How IT Project Delivery Can Be Like a Chickenless Sandwich
Have you ever paid for something important and ended up receiving it differently from what you had thought you would?
Depending on what that “something” was, how much money you spent and how much time it took out of your day to request, or even try to fix it, the situation was probably very frustrating. In some cases, you walked away and never went back to the product or service.
Several years back, I worked in a position where I clocked in and out with a time card and had a 30-minute lunch break. I worked in a cleanroom environment, so to get out of my bunny suit and outside of the facility was a feat. One particular day, I decided to travel to grab a chicken sandwich at a fast-food restaurant. I had just enough time to get there, get back, eat and be ready to clock back in. I did just that, and when I arrived back and opened the wrapper to eat my chicken sandwich, I noticed something terribly wrong. There was a bun with lettuce, tomatoes and dressing, but no chicken on it.
As I look back now, I can’t help but laugh about the situation, but at the time, it was very upsetting. Yes, this was just a sandwich, but think about a similar situation for a large business-related project? It’s more than a young, hard-working individual that is pinching pennies who wasted time at lunch just to end up with a bun and toppings; we are talking about the potential of making or breaking a business. Better yet, we are talking about making that client experience a great one in which the client wants to return.
It is vital in today’s world – with instant access to online reviews – to deliver a project or service with a successful outcome. Organizations today realize the importance of investing in Project Management as they want that huge infrastructure implementation, cloud roll-out, application development, security installation, or chicken sandwich, if you will, to be delivered as it was expected and for the client to be pleased. A Project Management team plans, communicates, oversees the details, tracks progress and allows individuals of a company to focus on their roles of running and maintaining a business without worrying about all the finite details of a project. Companies need and want the structure of project management to mitigate risk, head off any issues, hold stakeholders accountable while ensuring the schedule, budget, resources and quality are all in line.
I still enjoy a chicken sandwich from time to time, but to this day I have not gone back to that fast food restaurant. When I order my food to go, I now check to ensure everything I ordered is as expected and I chuckle inside. You could say it was a lesson learned, but I also chalk it up to my 20 plus years as an IT Project Manager. When I spend my time and money on something, I expect it to be right. That’s how my PMO Team and I approach all IT and Services projects we manage for our clients at cStor. We want our clients to come back because they had a great experience. And yes… even if it is just a chicken sandwich.
