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foolab.ca | @foolabca 10 warning signs in IT projects. ConFoo Vancouver – December 6th, 2016

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2 Some statistics • 70% of IT projects fail • 66% of projects go over budget • 33% go over schedule • 17 % under deliver value

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3 Yann Larrivée • Consultant at FooLab • Specialize in project rescue • Twitter: @ylarrivee • Email : [email protected]

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4 Presentation objectives • Identify project threats early • Reduce the number of failures • Reduce stress, anxiety, headaches • More time with your family

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5 Vocabulary • Objectives • Metrics • Success • Failure

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6 Objectives - Signs • Stakeholders don't agree on business objectives • Goals are not communicated • Goals are not understood • Poorly defined goals

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7 Objectives - Solutions Ask these questions: • What are we trying to accomplish? • Why are we doing this? • What are we trying to improve?

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8 Objectives - Solutions • Get stakeholders to agree and sign a contract • Kickoff meeting to explain the goals • Print the goals on a poster hang them in your office • Communicate them to all team members

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9 Deadline - Signs • Deadline too tight • Trying to make a project fit • Working overtime • Deadline is too far

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10 Deadline - Solutions • Use simple solutions & technologies you master • Negotiate the delivery date • Plan time for the unexpected • Prioritize features based on objectives • Negotiate deliverables based on objectives

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11 Progress - Signs • No demo within the first month • Missed demos • You don't even have demos

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12 Progress - Solutions • Weekly release and demo • Request developers to give development URL • Follow the GIT commits • Yellow-flag task at 50% of completion time • Red-flag task at 75% of completion

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13 Team Spirit - Signs • Pointing fingers • Poor or no collaboration • Negative attitude

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14 Team Spirit - Solutions • Break negative conversations • Change the focus to solutions • Meet team members with negative attitude • Remove bad team members • Get to know your team members

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15 Communication – Signs • No one ever reports problem • People provide excuses for the road blocks • People forward you to the documentation • Languages • Timezones

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16 Communication – Solutions • Find the root cause • Have someone bilingual • Re adjust your schedule • Talk one on one to get the real information • Pick up the phone!

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17 Focus – Signs • Methodologies & Architecture • Tools and framework • Adding cool features • Gold platting • Last minute changes

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18 Focus – Solutions • Plan time for R&D outside of your project • Focus Delivering value, not feature • How does it bring us closer to the objective?

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19 Documentation – Signs • 50 pages+ novel style documentation • No documentation • Poor technical and functional analysis

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20 Documentation – Solutions • Plan time for analysis • Centralize all documentation in source control • Keep it straight to the point • Write readable code

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21 Quality – Signs • The ghosts problem • Endless bugs list • No time for quality assurance • No time for performance testing • No time for security testing

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22 Quality – Solutions ● Have staging and product ready env ● Determine mission critical components ● Write test for mission critical components ● How many users at peak hours ● Have QA before each demo ● Use a pen testing tool

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23 Metrics - Signs • No way to measure the expected outcome

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24 Metrics – Solutions • Level of business success • Level of quality • Level of performance

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25 Presentation take-away • A project fails one day at a time • How does it bring us closer to the objective? • Plan for the unexpected • Don't underestimate the power of beer

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26 Questions? Twitter: @ylarrivee E-mail: [email protected] Website: foolab.ca You see many of these warning signs in your project? Get advice from an unbiased external source.