We Need New Models of Thinking for Project Delivery
I recently sat in on a project team management meeting. They agreed that the project (which was under 3 months old) was already off the rails and they - the project team - did not have the capability to deliver the expected benefits. I was thinking, “You could, but not with the orthodox project and change management approaches you are using.”
Orthodox project and change management approaches have been proven to be deficient.
Although everyone works hard, is committed, and tries to do their best, the results are poor. The current project methodologies focus project effort on the wrong outcomes, measure them with the wrong KPIs, and then we wonder why they’re not a success.
The time has come for a change, to create and use a new approach. We need new models of thinking for projects. New models based on (1) research, (2) study, and (3) practice.
This is what TOP is. Over the last two decades, TOP has …
- Conducted research into exactly how and why projects fail. Everyone seems to have a 'theory' on why projects fail; but we have studied many, many projects at the practical level to identify the systemic faults and events that drive projects ‘off the rails’ into either disaster or sub-standard results.
- Studied the current theories — and learned little from them or found them to be utterly wrong.
- Practiced our approaches in the real world on live projects — and proved again and again that our TOP approach delivers exponentially greater results.
To illustrate — compare two different organizations — one using orthodox project approaches and mindset and another the TOP approaches — delivering the same type of project (for example a mortgage processing system) and then compare the difference in results. Three examples (with three different sets of two companies):
Example 1
Orthodox project approach - the cost = $82 million. For the organization using the TOP approaches, the cost for the same scope but with smaller volumes = 19 million
Example 2
Orthodox project approach - the cost = $78 million.For the organization using the TOP approaches, the cost for the same scope but with smaller volumes = $7.9 million.
Organization 3
Orthodox project approach - the cost = $84 million. For the organization using the TOP approaches, the cost for the same scope = $35 million.
These differences are not marginal but exponential.
It’s time to adopt new models of Project Delivery; its time to deliver real value!
