When clients are considering undertaking a Pulse Measurement I am frequently asked questions like “how much experience do you have with regard to xxx” (xxx = name of ERP or specialized module) or “how much experience do you have with the yyy industry” (yyy = name of industry)
When a client is experiencing problems with their business systems the technically correct answer to both questions is “that is the WRONG question because the brand of software and the industry generally have little or nothing to do with the diagnosis of the problem because the factors causing the failure or sub-optimal outcomes and the Factors for Success relate to business system implementation principles and people and NOT software or industry”
The actual factors that cause failure and the factors for success, which were summarized by me in 2003, and formed the basis of my book, are presented below with refinements based on what I have learned since publishing the book
The longer answers to the two questions above are:
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With regard to software – “I have had exposure to an extremely wide diversity of software over the years and have found that my approach and knowledge are equally applicable across the entire spectrum of systems – in my earlier years I designed and wrote software and subsequently specified and managed the writing of software so I have an extremely broad understanding of software and its capabilities”
- With regard to industry -- “I have had exposure to an extremely wide diversity of industries over the years in both the Private Sector and Government and have found that my approach and knowledge are equally applicable across the entire spectrum of industries”
The Origin of “The Factors”
Based on my experience of investigating failed and sub-optimal Business Information System projects since 1990 I analyzed my findings in 2003 and derived a set of “Factors for Information Technology Investment Failure” and “The Critical Factors for Information Technology Investment Success”. Based on this analysis I developed a two day course which I still run today. Based on this course I wrote a book called “The Critical Factors for Information Technology Investment Success” which is available on request
Since then I have taught these principles on a regular basis in numerous courses and conference presentations and applied them in my ongoing consulting work with the consequence that I have robustly confirmed the universality of the principles and greatly extended my understanding of how they work and how to correct the negative impacts of the factors causing failure and how to effectively manage and apply the factors for success. In the process I have progressively refined the definition and rating of the factors and gained very substantial knowledge and experience in diagnosing them, treating the conditions they identify and applying them in managing projects to achieve high value business outcomes
The Factors Causing Business System Implementation Failure
The factors that cause failure – defined in the context of the dictum “engineers do NOT design bridges to stand up, they design them NOT to fall down” – see the home page – in other words the factors that need to be identified and engineered out of the solution are as follows:
1.Mythology, hype and tradition
2.Inappropriate or ineffective Executive Custody, governance and corporate policy
3.Lack of effective Strategic Alignment and Strategic Solution Architecture
4.Lack of Precision Configuration
5.Failure to address soft issues, business engagement and change impacts
6.Lack of an Engineering Approach
(By Engineering Approach I mean a highly structured, meticulous, systematic, rigorous, modeled on the formal disciplines of Engineering)
7.Technology Issues – sub-optimal or defective software, hardware, network, etc
The average contribution of these factors to failed and sub-optimal outcomes in my experience are shown graphically as follows:
These factors are NOT necessarily all present in a failed or sub-optimal installation but, in my experience, at least one of them is always present – the factors have been proven to be universal and comprehensive
It will be apparent from the above statistics that technology is very seldom the cause of the problem and, for that reason, the question with regard to experience with regard to a particular brand of technology is, to all intents and purposes, irrelevant
Since industry is, in a sense, a form of technology it is also to all intents and purposes irrelevant
From here a systematic line of questioning and observation using a series of well proven questions will quickly identify which of the above factors are contributing to the problem and the manner in which they are making this contribution leading ultimately to examination of the systems in question in order to gather solid fundamental supporting evidence
This approach of drawing on decades of experience within the context of a highly structured experientially based classification allows me to very quickly diagnose the root cause or causes of the problem AND very quickly prescribe the appropriate treatment – over the years I have developed a deep understanding of all the above factors and, most importantly, the measures necessary to remediate the factors causing failure and action the factors for success
The Critical Factors for Business System Implementation Success
As a corollary to the previous point a successful implementation is one in which ALL the above factors are engineered and managed out of the situation
In doing this there are ALSO a number of factors that should be managed to achieve a successful outcome. These are largely the same factors as above with different priorities and focused on the POSITIVE side of things
Thus a successful outcome is achieved by managing the negative Factors Causing Failure OUT of the situation and managing the positive Factors for Success INTO the situation
The Critical Factors for Success are as follows:
1.Effective Executive Custody
2.Effective Strategic definition and Alignment – the essence of the business
3.Effective Engineering Approach
4.Effective Precision Configuration
5.Effective Business Simulation Laboratory operation
6.Effective business integration, training, change facilitation, process specification
7.Reliable technology – capable, reliable software, hardware, network, etc with more than adequate capacity
The average contribution of these factors to successful high value outcomes that strongly support strategic goals, as encountered in my experience, are shown graphically as follows:
Conclusion
This light touch experience (or expertise) based approach enables rapid diagnosis of problems and necessary treatments and is the reason why a Pulse Measurement can be successfully undertaken in between one and ten days depending on the scale of the organization and the nature of the problem
It is also the basis on which I can offer the guarantee that if the client is NOT satisfied with the direction that the investigation is taking by the time I am one third of the way through the agreed time frame I will walk away without billing subject to my travel, accommodation and subsistence being paid for
I am available to assist as necessary in applying my recommendations in your organization
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