Last week I started my list of ways to prevent technology projects from failing (see Preventing Project Failure (Part 1)). I believe that the seeds of project failure are sown before the contract is even signed with a vendor or ASP.
I ended the first half of the list with a stern admonishment to run the meeting when the vendor is on site giving his pitch. At the meeting, you'll want to be sure to get names of companies that are happy with the vendor's or ASP's services. Today I will continue my list and discuss ways to avoid project failure by selecting the right technology vendor in the first place.
4. Don't Believe Customer Recommendations
What, then, is the point of getting recommendations? Actually, you'll eventually believe them, but not until you've gotten past the correct answers they're going to give you.
You should ask for eight to 10 recommendations. Of course, they'll have a list with three who know what they're supposed to say, but you're not even going to call the first three on the list. Call all the rest.
Before you pick up the phone, put yourself in the other customers' place. You've probably been given the phone number of the chief technology officer (CTO), which means that you'll have trouble reaching him. Then you'll be self-conscious about taking too much of his time because you know how busy CTOs are. On top of that, the CTO probably can't tell you much about the vendor or the solution because he wasn't involved in the implementation of the project. This is exactly why vendors give you the contact information for CTOs - the less you learn, the better. Even if the project was a disaster, this (publicly held) company just spent, for example, $250,000 on the software and probably as much on the hardware. Do you think the CTO of a failed project is going to be in any hurry to reveal that they never got the solution implemented or integrated? Of course not. He's got his own reputation to consider. Even if he thinks it was the vendor's fault, he's not going to expose his own half-million dollar failure just to tell you what he thinks of the vendor.
When you ask for the list, tell the vendor you'd also like the name and contact information for the project managers who were involved in the implementation of the project. Try to schedule an interview (so they are prepared to give you uninterrupted time) with each of the contacts about their satisfaction with the vendor. Keep them on the phone for at least 20 minutes each. Why? Because it's very difficult for the average person to keep up a charade for longer than that. The more questions you ask, the more the person you're interviewing will think about his company's experience implementing the solution and about the problems they had. You want him to think about and tell you about the entire experience. You want the project manager to think long enough to remember the hard times as well as the satisfaction of a project completed, particularly if there is any integration required between the solution you're considering buying and existing software (and when isn't there?). Also, if his plan was to avoid divulging that the solution never quite made it off the test server and into production, keeping him on the phone longer with increasingly more specific questions will make it more difficult for him to disguise the fact that the software was never implemented as intended.
5. Negotiate for a Successful Implementation, Not Hourly Services
This point may not be relevant in all cases, but if you're negotiating with a vendor for a solution, and the vendor's consulting services are part of the package, make sure you're paying for the successful package, not for the hourly services of the vendor. Your goal is to achieve successful implementation as quickly as possible. The vendor's goal is to make you happy, but also to keep his own consultants busy. How many times have you seen a slowly progressing project suddenly wrap up successfully when those consultants are needed for another customer?
Make it worth the vendor's while to successfully wrap up the project quickly. If the initial estimates - before he's aware that you're going to hold him to these numbers - for implementation are four people for four weeks (640 hours), then after you've agreed on a reasonable hourly rate, negotiate on a fixed-fee implementation (based on those hours). Otherwise, you can expect the four people to work more than forty hours each of what will most certainly be more than four weeks. If a vendor is reluctant to negotiate for a fixed fee, then ask them to explain why the time they initially told you would not be long enough, and ask them how much time is realistic.
In this recessed technology environment, keep one important thing in mind when negotiating with a vendor: there is no such thing as job security. Vendors no longer have long waiting lists of clients. Salesmen have to show some sales, even less attractive ones, to keep their jobs. You are in the position of strength when negotiating for IT services.
6. Pick Your Project Manager with Care
Project Managers (PMs) are regarded as the bean counters of IT. I happen to love them, though, and my favorite job was probably my year-plus as a PM with a dot-com. Make sure the PM you select understands both the technology he's implementing and the technology in the rest of the organization with which it must interact.
Some day I'll give you an earful about hiring the best PMs. For now, I'll just say that I'll take a PM with a programming or engineering background - ideally something like Industrial Engineering - over a PM with formal management training any day. Also, the best PMs are respected by the developers - perhaps mocked publicly, but respected, nonetheless.
An Ounce of Prevention
Ben Franklin had it right. By taking the right steps before you even sign a contract to implement a new technology, you can help avoid the biggest problems associated with project implementation. My list is only six items long. Don't skimp. Make sure you take every step - beginning with step 1 about Defining Expectations - and you'll find your projects will run more smoothly once they're underway.
Alexis D. Gutzman is an E-commerce Technology Author and Consultant and author of The HTML 4 Bible, FrontPage 2000 Answers!, and ColdFusion 4 for Dummies. Her newest book, The E-commerce Arsenal: 12 Technologies You Need to Prevail in the Digital Arena is now available. She can be reached at agutzman@internet.com
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