For professional services teams, it's not bad luck that causes an estimated 40% of professional services projects to fail. It's bad management. And that's something that you can tackle, even when project resources, client requests and misunderstood tasks cause project chaos with time and expense restrictions.
But if all this and worse happens, any project can still be delivered on time, on budget and to the quality your client expects, as long as you have the right foundation in place.
This whitepaper will break down the "must-haves" to ensure project profitability including:
- Visibility
- Management Agility
- Task Alerts
- Real-Time Budgets Analysis
Introduction
Good luck.
Two of the most irrelevant words to professional services project success. Because as any project manager worth their salt knows, it’s not bad luck that causes an estimated 40% (or 70%, depending on who you listen to) of professional services projects to fail. It’s bad management. And that’s something you can tackle.
Key members of the team might fall ill; client requirements vacillate; premises be broken into; local contractors misunderstand their responsibilities about time and expenses.
But even if all this and worse happens, any project can still be delivered on time, on budget and to the quality your client expects, as long as it has the right foundations: a realistic and comprehensive plan and budget, and the right management tools and processes once you start delivering.
Plan and deliver
Experience shows that it’s the latter that is most often absent. Organizations spend a good deal of time and effort on the planning process – involving a wide team of experts to win the business – but rather less on actually delivering it.
On a production line, that might work. (If you’re lucky). In professional services. it’s tantamount to negligence.
The fact is, things will change. Task deadlines will be missed. Unexpected costs will be incurred. These are the everyday realities of working on complex projects.
But if you have the visibility to see where and when these things are occurring, and the agility to respond before they escalate, there’s no reason for such events to eat away at your project’s profitability.
