Posts
Not all projects completely succeed. For a variety of factors some do not meet some or all of the original goals laid out for them.
There is a tendency to label these projects as failures, to totally write them off and be more cautious when initiating similar projects in the future.
In the web space, which is changing fast, many projects are firsts of their kind. This can make it harder for organisations to allocate appropriate resourcing, time or constraints, or to set appropriate success criteria. There may also be unanticipated side effects which can distract from the project's focus.
This can lead to failures in otherwise reasonable projects, failures which could be prevented through a better understanding of project needs.
When web projects are considered failures, organisations can become more cautious and less willing to attempt similar projects or place additional constraints on how projects are run. These can reduce the likelihood of subsequent successes and lead to dininishing returns and greater reluctance.
So how do we, as web professionals, help organisations engineer for greater success in web projects?
Firstly it's important to speak up during the initial planning stages. To provide honest views of what resourcing and time is required to achieve the project's goals. There's no point in beginning a project with inadequate resourcing - it doesn't serve the government, the agency or yourself.
Where time and resourcing isn't flexible, it is important to negotiate and clarify the criteria for success. Make sure all the stakeholders have a common understanding of what success looks like and how probable it is given the constraints.
It is also possible in some organisations to define certain non-critical projects as experimental, with an underlying goal of increasing knowledge within the organisation. In this case you can define success as identifying approaches that do not work. While this may sound like a cop-out, defining success as failure, remember how Thomas Edison invented the light bulb - he 'failed' many times, allowing him to learn what did not work in order to focus on an approach that would.
It is also important to record all the unintended impacts of a web project. Sometimes a project can be successful in areas important to the organisation but outside its defined goals. An example of this is the post-it note, which resulted from experiments by a 3M employee, Spencer Silver, to develop a strong new adhesive. The adhesive was a failure - it was super-weak - however Silver kept the formula. Four years later another 3M employee, Arthur Fry, discovered that the adhesive could be added to the back of paper notes and stuck to things and removed without causing damage. After another six years convincing 3M of the commercial value (which he eventually did by providing prototype post-it notes to the executive assistants of senior managers) it finally was released in the market as post-it notes.
Most important of all, it's important to help organisations understand that a partial success isn't necessarily a total failure.
In most projects, even those that are regarded as catastrophic failures, there are components that succeeded. These successes can sometimes be just as important as the failures for educating future projects - there's even a saying for it, "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater".
Particularly in large web project, or where web forms part of a larger project, it is important to differentiate between the parts that failed and those that succeeded - to acknowledge the successes even where the project is rated as an overall failure.
While this approach holds for all aspects of projects it is particularly important in the web space. As the internet is reasonably new for most organisations, some people can be more sensitive towards perceived failure in the area and more willing to use it as an excuse to kill or restrict future projects.
This is simply human nature - we fear the unknown and attempt to limit its impact on us through controls or avoidance. This is mirrored in project management strategies which define and minimise the potential impact of what we don't know through risk mitigation techniques and project controls.
So if you find yourself in the midst of a project hurtling towards failure, make sure that you spend time identifying what is going right as well as what is going wrong.
If the web component (or any other component) is meeting its goals - or at least providing key insights and tools that will enable future projects - make sure these are highlighted to the organisation and that these learnings are shared outside the project team.
Even where you cannot save the project, you can at least add to corporate knowledge and prevent the organisation from mistakenly throwing out that baby with the dirty water.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Defining success for web projects | Tweet |
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
What does the internet believe about you? | Tweet |
MIT have developed an interesting visualisation tool which can be used to map various online statements about an individual and present a chart which provides a view on what is known or believed about them.
While it's really a toy at this stage, it shows the potential for mapping the view of the public towards individuals or organisations in a more holistic fashion, based on online commentary.
Why not see what the internet believes about you at MIT Personas.
Here's what it believes about me:
OzLoop launches | Tweet |
Steve Davies, one of the top proponents of Gov 2.0, has launched aversion of Govloop specifically for Australian public servants named OzLoop.
The site aims to support public servants in collaborating and sharing experience and expertise in the same way GovLoop, which is now over a year old, supports over 10,000 US public servants.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Top ten announced for The Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics | Tweet |
The finalists of the 2009 global egovernment award, The Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics have been announced.
Courtesy of Victoria's eGovernment Resource Centre, the top 10 finalists are:
- The Democracy Center, represented by Jim Shultz, Executive Director (Bolivia)
- CLIME, Center for Liberty in the Middle East, represented by founder Eleana Gordon (USA)
- DiploFoundation, represented by founder Jovan Kurbalija (Malta)
- EUProfiler, represented by project manager Alexander Trechsel (Switzerland)
- Peter D. Greenberger, Team Manger “Elections and Issue Advocacy”, Google Inc. (USA)
- The Iranian protesters (Iran)
- Nazaha, the Arab web portal in the fight against corruption, represented by founder Ibrahim Fahmy (Egypt)
- Pollitika.com, represented by founder Marko Rakar (Croatia)
- Joe Rospars and Obama’s New Media Team (USA)
- Twitter (USA)
Of the Australian nominees, Senator Kate Lundy was ranked 13th and I was ranked 15th out of the final 26 shortlisted.
I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me or voted for Senator Lundy.
Next year I hope we see more Australians and Australian sites nominated for the award.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Gov 2.0 Taskforce announces second project round - asks for quotes | Tweet |
The Gov 2.0 forum has released a second round of projects for quotes including for a Whole of Government Information Publication Scheme, Online Engagement Guidance and Web 2.0 Toolkit for Australian Government Agencies, Framework for Stimulating Information Philanthropy in Australia and Hypotheticals — Ethical and Cultural Challenges of Digital Engagement by Government - amongst other projects.
Full details of the projects are available at the Gov 2.0 Taskforce's blog in the post, Submit a quote for our round two projects.
If only I didn't have a full time job already :)
