ECM projects are among the priorities of organizations seeking to increase security and simplify access to information, meet regulatory demands, optimize processes and reduce costs. Currently, the market offers several methodologies, tools and techniques for project management. However, is this enough to ensure success in ECM Projects?
Recently, Forrester presented the results of a study on projects involving information management. One of the most surprising statistics revealed that 66% of projects are concluded with some type of failure. Furthermore, the study showed that this number has been stable in recent years.
The main flaws in ECM Projects
We highlight three situations below that may compromise the success of a project:
Inadequate change management
Often, with the anxiety to solve a problem, the planning of the change ends up being neglected. When this happens, some important questions are not properly defined:
- Who will be affected?
- What resources are required?
- How much time is necessary?
- How much will it cost?
The projects change the routine of the organization, for this reason it is fundamental that the activities are planned. It is also crucial to clearly define objectives and goals, communicate and provide support for stakeholders, select appropriate strategies and define ways to track results.
Lack of a sponsor
Every ECM project requires commitment and involvement from the sponsor. In order to achieve the objectives, it is not enough to hold the title and monitor the project from a distance. The sponsor needs to get involved, take part in the work meetings, demonstrate the benefits to those who will be impacted, clarify doubts and make decisions. When this does not happen, the initiative loses strength and the achievement of results is compromised.
Difficulties in determining project requirements
Not understanding or not correctly specifying the requirements of a project is still quite common. Projects are often created to address a timely problem. However, the real need may be broader, involving other areas or business processes.
For example, a project to automate the scanning of documents may cover an area of the company. However, other areas may need to reuse this content. That is, the demand is actually greater. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the scope of the project in detail. To avoid problems of this nature, techniques such as interviews, questionnaires, workshops, prototypes and other tools may be applied.
In summary, there are some precautions that need to be taken into consideration to avoid project delays, budget overruns and inability to achieve the expected goals. In this article only three have been discussed, but there are certainly many others.
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