I was once placed on an in-house document management
project team at a company where I worked.
The team was mandated to come up with a document management system and
process that would replace the company’s then filing and document management
systems. The team comprised persons from
each department within the company; the thought being that each department
needed to give input into how their documents should be handled. A member of the administrative department led
the project; the thought here being that the admin staff would have a good
handle on the company’s documentation and filing processes and improvements
needed, as they were the ones primarily responsible for maintaining these
functions. I represented the human resources function/section on the committee.
In terms of meeting its mandate, this project
failed at so doing and was abandoned midway.
Post-mortem evaluation of the project reveals the following contributors
to the failure of the venture:
1.
Lack
of Definition – The project turned out to be much more complicated and involved
than anyone had imagined and what needed to be done was beyond the skill set of
the project team. According to the
aspects involved in defining a project, as outlined by Portny, Mantel,
Meredith, Shafer, Sutton & Kramer (2008), thorough project scoping would
have given light to its background, scope and strategy, thereby providing a
better understanding of what exactly needed to be done and who needed to be
involved;
2.
Lack
of technical expertise – None of the members of the project team was trained in
the business of the project. No one
therefore could really give clear direction to the venture. The company’s eyes were opened after a
trained project manager was assigned to the task and after he conducted thorough
research and commissioned technical consultancy. Then it was revealed the enormity of the
project’s scope. This however, took
place two years after the initial failed project and the wastage of resources
that went along with that attempt.
3.
Incorrect
technology – Again, without doing the proper research, the company went ahead
and purchased expensive hardware and related software for the project. As it turned out, the software was outdated
and the entire package was no longer supported by the manufacturers at the time
of this project.
In hindsight, some critical steps that needed to be taken to avoid the
failure that occurred include:
·
Defining
project and preparing a statement of work – This would have required research
and proper thought and would have produced a clearer view of what needed to be
done;
·
Consult
with the experts – Whether through a workshop, research or by hiring a
consultant, expert direction would have revealed the depth of what needed to be
done;
·
Getting
the two preceding points right would have lent direction to the required and
correct resources for the project.
All in all, the company learnt a big lesson from this
horrible first attempt and did things much differently the second time
around. As mentioned, a trained project
manager was hired, the project was carefully defined and consultation was made
with a technical expert. Although there
is still residual amazement within the company now that the actual scope is
realized, the project is well on its way and successfully meeting its targets
thus far.
Resources:
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R.,
Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E.
(2008).
Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects.
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
