IT projects designed for businesses used to have relatively high failure rate. The kinds of failures are relatively important: cost overruns, a schedule that shifts a lot, a lack of business sponsor, a product that doesn’t fit the business needs, a software refused by users or only used by few of them…
The listing, qualification and validation of these kinds of failures may be subject to a comprehensive study. It depends of classification, but there are probably more sources than types of failures. The source could be a purely human factor, a lack of communication, an underestimated but foreseeable event, an unexpected event for business owner but not for users … and more than this a mixing of part of these factors.
While it is impossible to eliminate all reasons of failure, it is still possible to implement a number of ways to increase the success rate of IT projects. Budgets being not unlimited, and with a tendency to shrink over time, these means must remain in line with the project failure costs.
One of the desirable improvements is to encourage communication of some project partners. i.e between the broader IT project team, businesses, and of course ….users. The advantage of this approach is to address a big part of failure causes. E.g. not taking into account users, having incomplete or misunderstood specifications, a design that is far away from the original idea, an unexpected or user impacting implementation, a disastrous record or one realized separately between the project and operational teams…
In the whole study that will follow, and even if the voice is going to be widely given to software users, it is still foreseen to keep a maximum of impartiality. The opinions that will be highlighted will be the one of interviewed people, bringing concrete parts in the accomplishment of the study.
The objective of this thesis is to identify different ways to involve and communicate between partners in an IT project, to compare them and to extract improvement ideas, the purpose being a better success of the project and satisfaction of all actors : from IT project team to … final user.
There are six parts inside. The first one takes stock on what is “being a user” of an information system today, and the slow evolution for forty years. The next chapter takes the business axis and analyzes the complex relationship between it and its information system. Then we get to the heart of the matter while analyzing the first phase “opportunity study” with project actors, business and users. The three next steps, review one by one the next phases of IT projects, until the development review.
The implementation is an essential part, as it is the trigger of this research topic. It is indeed the users with their business department that sounds the alarm, at the time implementations where particularly hard to live through.
Professional thesis how to place users and businesses at the heart of their IT
1. How to place users and businesses
at the heart of their IT
Patrick Faure - fr.linkedin.com/in/patrickfaure/en
Executive Master MSIT 2012
Management, Systems and IT– Professional thesis (A-Grade)
In the framework of HEC Paris
And Mines ParisTech
3. Executive summary
IT projects designed for businesses used to have relatively high failure rate. The kinds
of failures are relatively important: cost overruns, a schedule that shifts a lot, a lack of
business sponsor, a product that doesn’t fit the business needs, a software refused by users or
only used by few of them…
The listing, qualification and validation of these kinds of failures may be subject to a
comprehensive study. It depends of classification, but there are probably more sources than
types of failures. The source could be a purely human factor, a lack of communication, an
underestimated but foreseeable event, an unexpected event for business owner but not for
users … and more than this a mixing of part of these factors.
While it is impossible to eliminate all reasons of failure, it is still possible to
implement a number of ways to increase the success rate of IT projects. Budgets being not
unlimited, and with a tendency to shrink over time, these means must remain in line with the
project failure costs.
One of the desirable improvements is to encourage communication of some project
partners. i.e between the broader IT project team, businesses, and of course ….users. The
advantage of this approach is to address a big part of failure causes. E.g. not taking into
account users, having incomplete or misunderstood specifications, a design that is far away
from the original idea, an unexpected or user impacting implementation, a disastrous record
or one realized separately between the project and operational teams…
Executive MSIT 2012
Patrick Faure Page 3
4. In the whole study that will follow, and even if the voice is going to be widely given
to software users, it is still foreseen to keep a maximum of impartiality. The opinions that will
be highlighted will be the one of interviewed people, bringing concrete parts in the
accomplishment of the study.
The objective of this thesis is to identify different ways to involve and
communicate between partners in an IT project, to compare the m and to extract
improvement ideas, the purpose being a better success of the project and satisfaction of
all actors : from IT project team to … final user.
There are six parts inside. The first one takes stock on what is “being a user” of an
information system today, and the slow evolution for forty years. The next chapter takes the
business axis and analyzes the complex relationship between it and its information system.
Then we get to the heart of the matter while analyzing the first phase “opportunity study”
with project actors, business and users. The three next steps, review one by one the next
phases of IT projects, until the development review.
The implementation is an essential part, as it is the trigger of this research topic. It is
indeed the users with their business department that sounds the alarm, at the time
implementations where particularly hard to live through.
Finally, it is logical to conclude by a review phase, concerning the project of course,
but also the one of all actors and stakeholders of the project.
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Page 4 Patrick Faure
7. Table of contents
Acknowledgements___________________________________________________ 9
Executive Summary _________________________________________________ 11
Table of contents ___________________________________________________ 15
Introduction ______________________________________________________ 21
Chapter I The user and its information system_______________________ 25
I/ Study of the relationship between user and his environment _______________ 25
1) Birth of human-machine relationship uncorrelated fro m user concept _________________ 25
2) Evo lution fro m user concept to social actor ____________________________________ 27
3) Informat ive, consultative or participative user involvement ________________________ 30
4) Acco mmodating the new technology _________________________________________ 32
II/ Study of the relation in the world of work ____________________________ 34
1) Integrating users to discover defects sooner ____________________________________ 34
2) Improving user experience _________________________________________________ 36
3) Identifying necessary measures for the proper user integration in IT pro jects ___________ 39
4) The user in his whole experience of informat ion system, intra-co mpany _______________ 39
5) Successfully involving users _______________________________________________ 40
III/ User/IT relationship in Orange Group ______________________________ 42
1) Current situation ________________________________________________________ 42
2) User needs _____________________________________________________________ 43
3) Informat ion system representative needs ______________________________________ 45
IV/ User/IT relationship in other companies _____________________________ 45
Executive MSIT 2012
Patrick Faure Page 7
8. 1) Facilitating confidence-build ing with Crédit Agrico le-CIB users ____________________ 45
2) Pro-act ivity with users in Areva group ________________________________________ 46
3) GDF-Suez: understanding each other, identify ing our position and creating value _______ 46
4) A user relationship short-term and long-term imp rovement ________________________ 47
V/ Conclusion ____________________________________________________ 48
Chapter II The business and its information system __________________ 51
I/ Relationship definition between the business and its information system _____ 51
II/ Variety of relationships in the world of business _______________________ 53
III/ Business and IS relationships in Orange group _______________________ 53
1) Variety of situations encountered ___________________________________________ 53
2) Business needs _________________________________________________________ 54
3) Information system representative needs______________________________________ 54
IV/ Relationships between businesses and information system in other companies 59
1) Crédit Agricole-CIB _____________________________________________________ 59
2) A reva Group ___________________________________________________________ 60
3) GDF-SUEZ ____________________________________________________________ 63
4) Relationship improvement with businesses based on transparence ___________________ 63
V/ Conclusion ____________________________________________________ 63
Chapter III Field study on three different project approaches ___________ 69
I/ Project « Fast development »_______________________________________ 69
II/ Project field type « Classic » ______________________________________ 73
1) Pro ject with mult iple business departments and users_____________________________ 73
2) A co mp lex history _______________________________________________________ 74
III/ Agile project type ______________________________________________ 76
1) Agile methods in summary ________________________________________________ 76
2) SOFT, an impo rtant Agile project for the group _________________________________ 77
IV/ Conclusion ___________________________________________________ 79
Chapter IV Integrating user and the business as from opportunity study __ 81
I/ Theory and practice _____________________________________________ 81
II/ Situation within Orange company __________________________________ 82
III/ field study with a « fast development » project _______________________ 82
1) Pro ject OASI origin and description _________________________________________ 82
2) Pro ject context of study ___________________________________________________ 84
3) Business vision _________________________________________________________ 86
4) User vision ____________________________________________________________ 87
IV/ Project SPI field study and opportunity _____________________________ 87
V/ Agile project field study (« SOFT »)_________________________________ 90
1) A p roject « SOFT », born fro m user feedbacks _________________________________ 90
2) Many business departments to satisfy ________________________________________ 91
3) A wide « order/delivery » perimeter to cover gradually ___________________________ 92
4) Opportunity study and validation chain of exp ression of needs ______________________ 93
5) Co mmittees and workshops to serve business needs ______________________________ 95
6) « SOFT » opportunity study description with business/user vision ___________________ 96
VI/ Other companies_______________________________________________ 96
1) Case of an investment bank ________________________________________________ 96
2) Opportunity phase of a business project in Areva group ___________________________ 97
VII/ Conclusion __________________________________________________ 98
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9. Chapter V User and business participation during detailed design phase 101
I/ Theory and practice_____________________________________________ 101
1) Methods______________________________________________________________ 102
2) Risks of functional gaps __________________________________________________ 103
3) Pro ject size and risks ____________________________________________________ 103
II/ Field study with a « fast development » project _______________________ 103
III/ Field study of project « SPI » ____________________________________ 105
IV/ Agile project field study ________________________________________ 107
V/ Conclusion ___________________________________________________ 110
Chapter VI Development phase with users and businesses _____________ 113
I/ Introduction___________________________________________________ 113
II/ Field study with a « fast development » project _______________________ 114
IV/ Project field study with classic V-shaped development approach _________ 117
1) Develop ment tool choice for fiber integrated software ___________________________ 117
2) Business and user participation during development phase ________________________ 119
V/ Agile project field study _________________________________________ 121
1) Fro m project backlog to sprint backlog ______________________________________ 121
2) Pro ject exchange before and during sprint ____________________________________ 121
3) Pro ject team size evolution fro m the beginning ________________________________ 123
VI/ Other companies ______________________________________________ 125
VII/ Conclusion __________________________________________________________ 125
Chapter VII Deployment phase with users and businesses ______________ 127
I/ Introduction___________________________________________________ 127
II/ Orange group situation _________________________________________ 128
1) Pilot _________________________________________________________________ 129
2) Change validation with business vision ______________________________________ 130
III/ Field study with a « fast development » project ______________________ 133
1) Pilot phase ____________________________________________________________ 133
2) Imp lementation phase and milestone « T2 » ___________________________________ 134
IV/ Project field study with classic V-shaped development approach _________ 135
V/ Agile project field study _________________________________________ 137
1) Frequent implementations ______________________________________________ 137
2) Deployment feedbacks to projects teams ___________________________________ 138
3) Pro ject exchanges with users ______________________________________________ 138
VI/ Conclusion __________________________________________________ 139
Chapter VIII Review phase with users and businesses ________________ 141
I/ Introduction___________________________________________________ 141
II/ Field study with a « fast development » project _______________________ 141
III/ Project field study with classic V-shaped development approach _________ 142
IV/ Agile project field study ________________________________________ 143
1) Period 2007-2009_______________________________________________________ 143
2) Period 2010-2012_______________________________________________________ 144
V/ Conclusion ___________________________________________________ 148
Chapter IX Conclusion __________________________________________ 149
Executive MSIT 2012
Patrick Faure Page 9
10. I/ Global study review_____________________________________________ 149
1) Users ________________________________________________________________ 149
2) Businesses ____________________________________________________________ 152
II/ Project barometer tool to control the Information System evolution _______ 155
Table of interviews_________________________________________________ 161
Bibliography _____________________________________________________ 165
Table of illustrations _______________________________________________ 171
Appendix _____________________________________________________ 175
CIGREF governance barometer_____________________________________ 177
I/ Baro meter objectives ____________________________________________________ 177
II/ Baro meter positioning ___________________________________________________ 177
III/ Audit and Cobit links ___________________________________________________ 177
IV/ The model ___________________________________________________________ 177
Gartner maturity model ___________________________________________ 179
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