Here’s why your digital transformation project is struggling

Every digital transformation project runs into frustrating issues that add cost and delays and may even lead to failure. Often, engineers in a leadership position will first notice various symptoms such as:

• Slowing project pace.
• Deteriorating team morale.
• Increasing project team turnover.
• Increasing cost with no added earned value.
• Complaining stakeholders.

These are the visible symptoms of an impending failure, but what’s the root cause? Here are the questions you should ask to diagnose the root cause of your struggling digital transformation—and the steps you can take to fix it.

When engineers, acting as project sponsors, intervene appropriately to support the project manager and the team, issues can be resolved, and projects can be completed successfully.

The digital transformation project charter mentioned the risk of data issues. However, as the project progressed, the enormity of missing and inaccurate data surprised everyone. Digital transformation projects are particularly prone to data issues because these projects:

• Integrate data from multiple data sources, both internal and external.
• Demand a higher level of data quality than is often required to conduct routine business.
• Rely on data that spans multiple years.

Data issues cause the scope of a digital transformation project to explode and undermine the value of key project deliverables. You can reduce your anxiety about the project by:

• Encouraging stakeholders to improve their data management practices.
• Shrinking the project scope to data sources where the data cleanup is reasonably feasible.
• Cancelling the project if stakeholders can’t or won’t resource the data cleanup or the estimated cleanup effort overwhelms the business case.

The digital transformation project was approved with an appealing business case. However, as the project progressed, the following events occurred:

• Some tasks were underestimated, increasing costs.
• Analysis and design work revealed missed tasks that were added to the project management plan.
• Various risks turned into reality. The related remediations cost money and created delays.
• Unexpected staff turnover created onboarding delays and learning costs for replacement staff.

These events have undermined the business case. You can regain your confidence in the project by:

• Revising and narrowing the scope to still deliver a successful digital transformation project based on priorities revealed by the initial analysis work.
• Canceling the project rather than wasting more money if a realistic estimate to complete the digital transformation project kills the business case.

When the digital transformation project started, the support of stakeholders who would contribute staff and data was remarkable. However, the support has sagged as the project progressed due to the following reasons:

• Stakeholder staff has resigned to pursue more appealing career opportunities. It’s been nearly impossible to find suitable replacements.
• The effort to correct data issues the project identified has been challenging to resource.
• Business staff on the project have been recalled to address new, pressing issues in their departments.

These stakeholder issues create cost and schedule increases for digital transformation projects. You recognize that project benefits will only be achieved with stakeholder resources, you can restore stakeholder participation in the project by:

• Reminding the management of stakeholder groups of their commitments.
• Hiring contract staff to take on some of the neglected work.
• Shrinking the project scope if resources are not available.

The digital transformation project may have been enthusiastically started without the basic elements in place. For example:

• Has a project sponsor been selected?
• Is a capable project manager in place?
• Does a credible project business case exist?
• Is the project goal clear?
• Has the steering committee approved a reasonably complete project charter?
• Are the project benefits appealing?
• Is the project budget reasonably accurate and not a low-ball?

Setting a comprehensive foundation for the digital transformation project reduces risks and increases the likelihood of success. You can ask the project team to complete these deliverables before turning their attention to other work.

When the digital transformation project started, the collective experience and enthusiasm of the team were impressive. However, more recently, team morale has been dropping along with productivity and progress.

These team issues create quality, cost and schedule increases for digital transformation projects. Knowing that happy people make effective project teams, you can reverse the morale issue by:

• Removing team members who are creating doubts and starting conflicts.
• Addressing roadblocks that the team can’t resolve by itself.
• Visibly showing the team that you remain committed to the project.

The digital transformation project’s business analysts have performed excellent analysis work but can’t seem to realize it’s complete and want to keep digging into more and more details.

The paralysis is annoying others on the team, and the clock is always ticking for digital transformation projects. You can cut through the roadblock by:

• Thanking the analysts for their excellent work and move on.
• Having the analysts document what they see as outstanding analysis work and defer it to another project.

You were excited by the digital transformation project’s benefits described in the project charter. However, as the project progressed, the following events occurred:

• Some original tangible benefits turned out to have been overestimated.
• Some new tangible benefits emerged, but they’re modest in value.
• Some stakeholders have challenged the intangible benefits.
• Developments in the external business environment have reduced the value of some tangible benefits and the importance of some intangible benefits.

These changes to the benefits of digital transformation projects challenge their business case. You can retain your confidence in the project by:

• Asking the project manager to have the project team re-estimate tangible project benefits.
• Canceling the project if the updated benefits are insufficient.

The initial technology choices appeared to fit the requirements of the digital transformation project well. More recently, the team wants to introduce more technology or replace the technology selected earlier.

Changing technology typically adds more risk and complexity than value to digital transformation projects. You can reclaim your confidence in the project by:

• Asking the project manager to explain and ensure the team is not adding avoidable risk to the project.
• Reminding the project manager that the project goal does not include exploring various technologies because of the team’s personal interests.

By identifying which of these common root causes is causing your experienced gut to be nervous and taking the suggested action, your struggling digital transformation project can deliver the value you planned to achieve.

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Yogi Schulz has over 40 years of Information Technology experience in various industries. He writes for IT World Canada and other trade publications. Yogi works extensively in the petroleum industry to select and implement financial, production revenue accounting, land & contracts, and geotechnical systems. He manages projects that arise from changes in business requirements, from the need to leverage technology opportunities and from mergers. His specialties include IT strategy, web strategy, and systems project management.