Houston IT projects - What could go wrong?
AVATAR Managed Services is a Houston-based MSP offering a range of IT services, including IT project management; here, we take a closer look at some common reasons IT projects fail If the topic sounds painfully close to home and a familiar story, it is widely agreed that most IT projects do indeed fail when reviewed against all success measures Generally, a project ideally meets three main criteria:
● The project should be completed on time (the target date or an actual deadline)
● The project should be delivered within the allocated budget
● The project delivers all of the functionality and deliverables
IT Projects running late
One of the key skills when managing a large IT project is the ability to juggle shifting steams of work, trying hard to always protect the critical path so the end date is not impacted, however, there are several common reasons a project is delayed:
● Losing a subject matter expert and their knowledge - the rest of the team needs to upskill to bridge the gap
● High staff turnover with new staff taking time to onboard
● An unstable IT platform leads to reluctance to make changes, delaying deployments to lower risk
● Lack of funds being released promptly
● Scope creep - allowing new requirements or more complex requirements to be brought in scope, rather than delaying enhancements to a ‘Phase II’
● A change in management and strategy, leading to reprioritization of the project
● Failure to meet signoff criteria
Find out more about AVATAR’s Houston IT Project Management
Overspend on IT projects
Projects, especially large and complex projects spanning many months, often hit unexpected challenges. For that reason, a financial buffer is often built into the project budget to be used as required and reviewed as needed. Processes need to be in place to make sure that accounting and auditing are carefully tracked, with an approval system at the correct management level It may be that small increases (in the order of under $500 perhaps) can be accommodated ‘on the fly’ up to a pre-set limit on incidences, whereas bigger discrepancies need a more careful
review Some IT projects have budgets of millions of dollars, so it is sensible to weigh the time lost in making changes and getting approvals if the overall spend can absorb some variation. Typically, it is rare that the variation will be a saving, changes in budget which cause concern are usually an increase.
Common reasons which could cause the budget to be unexpectedly higher than the initial projection include:
● Inclement weather delays a part of the project, especially if the IT project assumes a new business location will be ready on a certain date
● Supply chain issues - delays in the delivery of new IT infrastructure for instance
● Price increases that were not anticipated, like licensing costs, changes to terms and agreements, and new releases being launched during the project that would be a better fit for the future strategy
● Additional staff costs if there is staff turnover and new staff members need to be onboarded
● Procrastination - especially in IT projects such as upgrading Cyber Security A proactive approach to protecting client data and system integrity may seem daunting and expensive, however, the cost of not upgrading cybersecurity and achieving cybersecurity compliance if that is important for your industry, could be costlier The cost of a security breach can extend beyond a dollar amount to reputational damage, stress, operational time lost, and loss of clientele. Find out more about Houston cybersecurity IT Services from AVATAR
● Requirements gathering, Proof of Concept, and detailed forecasts are not thorough enough or accurate. There is an important phase that should not be underestimated at the start of every project where the details and the level of understanding funnel into the budget planning. If mistakes are made this early on, like how much autoscaling will cost in the cloud, then the project may appear on track, only to fail on completion because the cost of operational running following go-live is too high
AVATAR Managed Services has the IT project experience to support budget planning exercises, collaborating with clients to create a realistic budget and stick to it Delivering within budget is a high priority for every client, no matter the size of the project. It is also important to be transparent with reporting so additional costs are not siphoned off into another cost center AVATAR communicates effectively and efficiently to all stakeholders throughout the project. If, for some reason, there are budget challenges, they will be addressed as a matter of priority.