75% of IT projects fail, in spite of everyone's best intentions. What should you do so that your project does not figure out in that list? Even as a non IT person/company, you need the understanding of a few basic things. Those were covered in a webinar which used this deck. Target Audience: CTO, IT departments of non IT companies.

1. MCCIA webinar
April 14, 2020
Achieving Success with IT Projects
Ashish Belagali
LinkedIn: belagali17
Twitter: belagali17

2. Agenda
 Intent: Cover “what it takes so that your project does not
land up in the failed projects’ wasteland”
 20+ years experience
 20 slides

3. Context
75% IT projects fail!
Delhi
Story
Bengaluru
Story
Documentation
Startup Story
Medicare
Story
LMS
Story
School System
Story
Proj Mgmt tool
Story
S/w Takeover
Story
Legacy
Migration
Story
Event
Platform
Story

4. Failure Analysis
 Projects fail for different reasons.
 Failures can be foreseen, and mostly avoided.
 Don’t let a good failure go waste!

5. Making of a Successful Project
 Have your understanding in place.
 Prepare to invest time.
 Boost team morale.
 Expect issues. Deal with them.
 Life will be a little boring. Welcome it.

6. Theory X vs Theory Y
 X
 Y
 X+Y
 Y-X

7. Strategy 101
 Why to build? - 1.2X, 10X
 What to build?
 Build vs Buy
 MVP vs full fledged
 MVP throw-away vs enhanceable
 Keep changing with business needs
 Mobile / Web / Desktop / Browser plugin / Services
 Riding on another product

8. Project Management 101
 Project Planning
 Plan unknowns / R&D upfront
 Plan parallelism
 Hidden costs of people change
 Project Tracking
 Risk Management
 Identify
 Avoid / Mitigate / Live with

9. Communications 101
 Highly important
 Continuous dialog
 Mutual trust based
 Respect human factor
 Periodic status
 Even better, progress reviews
 Documented, referenceable
 Communication with Stakeholders, Users
 Sooner the better – Beta use

10. HR 101
 10X differentiator
 Think of
 Morale boosting
 Rewards
 Be appreciative and supportive
 Share the bigger picture
 Share success stories

11. Software Engineering 101
 Wisdom of the sages
 Req, Des, Dev, Test, Deploy
 Better than “just code” approach

12. Requirements Capture
 Beware of the impact of requirement addition
 At various stages
 Some times done before budgeting
 Make explicit. “A stitch in time..”
 Rigor => SRS / Use cases / User stories
 Invest in learning UML

13. Freestyle vs Waterfall vs Agile
 How much rigor do you need?
 Agile is not an excuse for poor quality.
 Continuous thinking
 Making adjustments
 Continuous delivery

14. Which Technology?
 Many choices
 Languages – C/C++, .Net, Java, PHP, Python
 Deep tech – AI / ML, Data analytics
 Service providers – Cloud, DevOps
 RAD – No code, low code
 Wise choice
 Familiarity
 Future-proof investment
 Speed of development

15. Security 101
 Size of lock <= Valuables
 Compliances, Certifications costly
 Choose hassles only on need-basis

16. Engagement Structuring
 Fixed Cost / T&M / Retainer
 Be fair
 One step ahead from either side

17. Project Budgeting
 Majorly linked to effort
 “Accurate Estimate” does not exist.
 Factors
 Team seniority
 Technology
 Rigor, Safety net (testing)
 Do not be penny-wise, pound-foolish

18. Majority of the Cost
 85% cost in
maintenance
 Fear the technical end
of life
Development
phase Maintenance phase
Development
effort saved
Maintenance
effort saved
Technical end of life,
where the software is
prohibitively costly or
impossible to maintain
Increased
life
Maintenance phase
Xsemble
Time
Effort

19. Leverage Tools
 Project Management
 Communication Technologies
 Task tracking / Time tracking / Kanban
 Source code management
 Development tools
 Continuous delivery

20. Thank you
 Q&A
 Software Design Workshop (Xsemble way)
Ashish Belagali
LinkedIn: belagali17
Twitter: belagali17