Why writing a traditional project plan leads to failure

Have you had a hard time with your development project? To spend evenings on your laptop, prioritizing past assignments. Planning which activities must be completed before deployment. Wondering how cut over jeopardizes business. Or should the cut over be delayed? The project team instructs to move the deployment, the vendor drops out, and management presses on. In any case, it’s bad. You just try to minimize the risks.

But you’re not alone. In the same situation, there have been many others.

Here is of the reasons why these problems occur:

Does this sound familiar:

The development project is about to start and there should be a project plan. Well this is easy enough to handle. Ask a colleague for his project plan dock and copy it. The names and timetables are changed so the plan is then ready. The vendor told me that they have done hundreds of projects and have the methods for success, so it’s just futile/waste of time to plan!

Why copying an old project plan is a bad thing, or is it?

A good project plan is certainly a good base for a project plan. But this easy way of doing is driving you into Why writing a traditional project plan leads to failure?

two besetting sin

  1. Go through the project plan and correct the texts for your project. But you do not really plan, handle or communicate topics this way.
  2. Focus is on fixing texts. But you will not find things that are missing from the plan. You miss the same topics that the previous project forgot.
    And one more:
  3. Project planning is continuous work. When you set up a project, not everything is clear yet. If you are trying to make a complete plan, it may be that you may leave out certain key elements because the project is constantly evolving.

Take, for example, the risks of a project. The same risks may have been similar to the earlier versions of that same document for the last 10 years such as the project’s key resource allocation as well as the extent of project scope / change management.

If you fail to do proper planning, the result may be as follows: Once the project is launched, the key resources of the project are overloaded and numerous requests for changes extend the content of the project.

This is how you plan the project in order to avoid creating any additional problems.

Designing a project from scratch is laborious. But instead of editing ready-made answers to your liking, you need questions that will force you to plan your project thoroughly.

Compare even the previous paragraph with the expected risks to this question list. There are questions in the list to find the right risks. It also guides you to assess the severity of the risks correctly for your business.

1) What problems would give the media a reason for failure?

2) Customer interface: What problems would cause dissatisfaction with customers.

3) Which of the activities generates revenue / earnings. (Rule 80/20)

4) Risks associated with software vendor. For example, the ability to meet the challenges of deployment.

5) Risks from third parties? Could, for example, the current supplier’s actions pose problems? Key Resources and Availability?

6) If deployment gets delayed, how many additional costs will you incur?

7) What length of unexpected service breaks are allowed in the system. For example, how much is the cost per hour?

8) If there are any problems with invoicing, how long will it take before resolved before problems appears in the cashflow?

9) Resources: What if something happens to the key resources?

10) Do we have sufficient enough skills and time to implement the project.

11) The impact of the project on the company’s result. Comparison between success and failure.

An example of how to handle a question

Questions will help you to design the project in real life. For example, the question of risk management: 11) The impact of the project on the company’s result. Comparison between success and failure.

The answer will help you prioritize resources for the project. This, coupled with question 10, will help you to decide whether or not it is worth using valuable time on Excels and reading hundreds of emails? Isn’t it better to ensure the projects success and professionalism?

Questions will help you find the right answers at the right time

Problems with projects are pretty much alike. Implementation is overdue, resources are too low, budget is exceeded and the schedule is stretched … The normal way to do a project is to plan bit by bit and prepare to solve problems. The project manager turns into a firefighter that extinguishes hot spots when they emerge.

If you ask the right questions at the right time, you will prevent the emergence of problems. For example, three questions at the project planning phase reduce the number of errors found in the system test phase by up to 40%. The savings are easily between 5,000 and 15,000 euros, and probably a much larger sum.

  • How do you follow the implementation of the solution in real time?
  • How do you ensure that the definition matches business needs?
  • How do you test that the definition has been made and communicated so that the vendor has understood the definitions in the same way as the customer?

The background to the questions is that 40% of system error testing is generally due to the fact that implementation was not really complete. In addition, more expensive findings are defects in defining the specifications.

Below is an example of a process that responds to the three questions presented. In the example, test cases are used not only for normal testing, but also for detailed monitoring of the completion of the implementation.

The idea is simple. Implement the project so that it is possible to monitor progress in real time. Forget the standalone docks and make the implementation transparent.

The ProjectTOP model ensures success

We have been doing projects for over ten years. Based on the successes and failures of the projects, ProjectTOP method has been built. The model makes it extraordinary for three things:

  1. The ProjectTOP model has been developed for critical business development projects where IT is strongly involved. This is how we got the compact design of the ProjectTOP. For example, if you do product development projects, you can stop reading here.
  2. ProjectTOP Solutions ‘business model is based on the success of our customers’ projects. Our customer relationships are long lasting. We listen to our customers and develop ProjectTOP software based on customers’ needs.
  3. In addition to the ProjectTOP model, we also offer ProjectTOP software to which this model is built-in.

The ProjectTOP model forces you to design a project

The ProjectTOP template It contains questions that force you to think and plan a project. The ProjectTOP method documentation, on the other hand, will guide you to design your project correctly. We are familiar with the journey from the very beginning of the project to successful deployment. Get comprehensive guidance at each step of the project. And most importantly, the model will guide you to solve the problems ahead of their occurrence.

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