（转载）为什么大型IT项目会失败？

【发布者引言】

本文对于大型IT开发项目的组织方式给出了参考建议，这些建议来自对IT业一线领导者的实际工作经验的调查，在文末简单比对了传统的做法。
##CONTINUE##
作者提出的调查建议强调自上而下的组织，整个项目要把握好多个关键点，筹划指导委员会总揽全局任命核心项目组成员；核心项目小组制定项目大部分的和主要的决策，并负责指导、矫正下级小组的工作；下级小组由组长来领导，由组长和核心项目小组实时地进行沟通，保证项目的细节部分按要求实施。核心项目小组要定义所有项目成员的角色和责任，并且核心项目小组要为项目创建简明扼要的项目进度计划表，以便全体项目成员参照。整个大型项目要求很多人的密切配合，没有很好的规划经常会乱套，所以作者提出的五点相当于五个大型项目管理的关键点，执行的好坏关系项目的质量。

这篇文章也可用于对照所在公司的做法，或许可以从中汲取灵感，提出建设性的改进意见。

原文如下：

Why Big IT Projects Fail

By Jay Bahel 2009-04-10

Leadership Associates’ survey of more than 200 CEOs, COOs and CIOs suggests there is a high correlation between lack of execution and dissatisfied shareholders. Large projects specifically fail to meet shareholder expectations because they lack many things, such as buy-in within the project members, project managers who are business owners, clarity of plans and disciplined meeting management. Ambiguity of roles and responsibilities, team member burnout, and change management and cultural issues also contribute to this shortfall.

Our experience with more than 75 large projects suggests that success is closely tied to five “Execution Planning” steps:

Start with the steering committee. If there aren’t two or three sponsoring executives who choose to own a critical initiative within the business, don’t even start the initiative. Successful steering committees are primarily responsible for naming the members of the core project team, approving plans and providing strategic guidance to the core project team.

Establish the core project team. Successful core project teams include no more than four to six individuals who are responsible for making 80 percent of project decisions; building “straw models” and soliciting input/buy-in from other stakeholders (on issues such as master project timelines); aligning their sub-team leads to the master project timeline; holding sub-teams’ leads accountable for execution of the master project timeline; and escalating and resolving key project issues that may impede progress.

Establish sub-teams. Successful sub-team leads are responsible for developing and executing detailed plans (on schedule, budget and scope) in line with the master project timeline; recommending technical approaches and documenting them as required; and raising issues to sub-team peers and/or the core project team as necessary.

Define roles and responsibilities. Build a one-page graphical document that clearly defines objectives for all project members (in particular the core project team and sub-team leads). Successful large projects have core project teams that remove ambiguity of roles and responsibilities for both the sub-team leads and the core project team itself.

Build a one-page master project timeline. Successful core project teams publish a one-page graphical representation of the timeline for the project as a whole. These master project timelines have key “anchor dates” against which all sub-team leads are responsible for developing and executing detailed plans. This thinking differs from classical IT planning approaches.

Traditional project approaches start from the bottom up, with work-breakdown structures and task-level detail that roll into a detailed master project timeline. Our experience suggests that successful large projects start with key top-down anchor dates set forth from the core project team.

Effective IT strategy execution using these five steps overcomes the large project issues referenced earlier.

My future columns will cover other IT strategy execution tools and techniques. Continue to ask yourself, “How can these tools help me make a positive difference in my organization?”

Successful execution can make you invaluable in these tough economic times. These steps will help move your career forward.