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There are three numbers that should be indelibly burned on every sponsor, steering committee member, investment committee member and project manager’s mind when approaching projects. These three numbers are 15%, 35% and 5%—Jed Simms explains why.
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Jed Simms long ago discovered that the opposite to project ‘success’ is rarely failure but ‘compromise’ in project delivery performance and in compromised future performance. Here he insists we have to be cruel to achieve the project outcomes we want.
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When considering a request for additional funding there are three types of funds: sunk funds, the ‘money at risk’ (to be spent in the next phase) and the remaining projected cost of the project. But when should you stop funding altogether?
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The project should always be focused on benefits from the business case onwards, not as an afterthought, argues Jed Simms, so why do we still pour our energy into managing cost when we should also manage value?
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More experienced practitioners know the people-process-technology approach to change has left holes and not delivered effective change at times. Jed Simms proposes a different kind of change management triangle.
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Jed Simms reconfigures how we should think about education and project governance:
“Executives know all they need to know—at least they think—to convey the impression that they know all they need to know. But, when it comes to projects and project governance this model falls down.”
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The late Steve Jobs said that if you believed something was ‘simple’ you obviously did not understand it. The challenge, he said, was to thoroughly understand the complexity so that you can then simplify it.
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There is a famous case in Australia where the chairman of a large company rejected out-of-hand a takeover offer of $27 per share when those shares, 12 months later, were trading at under $10. This chairman’s ‘protection’ of the company was hugely detrimental to its shareholders.
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Technical architecture diagrams are appearing all over the place as ‘strategy on a page’, as operating models and, worst of all, as process charts.
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Many project contractors call themselves ‘consultants’ but are only contractors. Contractors bring skills, experience and an ability to do the job. Consultants bring skills, experience and their ability to do the job, plus IP – the intellectual property to do the job.
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