2001
New research from PA Consulting Group reveals how to ensure success in e-business projects
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27 July 2001
Although the frenzy of 2000 led some to believe that e-business was bounded by a different set of rules that dispensed with traditional tried and tested financial and project management frameworks, PA Consulting Group has carried out a survey that reveals that the reality is somewhat different. A project management framework and supporting management tool kit are proving to be crucial in achieving e-business goals. The survey places emphasis on the correct management of e-business projects and reveals that the key ingredients to ensuring success are:
- The use and appropriate application of project management tools to ensure project delivery (46% of respondents still use traditional IT/PM approaches; a further 31% used rapid application development)
- A robust but flexible business case, supported by a well-conceived plan, to provide bedrock direction to projects (over 60% cited revenue generated as being the key success criteria used to evaluate e-projects)
- Tangible project milestones - these remain the most important of visible measurements of progress; over 50% reported working to a 6 months or less planning horizon.
- Making sure that creativity does not have a totally free reign: a careful and proactive balance between traditional project controls and new world creativity delivers the most productive environment
- Ensuring the correct balance of team members' personalities, competencies, management experience and vision - a consideration that must be factored into the project management from the start, to avoid staff burn and churn.
The survey was carried out amongst the top 250 companies in the UK to explore how these companies managed their e projects and to determine the underlying themes that attributed to successful project delivery.
Stephen Clarke, who led PA's survey commented:
'In the e-world, projects have a broader scope and operate in faster timescales, with constantly shifting technologies, in a context that challenges the norm. These challenge the use of stringent project management controls. But this survey proves that project management quite firmly has a role to play in the fluid and dynamic world of e-business. However at PA we believe that it is a question of approach and mindset that determines how the most appropriate tools and techniques should be used, the deliverables that are realistically sought, and the recognition that people are equally important as the technology in creating a successful e-initiative'.
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Notes to editors
1. A copy of the survey The role of project management in achieving buinsess goals in e-business in the UK is available on request from Chantal de Havilland, 020 7333 5277 or by e-mail on chantal.de.havilland@paconsulting.com
2. Survey methodology - the findings in the report were based on a combination of questionnaires and interviews conducted with senior project managers in both IT and business management positions. The questionnaire returns provided the opportunity to look at success from a quantitative perspective and the interviews gave PA a qualitative insight into what makes e-business projects successful. The survey covered the key lifecycle stages of new economy programmes, comparing management approach against criteria of success, including revenue generation, cost reduction and customer numbers. The successes or otherwise of e-developments are by nature difficult to measure, can be subjective and riskier being at the forefront of organisational knowledge and personal skills. Profit warnings and delayed paybacks are indicative of this. E-business projects are by their very nature more akin to product development or innovation projects; success is therefore often less about producing deliverables and more about knowledge and organisational learning.
Against this background the survey set out to identify projects which had completed a full lifecycle and therefore had measurable benefits accruing. In conjunction with Imperial College, London, PA identified a cross-section of 200 companies from all sectors from the FTSE250 index, who were undertaking e-business initiatives.
The analysis of the quantitative research was then supplemented by a series of face-to-face interviews with e-business project managers, who had seen projects through from 'soup to nuts'.
3. PA Consulting Group is a leading management, systems and technology consulting firm, with a unique combination of these capabilities. Established almost 60 years ago, and operating worldwide from over 40 offices in more than 20 countries, PA draws on the knowledge and experience of around 4,000 people, whose skills span the initial generation of ideas and insights all the way through to detailed implementation.
PA builds strategies for the creation and capture of shareholder and customer value, and helps clients accelerate business growth through innovation and the application of technology. PA works with clients to improve performance, mobilize human resources and deliver change effectively, including managing major projects, and designing and implementing enterprise-wide systems and full e-business solutions.
PA focuses on creating benefits for clients rather than merely proposing them, and this focus is supported by an outstanding implementation track record in every major industry and for governments around the world. PA also develops leading-edge technology both for its clients and within its own portfolio of venture companies in areas ranging from software to wireless technology to life sciences.
PA distinguishes itself from its competitors through the range and quality of its people, the depth of its industry insight, its development and use of technology, and also its independence and culture of respect, collaboration, and flexibility in working with clients.
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