- Email: [email protected]
Failsafe IS Project Delivery
636
Book reviews / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 633–637
tance of optimism and the idea of creating an optimistic organisation. He compares war as a stimulant to invention, with which few would argue, with crises generally, as an effective mechanism to make people pay attention. Complexity and change are the managerial challenges of the future, and in construction they produce delays, design errors, cost overruns, and organizational and interpersonal problems. Managing crises, the argument develops, is the key to avoiding disasters. The trend to design and build contracts imposes a challenge to traditional power balances between the consultants and the contractor, requiring multi-disciplinary teams. Martin Loosemore does not consider that the ‘‘intoxication with business fads, such as TQM, benchmarking, supply chain management, value engineering etc’’, are the keys to a change of culture. Certainly the current trends regard measurement as the primary means for implementing change, and I would agree that these methods whilst useful in identifying and quantifying the problems, do not appear, of themselves, to produce a change of culture. I find this approach and these concepts stimulating and novel. I am less sure, though, about his attack on the contribution of manufacturing concepts, identified by Egan, including the elimination of waste and the concept of lean construction. He argues that high reliability is the result of redundancy and duplication. Redundancy is essential to survival. I cannot see how waste can increase the crisis management capability wrthout the very damaging side effects. Risk should be placed where there is ability to control and where the resources are. Cost, time, quality, scope, and functional information are the responsibility of the QS, contractor, the architect and engineer, respectively. The role of information systems in the development of crises is said to be hampered by the ‘‘blame culture’’ in the industry, which leads to certain problems or issues to be ‘‘undiscussable’’. These indude management performance, change, and suggestions for improvement I agree with his cognitive model, as applied to ‘‘developing crises’’ which are outwith one’s personal experience. We are urged to follow intuition and gut feelings in dealing with such crises. The approach of the book is different from the more usual scientific approach. The end point is ‘‘if every-
thing is going well, you have probably overlooked something’’. This is similar to the management ‘‘fad’’ of recent times, ‘‘If it works ok, fix it’’. Good for consultants, but not necessarily for the organisation. We are advised to beware of aggressive selfish organizations, induding the client. I agree with that, but the current tendering and contract requirements alas can make this difficult in practice. As for avoiding aggressive clients, this could damage your order book The greatest success, it is said, seemed to be enjoyed by those people prepared to fight the system. In other words, rather than change the culture in an evolutionary way by the implementation of systems, he advocates a controlled revolutionary approach. In summary the approach revolves round the adoption of optimistic organisations, which depend on the ability to look for things which will go wrong. This apparent paradox makes sense if one considers that optimism is more usually associated with senior managers who often do not look for things to go wrong, despite their lifetime experience showing that they do. Perhaps that is why everyone knows that operations in the ground go wrong, but no one plans for it to happen. I expect that creating an optimistic culture is somewhat more complex than proposed here. This is a challenging well-written book, which I can recommend to all who manage construction projects, and want to see the industry and its project management change for the better. The lessons are drawn from a range of industries, and will therefore be of wide interest. The book is for ‘‘practical theorists’’, and successfully marries applied and theoretical approaches. The book covers what the author sets out to do. It is written in narrative style, easy to read, well produced and well bound. At $42 for 170 pages the book is expensive, but the detailed checklists and very full references which are included improve the value for money. Read it, and keep an open mind. Eric Gabriel 3 Robin Lane Sandhurst Camberley UK E-mail address: [email protected]
PII: S0263-7863(01)00035-7
Failsafe IS Project Delivery Andrew Holmes, Gower, 2001, £55.00, ISBN 0 566 08255 1, 240 pp. Organisations have suffered for many years from the failure of information systems projects. There have
been many researchers and authors who have purported to discover the answer to the problem. This is another book to add to the long list of publications. The views put forward in the book are the result of the author’s research, experiences and discussions with people who have experienced failed projects. Most books examining
Book reviews / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 633–637
project failure and detailing the way forward to success have generally concentrated on success factors such as high user involvement, clear objectives, and communication. This book has resisted this temptation and looked at the issues holistically. In that respect it is a welcome addition to the debate. The book is divided up into three parts. The first part concentrates on looking at what is known about project failure and introduces a failure model examining such issues as: return on investment; the culture gap between business and IT; information politics; project escalation; accountability; and the adoption of tools for short-term solutions. Most managers will recognise the issues discussed here. Many information systems projects have not achieved the required benefits after implementation and have not given a good return on the initial investment. It is a common problem that the business community and IT professionals have not been able to communicate effectively during information systems project development. Politics is playing an ever-increasing role in projects with an increasing lack of accountability. Very often organisations are looking for single shortterm solutions to complex problems. The book gives a number of high-profile examples of failed projects such as the London ambulance service, CONFIRM. It certainly paints a very sad picture of the implementation of information systems projects today. A reader could get very depressed when reading this section of the book. Perhaps the book would have benefited from less discussion of the history, and examples, of project failure. However, there was a clear explanation of the major issues facing information systems project implementation today. Part two examining the key issues identified within part 1 and identifies ways in which they can be overcome. The book advocates the use of a four-step procedure to ‘master the basics’. This is very much looking at the project’s strategy: the risks of investment, selecting the project and the project manager and applying project management disciplines. It further defines steps for investment appraisal and benefits realisation and how PII: S0263-7863(01)00041-2
637
the culture gap between business and IT can be resolved. It offers some thoughts on politics, escalation, accountability and the importance of assessing tools and techniques for long-term benefits rather than shortterm fixes. Part three puts forward ways in which organisations can optimise their information systems projects and offers some advice to major stakeholders [chief executive, IT director, project manager, business users and software developers] on what each needs to consider when embarking on an information systems project. The advice is all very sound although much is just common sense — not often very common when dealing information systems projects. The book states that it is aimed at senior managers, business and IT professionals and students who will embark on a career in business or IT. I feel that executives will gain the most from the book although there is something in it for anybody who is involved in information systems projects. It deals with issues, which are more of concern to senior management in setting the project’s strategy and the environment in which projects can succeed. It would not be considered as a candidate for a set text for students, either undergraduate or postgraduate, although it may find itself on a supplementary list. However, there were very comprehensive references on each chapter which would be particularly useful for students researching into IS project success and failure. At £55 it would be out of the reach of most students. However, a copy could find itself on many university library bookshelves. Overall, I think that the book offers some new ideas to the debate on information systems project failure. However, it was not always an easy read in terms of the style of writing. The font size was quite small and it was written in a newspaper/journal style with two columns which I found irritating the further I read through the book. Dr.John Wateridge The Business School Bournemouth University Department of Management Systems Poole House Talbot Campus Fern Barrow Poole
Book reviews / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 633–637
tance of optimism and the idea of creating an optimistic organisation. He compares war as a stimulant to invention, with which few would argue, with crises generally, as an effective mechanism to make people pay attention. Complexity and change are the managerial challenges of the future, and in construction they produce delays, design errors, cost overruns, and organizational and interpersonal problems. Managing crises, the argument develops, is the key to avoiding disasters. The trend to design and build contracts imposes a challenge to traditional power balances between the consultants and the contractor, requiring multi-disciplinary teams. Martin Loosemore does not consider that the ‘‘intoxication with business fads, such as TQM, benchmarking, supply chain management, value engineering etc’’, are the keys to a change of culture. Certainly the current trends regard measurement as the primary means for implementing change, and I would agree that these methods whilst useful in identifying and quantifying the problems, do not appear, of themselves, to produce a change of culture. I find this approach and these concepts stimulating and novel. I am less sure, though, about his attack on the contribution of manufacturing concepts, identified by Egan, including the elimination of waste and the concept of lean construction. He argues that high reliability is the result of redundancy and duplication. Redundancy is essential to survival. I cannot see how waste can increase the crisis management capability wrthout the very damaging side effects. Risk should be placed where there is ability to control and where the resources are. Cost, time, quality, scope, and functional information are the responsibility of the QS, contractor, the architect and engineer, respectively. The role of information systems in the development of crises is said to be hampered by the ‘‘blame culture’’ in the industry, which leads to certain problems or issues to be ‘‘undiscussable’’. These indude management performance, change, and suggestions for improvement I agree with his cognitive model, as applied to ‘‘developing crises’’ which are outwith one’s personal experience. We are urged to follow intuition and gut feelings in dealing with such crises. The approach of the book is different from the more usual scientific approach. The end point is ‘‘if every-
thing is going well, you have probably overlooked something’’. This is similar to the management ‘‘fad’’ of recent times, ‘‘If it works ok, fix it’’. Good for consultants, but not necessarily for the organisation. We are advised to beware of aggressive selfish organizations, induding the client. I agree with that, but the current tendering and contract requirements alas can make this difficult in practice. As for avoiding aggressive clients, this could damage your order book The greatest success, it is said, seemed to be enjoyed by those people prepared to fight the system. In other words, rather than change the culture in an evolutionary way by the implementation of systems, he advocates a controlled revolutionary approach. In summary the approach revolves round the adoption of optimistic organisations, which depend on the ability to look for things which will go wrong. This apparent paradox makes sense if one considers that optimism is more usually associated with senior managers who often do not look for things to go wrong, despite their lifetime experience showing that they do. Perhaps that is why everyone knows that operations in the ground go wrong, but no one plans for it to happen. I expect that creating an optimistic culture is somewhat more complex than proposed here. This is a challenging well-written book, which I can recommend to all who manage construction projects, and want to see the industry and its project management change for the better. The lessons are drawn from a range of industries, and will therefore be of wide interest. The book is for ‘‘practical theorists’’, and successfully marries applied and theoretical approaches. The book covers what the author sets out to do. It is written in narrative style, easy to read, well produced and well bound. At $42 for 170 pages the book is expensive, but the detailed checklists and very full references which are included improve the value for money. Read it, and keep an open mind. Eric Gabriel 3 Robin Lane Sandhurst Camberley UK E-mail address: [email protected]
PII: S0263-7863(01)00035-7
Failsafe IS Project Delivery Andrew Holmes, Gower, 2001, £55.00, ISBN 0 566 08255 1, 240 pp. Organisations have suffered for many years from the failure of information systems projects. There have
been many researchers and authors who have purported to discover the answer to the problem. This is another book to add to the long list of publications. The views put forward in the book are the result of the author’s research, experiences and discussions with people who have experienced failed projects. Most books examining
Book reviews / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 633–637
project failure and detailing the way forward to success have generally concentrated on success factors such as high user involvement, clear objectives, and communication. This book has resisted this temptation and looked at the issues holistically. In that respect it is a welcome addition to the debate. The book is divided up into three parts. The first part concentrates on looking at what is known about project failure and introduces a failure model examining such issues as: return on investment; the culture gap between business and IT; information politics; project escalation; accountability; and the adoption of tools for short-term solutions. Most managers will recognise the issues discussed here. Many information systems projects have not achieved the required benefits after implementation and have not given a good return on the initial investment. It is a common problem that the business community and IT professionals have not been able to communicate effectively during information systems project development. Politics is playing an ever-increasing role in projects with an increasing lack of accountability. Very often organisations are looking for single shortterm solutions to complex problems. The book gives a number of high-profile examples of failed projects such as the London ambulance service, CONFIRM. It certainly paints a very sad picture of the implementation of information systems projects today. A reader could get very depressed when reading this section of the book. Perhaps the book would have benefited from less discussion of the history, and examples, of project failure. However, there was a clear explanation of the major issues facing information systems project implementation today. Part two examining the key issues identified within part 1 and identifies ways in which they can be overcome. The book advocates the use of a four-step procedure to ‘master the basics’. This is very much looking at the project’s strategy: the risks of investment, selecting the project and the project manager and applying project management disciplines. It further defines steps for investment appraisal and benefits realisation and how PII: S0263-7863(01)00041-2
637
the culture gap between business and IT can be resolved. It offers some thoughts on politics, escalation, accountability and the importance of assessing tools and techniques for long-term benefits rather than shortterm fixes. Part three puts forward ways in which organisations can optimise their information systems projects and offers some advice to major stakeholders [chief executive, IT director, project manager, business users and software developers] on what each needs to consider when embarking on an information systems project. The advice is all very sound although much is just common sense — not often very common when dealing information systems projects. The book states that it is aimed at senior managers, business and IT professionals and students who will embark on a career in business or IT. I feel that executives will gain the most from the book although there is something in it for anybody who is involved in information systems projects. It deals with issues, which are more of concern to senior management in setting the project’s strategy and the environment in which projects can succeed. It would not be considered as a candidate for a set text for students, either undergraduate or postgraduate, although it may find itself on a supplementary list. However, there were very comprehensive references on each chapter which would be particularly useful for students researching into IS project success and failure. At £55 it would be out of the reach of most students. However, a copy could find itself on many university library bookshelves. Overall, I think that the book offers some new ideas to the debate on information systems project failure. However, it was not always an easy read in terms of the style of writing. The font size was quite small and it was written in a newspaper/journal style with two columns which I found irritating the further I read through the book. Dr.John Wateridge The Business School Bournemouth University Department of Management Systems Poole House Talbot Campus Fern Barrow Poole