In an IT shop, our PMOs and project managers rely heavily on the IT department for many things: support, personnel, technology for the project, and did I already mention support?
Process improvement and overall IT governance can make your IT organization transparent and in better alignment with corporate strategy, which better enables IT to support the various units within the organization – including the PMO.
This article is based loosely on information I gathered from an InformationWeek article from late 2008. Below are nine traps to avoid in order to keep your IT departments process improvement on track.
Poor Expectation Setting
Before leaping into process improvements, it’s critical to set realistic expectations for management, peers, and other stakeholders. A process improvement plan, like hardware and software buys, must have agreed-on requirements, configuration, and customization to be successful. It takes a long-term commitment, and unless your organization is willing to change, it will likely fail.
Lack of Balance
When looking at a process improvement plan, the people and technology landscapes must be considered, too. Think of people, technology, and processes as a triangle: Focusing too heavily on one area will pull the others out of alignment. When designing a software tool, consider the processes dependent on it and the staff who will use it. We’ve seen many organizations focus on one of these areas, not see results, and then move on to focus heavily on another area. This approach isn’t effective and often wastes money.
No Consensus
Some process initiatives are bottom-up, and others are top-down. In the end, however, process improvement affects many people, and without consensus, the initiative will fail. Resistance from one group or even an individual can impede progress.
Lack of Automation
The IT environment of today has never been more dynamic, and the ability to automate process between systems is critical. A few years ago, there was a lot of energy around startup runbook-automation tools that helped organizations automate processes. However, customers’ failure to buy these tools in large numbers took much of the steam out of this market. The concept is still a sound one: Automating complex IT processes helps reduce manual errors, meet compliance requirements, and track discrete tool costs.
Insufficient Commitment from Leadership
A bottom-up approach can jump-start the process, but without the support of leadership, the overall initiative will fail. Full-scale process improvement takes a significant, long-term commitment from the leadership team. Organizational change, investment in tools and training, and culture adjustments are all significant undertakings.
Lack of Practical Training
Hundreds of companies offer process training. Many organizations will specialize in ITIL or Six Sigma or PMI processes and PMP certification, and while these can provide a common vocabulary, most organizations stop there. We hear many stories, of companies that have spent good money to train their staff, but then are frustrated when the company doesn’t change after all that training.
Stagnation of Planning and Documentation
Like documentation, planning is important, but if there’s no way to incorporate it into the organization, planning isn’t much use. We see far too many dusty process documents sitting on office shelves. Typically, outside consultants or internal groups wrote them with the best of intentions, but they were never internalized or implemented.
No Workable Process
Processes can be extremely exciting for some, but you must guard against conforming to a single best-practice framework too rigidly. Some of the most successful process implementers start with a best-practice framework, and then blend elements from other frameworks and unique business drivers into their overall approach. While this may sound like heresy to some purists, best-practice frameworks evolve, and incorporate the best of what’s done in the field.
Hands-off Outsourcing
There are a lot of companies out there that would love to improve your processes. This option may sound very appealing, but make sure you do it the right way. You need to own the processes at the end of the day, and you know more about your business than anyone else, so take a mentoring approach rather than a total outsource. And be sure you allocate enough time to work with the outsourcer.