The growing global financial crisis is having a negative effect on a lot of things. Stock markets. Unemployment rates. Banks.
And now, IT budgets and projects.
According to an October survey by CIO magazine, 40 percent of CIOs around the world plan to cut their budgets from last year. The survey of 243 technology leaders also revealed that 72 percent have postponed or are planning to postpone discretionary IT projects.
And it gets worse. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed had already let go of employees, while another 11 percent planned to do so in the future.
A scary thought for an industry whose reputation (warranted or not) for delivering projects on time and on budget has never really been stellar. In fact, I found an August 2007 survey by Dynamic Markets Ltd. that said 63 percent of IT projects failed. And during my regular reading of project management materials over the last few days I came across four separate stories about specific IT project that were either in trouble (over budget, falling way off schedule, etc.) or had failed altogether.
The worst of those stories was about the U.K. National Health Service's "Connecting for Health" project. The £12 billion (yes, billion) project is four years late and racking up a lot of criticism. From the nation's Daily Telegraph:
"The Government's IT programmes fail on cost, reliability and security grounds because Whitehall ignores the best practice in the private sector when designing systems."
So while I can see the reason behind these cutbacks and freezes, I can only imagine at what cost they will come to the industry as a whole. Will quality really endure if money and people don't as well?
This sounds bad, right? But, there is a silver lining: Innovation. PMI president and CEO Gregory Balestrero discussed the importance of "innovating our way out" of these tough times. And it seems as if the IT industry is trying.
Bill Synder, an ex-contributor to PCWorld.com who covered tech stocks for TheStreet.com, says conversations with heads of technology powerhouses like Sun Microsystems and IBM are putting a postive spin (albeit a small one) on the present situation--and they are doing it with innovation.
Initiatives like cloud computing that aren't afraid to break new ground are attracting major dollars.
"Major firms are already planning a $1 bullion and $2 billion cloud initiatives...," Mr. Synder says.
And now, IT budgets and projects.
According to an October survey by CIO magazine, 40 percent of CIOs around the world plan to cut their budgets from last year. The survey of 243 technology leaders also revealed that 72 percent have postponed or are planning to postpone discretionary IT projects.
And it gets worse. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed had already let go of employees, while another 11 percent planned to do so in the future.
A scary thought for an industry whose reputation (warranted or not) for delivering projects on time and on budget has never really been stellar. In fact, I found an August 2007 survey by Dynamic Markets Ltd. that said 63 percent of IT projects failed. And during my regular reading of project management materials over the last few days I came across four separate stories about specific IT project that were either in trouble (over budget, falling way off schedule, etc.) or had failed altogether.
The worst of those stories was about the U.K. National Health Service's "Connecting for Health" project. The £12 billion (yes, billion) project is four years late and racking up a lot of criticism. From the nation's Daily Telegraph:
"The Government's IT programmes fail on cost, reliability and security grounds because Whitehall ignores the best practice in the private sector when designing systems."
So while I can see the reason behind these cutbacks and freezes, I can only imagine at what cost they will come to the industry as a whole. Will quality really endure if money and people don't as well?
This sounds bad, right? But, there is a silver lining: Innovation. PMI president and CEO Gregory Balestrero discussed the importance of "innovating our way out" of these tough times. And it seems as if the IT industry is trying.
Bill Synder, an ex-contributor to PCWorld.com who covered tech stocks for TheStreet.com, says conversations with heads of technology powerhouses like Sun Microsystems and IBM are putting a postive spin (albeit a small one) on the present situation--and they are doing it with innovation.
Initiatives like cloud computing that aren't afraid to break new ground are attracting major dollars.
"Major firms are already planning a $1 bullion and $2 billion cloud initiatives...," Mr. Synder says.
Although the economy is weak and the picture for new projects may appear "dimmed" --- there are also possibilities that projects which ultimately reduce cost and improve performance may be possible.
It will take unique individuals to carry these forward given the history of IT projects (63% failure rate -- this has been the track record for 30 years). A good reason organizations are skeptical.
Projects don't fail --- people do.
In my company, my role as a functional project manager is really now no longer a key role. I have been a part of a business unit which got merged in June with another unit, since when the quantum of work for my role has reduced drastically. Only technical domain knowledge is being preferred. For me to be innovative, the only area I could focus on is getting trained on technology again.
The current scenario is worrisome for me for sure so I am focusing on the PMP prep.
I am in totaly agreement. Due to the economy, companies are looking for ways to save money. They are not investing on nice to have projects. Only critical mission projects are being funded. At my company....if you are not in sales (revenue generating, then you might need to be worried.