I read a book earlier this year named “Keep the Joint Running” from Bob Lewis, a favorite author of mine, and highly recommend it. In it he has one chapter in particular that every IT and business leader should join up to read and compare notes: chapter 11, “There are no IT Projects”. Being a representative of technology functions to business leaders, I get the opportunity to engage with them about how the business operates and how it can be improved. Many business leaders assume that because we represent technology, the only reason to engage our services would be in cases where the technology may come into play.    Conversely, they assume that a project led by IT and focused on something connected to that area, such as a new software application, phone system, or security policy is outside of their involvement and as long as it does not cost too much or cause any real problems, they would rather not be involved. 

In other words there is a wall built, and projects may be categorized as “IT Projects”. But this is not the case; any more than new employee requirements are just an HR problem, or a change in vendor selection is a “purchasing project”. The fact is that information technology affects most of an organization, either by allowing it to improve its competitive advantage, change its cost structure, or keep it in compliance with regulations, tax codes, etc.    And that is the positive view. Negatively an organization can be affected by problems in technology that reduce employee productivity, cause loss of intellectual property via security breaches, result in loss of customers due to late orders, etc., to name a few.    Unless you have nothing but paper and pencil technology is intertwined in your organization. And that means a project, even one that is focused on technology issues, is NOT an IT Project.

The goal of any project is to change the way the business operates, which dictates that there be equal and vibrant involvement from business and technology representatives. 

This is especially true of software projects. Software, whether purchased or developed internally, encapsulates the business process. Its forms and reports, and business validation rules force or support the business users to work in a certain fashion. Because of this it requires the developer and/or the support team of the software to be well aware of the business goals and process. They must possess a solid knowledge of business needs such as “what data is being collected?”, "who is allowed to see it”, “how can customers or vendors be an effective part of the process?”, and many more. Ideally, an IT rep working on a project should be able to answer the question “What is your objective?” as well as any business rep. If they can’t, then the software will not support the business very well. This creates two practical requirements:

1.       The business has a responsibility to liberally share their objectives, process, skills, and knowledge about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. They must invite the technology leaders into this discussion as these are being formed.

2.       The IT group has an obligation to learn what the business is doing, how and why they are doing it, and what the goals and future direction are. They also must share how technology can help improve the business’s ability to flexibly make progress towards the goals through improvement.

This can best be accomplished by keeping these three things constantly in view and in sync:

·         People

·         Process

·         Technology

Each can affect the other; for example people can dramatically improve the success of a project by working well together and helping to create understanding and mutual support. The process (both the project process and the business process being affected) must be clearly understood to the degree that all understand their role and how they affect the outcome. And finally the technology must be bent to work with the other two. Each affects the other: viewing the project as “just an IT Project” will by default limit the business people’s involvement, and slow adoption of any changes put in place. Consider a CRM project, one of the most difficult to achieve success and gain positive ROI. If the technology is the world class, but the sales team is not involved and then resents the technology and process pushed on them, they will not adjust their work approach and the project will fail. These must be kept in sync. 

 

If you are still thinking a project in technology may be an “IT Project” then consider the value of the IT function. Any function or initiative (such as a project) in a company is there to do one of three things:

·         Produce or Increase Revenue

·         Manage or Reduce Costs

·         Manage or Reduce Risks

This is also true of technology functions and projects; they can affect any one of these in a dramatic way.

The cost of IT should be pretty clear in real dollars: it is the budget allocated to it. And reducing or increasing it directly changes the cost. 

The value of technology across the organization, to see the return on investment can also be calculated.

1.       Take the total cost of each business process IT supports. This is the total fixed + variable cost to support the current transaction volume of the process (how many widgets, sales, customer service calls, etc. are needed to be in operation?).

2.       Using technology no more complex than calculator, design the best possible process for all functions supported in step 1 that maintain the same transaction volume. Calculate the fixed and variable costs of this new process. 

3.       Determine the actual value IT provides by subtracting the total of step 1 from the total of step 2. This is the value of IT in your organization in dollars.

It’s pretty easy to see there is value, even in a small company. For example, at its simplest, a company with one employee and one PC has a cost of $45,000 per year to handle 1,000 transactions, calculated $40,000 in salary, and $5,000 for the PC, software, training, etc. If you removed the PC, and still need to do 1,000 transactions, you may need another employee to help, say ½ time. The new cost is $60,000 (all in salary). In our example IT’s value is $15,000.

Now do that for all your business processes that use IT.

When you consider it this way, you can see that there is real value in IT, and that value cannot be simply managed behind the glass wall that is the server room. The technology leaders need to be working closely with the business leaders, equally and vibrantly, to manage and create new value. And that is why there are no IT projects, just business projects.