Are you dealing with never-ending delays in your enterprise project? It’s time to take a look at the project structure and ask the single most important question: who is the highest authority for whom this project is the top priority?
Are you suffering from never-ending delays in your enterprise project? Does it seem like the launch date never comes, and the date keeps getting extended again and again and again?
Delays in enterprise projects are typical, and we’ve come to take them for granted. But does it need to be this way?
When we investigate the delays caused in an enterprise project, there is usually a dependency that turns up, because of which each team can say they are delayed. However, every project team and stakeholder depends on one another.
Enterprise digital transformation projects are so complex there is no clear dependency matrix. Instead, we have seen dependency loops, where every team depends on one another for inputs and outputs. In such a situation, doing root cause analysis and trying to find the reasons for delays becomes a pointless exercise, and many times the weakest party gets blamed for the delays. The weakest party is also sometimes the one who has the most to lose from the delays.
So, what do we do about delays? Well, after the fact, there is very little that can be done for past delays. However, while planning for the future, we feel one particular aspect can help you keep your enterprise projects on track.
Look at the project structure and ask this single question: Who is the highest authority for whom this project is the highest priority? The answer to this question will tell you how the project is going to succeed, especially with respect to timelines.
The relationship of this highest authority to the rest of the stakeholders is critical in determining project success. This relationship can be in terms of influence, hierarchy, incentives, disincentives, or even relationships. Just looking at this single question and the derivatives and associations to the project stakeholders, you will be able to determine whether your project is going to succeed on time or not.
I have seen this as a crucial determining factor while observing many different projects over the course of our implementations with our customers, projects that we have been directly or indirectly involved in or which have evolved around us. I hope this small guideline gives you a way to evaluate your ongoing projects and make any necessary corrections or changes
As in most cases, even in this case, awareness is the first step to the solution.
