Kick-Off Planning for IT Projects
This seminar aims to support strategic alignment, coordination and trust between parties involved in large scale IT projects. It will give IT projects a more positive start by aligning the expectations of the stakeholders involved.
The Seminar
In this interactive one-day seminar we will provide insight and learning into:
- Pitfalls: the typical pitfalls of ICT projects: how they happen and how to avoid them;
- The three cultures: a walk through the gaps in language, understanding, focus, and expectations of the three cultural domains, and their possible consequences for projects. Special attention will be given to the Operational Culture, its characteristics and motivations and their implications for projects; the Executive Information Gap and to positioning the external party in relation to the three cultures;
- Complexity in projects: its implications and strategies to deal with it, including an understanding of the difference between complicated and complex: how to recognise it and how to work with it. How the engineering culture approaches complex domains and the implications for systems design;
- Change processes: how they work. How systems react to changes introduced to them – as in the case of large projects;
- Decision-making: different models for decision making within projects and their implications for project design, information flow, involvement and motivation. Control and trust issues within the different models.
- Ownership: accountability versus SEP (Somebody Else’s Problem) in projects: from expectations to design to change management.
To bring it all together, we will devote the last part of the day to a collaborative exploration. We will use a specialised process (Dialogue Café, recently used for example by the ACS QLD) to create a list of Project Safe-Guards, opening the way to a shared understanding of the safe-guards for the success of the project.
Seminar Outcomes
- Deeper insight into the many factors involved in ensuring the well-being of a project;
- Enhanced ability to recognise and avoid possible project pitfalls;
- Strategies for improving the probability of success;
- Shared understanding of the safe-guards for project success;
- Enhanced personal commitment and involvement of participants;
- Improved communication and coordination between parties involved.
A summary of the conversations from the afternoon session will be provided.
Options
This seminar can be presented as an awareness seminar, exploring the systemic problems inherent in large-scale IT projects (including all the topics listed above). In this form, the seminar will serve anyone interested in the success of IT projects, not just the stakeholders of a specific project.
