14 ways IT screws up projects

Successful projects require decent project execution. Look, no one's asking IT to save the world, but delivering projects really well should be a core IT function.

Some projects are so bad that IT seems to deliberately shoot itself in the head. Sorry, but I just don't get it.

If you disagree with this poor assessment of IT operations, then see CIO magazine's list of "The 14 Most Common Mistakes IT Departments Make:"

Staffing Mistakes 1. Projects lack the right resources with the right skills. 2. Projects lack experienced project managers.

Process Mistakes 3. IT doesn't follow a standard, repeatable project management process. 4. IT gets hamstrung by too much process. 5. They don't track changes to the scope of the project. 6. They lack up-to-date data about the status of projects. 7. They ignore problems.

Planning Mistakes 8. They don't take the time to define the scope of a project. 9. They fail to see the dependencies between projects. 10. They don't consider Murphy's Law. 11. They give short shrift to change management. 12. Project schedules are incomplete.

Communication Problems 13. IT doesn't push back on unreasonable deadlines. 14. They don't communicate well with project sponsors and stakeholders.

These aren't business-side issues; they're all well within IT's exclusive domain.

I'm always talking about IT/ business alignment, but maybe that's a mistake. When it comes to failed projects, maybe the hammer needs to fall hard onto IT directly: no excuses and no failures.

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