Critiquing the “don’t charter projects, conduct experiments instead” proposal

Dear Bob …

I would be interested in your reaction/analysis of this in a future newsletter: https://discussionleader.hbsp.com/cramm/2008/12/new-years-resolution-do-experi.html. Susan Cramm, the author, proposes that business leaders should stop chartering projects, because she says the point is to change how people think, and the results are too unpredictable to fit into a fixed-scope fixed-length project.

What do you think?

– Uncomfortable

Dear Uncomfortable …

I have to admit, I don’t buy it. I think the author has mixed two very valid ideas to come up with one invalid one.

First and foremost, as you know by now there is no such thing as an IT project. The whole point is to change how the business operates or their isn’t a point at all.

There are times when the business does need to experiment. The solution is well-known: It’s to undertake a pilot implementation, then to phase in the innovation step-wise so the business can learn its way into what full deployment will look like.

The pilot and each step of the phase-in can be defined as projects with enough clarity of scope and purpose to avoid getting out of hand.

There are also many times when the nature of the planned business change is reasonably well-defined. Again with these, the business can define projects with enough clarity of scope and purpose to avoid losing control.

The situation Ms. Cramm describes is quite different: IT is deploying a general capability across the enterprise … call it an enhancement to the business infrastructure. What I think she misses in her analysis is this: The projects themselves won’t turn out to be particularly challenging — IT does its part by deploying the capability, HR does its part by educating end-users in how to operate whatever it is, and the project is finished.

The challenge isn’t scoping the project. It’s the cost justification — quite a different matter, and quite plausibly indeterminate at the outset.

This isn’t at all new, of course. We’ve been through this several times … with deployment of PCs, of e-mail, and PDAs, for example.

– Bob