Technology Professionals
You are among the technological and infrastructural stewards for your organization. You support the tools and databases that are used by Senior Management for planning and by Business Professionals in their daily work. You’re also called on to:
- support systems, applications, and databases that make up the organization's technological infrastructure
- design, build, test, and deliver new applications and systems based on the changing needs of the organization
- customize existing applications and systems to meet new requirements or mandates
- target and address software and data quality problems
When business processes change, the systems and applications that support them may have to change as well. So, when discussions occur about how to change the way in which daily work is performed, you need to be at the table. All too often, you’ve seen that when IT is not included in the discussion, bad decisions are made leading to disappointing results.
Because new project requests are being received at an ever-increasing rate it’s not possible to address all of the demands that you receive. Some of your challenges are that:
- each functional area has its own priorities and agenda, and a lack of overall coordination sometimes results in duplicated requests and efforts
- not enough attention is given to requirements gathering and specification writing, leading to incomplete or inaccurate specifications and, therefore, deliverables that don't fulfill their purpose
- artificial deadlines imposed by sponsors cause the compression of testing and training schedules, and the bypassing of other quality-related activities
- projects are initiated in excess of the organization's Capacity for Quality Work (CfQW), resulting in poor quality, rework and additional costs.
Project Portfolio Excellence provides the tools, the strategy, and the methodology to help you analyze your current project and software development lifecycles to pinpoint the weaknesses that lead to unsatisfactory results. Knowing how and why projects fail puts you in the position to adjust your processes and increase your probability for success.
You have an important role to play in helping your business partners end their frustration and disappointment with software and software-related projects. If your organization is going to start getting the benefits promised by software you need to collaborate effectively with Senior Managers and Business Professionals. You already know that the way things are currently done isn't working. Now is the time and this is the place to:
take stock… of your current processes and lifecycles
take heart… that the causes of project failure can be addressed
take control... and help your organization achieve greater benefits from technology and software!
It’s incumbent upon Technology Professionals to make sure that Business Professionals and Senior Managers are aware of any conditions that will adversely affect project or portfolio success. (PPE Truth #100)