project management success and failure
TRANSCRIPT
HOW TO FAIL AND SUCCEED
by
Jukka Helin
WE ARE
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• Finlands third largest energy
company
• 750 M€ annual sales
• Internationally renowed energy
solutions
• ~400 000 retail customers
• Helsinki is our home turf
• 1.1.2015 Helen: bigger and
better and prettier!
I AM
JUKKA
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• Head of marketing and digital
services
• 8 years doing digital
• MA in linguistics and studies in
engineering
• 34
OUR PROJECT MODEL: ”HELPPO”
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Idea/
Need Preparation Planning Implementation Closing Benefits
PO P1 P2 P3 P4 An
Begin
preparation
Planning
decision Go /
No-go Accept
results
End
project Analyze the
gains
• Directors want something
• Urgency
• We need to do something
• Service owner wants improvements
• Customer needs
• Business needs (efficiency)
THE BAD
PROJECT
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• Project: Sävel Mobile
• Original budget: 70 000 €
• Final budget: 110 000 €
• Estimated time: 4,5 months
• Realized time: 7,5 months
• Delivered content: 50 %
• Overall reception: Bad
• Bonuses: No
Director: "We got none of what we
wanted, this is useless"
THE BAD PROJECT
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Idea/
Need Implementation
Planning
Benefits
P2
P1
P3/4 An
Go
Decision to
start planning Accept
results and
end project Analyze the
gains
• Directors wanted something
• Urgency
• We needed to do something
• IT owned the software, no one
owned service
• Tight budget
Planning
me
7,5 months
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THE PROJECT FAILED
BEFORE IT STARTED
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• Urgency was artificial
• Project team didn’t have time to participate
• No clear owner for the service, but a lot of vested interests
• Wrong people in wrong places
• No clear goal, still the focus was on costs
• Project leader (me) was too naive in thinking that the missing parts could
be fixed during the project.
WHY DID WE FAIL?
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• We finished the bad project and delivered the product.
• We are learning from real customers who use it.
• We learned from our mistakes and are now preparing for a sequal for the
bad project Preparations already look a lot more like the good project
THE SILVER LINING
THE GOOD
PROJECT
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• Project: www.helen.fi
• Original budget: 360 000 €
• Final budget: 330 000 €
• Estimated work time: 11 months
• Realized work time: 10,5
months
• Delivered content: 100 %
• Overall reception: Excellent
• Bonuses: Yes
• Read the whole story
THE GOOD PROJECT
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Idea/
Need Preparation Planning Implementation Closing Benefits
PO P1 P2 P3 P4 An
Begin
preparation
Planning
decision Go
Accept
results &
publish
End
project Analyze the
gains
1. We need to do something
2. Marketing owned the service, IT
the software
3. Customer needs
4. Business needs (efficiency and
sales)
me
2 weeks 1 month 6 months 3 months
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THE PROJECT WAS A
SUCCESS BEFORE IT
STARTED
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• Clear owner
• The best possible people on
every phase
• Clear success meters
• Clear goal: quality
• Project bonuses were agreed
upon before the project started
• Enough resources
WHY DID WE SUCCEED?
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• Need to improve RFP handling
time (+ 7 months)
• Bad projects drain your energy
• More focus on what happens
before the projects start
• IT shouldn´t decide on business
projects (in our house)
• Good innovation processes
make better projects (work in
progress)
CONCLUSIONS
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YOUR TURN
SIMILAR EXPERIENCES?
QUESTIONS?
AGILE?
