Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Project Management Excellence
David L. Hamil, PMP
MESA Solutions, Inc.
7800 Highway 20 W; Tower Bldg., 4 th Fl
Huntsville, AL 35806
Abstract
Project failure is endemic in the geo-spatial information systems (GIS) industry. A recent study
performed by KPMG Information Technology, a Toronto-based professional services company,
showed that of the projects that failed, 87% went more than 50% over budget, 45% failed to produce
the expected benefits, and 86-92% went over schedule. Do you know why 85% of all projects fail to
meet all of their critical measures of success? Do you know how to avoid the pitfalls and mistakes
that can cripple your projects and derail your career? If you answered no to either of these
questions, then your projects may be in trouble. This paper presents the top 4 factors that have a
direct bearing on the success or failure of a GIS project, and the strategy for substantially achieving
project management excellence.
Introduction
Technology projects worldwide are costing companies billions of dollars more than they budgeted
for, and almost half don’t live up to the clients’ expectations. Newspapers and business dailies
trumpet few project successes but a massive number of failures. As projects grow larger and more
complex with every passing year, their outcomes – both successes and failures – become fodder for
the media and our competition. Unfortunately, project failures tend to predominate as they not only
make sensational stories but also are far more common.
What are the odds that your next information systems/information technologies (IS/IT) project will
be delivered on time, within budget, and to user expectations? Pretty grim, unfortunately, if you
dwell on the news propagated by IS industry analysts. META Group estimates that half of all new
United States software projects will go way over budget (META Group, 2000). The Standish group
says 53% of IS projects overrun their schedules and budgets, 31% are cancelled, and only 16% are
completed on time and on budget (Standish Group, 2000).
The mismanagement of projects to develop the geographic information systems that companies use
to run their businesses has been going on for years and the situation has not improved. “The
management of projects is still treated in a very amateurish way,” said Nigel Kelly, a partner in
KPMG’s IT practices.
For its study, KPMG surveyed the chief executive officers of 1,450 public and private sector
organizations across the U.S. and Canada, and analyzed more than 100 failed IT projects. A project
is considered a failure, according to IS industry analysts, if it was cancelled or deferred because it
wasn’t delivering its planned benefits, or if it had a budget or schedule overrun of more than 30 per
cent. Bottom line is that there is an astonishing waste of money here. The GIS sector of the IS/IT
arena is no exception – project failure, sadly to say is as prevalent in our business, also.
Wow, what a project “horror scope” for you and I. However, the real message for you and I is not
that a project fails, but rather why it fails. In analyzing these cautionary tales, business leaders can
draw on these “lessons learned” to prevent similar fates in their own project ventures. An analysis of
project failures, both publicized and unpublicized, shows that the principal causes for project failure
can be distilled down to 4 fundamental reasons: 1.) Poor planning, 2.) Lack of corporate
management support, 3.) Poor project management, and 4) Lack of customer focus and end-user
participation.
