Projects don’t realise business benefits through lack of objective reviews
How often have you carried out regular, systemmatic reviews to re-evaluate the value of a project throughout its lifecycle?
There is a natural reticence to challenge the business value of a project and most managers instead focus on delivery. So there is a tendency to avoid decisions being made on potential cancellation or rationalisation once it becomes clear that a project is unlikely to deliver the benefits including the ROI originally proposed in the business case.
Generally this is because the project manager has no awareness that the assumptions about the business case have been materially changed. Frequently it is through an unwillingness of the Project Manager to take action, even though the changed circumstances may be known, because of a major stakeholder’s emotional attachment to the project (how many major ERP projects fall into this category?).
So make a point of periodically blowing the dust off the Business Case you spent hours creating and establishing if it is still on target to deliver the ROI originally forecast.