The Success Healthcheck for IT Projects

As a successful international project manager J.A. Flinn has pioneered results risk management as the heart of delivering business transformation and benefits for domestic and international businesses. Her research conducted at Oxford University and the HEC into project success provides a robust foundation for this book. "The 8-Fold Path", developed for executives and project managers offers a diagnostic framework of the positive and negative factors that affect a projects delivery of business results.

Aimed at those who manage, sponsor, own or deliver IT projects "The Success Healthcheck for IT Projects" should help managers identify and address those projects which consume resources and yet don't produce results for the business. Case studies and questions are used throughout the book to help the reader better understand the real world elements of assessing and managing it project success or failure rate. The book is split into five distinct sections.

Part 1 is particularly relevant to business executives and CIOs. Since it examines both benchmarking a project and the productivity of projects. The reader is shown how to how to measure project results in the form of yield and how to evaluate portfolio results. In Chapter 3 predictability is identified as a key element of achieving "Predictable Accountable Results" (PAR) for business projects. A project Portfolio Health Check diagnoses the historical health of project results in chapter 5.

Probability is the theme for Part 2 and it's the place to start if you are a project sponsor or project manager. The main premise being that the performance of organisations projects in the past predicts the performance of future projects. The higher the maturity, the more reliable the project delivery process is going to be and leads to higher probability of project success. Here Results Risk Management ^_TM is introduced as the overarching process where firstly the health of a project is assessed and secondly, action is taken to "Keep, Kill, or Reconsider" the project. Within this process "The 8-Fold Path" is the tool used to diagnose the historic and current risk factors and identify probable success.

It is not a surprise therefore that, part 3 and 4 of this book work through each of the 8 elements or folds in the 8-Fold Path, illustrating the use and value of the diagnostic within a typical project.

1. Intent is clear
2. Business case is robust
3. Results delivery process is robust
4. Motivation is energized
5. Project alignment to current strategic position
6. Operations support the project
7. Flow of history supports the project
8. Balance of change and stability is sustainable.

Each of the chapters concludes with a short takeaway section, a checklist and associated warning signs allowing the reader to informally assess the effect each of the 8 elements has on project results. Finally Part 5 looks at the leadership challenges and next steps on the road to improved results from projects.

So is this book just another book on project risk management? Well yes it is, but where it differs is that it brings a fresh and pragmatic approach to the topic. The mainstay is the 8-Fold Path framework which is a useful technique to diagnose and lift project results. The strength of the book is that whilst it uses IT projects to emphasise key learning, this book is just as relevant to all projects in any industry sector.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, particularly to those executives and project managers looking for a fresh approach to delivering improved results from projects.

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-- Reviewed by Adrian Quinney

ABOUT OUR REVIEWER: Adrian Quinney is Account Director and executive consultant for Magic Milestones Ltd., a Project Management Consultancy that provides a refreshing approach to project management using a combination of Agile and traditional project management methods. Adrian spent much of his career globe-trotting the world delivering large scale supply chain technology projects and having seen the light, has in recent years been engaged in complex IT-based, public sector, utility and media projects. He is currently working alongside one of the UK’s most prestigious television companies delivering a large scale multi platform digital media programme.

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