BUSINESS
Firms struggling to deal with ICT projects
30-04-2008
by
Irish companies are finding it difficult to deal with ICT projects, with a third admitting that up to half of all projects are not delivered on time or on budget.
A new survey by Clarion Consulting revealed that firms are having difficulties bringing their projects in on time and on budget, with undefined project parameters, unclear objectives and inadequate staffing among the most common project pitfalls.
Some 40 percent also rated their own project management capabilities as satisfactory or poor.
Pat Millar, managing director of Clarion Consulting, said there were a number of challenges facing firms. "They struggle because it's not clear what they are trying to achieve," he said. "They're not starting from a good position."
Millar told ENN that there were several main reasons why projects were failing, including a lack of definition of the project's scope, the differing expectations among stakeholders and the lack of a senior sponsor for the project within the business.
Though the effective management of projects is not a challenge that is limited solely to Irish firms, Millar said we may be lagging in some areas.
However, it wasn't all bad news; the survey of Irish organisations also revealed that 75 percent of companies are employing a defined project management methodology, an increase on the 60 percent recorded in 2007.
Employment trends revealed that the majority of companies -- 69 percent -- were using a mix of in-house and contract staff. Contract staff were used to provide extra capacity and specialist expertise to 68 percent of companies who were working on defined projects.
A little over half of the companies surveyed said they had a dedicated department to manage project functions, under the Project Management Office or PMO. This is recognised as an effective way of increasing project management capability.
Meanwhile, 21 percent are using Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools, which include software that helps group projects into portfolios, examine possible issues and risks, look at scheduling and examine benefits of projects and can help businesses decide on the priority of a project.
"Managing and developing project management capability is a continual challenge for many organisations, as evidenced by this survey," said Liam Dillon, President, Ireland Chapter Project Management Institute (PMI) in a statement.
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