How To Avoid Project Failure?

Project Failure - How To Define?

Historically, the definition of success on a project was viewed as accomplishing the work within the triple constraints i.e. time, scope & budget along with obtaining customer acceptance.

In today’s definition, success is when the planned business value is achieved within the imposed constraints and assumptions, and the customer receives the desired value.

I noticed that there is a poor understanding of project failure.

The project manager and the stakeholders can have different definitions of project failure.

The project manager’s definition might just be not meeting the competing constraints criteria. Stakeholders, on the other hand, might seem more interested in business value than the competing constraints once the project actually begins.

Stakeholders’ perception of failure might be:

• The project has become too costly for the expected benefits or value.
• The project will be completed too late.
• The project will not achieve its targeted benefits or value.
• The project no longer satisfies the stakeholders’ needs

This is the responsibility of project manager to ensure

1. Accurate displaying of project status
2. Early and accurate identification of trends
3. Early and accurate identification of problems
4. Reasonable determination of the project’s health
5. A source of critical information for controlling projects

Responsibility of the CIO is to motivate the team instead of saying "fire the person".

solar power is the future energy - a report

Brazilian homes use 50 Watt photovoltaic
systems for lighting.

I was talking few entrepreneur who are working on various solar energy as alternative rural energy in India.  It's an automatic choice because it's environmental friendly, reliable and government provides tax benefits.

In this report I will talk about the country wide production of solar energy , pros & cons of solar energy, investment option and how you and I can be benefited with a simple solar panel in our daily life.

US market: Record 109% Growth in US Solar Panel Installations

A report by the Solar Energies Industry Association found that residential solar installations increased 11 percent from 2010 to 2011, driven primarily by third-party ownership.

According to the US Solar Market Insight Report, over 1,800 megawatts (peak capacity) of photovoltaic solar panels were installed in 2011, up from the previous record of 887 megawatts in 2010.

The report, compiled by Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Green Tech Media (GTM) Research, looked at new photovoltaic (electricity producing) solar installations within the United States.
It states that the new installations are enough to power more than 370,000 homes.

OneRoof Energy is banking on this new approach. The San Diego-based company leases its residential systems--which can cost $30,000 to $40,000 if purchased outright--and has agreements with contractors for installation. The homeowner pays little or nothing upfront but has a monthly leasing fee and, presumably, a vastly reduced electric bill. Typical users see savings of 15 to 25 percent off their monthly expenditure on electricity, according to OneRoof president and CEO David Field.

Building the effcetive team is key for project management

Good working relation is the key for Success

Large-scale IT projects are prone to take too long, are usually more expensive than expected, and, crucially, fail to deliver the expected benefits. This need not be the case. Companies can achieve successful outcomes through an approach that helps IT and the business join forces in a commitment to deliver value.

In the second part of of my previous article "9 facts all CIOs should know" I will discuss on importance building an effective team and importance of synergy across the team.

Half of all large IT projects—defined as those with initial price tags exceeding $15 million—massively blow their budgets. On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted.

I found most of the time CIO and CTO don't learn from their previous mistakes or learn from the failure of other projects.

Most of the time CXO failed to build a cohesive team. Building the effective team for program management is critical for success.

Large projects can take on a life of their own in an organization. To be effective and efficient, project teams need a common vision, shared team processes, and a high-performance culture.

To build a solid team, members should have a common incentive structure that is aligned with the overall project goal, in contrast with individual work-stream goals.

A business-to-technology team that is financially aligned with the value-delivery targets will also ensure that all the critical change-management steps are taken and that, for example, communications with the rest of the organization are clear, timely, and precise.

I personally believe the quality of work , resulting from a project is inversely proportional to the number of people involved in the project. Project management is not crowd control.

In 2002 , I was responsible for transformation of Telefonica's billing system. It's a massive complex project but we were on schedule. The main reason was direct involvement of Telefonica's  CEO and a dedicated team with full of motivation and enthusiasm.

My 5  Take Away Points From Billing transformation project of Telefonica

1. The quality of work resulting from a project increases in direct proportion to the degree of involvement by the ultimate decision maker.

2. We didn't have a complicated hierarchy in decision making or reporting.

3. Meetings were well managed. We used to solve problems in meetings instead of just blaming each other.

4. We had a strategic and disciplined project-management office and establishing rigorous processes for managing requirements engineering and change requests. Our project office   established a few strong stage gates to ensure high-quality end products.

At the same time, we followed for a short delivery life cycle to avoid creating waste in the development process.


5. We had a complex multicultural team from Amdocs, Telefonica, KPMG but team were fully aligned to project goal.

how to select cloud computing vendor?

Clients have begun to prioritize their criteria for purchase around speed/security of the offering, along
Cloud computing represents a significant evolution in information technology (IT) service offerings, creating a powerful and flexible way to access the latest technology services while still managing IT costs.When it comes to choosing a cloud computing vendor, however, there are thousands of options. And finding the right one can be as tricky as predicting the weather.

Clients have begun to prioritize their criteria for purchase around speed/security of the offering, along with its price and support.

Here is a brief guide on how to select a cloud computing vendor.

Technical buying criteria

1. Firewall, access to Cloud (Enterprise Only), isolated server environment
2. Available operating system images and compatible software support
3. Software development tools to track project plan, software versioning, debugging tools
4. Ability to increase the size of the image (RAM CPU hard drive) after it has been created within a server or across  multiple servers
5. On boarding experience

Commercial buying criteria

1. Pricing transparency

2.Guaranteed service level agreement

In next post we will bring reviews on Amazon and other providers.

7 Tips Safe Cloud Computing

In a recent Ponemon Institute report, over 60% of surveyed US and European cloud service providers said they were unsure if their cloud applications were sufficiently secured. Is security of cloud services responsibility of customers or providers?

7 Must To Know Security Essentials For Cloud Computing 

1. Educate Users must understand the risks and responsibilities, and follow a set of best practices that they understand and respect. Creating a risk-aware culture is crucial for security — and nowhere is this more important than in cloud computing.

2. Protect the data Know the user of data and give access only to required person.

3. Maintain a secure environment Apply all security patches for all devices to avoid risk of malware infection and data leakage

4. Never stop testing The computing tools and environment must be tested both prior to deployment, and afterwards. Vulnerabilities tend to open up over time, which is why validation and assessment is vital. This should include testing to confirm that default passwords are not used.

5. Verify the vendor Check whether your cloud vendor understand and comply with your business needs and requirements, including security requirements? You should check the separation policy in case you decide yo part away.

6. Enforce governance You should be able to carry out regular audits of its data and generate compliance reports as if the data were housed on site. 7. Consider the country You’re investing not just in the cloud provider, but in a country. So know the country law regarding ownership of data, political unrest and electrical condition.

7. Consider the country

You’re investing not just in the cloud provider, but in a country. So know the country law regarding ownership of data, political unrest and electrical condition.