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Executive in the Spotlight

Executive in the Spotlight - Marcus Tarrant, Managing Director - Mission HQ

Whilst the idea that small disruptions and delays have a severe impact on major projects is well documented, Marcus discusses some of the practical issues and difficulties in gaining a full understanding on the way disruptions occur, the consequences that normally result and the methods for controlling complex projects.

In this interview the role of ‘program and portfolio management' is introduced, particularly with reference to effectively managing project execution and change management.

Is Project Delay becoming part of the culture in your company?

Too many companies are accepting the never-ending barrage of project over-runs and delays as normal. One client commented recently "I don't think we have ever delivered a project on time here, well except for Y2k". Why is it that Australian companies could deliver Y2K, Olympic Games, and (hopefully) Commonwealth Games projects on time? Are the rest of us second class Project/Program managers, or are there some other factors at play? Why is it that acceptance of project delay is becoming a part of the culture in leading Australian companies? Could it be that sometimes the whole mess of inter-related projects seems too hard to figure out?

Factor 1 - Focus...or lack there of

Today, most of us don't have the luxury of focusing our attention exclusively on one project. Competing priorities and agenda's mean that time is often divided between several different projects. Projects such as Y2k were deemed to be so business critical that project and program managers were given the time to focus exclusively on these activities. This produced a level of drive, determinism and focus that cannot often be repeated in today's business environment. When people have a single minded focus, things get done!

Factor 2 - Delay Creates Further Delay

Once a delay occurs in one project, this can fire off a chain of delays in other projects whether related by task dependency or resource interdependence. For example, a delay in the development of a New Product may mean that the marketing department needs to delay the marketing launch campaign. In this instance the original delay has created additional work for marketing (cancelling, and re-booking a launch campaign). If this was designed to coincide with a specific event such as Christmas, then the creative, artwork and media required for the launch might all need to be revised and re-designed. Often the initial slippage is not known by those affected until it is too late, in this case it might mean that the marketing campaign is now committed and we either forfeit the expenditure or launch the campaign with no product!

Factor 3 - Due to Factor 2, it becomes difficult to identify the root cause of the delay.

The chain of events that occurs following a delay can appear to be "just part of the job". "Re-booking the marketing campaign becomes just a part of the marketing role." If the initial delay could have been avoided, then substantial effort across the company could have been avoided. So why is it that companies are paying such little attention to identifying the source of this delay? The only answer I can summon is that they do not know what the root cause is! Often there are so many delays firing off simultaneously it very quickly becomes a complex web of delay, making it difficult if not impossible to identify the root cause. The work generated by an initial delay can be 10-20 times the effort required to prevent the initial delay. Whilst project slippage is a part of life, it should not be expected that every project will slip all of the time. Once delay becomes endemic in an organisation it is very difficult to remove. Finding the root causes can indeed be a challenge, but utilising a tool that monitors activities on both project and non project activity, such as Hydra, can assist you to get to the source of the issues. You will often find it to have been caused by one offending department or project, but its effects have spread their tentacles to engulf the entire company in apathy.