User Adoption Insights From Tri Tuns

What is IT "Success"?

By Jason Whitehead

OBSERVATION

We consistently read about IT “Failure” and how much it costs organizations each year, but how often do we actually read about IT “Success”?  What is IT success?  How do we know when we have achieved it?  Why is it so elusive? Perhaps part of the reason for such wide spread IT failure is that we did not adequately define success. 

Historically, IT projects were considered successful if they were completed on-time and on-budget.  While this is indeed a great achievement, this is not success.  True success is only achieved when the organization realizes measurable benefits from the use of its IT investments.

For many years, organizations focused on the successful delivery of IT Projects, while ignoring the most important part of IT success – namely making sure the systems are used to deliver business value.  The table below defines key differences between IT Project Success and Business Success.

Will You Have...

IT Success 

CONSIDER THIS

Preventing IT failure and delivering successful IT systems requires that we shift our focus from delivery of IT systems to adoption of IT systems to create business value.  This has tremendous implications for how we approach both the initial implementation and the ongoing management of live systems.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

  • How do you define IT success?  Are you successful when you get the system live or when it is actually used & delivering value?
  • Have you developed a User Adoption Strategy to create and sustain full & effective system use?  Does your strategy define & remove all barriers to user adoption?
  • What is your long-term plan to measure and sustain benefits realization over the life of the system?  What will you do to ensure your system is delivering value 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, etc. years after go-live?

WHERE TO GET HELP

  • Tri Tuns offers a variety of organizational and IT project reviews & assessments that can help you identify project risks and prevent failure. Contact us today to learn more.