1. Managing a Big IT Projects?
22 Mar 2012

2. What is a Big Project?
• Many Streams?
• Big Budget?
• Many Stakeholders?
• Impossible Deadline?
• Impossible Budget?
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3. Project Manager’s 101
• The project has a clear purpose, a start
and an end
• The project has a clear execution
methodology
• The project has many management areas
– Scope
– Risk
– Change
– Stakeholders
– Progress reviewsAssurity RESTRICTED 3

4. So what if it is Big?
• Customers
– Fixed price & schedule contract
– Scope & requirements interpretation
– Requirements changes
– Requirements traceability
– Many voices
• Wider agenda
– Public good/reputation considerations
– Future revenue
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5. So what if it is Big?
• Business unit owners
– Short and long term P&L
• Internal Complexity
– WBS tasks management: numbers, conflicts,
not enough resources
– People issues: silos, part-timers/drop-ins, skills
• Sub-Contractor/Vendor Management
– Contracts, scopes, overpromising
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6. So what do we do?
• Appoint a more senior PM
• Have a bigger PMO with more support
staff
• Create more documents
• Submit more management reports and
attend more review meetings
– Steering committee mtg etc…
• Have a bigger MS Project!
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7. NAF Implementation
• Unique and Big
– Build and operate at $17m in 9 short months
and then operate for 5 years
– Service nation-wide companies and citizenry
• Stringent Specifications: Security and
Reliability ~ better than banks’
• Outcome based
– SLAs vs Expectations
– Severe Reputational impact upon breach
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8. “Build Phase” Challenges
• No startup time
• More complex skill resources mix
• Immediate need for these specialized
business, technical and security skills
• Cost of reworking
• Design for operational phase
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9. “Operate Phase” Challenges
• Drive efficiency and cost effectiveness
• Acquire specialized business and skills
• Overcome resources constraints
• Sustain for a long period
• Meet stringent SLAs with LDs
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10. What did we do?
• Setup the usual review committees…
• Increased customer oversight
– Set and reiterated expectations again and
again
• Enhanced management oversight to the
highest level
– Regular management level “teas”
• Ensured a consistent and fair application of
the contract
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11. So what did we do?
• Scrambled to find skilled resources
– Dealt with Long lead time, retention, part-timer issues
– Got teams to work together effectively
• Reset understanding of project as proposal
architects were different those at implementation
• Optimise design for immediate commissioning
delivery vs delivery for operations efficiency
• Heightened Security awareness
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12. Thoughts
• Theory vs practice
• How would you do it?
• Different PMs with different attributes will
manage projects differently
• Be guided by strong ethics
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13. Thoughts
• PMs are appointed to bring order to chaos
• If there are no challenges, there is no need
for good PMs
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14. Q&A