MyProjectAdvisor Newsletter

May 2009

In answer to increasing calls for improved transparency and oversight over taxpayer-funded government projects, the Senate recently introduced an IT project oversight bill, officially known as S. 920: the Information Technology (IT) Investment Oversight Enhancement and Waste Prevention Act of 2009. Proposed by Senator Thomas Carper (D – DE), the bill aims “to improve the transparency of the status of information technology investments, to require greater accountability for cost overruns on Federal information technology investment projects, to improve the processes agencies implement to manage information technology investments, [and] to reward excellence in information technology acquisition.”

Specifically, the bill calls for a public website to increase transparency on IT projects, methods to ensure that a project has a sound business plan and that the agency provides complete and accurate information about the project and empowering “Tiger Teams” to step in, possibly assigning additional experts, if they see a project is not progressing as planned. Ideally, this piece of legislation would prevent schedule slippage, ballooning costs, the failure of deliverables to meet objectives and decrease the overall number of government IT project failures and critical defects in the deliverables produced.

While the goal of this Waste Prevention Act is certainly a worthy one – curbing the government's wanton waste of taxpayer funds on ill-advised projects – the question remains as to the worthiness of its reasoning. But first, what made the introduction of such a bill seem necessary?

Wastefulness on Government IT projects is an undeniable fact, and wastefulness only flourishes in an environment of irresponsibility and incompetence. Projects do not fail on their own; the people working on them fail – incompetency is rampant on these projects. And this incompetency attracts legislation, with the thought that, “if we make responsibility someone's duty by law, the problem will be solved.”

Besides adding yet another layer of bureaucracy to government projects, which in turn increases overall costs and slows delivery, legislation like this tends to simply mask the underlying problem of a general unwillingness to take responsibility and make hard choices. No one wants to deal with upset stakeholders, and so the task is passed further and further up the chain of command, until additional workers are inserted into the hierarchy and made responsible for things which ought to be handled by the project manager.

That's right, the project manager is responsible for managing the project, including the prevention of waste and “critical errors.” There seems to be a lack of courage amongst these IT project managers - a lack of willingness to answer to all a project's stakeholders – that is the source of these projects' poor track records. Spending other people's money, especially taxpayer money not linked to any specific individual, is too easily justified, and spending it wastefully is often the path of least resistance when things don't progress as planned.

Bills like this Waste Prevention Act should never seem necessary, and even if enacted cannot address the underlying problem of project manager incompetency. The real solution is courage, the courage to face problems with honesty, take responsibility for consequences and put the needs of stakeholders first; in short, the solution is leadership based on service.

Only the service-based project leader is in a position to face the multifaceted challenges of government IT project waste and failure. A project leader who is able to put stakeholders first, takes personal responsibility for outcomes, and is able to lead through example and help a team to focus on the overall vision for the project will be able to keep priorities straight and foresee such problems before they become unmanageable.

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Links of Interest

New review posted for “The Strategic Project Leader” on PMLectures, a downloadable lecture introducing Jack's book, worth 2.5 PDUs. Check it out here!

Interview with the Project Management Podcast (TM) on what it takes to be a successful project leader - give it a listen!

http://www.thepmpodcast.com/

Great things come to those who serve!

Sincerely

Jack Ferraro PMP

President MyProjectAdvisor

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