The Seven Keys to Success™
October 2002
How to alter the course of your
project’s history
by Bill Smillie
Partner
How to alter the course of your project’s history
Page 2
The Executive Level
More than ever, in this e-business world, project success is directly tied to
effective involvement of business executives. The number one reason for project
failures—according to Gartner Group, The Project Management Institute, and
many other observers of project management performance—is due to issues
surrounding executive commitment and sponsorship. We must recognize that
projects—and project management—are now the stuff of boardroom agendas, and
we must be good at working those agendas.
And that is why I say: If you want to alter the course of your project’s history,
you must communicate at the executive level. When you succeed in this, your
executive sponsors will gain insights, make decisions, and take actions. And your
project needs these actions to be successful.
How then can we communicate better at the boardroom level? How can we use
that communication to get decisions and actions that will guide our projects
toward a successful outcome? We at IBM Business Consulting Services are using
a language, a technique, for this history-altering communication that is proving
to be highly effective on our projects. It was developed as a result of the merger
of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand project management experiences.
We compared notes and found that this framework embodied the lessons
learned by both organizations, across a very wide range of project size, type, and
geographic territory. We call it The Seven Keys To Success™.
The Seven Keys to Success™
Before I go on to explain the Seven Keys, I want you to recall some of your
own experiences. Visualize the best project you were ever on. Hold that thought.
Now think about the worst “death march” you were ever on. Now keep them
both in mind as you contemplate the following dimensions of project health that
make up The Seven Keys To Success.
First dimension of healt