by John Parker | Nov 27, 2012 | Business Analysis, ITIL and Service Design, Project Management, Uncategorized |
For at least the last three decades, members of the C-Suite have been complaining about the frequency with which IT projects are challenged, under deliver promised value, or outright fail, and with good reason. The most recent Standish Chaos report shows that only 32% of projects are successful, 44% of projects are challenged, and 24% fail. The Standish Group defines project success as a project that delivers planned functionality on time, on budget, and includes all planned features. For Waterfall projects, the percentage of challenged projects is actually higher than it was 15 years ago. These low success rates are surprising given the focus over the last 15 years on project management and the push for project management certification. Agile has helped significantly with project success rates as seen in the table below. According to the 2011 CHAOS report, Agile projects are successful three times more frequently than waterfall projects.The report goes so far as to say, “The Agile process is the universal remedy for software development project failure. Software applications developed through the Agile process have three times the success rate of the traditional Waterfall method, and a much lower percentage of time and cost overruns.” Even though the Standish research shows that the chances of success are much greater with Agile than when using Waterfall, there is still a high chance (58%) that a project will be challenged, failed, or cancelled. Many projects that would have been considered successful using the Standish definitions may have another problem in that they deliver little or no business value. Let’s look at some recent industry quotes on this topic. 78%...
by John Parker | Nov 12, 2012 | Business Analysis, ITIL and Service Design, Project Management, Uncategorized |
ROI (return on investment) is a widely used measure to compare the effectiveness of IT systems investments. It is commonly used to justify IT projects, but can measure project returns at any stage and be used to evaluate project team performance and other relevant factors. Definition of ROI The basic ROI calculation is to divide the net return from an investment by the cost of the investment, and to express this as a percentage. ROI, while a simple and extremely popular metric, may be easily modified for different situations. The ROI formula is: ROI % = (Return – Investment Cost)/Investment Cost x 100 Using ROI within IT Projects Comparing the ROI of different projects/proposals provides an indication as to which IT projects to undertake. ROI proves to corporate executives, shareholders, and other stakeholders that a particular project investment is beneficial for the business. A project is more likely to proceed if its ROI is higher – the higher the better. For example, a 200% ROI over 4 years indicates a return of double the project investment over a 4 year period. Financially, it makes sense to choose projects with the highest ROI first, then those with lower ROI’s. While there are exceptions, if a project has a negative ROI, it is questionable if it should be authorized to proceed. ROI may not be useful in every IT project. Below is a list of examples where calculating the ROI may not be appropriate: Expenditure such as IT consumables, replacing broken PC’s Short duration maintenance projects that can be completed in less than 1 month. Projects that do not produce cost...
by John Parker | Apr 24, 2012 | Business Analysis, Project Management, Uncategorized |
This is the part 2 of an article on how to achieve successul process improvement programs. These keys are based on my own experience plus interviews that I conducted with industry analysts and consultants. I hope these help you have achieve a success with your process improvement efforts. 6. Create a process map for the current and ideal state Many business processes today are in a sad state. Processes are fragmented across isolated functional departments. Processes are plagued by numerous organizational handoffs. Handoffs are the source of non-value added work, causing delays, errors and inflexibility. These handoffs result in People involved in the process not understanding the whole process from end to end. Process or sub-processes are invisible, unmeasured, and unmanaged. No one has accountability or management responsibility for end-to-end results. Different business units or departments view each other with suspicion. Process mapping is a method for thoroughly understanding a business process. Process maps are used to gain an understanding of the current situation (“As Is”) and for documenting the ideal state (“To Be”). Activities discovered through process mapping reveal linkages among organizational resources and the products and services that are produced and delivered to customers. The process map should provide a detailed picture of the business process to facilitate meaningful improvements. Process maps provide a key tool for analyzing performance issues and for understanding the voice of the customer and supplier relationships. 7. Benchmark the current process Organizations engage in benchmarking to understand how they are performing against other organizations. Comparisons may be with peers in like or similar industries or against world class organizations in other industries or other...
by John Parker | Apr 17, 2012 | Business Analysis, Project Management, Uncategorized |
This is the first part of an article for creating a successful process improvement program.These keys are based on my own experience plus interviews that I conducted with industry analysts and consultants. I hope these help you have achieve a success with your process improvement efforts. 1. Choose the right business area to improve Although every part a business will probably benefit from a business process improvement project, some processes will return much bigger benefits than others. However, it is very important that the first area chosen has the potential to return big benefits. Many successful BPI projects have been considered failures, simply because the return on investment wasn’t large. Choosing a large complex area for the first project is not a good idea and significantly increases the risk of failure. There is high probability that your team will run out of energy and money before the project is complete. It is very important that you to learn to walk before you run. By carefully selecting the first BPI project, you should be able to realize big benefits quickly. The attention this attracts will create momentum to tackle further BPI projects. Choose a high profile business process with potential for quick and large gains Don not choose a business process that is plagued with political problems Do not choose a process that is too large or complex Choose an area with a willing and able process owner 2. Start with a problem statement, vision, objectives and scope Business process improvement should be treated as a project and not a routine daily activity. Organizations that treat BPI as something that...
by John Parker | Mar 22, 2012 | Business Analysis, Project Management, Uncategorized |
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are high-level snapshots of an organization or a business process based on specific predefined measures. KPIs are typically captured and conveyed in a combination of reports, spreadsheets, or charts. In developing KPIs, a user or developer defines target performance levels and then decides the best way to represent variance from that target. If a Key Performance Indicator is going to be of value, there must be a way to accurately define and measure it. For example, “Generate More Repeat Customers” is useless as a KPI without some way to distinguish between new and repeat customers. “Provide excellent project management and business analysis ” won’t work as a KPI because there is no way to measure this. Defining KPIs is a standardized skill for business improvement (BI) analysts. However, if you try to find KPIs to measure business analysis, you will find little written on the subject. This article is intended to provide ideas of how business analysts and project managers can best define KPIs to improve business analysis and project management results. I would welcome your comments and suggestions on this subject. I can be reached by leaving me a comment on the blog or you can send me an email at jparker@EnfocusSolutions.com. Business Analysis KPIs Below are representative KPIs to measure the effectiveness of business analysis for projects. % of rework attributable to requirements – Rework is a serious problem on most projects, representing about 40% of total project cost. According to industry studies, about 70% of this rework is related to ambiguous, inaccurate, or missing requirements. % of projects with prioritized requirements –...
