Challenging Views of Success in Government IT Projects
September 20, 2006
Government IT projects often appear at the center of some of the hottest debates about the efficiency in government spending and planning. "Success" in great number of these projects is often based soley on whether or not they are finished on time and on budget. Perhaps this is an adequate standard: A study of thousands of IT projects by The Standish Group Consultancy found that in 2004, just 29 percent of those projects were successful, based on the aforementioned metrics. However, I came across an interesting article written by R. Ryan Nelson, (professor and director of the Center for the Management of Information Technology at the McIntire School of Commerce at UVA) that explores ideas many up-and-coming change agents looking to lead successful IT projects. IT projects have much to gain if more than the "usual" factors to measure success are introduced. Such factors include the amount of "use" by an organization or customers, added "value" to an organization, and an increased ability to "learn" through the project in order to handle future challenges. The article is particularly interesting in suggesting that these factors can't necessarily be measured right away; often their success is apparent only after completion of the project.
Nelson goes on to discuss how successes measured only by time and budget can sometimes be "failed successes". In such cases, the additional criterion of "use, value and learning" is critical when a project aspires to boost overall success within a company or organization. Nelson provides the example, "one real estate management company successfully completed a two-year project... that met specifications but didn't successfully integrate with the company's business processes. So in the end, no one used it..." Nelson also writes that data gained from several case studies, "showed that across all stakeholders (project managers, their teams, project sponsors, top management and users), the top three criteria by which stakeholders judged a project's success were product, use and value, respectively. Meanwhile, cost was ranked lowest overall... all of them suggested that learning was [also] of at least moderate importance".
Since stakeholder and/or customer success seems to drive business for both an organization and the IT provider, it would be beneficial for change agents in the government IT industry to critically look at how they build and review their products. In some cases, as the article suggests, it may even be useful to consider a project’s value and impact long after it is installed. Truly increasing success in Government IT by increasing the number of successful projects most likely includes longer term review and more of the aforementioned judging factors. In the long run, when projects succeed, everyone, including the average citizen, will benefit.
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