Resource provided by Alok Kaushik
28 April 2016 – Mumbai, India – A new resource has been added to the PM World Library related to projects and project management in Information Technology (IT). The new resource is a report titled “Delivering large-scale IT projects on time, on budget, and on value” which is based on research conducted on more than 5400 IT projects by McKinsey and the BT Centre for Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford.
This paper was written jointly by Michael Bloch (Director), Sven Blumberg (Associate Principal), and Jürgen Laartz (Director) at McKinsey & Co. The article encapsulates the takeaways from different IT projects, and shares the key trend observed which says, "Large IT efforts often cost much more than planned; some can put the whole organization in jeopardy. The companies that defy these odds are the ones that master key dimensions that align IT and business value."
Some of the staggering findings of the study show, "On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted. Software projects run the highest risk of cost and schedule overruns."
Further it says, "Though most companies survive the pain of cost and schedule overruns. However, 17 percent of IT projects go so bad that they can threaten the very existence of the company." It takes several examples of success and failures of different organisations across industries to share what went right or wrong.
The article not only summarizes the takeaways but also recommends four dimensions to be handled well to improve project performance. Also, it provides a ‘value assurance’ assessment methodology that helps to understand how a project is doing against these four dimensions of success factors. This article would be an interesting read and might be even be serve as a useful content for project and program managers or anyone associated with managing large scale IT projects.
To access this new resource, go to the “Industries and Organizations” section of the library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/industries-and-organizations/, click on “Information and Communications Technologies”, scroll down to desired resource. Must be a registered and logged-in library member to access.