According to the article, project managers don’t set out to fail, yet they’re not doing all they can to ensure success.

Burlington, NJ -- (SBWire) -- 12/20/2011 --While IT project or program failure is often spoken of and blogged about like it’s an ongoing rite of passage, TechRepublic contributor Eddie Williams believes project and program managers are digging their own graves by not setting much higher standards for success. Williams is the author of “The IT industry is accepting failure as the norm,” an article pinpointing specific reasons why failure isn’t actively avoided, along with specific ways to introduce success thinking into the project and program management culture. The article can be found on the TechRepublic website at (http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/the-it-industry-is-accepting-failure-as-the-norm/6911).

“There must be a call to action to do it right by organizations, business and technical leads, and individual team members. An organization must provide the policy, governance, and level of authority (although temporary) that allows program and project mangers and leads to realistically plan, estimate, and implement initiatives through the use of proven best (good) practices. And as leaders, both project managers and program managers must be responsible and accountable and not just facilitators,” explained Williams. “Be a part of the solution and ensure the consistent use of proven best (and good) practices, that knowledge is transferred and that lessons learned (documented for each phase/stage) are used within current projects and shared for use by future projects and programs.”

In his article Williams offers 10 reasons why projects fail, citing the absence of senior management support and commitment as the #1 reason, followed up by lack of competent and knowledgeable leadership, and unrealistic or inadequate planning, within the top three. He suggests project and program managers be more proactive about avoiding failure, by establishing QA verification and validation/tests very early on in the project, for example. Finally he adds nine points for creating more successful projects.

“Failure is no more the norm than green ocean water is. It has simply become an accepted and almost encouraged part of the IT project culture,” said Williams. “There are distinct changes that can be made. But unless those changes are actively used, failure will rise as the mental default mode among IT project and program managers.”

A summary of “The IT industry is accepting failure as the norm” can be found on Williams' IT Professional Facilitator website at (http://itprofessionalfacilitator.com/itpro/significant-business-technology-articles/the-it-industry-has-accepted-failure-as-the-norm/).

About Eddie Williams
Eddie Williams is a technology project and program management blogger, author, trainer, consultant, coach/mentor, public speaker and a 20+ year project and program manager within the Information Technology (IT) field. He has been a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute since 1999. During that time Williams has successfully managed programs and projects for systems, software/application, database, data warehouse, infrastructure/network, ERP development/implementation and various other IT and business related endeavors.

Williams has been a co-presenter and has contributed presentation material for PMI Global Congress and a presenter at Black Data Processing Association (BDPA) National Conferences. During his career he served on Corporate Planning and System/Software Development Committees. He is a former member of EIA and contributed to the development of major industry standards. He’s also an author, trainer and coach for Program/Project Management, and a published author of a of an industry related book for IT, Management Control and Quality and the System Development Process at the System Development Process. To learn more about his work, visit Williams’ IT Professional Facilitator Blog at: http://www.itprofessionalfacilitator.com.