Conclusion
The inherent characteristics of IT projects are such that they will always
be complex endeavors. But the lack of a governing body, low barriers to professional
entry, low levels of investment in training, and obstacles generally to developing
expertise, all combine to create opportunities for IT projects to go awry. Moreover,
rapidly changing technology means that by the time you become an expert the game
has already changed. And finally, constant pressure to deliver reduces think time,
thereby leading to further mistakes, and then you have "the perfect storm" for
project failure.
Obviously, many IT projects do succeed and developing expertise in the IT sector
is not impossible. Increasing the chances of project success does however require
organizations to think very carefully about how they build teams and the processes
they use for ensuring that their teams have the necessary capabilities to succeed.
Although it's always tempting to blame the Project Manager or the project team
when a project fails, most often failure is a reflection of broader problems within
the organization as a whole. Rather than blaming the team, organizations would
be better served if they took a long hard look at their management, training and
hiring practices.
A key part of the changes organizations need to make comes down to recognizing
the decision-centric complexity that is the essence of an IT project. It is easy
to get lured into a false sense of security simply because a Gantt chart can make
an IT project look relatively simply. However, the underlying web of interrelated
decisions is the dimension that makes managing IT projects so hard to accomplish.
Therefore, it is necessary to recognize and understand the decision-making
dimension along with the many and varied factors that affect the way individuals,
teams and organizations make decisions. Only then will organizations be able to
build the necessary infrastructure within which expertise will flourish. Then
and only then can organizations start on the long road towards developing the
levels of expertise needed to be able to improve their chances of success.
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Barriers to Developing Expertise 