Technology

Technical Successes; Business Failures

Consider a less-than-successful project in which you’ve participated. Did the project run aground because the developers didn’t know how to program?

Projects can be technical successes but business disasters. Ask any end user who patently rejects the software IT has labored to produce for them, and they’ll quickly say—”This software isn’t what we needed!”

Thus the problem. Typically, at project kick off end users are asked what they need. Then IT goes off for a few months, and after the rigors of quality assurance testing, the end users finally get their hands on the software.

Now, the user gives real feedback, but it’s too late. You’ve already exhausted the budget and timeline for the project. More time and funding are needed to add the features end users really need, but it is too late to recover. The abacus ticks off another failed IT project. The only thing saving you from losing favor is IT’s pre-existing perception as a fickle monster, fed often but only intermittently able to deliver high-impact, successful systems.

This highlights the need for Agile project management techniques.