quantmleap

The key term used more often in technology projects is ‘integration’. This term encapsulates multitude of diverse activities, all evolved around the creation of a seamless flow of information across systems and technologies that have absolutely nothing in common. It could be building up a simple interface to read data stored in one database environment and ‘moving’ that data into another database or application. It can also mean the creation of complex data transports across diverse networks and incompatible data formats.

The principle behind any integration work is not complex. In fact, on the diagram where the solution is normally outlined, it seems like a simple set of arrows connecting various systems, technologies, protocols and environments together. And this is where the simplicity ends. Each of these harmless lines represents a collection of risks, starting with the level of technological competence required to implement it, to the availability of competent resources, vendor support, political pressures to use (or not to use) that technology, etc.

As a project manager you don’t always have the luxury of being involved at the stage of technology selection. Irrespective of that, however, the set of technologies you inherent require you to carefully identify the risks these decisions will impose on your project and manage the risks accordingly.

As a project manager you would expect that the technologies you use will provide an ‘enabling’ outcome, i.e. they will positively contribute to the objectives of the project. To determine whether or not this is the case you should ask your technology experts the following questions:

1. What do we need this technology for?
2. What tangible benefits would it deliver? Given the portfolio of technologies at our disposal, can any other technology provide similar (or better) functionality?
3. Have we used this technology before? Do we have access to competent resources that can drive this technology in the way we want them to?
4. How easy is it to integrate this technology with others proposed for the project? Has it been done before? Have we got the expertise and know-how of how to best make any collection of ‘joining technologies’ talk to each other? And if not, what do we need to do to make it work?
5. Have we designed a solution that represents more the ‘Conway’s Law’ than an objectively smarter solution? 

Use the above questions (and their detailed derivations) to clearly articulate the projects’ risks. Use it as an opportunity to inform decision makers of their responsibility to make it easy for you and others to get the job done.

Think about it!

Related posts:

1. Complexity of IT Systems Will Be Our Undoing