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The Key to Successful IT Project Management
Continued from page: 2
Adeesh Sharma, Jasmine Desai and Vishnu Anand
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Pitfalls to avoid
We get some really useful pieces of advice here. Right from the signing of SLAs
to the actual implementation and after-sales service, you need to tread through
each and every stage with the utmost caution. Make sure that your customer
understands each and every word that's been defined in the SLA and there should
be no deviation allowed later. Give sufficient time to define the scope of each
and every task and take proper sign-offs. Also ensure that you've clearly
understood your client's requirements and there is no ambiguity. In case you
doubt the technical feasibility have it resolved before the SLA is signed. There
has to be a clear commitment on what has to be delivered and by what time frame.
Never keep any technology requirement undefined or open. There has been many a
case of an implementation going completely haywire because of a lack of
understanding amongst implementation partners. A better way of handling this
would be to follow a phased delivery approach, ie roll out an implementation (no
matter how big or small) in parts and get approvals from all concerned before
you proceed to the next stage. Also, never give in to pressures of changing to a
new technology without a sound logic. This is probably the worst pitfall a
project head can get into and one that causes the maximum delays. Apart from the
legal and technical aspects, issues related to people management and retention
could also be potential bombshells. It helps to work with the same team
throughout, coz any change in manpower in the middle could see you spending more
time on people management than managing the project itself. And a change in the
team could not just be initiated by old people leaving or new ones joining in.
It could be triggered by changes in your business workflow, where an entire team
could be replaced by another to reflect the new arrangement. So never allow a
client to change his workflow in the middle of an implementation! In conclusion,
here's another crucial bit of advice-ensure that the time frame between pilots
tests and actual rollout is kept to the bare minimum. As a longer than usual gap
could result in all the above problems creeping in to spoil your implementation
efforts.
What are industries like
Retail, healthcare doing in IT. What advantages do they have over early
adopters of technology?
IT has become the base and one needs to have skills IT skills should
always be blended with the vertical know-how. All sectors cannot move in a
parallel way when it comes to IT adoption. In healthcare, it is felt that
one should not make big money on it as it is a necessity. Whereas finance is
seen as the most profitable sector. Their affordability was also good and
they were highly competitive in terms of giving innovative banking solutions
to customers. Due to various constraints some sectors have been early
adopters while some have been late. There is no particular advantage or
disadvantage for the late movers as they do not have to compete with other
sectors.
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Anil Laud
Managing Director, Siemens Information Systems Ltd |
What are the latest happenings on the IT
implementation front across different types of industries? What kinds of
implementations are in demand these days?
Many companies do not know what exactly they want. IT is only a
facilitator not an end unto itself. Various kinds of implementations are in
demand these days. However, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on IT
infrastructure and what one calls as break-fix implementations. Even for the
Chief IT Officer there are ways he can move up the value chain. Server
consolidation and network optimization are becoming very popular. However,
the company should first focus on the benefit they can derive before
implementing these. Information security is also gaining a lot of momentum.
Change management is the biggest worry of
any CIO. What advice do you have for ensuring a smooth transition to a new
technology?
Typically when it comes to India, people do not value time. Also, they
have very little value for structured processes. They suffer from
'I-know-it-all' syndrome. While adopting a new technology everyone in an
organization should think and talk of business benefits.Explaining the
business benefit helps in a major way.
What are the key points to consider when
calculating the TCO of a large IT project?
Besides the upfront price, there are costs related to maintainability,
scalibilty, environmental costs (ie power, recycling of waste products,
etc). One important factor that is missed by most companies is user training
costs. If a solution is not user-friendly one has to spend lot of money in
getting employees to get habituated to it. It is hidden cost whose
importance can't be ignored. |
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