Proyectos

34

STRATEGIES5JACTICS

COMPUTERWORLD March 12,2007

BART PERKINS

By the Numbers
USELESS
INFORMATION
Middle managers spend
more than a quarter of
their time searching for
information necessary to
their jobs, and when they
find i t, it's often wrong,
according to results of an
Accenture Ltd. survey.
OTHER FINDINGS:
Managers said that 5 0 % of
the information they obtain hasnovaiuetothem.
5 9 % said they miss corporate
information that's valuable in
their jobs almost every day because they can't find it.
4 2 % reported that they accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week.
4 5 % said they find gathering
information about what other
parts of the company are doing
to be a big challenge.
5 7 % said that having to go to
numerous sources tocompile
information is a difficult aspect
of managing information for
their |obs.
4 0 % reported that other parts
of the company are not willing
to share information.
3 6 % said there is so much information available that it takes
a long time to find the right
piece of data.
16% repoited that they gather
and stoie information using a
coilaboiative workplace such as
IT managers are theleast
likely to feel that the i nformation they receive has
value, and they spend the
most time trying to find it:
4 4 % of the intormation that IT
managers receive for their jobs
IS of no value.
4 7 % of IT managers spend
nearly 30% of their workweeks
trying to track down information
relevant to their jobs.
3 1 % of IT managers miss valuable infonnation moie than fivewww,computerworld,com

12 Things You KnowAbout
Projects but Choose to Ignore

T

HERE is no mystery as to why projects succeed or fail; people have been writing about
effective project management for millennia.
More than 2,000 years ago. Sun Tzu described how to organize a successful, highly
complex project (a military campaign) in The Art of War.

Out of sight, out of mind. I f y our suppli-

ersfail, you fail, and you own it. Don't
take your eyes off them.
Unnecessary complexity. P rojects that

attempt to be all things to all people
usually result in systems that are difficult to use, and they eventually fail.
Cultural conflict. Projects that violate
cultural norms of the organization seldom have a chance. The FBI's Virtual
to project success.
Case File was designed to shareinforA poor business case. A n
mation in a culture that values secrecy
incomplete business case
and rarely shares information across
allows incorrect expecteams. Moreover, FBI culture views IT
tations to be set — and
missed. Many business cas- as a support function and a "necessary
evil" rather than an integral part of the
es describe business benefits in far-too-broad terms. crime-solvingprocess. The project viGoals and benefits must be olated multiple cultural norms and met
with significant resistance. The Virtual
measurable, quantifiable
and achievable. (See "Busi- Case File wasfinallykilled after costing more than $100 million.
ness Cases: What, Why
and How" Computerworld,
No contingency. Stuff happens. ProjJune 13,2005.)
ects need flexibility to address the inThe businesscase is no
evitable surprises.

Fred Brooks' classic book.
The Mythical Man-Month,
offers management advice
targeted at running large
IT projects. The U.K. National Audit Office recently
published an excellent
guide to delivering successful IT-enabled business
change (.www.nao.org.uk/
publications/nao_reports/
06-07/060733es.htm). Over
BART PERKINS is managthe past 10 years, virtuallying partner at Louisvilli?. Ky every major IT publication
based Loveragn Pdrlners
Inc.whiclituilpsorqanizahas printed articles on why
iions invest w&ti in IT. Conlarge projects succeed or
longer valid. M arketplace
tjclliimatBartPerkins^
changes frequently infail.
LeveragePartnDrs.com
validate original business
Despite all the excellent
assumptions, but teams
advice available, more...