Project and programme professionals can find it a challenge establishing confidence and buy-in at some organisations due to historic projects that have failed to deliver on its promises. But why do projects fail to realise their benefits and achieve there goals? There are hundreds of possibilities, however here’s what we think are the five most common reasons.
1. Failure to engage people
The most common reason projects and programmes fail to deliver on benefits, in our experience, is due to the failure of project teams to engage the people affected by the change. Most projects that deliver benefits, other than core renewals, will impact people, often the processes will need to follow post-project delivery or the tools they use. In order for these projects to realise the benefits they set out to achieve, it’s critical that the people affected are engaged early, communicated with clearly throughout, receive adequate training or work instructions, and are supported post-go live. Failure to do this will almost certainly result in failure to meet project objectives.
2. Lack of decision making or steering board
All projects come with risk, issues or the requirement to make critical decisions along the way. One of the top reasons we’ve found projects fail to deliver their benefits is the lack of quick decision making or steering. This can keep projects on track, aligned with initial objectives and remove any blockers or impediments that halt progress. Many organisations do not have a clear governance framework for its programmes and portfolio or projects that enable the effective escalation of project risks and decisions to key decision-makers. The inability for project leaders to use this vehicle to keep moving forward almost always impacts the ability to deliver on time, will often result in the project costing more than initially planned and ultimately impact the benefits case.
3. Failure to setup a change network for sustained benefit realisation
The third reason we identified more commonly impacts larger change programmes, but can also impact smaller projects. Most projects and programmes build a benefits case that identifies savings, efficiencies or opportunities long after the project has gone live. As a result, it is critical that during delivery a change or champions network is setup to support with the initial rollout and embed a new culture, process or tooling, but then continue to embed this throughout the organisation post-go live. There are few better ways to reach all areas of an organisation and embed change that the use of a change or champion network. Hearing the importance of a change from a close colleague or someone in your team increases the likelihood of the adoption of the change than if the message has been cascaded centrally or from a transient project team. In addition, it is just as important that a benefit owner is identified within the business to continue to track the realisation of benefits, report on these post-project closure to continue to focus minds and drive forward the achievement of benefits.
4. Baseline current performance
It is best practice to deliver a business case at the commencement of a project or programme to outline what is going to be delivered, why the project exists and how you will go about delivering it. During the benefits definition, as part of the production of a business case, it is common for project professionals to focus on what the world will be like after the project has been delivered, and less about what the current landscape looks like. This can lead to projects being commissioned on the back of a promising business case that was never going to succeed as the ‘as-is’ baseline performance was not significantly different to the ‘to-be’ state. Whilst the ‘to-be’ state looks appealing on paper and in isolation, its critical that you understand where you are as a business today to ensure the cost and effort involved in delivering the project warrants the impact the project or programme will have upon completion.
5. Delays in realisation – non-iterative delivery
The fifth top reason why tech projects fail to deliver on its benefits is the age old Waterfall vs. Agile delivery. Whilst waterfall has its place, here at Gruppetto Digital we firmly believe the best way to start realising benefits as soon as possible is to setup delivery in a iterative or agile framework. Not only do we believe this will enable the early realisation of benefits, but it also enables the steering group of a project or programme to conclude delivery early if it has achieved the optimum level of benefit realisation vs. cost or time. Iterative delivery also enables the steering committee to switch priority or focus if the landscape changes in order to ensure the objectives set out at the outset are achieved.
We hope you’ve found this blog post insightful. Whilst this list of reasons is not exhaustive and we could go on to discuss many more, we really believe that if you give focus to and address these top 5 topics, you are building a strong foundation to positively land your change and keep your organisation moving forward.
Interested in finding out more? Why not head over to Our Services page to understand how Gruppetto Digital can support your business.