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IT Planning, complete waste of time

5 replies [Last post]
Mon, 2007-10-15 10:04
Douglas Young
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Joined: 15 Oct 2007
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I’ve worked as a planner for over 20 odd years, firstly in shipbuilding, then Nuclear, and for over 12 years have been in IT. I totally blame the manmagement in IT as they are usually a bunch of softies. I ’d really, one day just love to meet a decent manager in an IT project. Not once have a I managed to deliver a project to time and budget. (is it my fault?~)_I once spent 6 weeks in a hotel conf room, pulling together a magnificent plan. On the first day it was released, I approached people for an update , you’ve guessed it, they were working on something else...aahhhh
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Replies

Mon, 2007-10-22 00:58
#1
Alex Wong
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Joined: 12 Feb 2003
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Dear All...

Where should I start... The following is purely my opinion. Graduated as a IT engineer15 years ago then employed in the construction industry since then and only recently I am back to where I started an IT project manager also responsible to implement a Project Management System for IT professional.

IT Project Planning / Project Management is something that is a new concept to IT professional. When I first said that “Primavera” is a industry standard for project planning tool. Only one of the project manager knew the name out of 150s professional IT project personnel.

While construction Project Management started some 30 (may be more) years ago across the industry and matured over the years. IT project management only started to become more a trend in the industry and framework to follow in the last 5 years. CPM, never heard of, Resource Planning, what?? But when you talk to them about V&V life cycle, they can give you hours of entertainments.

Its all part of the project management evolution. IT professional seem to be only concern about functionality/ specification but not budget, Testing but not quality, Consultation but not resource critical, Document submission but not project plan, latest technology but not original scope, programming but not lines of codes, product release but not benefits realisation.

As a result, over 60% of our projects are overspending and delayed, scopes are not controlled, plans are not follows. But that in the past, now I am educating the manager to understand resource are limited, Times are constrained, Scope are defined. Its all part of the evolution. Hopefully, we can speed up the learning curve so that the industry standard can be lift up to the construction industry level.

Al
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Tue, 2007-10-16 04:16
#2
Douglas Young
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Joined: 15 Oct 2007
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Thanks for all comments so far. Dieter Wambach comments about me not ever be employed in Germany, thanks for that -
My own view is that there is a culture in GB for being lazy, not too concerned about failure and worst of all, no one clever enough or brave enough guts to stand up and say "you’re fired". Most get a promotion after failure - it’s quite funny really. Over paid bunch of non achievers !!
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Mon, 2007-10-15 19:05
#3
Scott Sando
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Joined: 7 Oct 2007
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I too have seen some horrifying figures for IT projects - 189% of budget is a figure I’ve seen a few times recently. I once lost a salary bonus because software wasn’t delivered on time. One month before deadline the software manager promised the software would be ready. 15 months later, it still was not.

I’ve read of two appoaches which may deliver better results. One is "Agile" software development, where the software is delivered in a series of "sub-projects" - as each sub-project is delivered and reviewed a clearer picture of progress against plan is built, rather than having a project 50% over budget with delivery promised for "soon."

The other approach (suggested by a successful software developer) was to break the programming plan down to tasks between 3 hours and 3 days duration. I like the idea, but doubt many managers will attempt to enforce it.
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Mon, 2007-10-15 15:32
#4
Dieter Wambach
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Hi Dougie
After >20 years of experience, from IT point of view, you should have retired at least 10 years ago, because - still from IT-managers point of view - you have absolutely no knowledge on IT related items. It is obsolete. In Germany nobody would employ you. But youngsters have a different feeling for planning and working according to plan. "You’ll see when the software will be working" is a common answer in many companies if programmers are asked for an estimation of the time they’ll need. If a project exceeds time and budget, nobody is responsible - some powerpoints accompanied with many words and everything is ok. In addition, most of the projects are very small, so the failure of a single project wouldn’t really influence the year’s-end balance - different for construction or other projects. Plans often are used as a facade or an illusion to satisfy sponsors.
In this atmosphere a feeling for planning cannot grow and management will continue to throw money out of the window.
There are three ways to run your company into bankruptcy:
- Most exciting: to gamble
- Most beautiful: with women
- Most secure: IT-projects
(Not from me, but I learned this, when I started some 30 years ago.)
Regards
Dieter

p.s.: Many companies seem to change their attitude towards planning for IT projects.
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Mon, 2007-10-15 10:16
#5
Douglas Young
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Joined: 15 Oct 2007
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I think you’re right Dougie. IT projects have all the money but no real vision on how to deliver anything. I once sat in a project start up, and asked if anyone could identify any risks or issues, I didn’t get any. The project took 300% more time that originally thought, by someone who had no idea what he was doing - Think I need to retire soon or take up another skill,,,,I quite like tiling !
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