You're excited. You are the president of your organization and have just signed a major new technology contract with vendor ABC that will change the way you work for the foreseeable future.

You have been wanting to link closer with your customers for several years and you have just invested in new software and technology that will help put you ahead of the competition. In order to share your enthusiasm, you announce to your customers what you are doing and how anxious you are to help them. You set up an important annual meeting with them to see the new project, which will be completed in 18 months. Vendor ABC makes press releases about the big sale in industry publications.

Shortly after all these announcements, things start happening. You meet with the vendor, assign them the project lead. They take on defining the scope of work on the project. Work begins.

Two years later, your project hasn't been released. There have been significant delays. Your people explain that software projects just seem to always work out this way. Software is different. What happened?

About six months after work started, your accounting and production control departments realized how much money could be saved if only this project were integrated into their systems. They met with the vendor, and it seemed pretty simple to expand the scope a bit and add a few programs here and there to hook it all up. It's called scope creep. The scope of what was purchased, and what is being worked upon, are now not the same. Work has expanded at such a great rate, and in so many different directions, that the project is completely out of control.

Pressure begins to build. Your internal resources are overworked, they are discouraged. The vendor blames you. You blame the vendor. Enthusiasm that once was rampant, no longer exists. No one wants to touch this one with a ten foot pole.

Your customers are coming in three months for the yearly customer focus meeting. They can't wait to see your new technology, and how much it will help their business. What will you tell them?

Avoid Software Ice. Too many well intended projects become shelfware, or software ice for no real reason. We encourage our clients to handle new technology just like any other aspect of their business. Project management requires leadership and goal setting. The scope of the project not only has to be defined, but it mustn't be changed without top level approval, and with the complete understanding of what changing the scope really means.

Request more information about how Project Management can help you.

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