How did we get here?
At the start of 2000, the founders of Beaufortes, Philip Greenwood and Jason Bates, had an experience that caused them to look very carefully at the topic of project performance: It was to be a wake-up call.
Both founders were rising-stars in a globally respected business consulting firm; leading the sales effort to win a large international, 200 person project tender to create a whole new business model for a big brand name client.
...cue late night pizza at the office, and working around the clock...
The objective of the project was strategic, with a billion
dollar business case and geo-political consequences! Using another top consultancy as procurement advisors, every aspect of our proposal was thoroughly
evaluated on a comparative basis with the other top bids; our
project management methodology, governance processes, technical design, process modelling, change management efforts, quality assurance
approach,
key personnel resumes... every inch of the proposal was scrutinized.
As often happens, even though our proposal was nearly twice the price of the other bids, we won!
The client “recognised the emphasis we had put on understanding their particular problem and creating a systemic solution”. The procurement advisors were retained to ensure that the team delivered as proposed;
This client was taking no chances.
...and so as we left the project team to work on this shiny new project, we knew that with great people, a great plan, and the best project management in place that money could buy, the project was destined for success.
well...errh...no, not exactly
It ran significantly over time and budget, and ended up in a legal dispute.
So how do great projects fail anyway?
This shook our world! This project couldn't have been managed, planned, and co-ordinated any better.. and yet it failed! How could we reconcile this against everything we had been taught, experienced, and sold to our clients?!
After some soul searching, in 2001 we left our well paid consultancy positions on a quest for something bigger!
What are the real differences between projects that succeed spectacularly
and those that don't?
Are they methodological? Is PMBOK better than PRINCE2? Does it depend on skills availability? Is it about better more detailed planning and staffing levels? Rigorous testing? Risk analysis, contingency planning?
What are the differences that make the difference?
This is what we found:
- Good projects fail anyway! We discovered that our experience was far from unique: According to industry analysts Gartner and Standish Group, nearly three times as many large IT enabled projects fail than succeed, and this has been the case for over 20 years! (According to some of our S&P500 clients, this is an optimistic estimate)
- High performing project teams behave differently - - they are engaged, and it shows in how people behave across the project
- Engagement is: Desire. Really wanting the project to succeed, being diligent, creative, attentive and communicative. It's about being emotionally involved with the project and the project team
- Highly engaged project teams are created through project leadership. Project leadership is a way of looking at projects, an organizing framework that generates a trail of techniques that need to be applied throughout the project process to grow and sustain the team's engagement
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
How does this fit in with your 'story'? How can you use our experiences to make sure that your project isn't the one that fails? Drop us a line, and find out how.
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