Train your team on PM strategies to reduce the risk of failure.
All of us have heard, some read, the famous best seller on Execution:
The discipline of getting things done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.
Execution translates visions of the organisations in to reality. In
the software industry, it often translates to effective project
management. The topic assumes more relevance today especially for
software firms that are at “tipping point” in their growth stories.
The Project Manager (PM) and the development team today deal with many
pressures - senior management, marketing, finance, customers, and
users - during the software development process. These pressures
impact the cost and the quality of the software produced. There are
generally more than one or two reasons for a software project to fail,
and it usually is a combination of technical, project management and
business decisions.
Opting to outsource
Project life cycles have become shorter, thanks to rapid evolution of
technologies and markets. This has resulted in short-term contract
agreements, with customers expecting the firm to ramp up in
capabilities in short time to meet their needs. The clients demand
more value for the outsourced work as cost arbitrage of the Indian
firms continue to be eroded and are looking “to squeeze every dollar
spent”. Hence, there's an increasing need to manage projects
effectively and efficiently – leaving no slack on cost, quality and
schedule.
Software outsourcing projects are of two types: fixed price (FP)
contracts and time & material (T&M) contracts. In FP contracts the
software firm gets a fixed price and pays for all realised costs. This
keeps the software firm interested in managing the projects
effectively, with available resources at minimal cossts to meet
schedules.
In T&M contracts, though the client pays for all realised costs, the
onus of finding resources (mainly competent engineers) for the
projects rest with the firm.
This poses a challenge in executing effective staff management in a
highly attrition-afflictedindustry. All these factors compel companies
to increasingly focus on the following project management
capabilities.
Meticulous methods
First, define and defend the boundaries of the project well with the
client. . Effective requirements, scope management, defining exact
deliverables and committing to all these become important. Research
has often showed that badly defined requirements are one of the main
reasons why software projects fail. These can be better managed by
shortening the cycles for delivery and periodically delivering smaller
work products that allows clients to provide timely feedback. Methods
such as agile project management are tailored for this context. These
methods reduce risks for both the client and the firm .
Second, have robust methodologies and frequent cross-checks to ensure
that effort estimates are appropriate, especially in FP projects.
While optimistic, under-estimates often lead to unmanageable projects,
pessimistic over-estimates end up as a losing proposition. Hence, the
need for reliable statistics.
Third, focus continually on people's productivity and skills . This
becomes a challenge as firms tend to increase the bottom of the
“pyramid model” of resourcing to reduce costs. Project managers often
have to deal with partially trained freshers, mentor and motivate them
and promote them to get them to the level of co-owners of the project
. Apart from technical capability building, this also requires the
firms to invest in project management capabilities. The likes of
Project Management Institute (PMI) have developed exhaustive framework
for accessing and developing project management capabilities. But the
unique nature of the software industry requires a comprehensive
project management training programme that focuses on experiential
learning through internal case studies and sessions conducted by
in-house experts. Since each firm is unique with respect to its
organisational climate and the types of projects they handle , best
practices need to be tailored to become effective in the
organisational context with greater emphasis on practices that has
worked well in the organisation.
Risk planning
The need for appropriate risk planning and management, as technologies
and business environment continues to evolve, cannot be emphasised
enough. If identified risks are not re-assessed and controlled , there
is no insight to the problems within the project. These problems could
entail inadequate engineering resources or delayed third party
components, situations that can result in unpleasant surprises for the
project managers.
CXOs looking for levers to pull the organisation to the next levels of
performance while meeting higher customer expectations need look no
further – the one labelled “Project Management” is the one to try
first.
(This article is written by Ramakrishnan L, Selvaraj V. and Dr. V.
Sridhar from Sasken Communication Technologies. Views expressed here
are personal. )
All of us have heard, some read, the famous best seller on Execution:
The discipline of getting things done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.
Execution translates visions of the organisations in to reality. In
the software industry, it often translates to effective project
management. The topic assumes more relevance today especially for
software firms that are at “tipping point” in their growth stories.
The Project Manager (PM) and the development team today deal with many
pressures - senior management, marketing, finance, customers, and
users - during the software development process. These pressures
impact the cost and the quality of the software produced. There are
generally more than one or two reasons for a software project to fail,
and it usually is a combination of technical, project management and
business decisions.
Opting to outsource
Project life cycles have become shorter, thanks to rapid evolution of
technologies and markets. This has resulted in short-term contract
agreements, with customers expecting the firm to ramp up in
capabilities in short time to meet their needs. The clients demand
more value for the outsourced work as cost arbitrage of the Indian
firms continue to be eroded and are looking “to squeeze every dollar
spent”. Hence, there's an increasing need to manage projects
effectively and efficiently – leaving no slack on cost, quality and
schedule.
Software outsourcing projects are of two types: fixed price (FP)
contracts and time & material (T&M) contracts. In FP contracts the
software firm gets a fixed price and pays for all realised costs. This
keeps the software firm interested in managing the projects
effectively, with available resources at minimal cossts to meet
schedules.
In T&M contracts, though the client pays for all realised costs, the
onus of finding resources (mainly competent engineers) for the
projects rest with the firm.
This poses a challenge in executing effective staff management in a
highly attrition-afflictedindustry. All these factors compel companies
to increasingly focus on the following project management
capabilities.
Meticulous methods
First, define and defend the boundaries of the project well with the
client. . Effective requirements, scope management, defining exact
deliverables and committing to all these become important. Research
has often showed that badly defined requirements are one of the main
reasons why software projects fail. These can be better managed by
shortening the cycles for delivery and periodically delivering smaller
work products that allows clients to provide timely feedback. Methods
such as agile project management are tailored for this context. These
methods reduce risks for both the client and the firm .
Second, have robust methodologies and frequent cross-checks to ensure
that effort estimates are appropriate, especially in FP projects.
While optimistic, under-estimates often lead to unmanageable projects,
pessimistic over-estimates end up as a losing proposition. Hence, the
need for reliable statistics.
Third, focus continually on people's productivity and skills . This
becomes a challenge as firms tend to increase the bottom of the
“pyramid model” of resourcing to reduce costs. Project managers often
have to deal with partially trained freshers, mentor and motivate them
and promote them to get them to the level of co-owners of the project
. Apart from technical capability building, this also requires the
firms to invest in project management capabilities. The likes of
Project Management Institute (PMI) have developed exhaustive framework
for accessing and developing project management capabilities. But the
unique nature of the software industry requires a comprehensive
project management training programme that focuses on experiential
learning through internal case studies and sessions conducted by
in-house experts. Since each firm is unique with respect to its
organisational climate and the types of projects they handle , best
practices need to be tailored to become effective in the
organisational context with greater emphasis on practices that has
worked well in the organisation.
Risk planning
The need for appropriate risk planning and management, as technologies
and business environment continues to evolve, cannot be emphasised
enough. If identified risks are not re-assessed and controlled , there
is no insight to the problems within the project. These problems could
entail inadequate engineering resources or delayed third party
components, situations that can result in unpleasant surprises for the
project managers.
CXOs looking for levers to pull the organisation to the next levels of
performance while meeting higher customer expectations need look no
further – the one labelled “Project Management” is the one to try
first.
(This article is written by Ramakrishnan L, Selvaraj V. and Dr. V.
Sridhar from Sasken Communication Technologies. Views expressed here
are personal. )
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