Technology Scorecards: Aligning IT Investments with Business Performance

Chapter 1. Why Projects Fail, Scorecards, and How This Book Is Organized

Today's Environment

Since the dot-com bust in the year 2000, information technology (IT) and IT people have been under an unprecedented squeeze. Today's high-tech industry has come close to being a $10 trillion behemoth, of which software is fully more than 25%. There was a time when software was a forgotten appendage to the mighty mainframe, but such is not the case anymore. Now software, even if only 25% of the total content, is the tail that wags the dog.

As paradigm after paradigm is changing in the high-tech landscape of our world, software is increasing in importance and is contributing more business benefits than ever before. But this is not enough.

It seems the honeymoon days for IT are over. The free rein that chief information officers (CIOs) enjoyed not too long ago are gone. Instead, we find ourselves in the midst of very tight operating conditions. In today's software environment, CIOs must:

• Reduce total cost of ownership.

• Increase value to the corporation.

• Contribute to improve bottom and top line.

And the normal things that CIOs were expected to do in addition to the top-level goals continue:

• Decrease complexity in increasingly heterogeneous environment.

• Contribute to creating a real, real-time enterprise.

• Manage resources.

• Do a lot with the little that is available.

• Produce miracles without budget growth.

The champions of IT, the CIOs and their staffs, try to deal with these issues while the project world ...