What is it about large projects that is so attractive?
Is it the ability to put a large project on a resume? Or the feeling of power to have introduced massive change? It is hard to figure out the answer to this management paradox. Maybe there isn’t one.
Service organizations and governments love the large project. A lot of them involve information technology, but these projects certainly aren’t just IT. IT just seems a good way to fund it. No one will argue with large projects that are the future.
However, large projects seem to fail at unbelievable rates. In fact, I am yet to see a successful one. All have begun with great pomp and circumstance. Executive speeches given, resources allocate, Gantt charts populated on hundreds of pages and the master plan is unveiled.
Two months later and the ADD management has usually already lost interest. Funding for other things is poured into the financials of the projects. Large projects do represent a great way to hide costs. Our software developers put in 500 hours last month into your project . . . and you got one line of code – if you are lucky.
These days I remain amused by those that promote their company or themselves as large-scale project managers with years of working on large projects. All that experience that has delivered so very little in tangible improvement.
The problem is really quite simple, the need was never really there to do a large project. Egos and assumptions play a larger role in these decisions than need. The truth is that most of the time value can be created by small changes on the front-line. It just isn’t as glamorous.
Before the next big project kicks off, take a couple of deep breadths and do the following:
- Get knowledge – leave the egos and assumptions behind
- Improve the work and pull IT
There are more to these steps, but if you are reflective on this you will discover a much better way than big projects.
Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public). His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work. Read his articles at Quality Digest and his column for CustomermanagementIQ.com. Learn more about the 95 Method for service organizations. Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbittor LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.
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