Successful Projects

Larry Cone just published an article titled, Letter to a PM – My Guilty Secret about his loathing of Project Management software. He expresses in a clear and concise manner how most PMs feel about PM software – Microsoft Project in particular.

Larry talks about how difficult it is to correct problems in MS Project once you have a schedule built and how the dependencies that drive project’s automated schedule updating can have ripple effects that are both unintended and nightmarish to find and correct.

Larry isn’t a novice. He’s been in the business for quite a while. His experiences aren’t unique. In almost every PM consulting engagement I do I find that PMs across the experience spectrum share Larry’s frustration with the tools used to manage projects. In almost every engagement I end up providing specialized and specific training on these tools – especially Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server – designed to show PMs how to better use the tools to do their jobs. My goal is always to remove roadblocks to success and make the PM’s job easier – this is what the tools were originally designed for after all.

Larry has inspired me to post some tips and tricks about MS Project which I will be doing over the next week or so. It coincides nicely with work I am doing for a current client where I am helping them implement MS Project Server 2K3 and providing basic PM and PM Tool training.

On March 24th The outsourcing Weblog ran published a post that said,

With the many challenges facing large pharmaceutical companies nowadays there is a need to reduce development costs by as much as 30-40%, while at the same time significantly shortening development cycle times. If outsourcing is to meet these challenges, new models of collaborative and cooperative working are needed. (http://www.outsourcing-weblog.com/50226711/research_and_markets_offers_outsourcing_clinical_development.php)

Frankly I disagree completely. The answer lies not in sending work and jobs overseas but in improving the way we do what we do here in America. Experience teaches us that just shipping work and jobs to a country whose standard of living is considerably less than ours does not automatically equate to gains in efficiency and reduction in development costs. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that projects done by Indian, Chinese and Russian firms don’t result in any real savings at all and in some cases cost more than if we had simply done those projects here in America.

The bottom line is that modern projects cannot be planned, managed and executed through stubborn reliance on outdated and inapplicable processes.  Today’s business evolves in an organic manner and projects have to be managed with this in mind – as functionality is developed and validated new and altered requirements are discovered and must be incorporated.  Traditional processes have no mechanism for dealing with this real-time evolution.

That’s where Insourcing comes in. Insourcing is more than just a catchy title.  Insourcing is a new way of approaching the work of projects.  It involves changing the fundamental paradigm of managing project based work.  Insourcing is about changing the way we think about the work we do and how we do it and, as a result, increasing performance and efficiency.

There are two hemispheres to insourcing.  The first hemisphere is about people, and about one’s ability to lead, motivate, inspire and reward.  This hemisphere deals with how to become an effective leader who can revolutionize the efficiency and productivity of staff members.

In order to solve the fundamental problems of software development we must first acknowledge that most leaders don’t do a very good job of leading.  Most leaders, if they were totally honest, would not be able to affirmatively answer, “Would you follow you as a leader?”

Effective leadership is a key factor in project success.   Every project has to have a leader.  The leader is responsible for the tone of the project and is the one person who can get the project staff to achieve remarkable results.

The second hemisphere is about process.  Insourcing is not process reengineering – it is a process revolution.  Agile processes begin to address this need but they go only so far and typically deal only with software development.  In order to increase efficiency and keep work in the US where it belongs we need to apply the principles of Agility to all work products not just to software development.

Depending on the research you read approximately 65% of the work done in American companies is project based.  The bad news is that most of these projects Fail. This is an indisputable fact. Many studies have been conducted over the past 10 years and they show with unanimity that the following three facts are true:
•    American projects are more likely to be unsuccessful than successful
•    Only about 1 out of 5 projects is likely to bring full satisfaction
•    The larger the project the more likely the failure
•    40% of new IS development projects are cancelled before completion at an estimated cost of $81 Billion annually
•    33% of IS projects are “challenged” by cost/time overruns or changes in scope at an estimated cost of $59 Billion annually
•    Failed and Challenged projects cost US companies and governments an estimated $145 billion annually
Executives and decision makers in American companies have been faced with ghastly budget and schedule overruns of projects for years.  Estimates indicate that anywhere from $81 to $140 billion annually is lost as a result of poor project execution.  Given this, is there any wonder American executives have been searching for a solution?

Unfortunately, the solution du jour – off-shoring – has proven to be no better than the status quo.  The majority of off-shore projects experience cost and schedule overruns and the quality of work product being produced is sub par.

So what’s the solution?  Is there a way for American companies to solve the problems inherent in modern project based work?  And is there a way to solve these problems and get work and jobs back inside American companies?

The answer to both questions is yes and the solution is insourcing.  Insourcing is more than just a catchy title.  Insourcing is a new way of approaching the work of projects.  It involves changing the fundamental paradigm of managing project based work.  Insourcing is about changing the way we think about the work we do and how we do it and, as a result, increasing performance and efficiency.

Insourcing isn’t necessarily the antithesis of Outsourcing but it is a concept that if embraced can stem the unnecessary flow of jobs out of America and can help stop the hemorrhaging of money from companies coffers and shareholders pockets.