Balancing Change with Disciplined Project Management

One of the major issues I have faced in driving transformation efforts has been creating an appropriate balance between the need for nimbleness and the requirement for a disciplined approach to project management. Most organizations seem to struggle getting themselves into this sweet spot.

When I arrived at my current position, the environment I inherited reminded me of the wild, wild West! There was no project management methodology in place. As a matter of fact, there was not even a project approval process. My predecessor would receive a pot of money at the beginning of each year with no real focus on how to use it. People would line up outside his office like a pastry shop asking for money. It was first come, first served. When the money ran out, the money ran out. Needless to say, projects (if you want to call them that) were never completed on time or on budget. There was no apparent value to how money was being spent (notice I said spent, not invested). The first time I met our chairman of the board he shook my hand and said, “Larry, IT is a black hole where money goes in and nothing of value comes out.” Obviously, this was not an auspicious beginning. The project management process was broken.

A More Disciplined Approach

One of the first things we put in place was a governance process for project consideration. First of all, we stated that there would be no more IT projects. People of course looked at me like I had three ...

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