Why do SharePoint implementation projects fail?

[DaveS]

Now here's an interesting subject.
I run a team that have been involved in two implementations of SharePoint and each have been or are currently problematic.

They have been way over budget, had a total lack of governance and now the implementations are suffering because the infrastructure hasn't kept pace with demand.
On the positive we've had fantastic take up of SharePoint, but I've learnt that you must have the governance and process surrounding BEFORE you go live, and what ever you think will be your budget double it and add some more! It seems that time spent planning SharePoint implementation is time very well spent.
We've also learnt that undoing mistakes can be very time consuming and therefore very expensive! In some cases 18 months later we're still trying to undo mistakes we made.

[DaveS]

Actually I just remebered Peter Vranich pointing me to an excellent article on this very subject....

CleverWorkarounds » Why Do SharePoint Projects Fail? - Part 1

A snippet which I really like.... how many shots did you have to take?

Asking why SharePoint projects fail is like asking why people pay money to see Steven Seagal movies, why Americans think Australians actually drink Fosters or why men leave the toilet seat upright. The answer is, they just *do*.
So let’s peel back the onion that is a SharePoint project going bad and see what we can find (apart from tears).
To make this exercise more palatable, let’s play a drinking game. If you answer YES to any of the questions below, you have to down a double tequila slammer. So get your salt and lemon ready and let’s go.
(Quick reference: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8)

• Does the problem statement state that it will "improve" something but not say by how much?
• Has this project been given a catchy acronym as part of a communications plan?
• Have mouse pads/screen savers/mugs been distributed with the aforementioned acronym?
• Have you undertaken the requirements analysis phase *after* the product has been chosen?
• Do your stakeholders have varying interpretations on what ‘the problem’ actually is?
• Do your stakeholders have vastly different backgrounds, skills and understanding of what is to be delivered?
• Do your stakeholders suggest that the project has only one shot to get it right?

Feeling a little tipsy yet?

• Do the requirements change on a daily basis?
• Has the project scope ballooned in size and dependencies?
• Do project team members get pulled onto other projects/tasks?
• Do any of the project stakeholders indulge in office politics/empire building?
• Do the requirements change *again* on a daily basis?
• Does one (or more) of your stakeholders talk to each other only via using the project manager as a proxy?
• Has the budget been revised upward more than once?
• Has the time estimates been revised upwards?
• Are any of the stakeholders using delaying tactics on signing off on requirement, scope and budget?
• Do the damn requirements change *yet again* on a daily basis?

Now some of you have got to be practically passed out! (Please excuse me if I schlur my words with the next questions…)

• Have you forgotten the original problem the project was meant to solve?
• Do project meetings go on and on (and on and on…)?
• Have you made a new politically incorrect version of the catchy acronym? (see the second question)
• Do your fellow project team members believe the project is now a giant waste of time?
• Are you starting to go to the pub at lunchtime and not bother coming back to the office?
• Has the project manager started looking around for a new job?
• Oh not another $%#^$& requirements change!!!
• Have additional external business analysts/advisory consultants been called in?

Now I’ll bet that most readers have been involved in projects like this and I doubt whether any readers are still conscious if you counted how many tequila shots you’ve just ingested.

[Axceler1984]

I believe your coming across problems in Sharepoint governance. Please feel free to look at what Axceler can offer whith ControlPoint. Please feel free to contact me to discuss

Daniel Hunt

[DaveS]

Thanks. I'm aware of what your products do.