Visibility, Control and Early Detection @ CAI

Ensuring Project Success Through Automated Project Governance

Today’s AgendaRisk Management

– The Problem Made Simple

Today’s Objective

The Road Less Traveled

– Learning the Truth the Hard Way @ CAI

Our Solution

Some Final Thoughts

Problem StatementThe concept of risk is inherent in any project.

Since risk is impossible to avoid, the best way to deal with risk is to contain it.

One way to contain risk is through risk management.

Risk management involves the identification of risks, analysis of exposure to the risks in a development effort, and execution of the risk management plan.

Have you ever been surprised by something ofsignificance in your business?

Have you been told a project or activity was ok, only to find out later otherwise?

Are you sure that your organization understands what the rights things to do are?

Do you feel like you are being forced to make key

decisions with missing dataor information?

Does this version of “Risk Management” look all too familiar?

Do you believe that you have … “At your fingertips” … the most important data and opinions about important activities

and efforts?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions then your in good company for

the wrong reasons …

Greater than 60% of all IT projects have either failed or were delivered with less than the desired results.

What We Learned About The Industry …

Of Course We Know the Real Story … Don’t We?

Today’s Objective

To introduce you too a new toolset, process, and

capability that provides you with the opportunity to become proactive and

quantitative in“Project Risk Management”

Road to Risk Management

Over 20 years of project experience as a process and metrics company

– 1st “Fixed Price” development project delivered in 1983

– 1st $1m “Fixed Price” development project delivered in 1986

The metrics of our evolution:– Over 350 New Application Development Projects– Deployed Over 50 Managed Maintenance Teams– Completed Over 4m Billable Hours of

Supplemental Support

We Learned …

We Learned …

Things We Know (Facts)

– The technology to be used– The expected start date– The expected delivery date– The business rules that will be

followed– The tools that will be used:

development and management– The best practices to be

followed

Things We Think We Know

– The expected start date– The expected delivery date– The rate of change will be

contained to 20%– No one will leave the team

during the project– The business rules that will be

followed

Things We Know or Do We?

We Didn’t Know …

Which is Why We Found Ourselves Too Close To the Edge

Awarded a large applications development project

– Assigned our best Development Manager– Implemented our methodology– Implement our tools– Oversight: CAI and the Customer

Bad “All of a Sudden” – Project, CAI, and the Customer @ Risk

What Did We Do Next ?

First we identified our team of and increased our budget and made quick adjustments

– Including Customer

We performed an extensive Post-mortem on this project and others to determine how projects could unravel

The analysis:– Managing risks was a 1x event on projects or at best a 2x event

(Beginning and Just Before it Ended)– Bad “All of a Sudden” - Not Likely– Same mistakes being made on different projects– Inherent schedule flaws (Challenged from the Start)– Filtered Communications (In Team)– Limited Communication (Cross Team)– Requirements Inflation (I’ll know it when I see it)– Employee Turnover (Higher Than Expected)– Specification Breakdown (Design Incomplete)– Hidden Productivity Issues (Actual Time vs. Logged)

• Rate of Change Not Type of Change– Heroics (Few People – Extraordinary Efforts)

Project Review Revealed:Close to the Edge Too Many Times

Greater than 50% of all IT projects have either failed or were delivered with less than the desired results.

What We Learned About The Industry …

Greater than 50% of all IT projects have either failed or were delivered with less than the desired results.

What We Learned About The Industry …

And at the End of the Day Our Risk Turned Out to About People …

It’s About How People Feel and How They Think !!!

No one is immune to “Project Problems”

(Unmanaged Risks = Problems)

some are just more agile at reacting to them to minimize the impact …

Conclusion …

The Road to the Solution …

Investigate how a PMO could solve the problems without the overhead

– Already committed to the concept just not the typical implementation (needed to automate it)

Investigate Tools

– Only thing on the market were portfolio management tools (not a portfolio problem!!!!)

Only possible solution was to “Build Our Own”

So What Problems Must Be Addressed?

How do we get comprehensive visibility to project risks in order to make decisions

How do we improve the information flow and get back to a “Management By Walking Around” by leveraging technology

How do we limit heroics, burn-out and turnover

How do we perform risk assessments regularly during the project lifecycle in order to make comprehensive decisions

How do we change the culture by doing the right things and doing things right

So What Problems Must Be Addressed?

How do we get comprehensive visibility to project risks in order to make decisions

How do we improve the information flow and get back to a “Management By Walking Around” by leveraging technology

How do we limit heroics, burn-out and turnover

How do we perform risk assessments regularly during the project lifecycle in order to make comprehensive decisions

How do we change the culture by doing the right things and doing things right

So What Problems Must Be Addressed?

How do we get comprehensive visibility to project risks in order to make decisions

How do we improve the information flow and get back to a “Management By Walking Around” by leveraging technology

How do we limit heroics, burn-out and turnover

How do we perform risk assessments regularly during the project lifecycle in order to make comprehensive decisions

How do we change the culture by doing the right things and do things right

So What Problems Must Be Addressed?

How do we get comprehensive visibility to project risks in order to make decisions

How do we improve the information flow and get back to a “Management By Walking Around” by leveraging technology

How do we limit heroics, burn-out and turnover

How do we perform risk assessments regularly during the project lifecycle in order to make comprehensive decisions

How do we change the culture by doing the right things and do things right

What would be the value of having a sound, low cost, risk assessment capability

for our business?

Create an automated system that ensures “management, visibility, control, and governance” are actually occurring, is easy to use, easy to change, easy too maintain

Get the heart beat of the project on regularly scheduled basis …

The Goal of Our Solution …

Our Solution …Our Solution …

“The power to discern the true nature of the situation”

Modular Design: The Solution

The SolutionThe Solution

Modular Design: The Solution

Modular Design: Solution + Content

IT Governance Content Cartridge

Future Cartridges and Content

Future AvailabilityFuture Availability

Contract Management

Compliance Adherence

Risk Assessment

Legal Assessment

Health Assessment

IT Infrastructure Assessment

Create an Individually Customized Model Collect data – what data, from

whom, when Knowledge by phase Reminders Issues

Repositoryfor all

projects

Analysis Insight Must Do’s Never Agains Exceptions Corrective action

Visibility Dashboard Reports Alerts

Management Knowledge & Subject Expertise Assessments Project/Process types Project/Process

classifications Rules

Consistent

Execution

What do

we need to

know?

What do

we need to

know?

Where

do we

store it?

Where

do we

store it?

How do we

consume it or

view it?

How do we

consume it or

view it?

What

Will we learn

from this?

What

Will we learn

from this?

Foundation for Process ImprovementC

ap

abili

ty L

eve

l

VISIBILITYVISIBILITY

Streamline Processes

Implement Standard Processes

OPTIMIZATIONOPTIMIZATION

CONTROLCONTROL

Understand What is Happening

Cumulative timeline

Developers

Designers

Team Leaders

End Users

Business

Managers

Vendors

IT Management

Infrastructure

Team

Risk

Discovery

Team

Project

Manager

The Value of Automated Management Insight and IT Governance

Repository of Defined, Codified Recommended Practices

Non-Intrusive, Non-Bureaucratic Oversight and Control

Vehicle to Monitor and Enforce Recommended Practices Utilization

Orient

Act

Observe

Decide

Repetitive, Repeatable “Project Office” Type Reviews for All Projects

Proactive, Quantitative Approach for Managing Project Risks

Collection of Historical Data and Metrics

What is Insight Doing for CAI …Allows us to query stakeholders

keeping them engaged in the success of the project

Expands participation in project status reviews– Captures a “Million Points of View”

Early warning means early action and more success

Eliminates bureaucratic best practices activities and focuses everyone on the success of “The” project

Helps us avoid blunders (Repeated Mistakes)

Enables us to change the culture by encouraging people to do the right things by doing things right

Imp

act

Lo

w

H

igh

Difficult Easy

Implementation

The Insight Control Room

Control RoomControl Roomfor Knowledge & Managementfor Knowledge & Management

Notifications

Alerts

Warnings

Data &

Opinion

General and specific Alerts, Notifications, & WarningsGeneral and specific Alerts, Notifications, & Warnings

Best practice MechanismBest practice Mechanism

Historical benchmarking Historical benchmarking

Analysis of large volumes of dataAnalysis of large volumes of data

Knowledge,

Rules, Experience

Doer

Manager

Rules &

Knowledge

Rules

& Knowledge

Activities

External Expert

Few companies can grow without taking risks. But poor risk management leads to surprises in business operations that can impact shareholder confidence, regulatory oversight and the bottom line.

Closing Thoughts …

I am not suggesting that we can eliminate all project risks, nor do we want to … some risks are good

I am also not suggesting that projects will never fail again … when organizations fail to react to information, projects can still fail

What I am suggesting is that if there isn’t a “Risk Identification, Assessment, and Mitigation Process” implemented on all of your projects then you are just waiting for projects to fall behind schedule or fail.

Remember …Remember …

“Managing risk does not deal with future decisions, but the future of present

decisions”

“The power to discern the true nature of the situation”