Program Management

Blog tagged as Program Management

Cobb's Paradox - why projects still fail

"We know why projects fail; we know how to prevent their failure - so why do they still fail?" - Martin Cobb


If you are involved in delivering ICT projects, you must have heard this phrase coined more than once - I came across this well over a decade ago (and it was not a new discovery then...

Matt Koopmans
04.01.19 04:04 PM - Comment(s)
Agile for Business Application implementation - a triumvirate of Mindset, Process, and Tools

Agile has been around for a while - quite a while indeed. And it is still, for a lack of a better word, "fashionable" as an implementation method for business applications. Is it successful? The proliferation of Agile as method of choice seems to indicate success, but are "agile"...

Matt Koopmans
10.09.18 05:27 PM - Comment(s)
Project Service Automation - how do your systems enable collaboration?

Projects are all about communication and collaboration. More project service automation tools are being delivered to the market. If you are in the professional services industry, delivering knowledge intensive programs, you should read on...

The Project Manager Experience

Project managers live in sche...

Matt Koopmans
16.05.18 11:12 AM - Comment(s)
Expectations 3: Time dilation
Time seems to go faster when you are in a high pressure project - tasks fall behind, no matter how much slack was added to the plan.
Matt Koopmans
22.04.18 06:04 PM - Comment(s)
Expectations 2: Cost and Value
No matter the construct of the program - there is a finite amount of money that can be allocated to the program. For that money, one has to balance speed (time to value), specification (functionality) and quality (ability and longevity to realise value).
Matt Koopmans
22.04.18 06:03 PM - Comment(s)
Expectations 1: adding the fifth wheel with customisation
Well over 70% of implementations are still deemed "a failure" by either not meeting the budget, scope (specification) or time (to value). In the vast majority of these cases, it is the expectation mismatch that is the root cause.
Matt Koopmans
22.04.18 06:03 PM - Comment(s)
Taming the Governance-monster
Governance - Without it any program or project is destined to fail. Is it the secret sauce for success? How much governance, and when is it too much?
Matt Koopmans
22.04.18 06:03 PM - Comment(s)
Too big to succeed
When failure is not an option, when the consequences of failure are catastrophic, our first response is to put safeguards in place - with redundancy. As a result, the system became bigger, and more complex. It is not too big to fail, but failure is inevitable.
Matt Koopmans
22.04.18 06:02 PM - Comment(s)
Why traditional RFx processes result in a bad deal - rethinking the RFx in a transforming industry
The RFx process has its intents and purposes on both sides of the contracting partners. Unfortunately, they are not the same in a fundamental way. The table below shows the different perspectives that typically arise in this process.
Matt Koopmans
22.04.18 06:01 PM - Comment(s)
Project fundamentals - spot and remedy red flags
In all the programs I have ever come across, and these are many over the course of my professional career, they all have one thing in common: the fundamentals.
Matt Koopmans
22.04.18 05:59 PM - Comment(s)