“Navigating You and Your IT Project
To Calmer Waters.”
"Barry clearly has a mass of experience
and knowledge in delivering critical IT projects.
He establishes himself very quickly and quietly whilst building
a good repor with all of the members of the project.
The value he added to our project was priceless and ensured a
successful delivery.
The most pleasing part is his skill in transferring his knowledge
and the subtle way he educates others and steers them down the
right path.”
Chris Youles
Programme Manager
We are most likely to form a successful partnership
together if we share the same beliefs, values and philosophies.
My best results have been achieved with clients who are
open, sincere, trusting and forthright. You will have a genuine desire to provide
an outstanding service by performing at the highest possible level
and to employ a 'best-practice' approach.
You'll be committed to improving the standards you work to. You embrace
change (when and where appropriate) and relish the many challenges
of delivering an IT project. You're realistic in your approach and
happy to debate a topic, consider opposing views and face critical
issues head on. You'll listen to advice - even if it is not necessarily
what you want to hear!
You are comfortable with working in or determined to introduce a
genuine team-based working environment. This is not the half-baked
token-gesture approach attempted by some in an attempt to either
pay lip service to somebody's pet 'buzzword' or a hot-topic discovered
in a book and suddenly flavour of the month.
I am fortunate to work with a wide variety of companies throughout
the UK. Their sizes vary considerably. Some are large corporations,
leading organisations known throughout the world, household names
with big reputations to maintain. Others are smaller, in the SME
sector, with an assortment of backgrounds, but to whom, nonetheless,
success is just as vital.
Their industries include telecommunications, finance, software development,
recruitment and the building trade. They all have one thing in common
though – the need for vital IT projects to be delivered successfully.
Companies
face many similar problems irrespective of their size.
Obviously there are some problems that will be determined by a company's
size but many are not.
These problems will not come as any great surprise to you. You
will have no doubt encountered many of them along the way. You
maybe surprised
at the number of problems that personally affect you – well
don't be! Feel secure in the knowledge that many other IT projects
suffer exactly the same hazards and drawbacks as you.
A poor level of communication between the various elements making
up your project team is often a major factor in causing problems
- more often than not THE root cause!
You find yourself constantly applying short-term fixes. You never
get time to provide a suitable permanent solution, always a tactical
workaround and not long-term forward thinking strategic solutions.
In effect always using sticky tape to provide a temporary 'patch
up' job for somebody else to clear up later on.
You find yourself repeatedly fire-fighting issues that should never
have happened in the first place.
Key personnel involved have had little or no training related to
their role. They've probably been promoted overnight into the position
of project manager because of a lack of resource.
Individuals probably have more than one project to run with and
are unable to prioritise their work. The work just keeps on appearing;
your plate gets fuller and fuller!
Becoming dependent on other projects suddenly looming on the horizon.
They appear on your radar and cause conflicts.
You may well experience the oil tanker – "large turning
arc" syndrome when trying to change direction. Trying to cut
through red tape, bureaucracy hindering your attempts to solve the
problem from a fresh perspective or different angle.
Internal friction and rivalry between departments dramatically
slowing down your project's progress.
Some members of your project team are not co-operating, either
ignoring their responsibilities or for some reason pushing in the
opposite
direction. You may even be struggling with your stakeholders.
You may be struggling due to the lack of structure with the organisation,
control and governance of the project.
You never seem to get the chance to consolidate your position.
To take a step back and review where you are. Consequently, things
are
getting missed and not followed up.
The project appears to lack a sense of direction. Everyone seems
focused on the day-to-day grind associated with running the project
and paying no attention to the long-term view.
There doesn't seem to be a formal project methodology being followed
or standards to follow and adhere to.
Click here now to learn more about how I work, my beliefs, values
and philosophy. Get a good idea of the results I can produce for
you and your company and how we can be successful working together.
The
many challenges you face during a project's lifecycle can be extremely
varied and interesting.
Your biggest challenge of all has to be meeting
all three of the criteria – budget, time and "quality",
namely suitability and whether fit for purpose.
Resisting scope creep wherever possible without appearing unaccommodating.
Many a project has fallen foul due to being over accommodating,
a change too far!
A slightly different challenge is to resist the "moving goal
posts" syndrome. Not an easy thing to do. This doesn't
necessarily mean scope creep either. IT can be simply a different
way of
doing something that brings about a different technological
approach that
suddenly introduces a fault.
Ensuring you have appropriate resource, this means having
the right people in the right place at the right time - not
an
easy task
by any stretch of the imagination.
Keeping re-work to an absolute minimum. Otherwise a previously
well-maintained budget can quickly become shredded and end
up in tatters.
Carrying out the appropriate level of planning. Too much
detail means not enough of the doing, but not enough planning
leaves
too many
pitfalls and potential showstoppers with no action plan.
A constant challenge is identifying all of your risks and
associated mitigation. Also being aware of your dependencies
and having
a formal agreement in place with your opposite number on
the other
project.
Documenting your assumptions as well. How many projects have
faltered or even failed because people have made innocent
assumptions and
not made the necessary enquiries to confirm their understanding.
Another massive challenge has to be tackling and resolving
issues. Despite your best efforts and expert planning you
will still
have to tackle issues appearing, out of the blue, on the
horizon with
absolutely no word of warning!
Ensuring the requirements are clearly identified, to allow
for adequate testing and proving the solution you're delivering.
This in turn
goes a long way to getting the solution accepted and signed
off.
Managing relationships to get the best out of the various
parties working together and ensuring collectively a high
standard
of output. The many hats of a project manager also include
the blue
beret
of a representative from the United Nations peacekeeping
force!
Generating a genuine teamwork approach with a common aim,
pulling in the same direction and supportive to everyone's
needs and
requirements.
Providing a robust structure and organisation with clear
roles and responsibilities. Define who is doing what.
Clear and frequent reporting to stakeholders, to get their
buy-in, confidence and backing throughout the project's lifecycle.
My
list of clients makes for an interesting and varied read.
Despite
the different environments, platforms etc. by and large, they share
the same challenges, demands and issues.
Each project I have worked on and been responsible for has
been delivered successfully by applying the same techniques
and approach.
On the surface of it you would think (understandably) they
would be faced with entirely different issues but when
you strip off
the exterior layers it generally comes down to the same
things every
time.
Since 1998 I have worked closely with companies like DSB
Systems British Telecomm, BT Cellnet, Sun Microsystems,
Jadepark Management,
Lloyds TSB, Cee Jay Plant Hire, Intelligent Finance, Halifax
Bank of Scotland, Abbey, WM Holroyd & Sons.
I am extremely proud of my client list and the results
I have achieved. It covers the full spectrum of company
sizes
demonstrating
the
strength and depth of the value and benefit I offer a client
no matter who
they are. Whilst there are differences in the make up of
an IT project the same basic principles always apply when
delivering
it.
I offer an initial free consultation. We get to
know each other better, explore the possibilities of working together
and then
decide whether
it is worthwhile moving on to the next stage. This can
be done over the phone or maybe a formal or informal meeting – the
choice is yours.
There are many advantages and benefits
to us working together.
You will be able to tap into my
wealth of knowledge gleaned from over 30 years worth of experience
and three successful
careers.
You will benefit from my genuine desire to make you successful.
Together we will employ tried and tested techniques that
will help you develop
a better approach, not just for the short-term to get
you over the hump either, it will be a long-term futuristic
strategy.
Your newly adopted 'Best Practise' approach will naturally
stimulate greater savings, enhanced profits, a higher
success rate, increased
performance and a greater level of professionalism.
With the improved techniques comes a better performance,
a more successful delivery track record. Your individual
and
team morale
will be elevated
to previously unknown heights and you will see a more
efficient and affective unit in operation.
You will be capable of taking on any challenge head on
and be confident in the knowledge you can handle it.
You will
have the
tools and
the confidence to take on the toughest of problems.
Click here now to learn more about how
I work, my beliefs,
values and philosophy. Get a good idea of the results
I can produce
for you and your company and how we can be successful
working together.
The clients I work with all have one
key attribute.
They have had the ability to view things from different
perspectives.
They haven't
suffered with blinkered vision and are receptive to alternative
approaches. Their main aim has been to achieve success
collectively.
Applying the correct solution working as a team, a joint
effort with all parties actively involved with a high
standard of
communication and applying a best practice approach.
You will be comfortable discussing topics in depth and
agreeing (or disagreeing) on important issues with your
main objective
being to
keep moving forward and make progress. This attribute
is pretty vital.
You should be passionate about delivering your IT projects
successfully.
This venture should be a partnership, a joint venture
where honesty, integrity, professionalism and above all
success
prevails.
Nothing should be that serious as to forfeit
a lighter moment or two, particularly if and when the grey clouds
start gathering.
Many a potential dark moment has been
averted with a spot of light humour!
Hopefully you will be comfortable with having some humour
incorporated into the proceedings. There is a time
and a place for everything
and obviously your work is very important but hopefully
you will believe there should always be enough time
for some
of those
light-hearted
So can we work together?
If you feel we can work together and that
you fit the profile of an ideal client click here to find out
about my initial
free consultation.
We get to know each other better and explore the
possibility of moving on to the next stage. This can be done
over
the phone or
maybe a
formal or informal meeting – the choice is
yours.
Alternatively, Click here to learn
more about how I work, my beliefs, values and philosophy. Get
a good idea of the results I can produce for you
and your company and how we can be successful working
together.