1. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that
you do it…
Jane Deal
Head of Information & Knowledge Systems
RNIB
6th March 2012

2. Content
• About RNIB
• The anatomy of projects
• What is project failure?
• Causes of failure
• How can we maximise success?
• Conclusion
• Questions

3. About RNIB
• Leading UK charity offering information, support
& advice to >2m people with sight loss
• 3 strategic priorities, 11 goals, 8 programmes
• ~2,000 staff & ~4,000 volunteers
• Associations
• Many things to many people:
• Membership, campaigning, advocacy, education &
social care, helpline, library, talking
books, innovation, transcription, products &
publications, consultancy…

4. The anatomy of projects
• Projects have multiple elements that need
to be effectively managed
• Relevant to all projects, vital for IT change
• According to Gartner, 75% of all IT
projects ‘fail’

5. What is project failure?
Time
• Failure to deliver
• on time
Cost Quality
• within budget
• to quality
• Comparatively few achieve all three
• Some will fail on at least one criterion
• Many will fail on all three
• …and at a cost

6. Causes of failure
• Multiple interlinked factors
• Some of the most common areas:
• Senior Management ownership
• Stakeholder engagement
• User involvement
• Communication
• Project management skills & approach
• Timescales/expectations
•

7. Causes of failure
• Requirements definition/prioritisation
• Change control
• Testing
• Risk management
• Supplier Management
• Accountability for benefits realisation

8. How can we maximise success?
• The way that projects are established
and managed is critical to improving the
chances of success.
• 2 main themes:
• people
• process

9. People
Successful change is heavily dependent on
people who need:
• Engagement
• Involvement
• Ownership
• Communication

10. People - Emotional Response to
Change
Response curve:

11. People – issues
• Lack of buy in – ‘What’s in it for me?’
• Lack of understanding and ownership of
benefits and their delivery
• What do I actually need?
• Local issues vs big picture
• Conflicting priorities / limited capacity
• Politics

12. People – Roles &
Responsibilities
• Who is sponsoring the project and
accountable for its success?
• Who is needed to deliver the project and
will they be made available when
needed?
• Who is accountable for delivering the
benefits?
• Who will track the benefits and how?
• Who will manage the project?…

13. People – Project Manager
• Specific skill set
• Right person for the job:
• Dedicated to the project
• Knowledge of business is not enough
• Permanent vs contract.
• Support for project managers:
• Experienced or new to the role?
• Match the project to their experience
• Provide PM and other training (risk, planning, etc.)

14. Process
• Proven approach
• Common, consistent methodology
• Scalable
• Interchangeable
• Recruitment
• Lessons learned/best practice

15. Process
• Prioritisation
• Agreed roadmap for the organisation
• Optimum deployment of finite resources
• Dependencies
• Impact on change recipients
• Expect the unexpected!

16. Process
• Requirements
• Clear
• Clean
• Consistent
• Complete
• Credible
• Prioritised (MoSCoW)
• Can you test them?
• Scope creep!

17. Process
• Planning
• What will we deliver?
• How will we implement it?
- ‘Big bang’ vs phased
- Pilot?
• Who needs to be involved – are they available?
• By when do we need to deliver it?
- Realistic & short
- Who will be affected and when
- Take time to plan: implement in haste, repent at leisure

18. Process
• Manage risk
• What might drive the plan off course?
- Representative selection!
- Likelihood and impact
• Counter measures
• What will you do with the risk?
- Eliminate/reduce
- Share/transfer
- Accept
• Suppliers!

19. Process
• Testing
• Developer testing
• User acceptance testing
• Most effective if:
- Requirements can be tested
- Tests are well-designed and planned
- Users are adequately trained
- Sufficient time allowed for testing

20. Process
• Realise the benefits!
• What are they?
• Can you measure them?
• How will you measure them?
• Who will measure them?
• Ownership and accountability!
This is what the project is for… isn’t it?

21. Conclusion
• Know what you want
• Be realistic
• Prioritise
• Plan & test
• Commit (the right) resources
• Manage the risks
• Track the benefits
• RAG

22. Above all…
• Engage
• Involve
• Communicate

23. Questions?