clearly summarizes that message:

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November 6th, 2009

18 truths: The long fail of complexity

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 5:55 am

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Governance, IT issues, Project strategy, Research and statistics

Tags: Accident, Failure, Enterprise System, Richard Cook, Complex System, Human Practitioner, Policies And Procedures, Human Resources, Michael Krigsman

Enterprise systems are inherently complex, often involving many business processes, people, and organizations across a company. Given this built-in complexity, it’s no surprise that failures abound; it’s amazing these systems function at all.

We could make these same comments about any complex, mission critical system. For example, look no further than the space program or health care delivery. In both cases, massive complexity is connected to a need to get things right: failure means potential loss of life.

To say that complicated systems are more prone to break down than simpler systems is obvious. But there are also other, more subtle truths regarding failure and complex systems.

A paper copyrighted in 1998, called How Complex Systems Fail and written by an M.D., Dr. Richard Cook, describes 18 truths about the underlying reasons complicated systems break down. On the surface the list appears surprisingly simple, but deeper meaning is also present. Some of the points are obvious while others may surprise you.

THE EIGHTEEN TRUTHS

The first few items explain that catastrophic failure only occurs when multiple components break down simultaneously:

1. Complex systems are intrinsically hazardous systems. The frequency of hazard exposure can sometimes be changed but the processes involved in the system are themselves intrinsically and irreducibly hazardous. It is the presence of these hazards that drives the creation of defenses against hazard that characterize these systems.

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September 21st, 2009

Six types of IT project failure

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 5:39 am

Categories: IT issues, Project portfolio management, Project strategy, Risk

Tags: Information Technology, Project Failure, Failure, Blogging, Strategy, Internet, Management, Michael Krigsman

Projects fail for many different reasons, so I took notice when reading a blog post that describes six specific categories of failure. I thought the list worth sharing because it’s a clever way to view the problem.

This list comes hot off the press from the Preventing Project Failure blog (gotta love the title) written by Michiko Diby, Principal at project resolution firm Sealight:

• Intent Failure – Occurs when the project doesn’t bring enough added value or capability to beat down the obstacles inherent throughout the process. This suggests the original intent of the project was flawed from the beginning.
• Sponsor Failure – Occurs when the person heading up the project is not actively engaged and/or does not have the authority to make decisions critical to project success.
• Design and Definition/Scope Failure – Occurs when the scope is not clearly defined, so the project team is unclear on deliverables.
• Communications Failure – Occurs when communications are infrequent or honest discussion of project problems and issues are avoided.

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September 17th, 2009

7 fundamentals of IT project success

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:56 am

Categories: Governance, IT issues, Project management, Project portfolio management, Project strategy

Tags: Project, Information Technology, Failure, Project Management, Tools & Techniques, Strategy, It Operations, It service Management, Management, Michael Krigsman

Many folks think large projects usually fail for technical reasons–software that doesn’t work as advertised, bugs, and so on. In reality, that’s not the case.

In my experience, the most serious project issues come down to misplaced expectations among participants. Fundamentally, problems in human communication lie at the root of most failures.

These expectation and communication mismatches are difficult to detect systematically, because they aren’t quantitative or technical in nature. Failures persist despite fancy project management methodologies, precisely because traditional approaches do not isolate and address hidden problems.

These seven points of project success touch on conflicting agendas, multiple perspectives, and a broad range of business-oriented conditions that drive projects to succeed or fail:

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September 15th, 2009

'How I tweeted my way out of spinal surgery'

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 9:00 am

Categories: CIO issues, CRM, Collective intelligence, End-user impact, Enterprise 2.0, Financial impact, IT issues, Politics, Project failures

Tags: Patient, Hospital, Twitter Inc., Health Care, Surgery, Sarah Cortes, Packer Hospital, Transparency, Healthcare, E-mail

The post describes a failure that is significant in light of the ongoing national debate surrounding health care reform and economics. Beyond health care, the role of social networking makes this failure a valuable case study for the enterprise.

Technology consultant and blogger, Sarah Cortes, went by ambulance to Robert Packer Hospital, a facility located in rural Pennsylvania, after she suffered a serious spinal fracture. The story takes an unusual turn because Cortes says Twitter helped her escape from the clutches of hospital staff whom, she claims, tried to intimidate and coerce her into accepting unnecessary spinal surgery.

On her blog, Cortes writes that Packer, “tried numerous maneuvers over 48 hours to hold me there against my will.” She continues [bullet formatting added]:

[The] tactics included:

• Threats that my insurance would not pay any expenses if I did not accept their treatment. My bill was already in the many thousands of dollars, they informed me.
• Intimidation that if I did not stop resisting their treatment I could be paralyzed
• Impeding my communication with Boston doctors by needlessly limiting my phone access. Thank God for Twitter and iphones.

Cortes believes Packer wanted to perform the surgery to help boost its accreditation statistics. From Cortes’ blog:

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September 9th, 2009

6 dirty tricks from enterprise vendors

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 8:04 am

Categories: CIO issues, IT issues, Vendor relationships

Tags: Customer, Enterprise Software, Software, Michael Krigsman

Enterprise software vendors sometimes play unpleasant games to sell their products. InfoWorld describes these tricks in a story called, Dirty Vendor Tricks, written by veteran journalist Dan Tynan, who has covered many stories of IT failure.

• Related: Ugly enterprise software sales tactics

Here’s Dan’s list of six tricks enterprise vendors use against customers, but the descriptions are mine:

1. The magic demo. Using presentation slides and canned demonstrations, the vendor claims to solve the customer’s most challenging problems. It’s all good, except when there is no real product to back up the promises.
2. Underbid, then overcharge. A beautiful trick often played elegantly by consulting companies and system integrators. These folks neglect to inform the customer that the initial software purchase price does not include much higher associated costs for equipment and implementation services.
3. The customer headlock. One of the cleverest tricks in the book, this one uses high switching costs to lock-in customers. The time, cost, and hassle of swapping enterprise systems mean vendors have their customers by the… well, you know what.

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September 7th, 2009

The taboo of failure

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 8:09 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Governance, Politics

Tags: Financial Company, Failure, Financial Planning, Financial Services, Financial Accounting, Finance, Michael Krigsman

Business transformation initiatives that fail to accomplish key objectives generally suffer from two problems:

1. The failed projects do not achieve whatever plans the organization anticipated. This is obvious.
2. However, these projects also waste time, money, resources, drain morale, and generally contribute negatively to the organization and its people. Recriminations and lack of consensus come about when an organization does not know how to fail gracefully.

Since failure is a taboo subject of discussion in modern business, it’s no surprise that graceful endings are decidedly uncommon. Since this taboo is a function of human interaction in collaborative environments (ie: business and government), the problem is widespread.

Addressing a London audience in July 2008, then Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, spoke directly about this issue. Although his comments refer to financial markets, they are completely applicable to the IT failures we see everywhere. The New York Times quotes Paulson:

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September 7th, 2009

Exploring the Devil's Triangle

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 12:16 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Consulting, Devil's Triangle, Governance, IT issues, Implementation, Project strategy, Vendor relationships

Tags: Software, Consultant, Software Company, Customer, Triangle, Devil, System Integrator, Tools & Techniques, Management, Michael Krigsman

The Devil’s Triangle describes a basic set of dysfunctional relationships that push many projects toward failure. Although I’ve written about many facets of this important topic previously, today’s post summarizes the issue succinctly.

Three parties participate in virtually every major software deployment: the customer, system integrator or consultant, and the software vendor. Since each of these groups has its own definition of success, conflicts of interest rather than efficient and coordinated effort afflict many projects.

The Devil’s Triangle explains how economic pressures can drive software vendors and system integrators to act in ways that do not serve customer interests. It also offers insight into the ways some enterprise software customers damage their own projects.

Devil’s Triangle relationships are a short sighted and self-interested way of life for too many participants in the enterprise technology landscape.

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August 11th, 2009

Three big reasons CRM initiatives fail

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:00 pm

Categories: CIO issues, CRM, IT issues, Project strategy

Tags: CRM, CRM Success, Baseline Magazine, Fiduciary Responsibility, Advertising & Promotion, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Software, Marketing, Software, Michael Krigsman

CRM failure rates have remained high during the last ten years, indicating that many organizations don’t receive full benefit from their CRM initiatives. Let’s examine important reasons for this unfortunate situation.

• Related: CRM failure rates: 2001-2009

Although relatively few projects become complete write-offs, partial failure is common. Most often, a project delivers some expected benefit, but still leaves users unsatisfied and business sponsors wondering what went wrong.

This list describes three major pitfalls that plague many CRM initiatives. While not a comprehensive inventory of potential problems, many projects succumb to these big causes of failure.

Failure 1: Installing technology without a business strategy.

Many organizations fall into the trap of deploying tools and technology without creating a proper CRM-related business strategy.

For most organizations, customer relationships involve a range of interactions that together achieve (hopefully) positive results. Creating and executing a business strategy is difficult because CRM initiatives typically involve numerous components and moving parts.

A Gartner research document describes the importance of strategy:

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August 4th, 2009

Managing vendor performance: An IT failures virtual town hall

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:39 pm

Categories: Blog annoucements, CIO issues, Cultural issues, Devil's Triangle, IT issues, Project portfolio management, Project strategy

Tags: Town Hall, Performance, Information Technology, Vendor Performance, Jason Coyne, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

The business and organizational complexity associated with many IT projects sometimes causes difficulty for customers, system integrators, and technology providers.

For the next IT failures virtual town hall, we will discuss practical tips to help you better manage vendor performance and increase project success.

We’ll examine issues such as:

• Why managing vendor performance is a challenge
• Improving requirements analysis and the business case
• The role of misaligned expectations in IT failure situations
• Conducting an effective vendor selection process
• Avoiding failure by setting clear objectives
• Tactical interventions to avoid meltdown

I will be joined for this event by Jason Coyne, a UK-based IT failures expert who has served as mentor, expert witness, and negotiator on some of Britain’s largest IT disputes.

Jason recently started a new organization, Evolution Project Consulting, to provide dispute management and resolution services to government and private sector IT projects. Jason’s knowledge of IT project and program management issues is deep, broad, and highly practical. Having provided advisory services to more than 500 projects, he is like a walking encyclopedia of UK failures.

Please attend this interactive discussion and participate in an important conversation about vendor performance management.

The event is free, but you must register in advance.

Title: Managing vendor performance: An IT failures virtual town hall

Date and Time: Tuesday, September 1, 2009, 11:00AM -12:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time. The registration page lists international telephone numbers.

Registration: Click here to register for this online session