Rather too candid?

The 11th of June edition of the Economist carried an article entitled ‘Project management – Overdue and over budget, over and over again’ which bemoaned the tendency for projects to overrun in terms of cost and delivery date. The article cited research by the Standish Group suggesting that in 2004 IT projects averaged out at 56% over budget, and took 84% more time that originally scheduled.

The article went on to identify one solution, currently put into practice by Siemens, of integrating project managers into the sales process. It seemed an interesting approach, and one that I’ve no doubt would bring additional value to both vendor and customer. By involving the implementation team in the sale, I suspect there’s likely to be greater realism, and more attention to detail, than when the sales team are left to their own devices. The proposed solution I guess would be more expensive, but more accurate. The vendor would likely find the project substantially more profitable, and the customer enjoys a smoother implementation with less nasty surprises and unforeseen overruns.

Trouble is of course, this sort of win-win may prove rather elusive, when not everyone plays by the same rules. There’s a fine line between realism and losing the deal. There are still plenty of suppliers who are happy to low-ball a bid, and once you are locked in, play catch up. It’s going to be interesting to see if vendors adopt this approach, and whether customers end up rewarding their candour.