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The Challenge of Delivering Successful IT Programs
Posted By Richard Spires, CIO, DHS
Change is inevitable in all IT programs, so achieving such alignment is not a one-time event occurring at the start of a program.
A series of posts in which the DHS CIO outlines his beliefs and real-world implementation practices that deliver successful IT programs.
I have had the good fortune of being involved in large-scale IT program management for 25 years. My involvement has included the delivery of systems in private industry to the banking, brokerage (Wall Street), and telecommunications industries, as well as at the Federal government, including the IRS (Business System Modernization) and now DHS. While I am still constantly learning, I have seen enough successes and failures to have strong beliefs concerning what must be in place to effectively deliver complex, large-scale IT programs.
A number of key elements are required for program success. Let’s start, however, at the core: good governance. Even the best program manager fails if the governance model does not work. Governance drives alignment amongst key decision makers in an organization. We have heard for decades that IT programs fail because of ill-defined requirements or poorly managed requirements scope throughout the life cycle of a program. While true, this is a symptom of a more fundamental underlying cause: the inability of all key stakeholders in a program to be “on the same page” in defining desired outcomes and approaches to meet those outcomes.
Change is inevitable in all IT programs, so achieving such alignment is not a one-time event occurring at the start of a program. Alignment is an ongoing process that is critical throughout an investment’s strategic planning, design, and development, as well as its implementation—hence, governance must be viewed as a full life-cycle process. Sometimes the change is significant, making ongoing alignment even more crucial to successfully driving the promised Return on Investment (ROI) and ensuring accountability. Further, for complex IT systems, there are at least a half-dozen stakeholder organizations that must be aligned, to include the strategy organization, business or mission owner of the system, IT, finance, procurement, security, and privacy. Ensuring all key stakeholders are involved in key decisions is an essential element to assuring genuine alignment.
While a governance model will be tailored to meet an organization’s specific needs and properly function within its culture, critical overarching principles must be adhered to for effective enterprise and program governance:
NEXT…
Future installments will provide a model for implementing effective program governance, and segue into other critical aspects necessary for IT program success.
I have had the good fortune of being involved in large-scale IT program management for 25 years. My involvement has included the delivery of systems in private industry to the banking, brokerage (Wall Street), and telecommunications industries, as well as at the Federal government, including the IRS (Business System Modernization) and now DHS. While I am still constantly learning, I have seen enough successes and failures to have strong beliefs concerning what must be in place to effectively deliver complex, large-scale IT programs.
A number of key elements are required for program success. Let’s start, however, at the core: good governance. Even the best program manager fails if the governance model does not work. Governance drives alignment amongst key decision makers in an organization. We have heard for decades that IT programs fail because of ill-defined requirements or poorly managed requirements scope throughout the life cycle of a program. While true, this is a symptom of a more fundamental underlying cause: the inability of all key stakeholders in a program to be “on the same page” in defining desired outcomes and approaches to meet those outcomes.
Change is inevitable in all IT programs, so achieving such alignment is not a one-time event occurring at the start of a program. Alignment is an ongoing process that is critical throughout an investment’s strategic planning, design, and development, as well as its implementation—hence, governance must be viewed as a full life-cycle process. Sometimes the change is significant, making ongoing alignment even more crucial to successfully driving the promised Return on Investment (ROI) and ensuring accountability. Further, for complex IT systems, there are at least a half-dozen stakeholder organizations that must be aligned, to include the strategy organization, business or mission owner of the system, IT, finance, procurement, security, and privacy. Ensuring all key stakeholders are involved in key decisions is an essential element to assuring genuine alignment.
While a governance model will be tailored to meet an organization’s specific needs and properly function within its culture, critical overarching principles must be adhered to for effective enterprise and program governance:
- Tiers of governance—enterprise, portfolio, and program—integrated with enterprise-wide processes for strategic planning, programming, budgeting, acquisition, and execution.
- Distinctly defined relationships between each governance tier with clear, non-redundant roles, responsibilities, and authorities.
- Integrated portfolio transition strategies overseen by executives responsible for that portfolio function who are in the best position to identify existing capability gaps, set priorities for investment, and adapt quickly to evolving strategic priorities and business challenges.
- A single, transparent reporting relationship for a program manager to an oversight (program-level) governance board with executives from key stakeholder organizations empowered to make decisions, binding their organizations, and creating a partnership between the business, IT, procurement, finance, etc., while establishing accountability.
- Timely decisions for a program in execution at the program governance level, especially as enterprises leverage modular and agile methodologies to drive smaller and more frequent incremental releases.
- Escalation rules and paths—from program to portfolio to enterprise—for programs experiencing issues or changes that could affect a portfolio or the enterprise.
NEXT…
Future installments will provide a model for implementing effective program governance, and segue into other critical aspects necessary for IT program success.
