Capability: Discovering Data

In this 4-part blog series, we look at some of the common reasons data projects fail and the key underlying solutions that can help businesses improve project success rates. Part 1 dealt with outcome misalignment and the problems of a project failing to align with business strategy. Part 2 dealt with estimates and what problems they can cause. Part 3 dealt with project scopes and why they are so important. This time we look at what underpins any successful project, time and resources.

Time and resources – without people, there is no project

As we mentioned in part 3, your estimates will also include estimating the time and resource you’ll need on a data insight project.

Building any project delivery schedule relies on realistic timelines, which can be difficult to produce for projects your team may not have executed before. While elements may be familiar, more and more large projects such as cloud implementations put IT teams on unfamiliar ground, making accurate timelines incredibly hard to estimate (even if everyone is available for your project 100% of the time!).

Reaching out to 3^rd parties that specialise in the kind of project you are undertaking can help you set a realistic project time estimate and schedule, helping you better manage your internal stakeholder’s expectations of time to delivery and not feeling burdened by unforeseen delays.

This can be especially useful on Digital Transformation projects where data is a critical point, as specialist 3^rd parties can support you on understanding the resource requirements based on your data maturity and current BI tools.

It is important to select the right supplier for your organisation. There are three key areas to validate that the 3^rd party are the right fit.

Firstly, a strong technical acumen is important; a common trait amongst 3^rd parties will be their ability to deliver through a competent delivery team who are well skilled in the chosen technology.

Secondly is a clear awareness within your industry. Understanding the subtleties of your industry is vital to being able to create and support effective solutions. There is no one-size-fits-all for data, so it is important that you are able to maintain and enhance your reputation by developing outputs which are focused and relevant.

The third, and most important area, is that the arrangement is a partnership. The best projects are those where collaboration is built into the core of the delivery. Each business has unique nuances that mark it out from the competition. Being involved throughout means these nuances are guarded and the context of the project remains relevant and specific to your business. When considering procuring the services of a 3^rd party, it is important that you are not dictated to, particularly with complex data projects. On conclusion of a project, you want your staff to feel confident to be self-sufficient in the management of the developed solutions, so it is imperative the project looks at developing staff skills as well as delivering high quality outputs.

Alongside this, it goes without saying, people are the key resource on any project – without people, there is no project. Many IT teams report being overstretched, often working on too many projects at the same time, or on projects with too few resources available to meet deadlines.

The initial scoping process should give the chance for an open discussion about which resource is needed and when on a project, as well as how much of their time each project team member (often with a workload outside of the project) will need to spend on the project on a weekly basis.

Defined roles in projects allow for clear differentiation of responsibilities. The previously accepted approach for data insight projects to be delivered was by those within IT. There is more of a need now than ever before that the driver of data projects is the business users who will utilise the output. Ensuring subject matter experts are available to feed into the requirements phase to contextualise complex data constructs and also to provide their feedback within user acceptance testing to prove the validity and usability of the output is essential.

Risk

Underestimate time or manpower on a project and your project might not fail completely, but it’s far more likely to run dramatically past it’s delivery date by weeks, months or in some cases even years. These delays create other bottlenecks around the organisation and can cause a break down in trust between you and stakeholders from not keeping your promises. Avoid this entirely by being realistic with your time estimates and seeking outside insight into requirements where your organisation has a knowledge gap.

Reward

Understanding the current state of play with the moving parts in your project helps you understand what resource you need. With this insight, you’ll be able to meet your deadlines by securing the right people for your project at the right time.

Our customers often reach out to us at the beginning of new data projects for aspects such a current data maturity assessment or infrastructure assessment that supports them in structuring their projects and allocating the right resource. Once into a project, our customers know that as a trusted partner, if they need some extra support from us, they can pull from our bank of services at any time to ensure they deliver and meet their data goals.

Conclusion

Throughout this series, we’ve covered outcomes, scope, estimates and resource planning, and it’s clear that when it comes to big IT projects, there are a number of risk factors that can cause a project to fail, run over-time or over-budget.

When we begin to mitigate these risks by taking the appropriate steps at each stage, projects are more successful and other benefits such as improved stakeholder relationships and employee job satisfaction begin to filter through.

Through planning, detail and communication, projects are infinitely more likely to be successful, however this can be easier said than done for busy IT departments who are usually juggling multiple projects in parallel.

This is why CACI’s Business Insight Group partners with customers and can support them at any point of their data journey, from aligning their outcomes through to post implementation training.

Find out more about our services that help you succeed in Digital Transformation projects.

In this 4-part blog series, we look at some of the common reasons data projects fail and the key underlying solutions that can help businesses improve project success rates. Part 1 dealt with outcome misalignment and the problems of a project failing to align with business strategy. Part 2 dealt with estimates and what problems they can cause. This time we look at why a project scope is so important.

Scope of the project – the devil is in the detail

In order to deliver a solution that everyone understands and is happy with post project completion, a clearly understood project scope is essential. This details what you are and are not going to deliver.

Project teams encounter challenges frequently during projects with additional requirements creeping in that were outside the initial scope. Through the previously mentioned outcome alignment and relevant stakeholder engagement during the scoping process, the risk of unforeseen “new requirements” (that either cause your project to run over time or budget) can be significantly reduced. This is not to say that the project cannot be agile to change but having a laser-focus on the outcomes and scope provides a solid foundation to effectively control such change and manage stakeholder expectations.

This process is often rushed in a bid to see projects kicked off faster, but without a well-defined scope there is a risk the development team may not have the full picture of what needs to be delivered and stakeholders may have mis-aligned expectations as to what is in the plan.

When considering how to scope a data insight project, there are some key considerations that will allow for effective planning:

Inputs

Data: clarity on WHAT information is needed. This element needs to consider whether or not the requirement information currently exists; if it does, where is it? If it does not, how can it be obtained?

Quality: the delivered solutions will only be as accurate as the data feeding them. It is important to understand within the scoping exercise how that data quality can be managed.

Knowledge: there are a large number of people who can manipulate and utilise data. The value in your business is those that can appreciate the CONTEXT of the data. These are key stakeholders who can explain the ‘why?’ and ensure the final output is relevant.

Outputs

Delivery: some projects will require a single output produced at a particular point in time, others will benefit from outputs delivered at regular intervals to inform the users. The method of delivery to those users is also important – do they have to retrieve the information from a location or will it be delivered to them via email for example.

Audience: it is important to consider two things with the audience – knowledge of the data and the position held in the business. More senior stakeholders will require strategic information to make decisions, service teams will require operational level data to be able to perform their day jobs. It is also important that enough information is provided. Some consumers will have a more intimate knowledge of the data so will not require as much explanation, but others may need additional detail for clarity and confidence in making decisions.

Intended use: If the purpose of the development is to be able to forecast future activity, it is not enough to provide the audience with just the current position; there is a need for historic data to map trends and start to look at how that may be influenced moving forward. Conversely, if the purpose is to performance manage a member of staff, only providing a forecast of potential future performance is not adequate to be able to analyse historic activity.

By aligning your outcomes at the very beginning, this should help inform the scope of the project, as there will already be a level of agreement on what the project needs to help the business achieve.

Risk

Without a full project scope, delivery may not resemble what everybody expected. This could be the result of a 3^rd party not having the full project requirements, or an internal stakeholder expecting something different than what was planned. Mitigate this risk by producing a full and detailed scope of your project.

Reward

Fully detailed project scopes keep everyone on the same page, specifically your project team and internal stakeholders, as well as any 3^rd parties involved in your project. Scoping provides an element of project transparency that ensures you’ll be able to better manage expectations.

Project structure and process, especially in the beginning phases of a project are critical to set the tone for what is to come, which is why our team of experts have developed a project framework with criteria and process at each stage to support delivery of successful projects. Find out more about the Fusion framework here.

In part 4 of this series, we’ll be covering the all-important areas of time, resource and people on your project.

In this 4-part blog series, we look at some of the common reasons data projects fail and the key underlying solutions that can help businesses improve project success rates. Part 1 dealt with outcome misalignment and the problems of a project failing to align with business strategy. This time we look at estimates and what problems they can cause.

Estimates – Balancing the books and the benefits

Almost every organisation would like to deliver more for less in the shortest space of time – after all, who wouldn’t?!

When undertaking any project, you’re going to need to provide estimates on the time it will take, the resource you will need and how much it will cost. This will likely first be highlighted in your business case or business analysis for the project.

Estimates can present challenges for many IT departments, where often the focus is on “how much is it going to cost?” and pressure on how to keep that number as low as possible. While some projects have a relatively low investment, larger enterprise projects will require a significant investment from the business.

This is an area where your business case is absolutely critical for your project to secure the stamp of approval. Many projects are not approved at this stage due to a poorly developed and formulated business case.

The very best project can be delivered but, if the business case was not correctly targeted, the outcome delivered will miss the mark.

There is a need to pivot the conversation within businesses. The conversation should not look at “how much is this going to cost?”. The question should be “how does that add value to what we do?”. The best business case is written from a perspective of the reward far outweighing the risk. Being able to articulate business benefits will automatically shift the narrative from the negative to the positive.

Project cost is relative. Delivering 10 cheap projects that all fail is not good business. Delivering a single project with a greater level of investment that improves the outcomes of customers, whether directly or indirectly, should be far more preferable.

To avoid the possibility of your project not being approved – especially in the case where the size of investment may give stakeholders the need for pause – it’s crucially important to:

• Define the need within the business: current problems or gaps your recommended solution will solve
• Determine the desired outcomes: describe the positive improvements to the business when your solution is implemented

Risk

Without a well-developed business case, your project may not be approved – meaning it’s failed before it’s begun. Lowering costs on your estimates in order to gain sign off may increase project failure risks or mean you need to request further investment halfway through. Overcome this challenge by creating a persuasive business case which shows your stakeholders why the need for this solution is business critical and highlight the valuable outcomes your solution will help them achieve.

Reward

Well developed business cases are not only more likely to be approved, but also facilitate a successful outcome delivery with the most business benefit.

Our team of Business Analysts work with organisations across the UK at the beginning of data journeys to build impactful and persuasive business cases that help secure investment in a solution best fit for purpose. Find out how our team could help you.

Next time, we’ll look at how project scope can impact delivery, benefits realisation and affect managing expectations on your projects.

Reports across every industry tell us that a very high rate of IT projects will fail to deliver on one or more aspect.

On average, only around a third of projects are delivered on time, in scope and without budget overrun. Data Insight initiatives are no different. As data analysis solutions become more and more important to organisations if they want to stay competitive, manage processes and improve operations, the drive for these projects to be successful is on a steep rise.

In this 4-part blog series, we look at some of the common reasons data projects fail and the key underlying solutions that can help businesses improve project success rates.

Reason 1 – Outcome Alignment. What does the future hold?

The first and most important part of any data analytics project is to map out its real purpose and create alignment with the business strategy.

Organisations are often presented with requests for such solutions accompanied by the case “we need to bring our data together to create more value” or “this will solve the data transformation problems we currently have”. However, these reasons don’t address the true benefits that could be realised and this makes return on investment (ROI) measurement very difficult.

You’re about to allocate valuable time, resources and investment into your next solution, so in order to deliver a fit for purpose solution and measure ROI you should always begin at the end. This means mapping out what improves in your organisation once your project is delivered. Alongside this, do these improvements align to your overarching business strategy, goals and objectives?

A common error is to confuse the features and benefits of a solution with the outcomes delivered through implementation or its use.

One such example of this scenario is where businesses believe procuring a model toolset is an outcome. In the world of analytics, standing still is no longer sustainable and businesses must continually evolve with the ever-changing technology landscape. By recognising that the outcome from the analytics project is to maximise the value that can be derived from data assets, the roadmap is set for a solution to be sought. This may involve the use of modern data tools, a strengthening of the data governance or could be a change in the approach to how data is utilised.

The following represents an example of a well-constructed outcome:

• Feature: Embedded analytics in selected solution
• Benefit: Users are able to easily analyse data and generate insight
• Outcome: Company saves 15% in costs from identifying operational inefficiencies

By establishing the desired outcomes before undertaking a project, you can better manage expectations and are more likely to deliver a solution that drives tangible, positive improvements and experiences.

Risk

Without aligning the outcomes of a data project to your business goals and objectives (as well as your IT strategy), you run the risk of failing to deliver tangible improvements. When ROI is evaluated at a later date, if there are no measurable improvements, it can create challenges when seeking approval of future projects.

Reward

Proposing a solution mapped to outcomes that align to your business goals creates a direct correlation between your project and a positive impact. By taking this approach you build better relationships between IT departments and senior stakeholders, as well as ensuring everything you do is continually helping your organisation. This is a virtuous circle, which generates an appetite for continual improvement through the use of data insight.

In order to put data at the heart of a business, it must be used to deliver outcomes that shape, develop and advance the business in all areas.

Our team of experts work with organisations across the UK running workshops with stakeholders to help align solutions with clear business outcomes. Find out more about our data discovery process.

In part 2 of this series, we look at estimates and how to build a well-developed business case to secure investment for your project.