Thursday
Jul 24th
| Successful Management of IT Infrastructure Projects |
| Written by David Rippon Director of ULCC | |||||||
Page 1 of 5  This lecture will highlight some of the issues which frustrate the successfuldelivery of IT infrastructure projects. The infrastructure referred to in both the title of my lecture and my job title does not mean simply hardware and networks. These are in themselves useless without the applications which use them to deliver value to an organisation. Consequently infrastructure in this context means every component of the I.T. asset used by an organisation from the network cable all the way through to the applications systems. Over the last 50 years we have seen the complexity of this infrastructure increasing from the relative simplicity of Leo fifty years ago to the current client/server models based onthe Internet, Extranet and Intranet. The infrastructure which an organisation is now totally dependent upon to function has many possible failure points making the successful delivery of an IT project more problematical now than it ever has been. This inaugural lecture will highlight some of the issues which frustrate the successful delivery of IT infrastructure projects. Resolution of such practical issues will be one of the areas of focus for the Research Centre of Applied Computing. ServiceTec have sponsored my Chair as part of their commitment to improving the quality of the implementation and support of IT infrastructures. The infrastructure referred to in both the title of my lecture and my job title does not mean simply hardware and networks. These are in themselves useless without the applications which use them to deliver value to an organisation. Consequently infrastructure in this context means every component of the I.T. asset used by an organisation from the network cable all the way through to the applications systems. Over the last 50 years we have seen the complexity of this infrastructure increasing from the relative simplicity of Leo fifty years ago to the current client/server models based on the Internet, Extranet and Intranet. The infrastructure which an organisation is now totally dependent upon to function has many possible failure points making the successful delivery of an IT project more problematical now than it ever has been. This is compounded by the sheer scale of the projects being considered, particularly in the government sector. The user base of central government systems can exceed 60 million citizens. This size of user base requires a very professional approach towards project management for successful projects to be delivered. However, the recent dot com boom and bust shows that it is not only central government IT projects which are complex and sometimes built on a foundation of sand. The examples of the Internet trail blazers demonstrate some of the more common stages of an IT project: 1. Wild Enthusiasm There is this really groovy bit of new technology called the Internet and we are all going to have to change our lifestyles immediately. There is a whole load of money to be made out of this. 2. Disillusionment We have spent how much? And still no one can access our web site even if they could find it in the first place? 3. Search for the Guilty It must be somebody’s fault – why wasn’t I told that this new technology was risky? Why wasn’t I told that only a small fraction of the UK population had ever shopped on line? Why wasn’t I told that actually delivering the goods required someone to be at home? Successful Management of IT Infrastructure Projects 4. Punishment of the Innocent Quick sell the shares before the other shareholders find out – it may have been our mistake but at least we will be rich. 5. Promotion of the Non-participants Bricks and clicks operators mop up the debris and apply better project management and expectation management in a structured and successful fashion. The dot com boom was a scary time. Apparently intelligent and sensible people simply forgot the normal profit and loss equations and believed that the technology was king and would destroy the basic laws of economics. Why do computers affect people in this way? Does Intel put something in the chips? The dot com charade was a very public example of how we can all be taken in by techno babble hype. Yet the lessons have always been there. Failed IT projects have commanded newspaper headlines for many years. Many of the examples are from the central government sector because it is relatively easier to uncover their failures, but there have also been many private sector failures. Maybe we have heard too many consultants telling us that there is a paradigm change coming and if we don’t understand it then we are too old, and they just happen to have this guy who has all the answers ….. unfortunately he may have understood the technology but he didn’t understand how to implement an IT Infrastructure project so it all ended in tears …. Again. A recent survey by KPMG published in November 2002 surveyed 134 end user organisations and reported that 70% of them had experienced some form of failure in their IT projects in the preceding year at an average cost of £8 million each. This equates to a total wastage of ca. £720 million. User expectations tend to be built on a superficial understanding of what technology can achieve, the complexity and cost is frequently underestimated and the psychological barriers to change often ignored totally. This is not surprising as the Users’ role in an organisation is to achieve the goals of that organisation and computer systems are only one aspect of that process. The IT professional is supposed to deliver value and capability in the same way as the other professionals within the organisation, such as marketing, finance, H.R. In this respect the IT function is a support to the main business goals just as those other organisational units are. The prime role of the IT function is to manage the information resource effectively so that the right information is delivered to the right person at the right time. As technology advances then the IT professional needs to evaluate carefully whether it is now cost effective to harness new technology to the business model. The Tesco on-line shopping model is an interesting example. That started as a fax or phone capability and the higher cost IT investment to support Internet order entry was only made when the business model was proven to be one that attracted customers. |
|||||||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
FOUNDING PARTNER
PARTNERS
OOPS. Your Flash player is missing or outdated.Click here to update your player so you can see this content.
News Feeds
Copyright © 2005 - 2008 LeadSure.
Comany No 06216310
