Executive summary
This paper discusses about on time delivery of projects in IT organization. The issue of delay in IT projects is discussed in the start of this paper in which the issue is elaborated comprehensively. The same section includes the root-cause analysis of the issue in which several root causes have been identified and briefly discussed. The last section of the paper includes recommendations. In this section several recommendations have been elaborated to address the root causes mentioned in the previous section. Few other recommendations that may address the problem are also given in order to ensure on time delivery of projects in IT organizations. The overall purpose of this paper is to carry out analysis of delays in projects within IT organization while suggesting recommendations.
The issue
An IT organization faces large number of issues in the modern era of digitization. Today’s IT business world is expanding far & wide and companies are in a race to acquire more and more projects so as to increase their brand visibility and overall market share. The law of reciprocation applies here, as the product line and number of projects of a company increases its manpower starts to burn out. People get overburdened and pressed upon with short deadlines and urgent targets. This situation tends to decrease the efficiency and quality of work performance. Organizations mostly neglect the human factor in the process of becoming number one in marketplace. Top management always wants to get most out of existing human resource and avoid inducting more people keeping the existing employees overburden. The important question in this scenario is to correctly estimate the amount of tasks a certain team can handle to give optimum output. Unfortunately, this question has been left unanswered as there is no system currently available to evaluate and give such reasonable calculations.
Traditionally, when a project is started in an IT organization, the total numbers of hours to successfully accomplish the targets are estimated. Ironically, no one has ever checked whether that number of hours were actually the same number as taken by the project. Project managers strive hard to keep situation under strict control in order to reduce delays. Critical path is overemphasized by the managers and its tickle down effects become evident in delays of delivery and coding mistakes of software. There is a need of register to keep a track record of actual number of hours taken by a project. Later on, one such register has been kept to record the timings of a certain project but numerous noticeable bottlenecks arrive.
It has been noted in the IT organization that most of the times overall budget of the project is underestimated and it takes almost three times of the initially allocated time to complete the project. The number of personnel and hours are far more than the projected figures and projects are been sold at cheap prices to client. Management is much concerned and fearful about the fact of raising project’s price as it decreases the chances of getting new projects and clients.
Following are few root causes of the delays in projects within an IT organization.
- Enhancement of functionality
One of the major causes of delay is continues amendments in the initial set of requirements. New ideas tend to be conceived and implemented; therefore, new and innovative solutions are required for each new change that is incorporated no single software can ever achieve completion due to this flaw in the process of programming. The developers waste their time and energies in enhancing the functionalities of software modules unnecessarily which amount to the delays in IT projects.
- Gold plating
This concept comprises of extensive details of any particular program, design or software. Engineers illustrate every possible detail of the project which is actually not demanded by the client. This takes too long for the experts to accomplish assigned tasks and most of the time they deviate from already set goal and objective of the project. Too much demonstration of the information leaves less time for the development of the software and results in delayed delivery.
- Quality Negligence
The limited time or extreme pressure to meet up short deadlines often compels developers to leave out the most important step known as quality testing and assurance. This in turn causes more delay than it could possibly prevent. The time passed away before the detection of any coding error is proportionally associated with the time required to rectify that error. Greater the time has passed longer it will take to get resolved. This neglect of quality assurance results in bringing delays in the form of revising the software upon the request of clients.
- Excessively hopeful schedule
Highly ideal and unrealistic schedules put enormous pressure on the team and a member of teams will automatically get overburdened. In first place they try to achieve those targets through working day in and day out. This approach towards work leads to sloppy performance, deviation from the requirements given by the client. The overall effect of this cause is also delaying of the project.
- Simultaneous projects
Many projects under completion at the same time may cause hindrance and by dividing tasks across various projects may tend to cause excessive delay. The chances of overlap and interruption in tasks accomplishment is bound to happen in such cases. One developer cannot work on more than one project simultaneously in order to keep his/her attention focused. In such cases where multiple projects are assigned to same developers, the delay factor tends to increase depending upon the number of projects.
- Poor design
- One solution for all
It is highly imperative to use project specific software as it reduces the chances of error and delays. Every project has its own requirements. One development tool for all is not the right type of approach in software and IT related issues. The higher management’s inability to understand software limitations comes under this category as well. The lack of understanding by higher management leads to delaying projects since they don’t understand the uniqueness of IT projects and for developing this understanding, they need to put in extra time.
- Research dependent projects
Projects that require research to be conducted are mostly difficult projects. Development of such software heavily relies on the research and no final shape can be given to the project unless the research is completed. There is always a reasonable amount of uncertainty in all types of researches; therefore, the delay may occur in the delivery. In case of little and relatively simple projects carrying out research is not be necessary and only simple planning and design is sufficient; however, in such cases carrying out research tends to result in delaying the project.
- Ordinary personnel
Organizations need to have significant number of talented and skilled personnel in order to deliver high quality output. Unskilled and technically inexperienced personnel largely contribute to causing delay in IT projects and services. Technically capable human resource is the biggest competitive edge an organization can have; however, unfortunately, most of the IT organizations lack this important characteristic. Having jack of all instead of master of one brings difficulties for the IT organizations when the project gets stuck at a phase that require higher degree of expertise and the company’s regular developers fail to effectively program that part.
- Non cooperative Customers
Most of the time customers are unaware of the fact that their active participation is required to attain set objectives. When timely responses and inputs from customers are not received, from the customer in the areas where further development is not possible, delays tend to take place. If the project team advances without obtaining appropriate feedback from client the project ultimately results in conflict of ideas and interest. Resolving any conflicts is not an easy task and long meetings and further deliberations are needed to for the purpose which amounts to delaying the projects.
- Conflict between the programmers and clients
An Enterprise Resource Planning Solution (ERP) generally involves migration of accounting system from manual to automatic system. The people in accounts offices may not be ready to undertake the ERP based accounting system at the end of month due o closing of month’s balances. This clearly means that any delay in deadline that leads to completion of the system in the end of the month will result in shifting of the launch in next month. This root cause of delay in designing of ERP systems is generally not considered in the planning phase which results in unavoidable delays in the execution phase.
Recommendations
After analyzing the issue and its root causes, it can be concluded that delays in projects handled by IT organizations are faced due to several reasons. Following recommendations are considered necessary to be followed in order to address all the root causes of delays in an effective manner:-
- The project should be kept limited within its scope in order to meet the customer’s requirements within the deadline and the allocated funds. Any deviation should not be incorporated without the consent of higher management and the clients.
- Any unnecessary additions or enhancement should be avoided that are not demanded by the customer so that the company puts in as much resources in the project as it is getting paid.
- Quality control must be ensured during each phase of the project with the aim to improve the quality of the project while removing the problematic points.
- Top management should take decision strategically in order to ensure in time delivery of the product as desired by the customer and this can only be done if realistic goal targets are set and only those projects are acquired which can be completed efficiently.
- The company needs to focus on only that number of project for which it is confident to complete with full focus. Project should never be taken over and above the capacity of the company.
- The designing phase of the project should be given due importance since the overall project is based on the initial design and in case of poor initial design the post design steps will be repeated according to the new design.
- The top management of IT organization must understand that each project differs in its design according to the client’s requirements so one single design or solution can never be taken as universal for all the projects.
- Most of the IT based projects need research before actually starting the project. More time given to the research step means the assumptions made in the plan will be more realistic. The company management needs to understand the importance of research in IT projects and put their focus in giving ample time to the research department before starting the actual work.
- An IT organization must strive to get best manpower for their projects in order to compete with other IT organizations in the market. This not only includes getting the best but also training the manpower to improve them. IT company’s biggest assets are their personnel so the importance of keeping good personnel in the company becomes evident.
- In many cases customers fail to fulfill their agreements in IT projects. In such cases the managers should try to work out the terms with customers and try to make a way with them for resolving the issue on urgent basis so that the company’s resources can be utilized against some other important project.
- The relationship among customers and developers is of very important nature since the developers are responsible to develop the software according to the requirements mentioned by the customers. The higher management should realize this fact and try to produce a harmonious environment for both the parties. The interaction among developers and customers must be friendly and any mishap in this regard should be handled with extra care and focus.
- In case of an ERP system, where some accounting system is a part of the project, the project should be planned in such a way that the accounts staff feel ready to take on the ERP based system without any hitch. Without the approval of accounts staff, any accounting system can’t be considered as complete so the convenience of accounts staff must be kept in mind during the planning phase of the project.
- Project management is not just limited to the materialistic fields; it can be applied to IT organizations as well. It is therefore recommended to ensure training of all working personnel on the project management of IT projects. IT projects have to be carried out in modules so in case of big IT based projects the critical path modules should be identified and focused upon with full devotion.
- Another way to reduce delay in IT projects is through outsourcing few key components of the project to other companies which are experts in the field. Such a decision must be made in all those fields for which the company does not have much expertise.
- The existing IT resources should be utilized for project management of the projects in order to ensure timely completion of the projects. This utilization of resources include both man and machine.
- Hiring a project manager for looking after the running projects will greatly help the company to minimize delays in its projects. The project manager can also be blamed for any such delay putting responsibility upon his shoulders for timely completion of the projects.
- Another important thing to consider for minimizing the delays is enhancing communication. The enhancement of communication involves communication with the employees in terms of informing them about the extensions received from clients so that they get relieved from the pressure. This relief does not imply that the employees start working in lazy manner but it is aimed at improving the quality of work.
