“Did you hear how badly that automation project went?”

It’s a small industry and we’ve all heard stories about how some projects went badly.  Unfortunately, some of us have lived through a few of them over the years. 

The truth is, most project failures were not a result of the technology or solution failing to deliver.  The reality is that failures are often more a result of the intent of the solution and the application of the solution not being aligned.  

Solution misalignments happen in 2 places:

1. Design Gaps – we don’t dig deep enough into the details of how things are going to operate during design and make too many assumptions. 

OR 

2. Use Gaps – the design was perfect, but the operation’s in trying to use it differently than intended.   

The worst projects are where both gaps occur – and it happens. 

To avoid Design Gaps, there are some pretty simple rules to follow:

 1. Assume Nothing – Review the documents.  Validate that every single thing you’ve discussed is written down somewhere.

2. Ask Everything – ask questions about every excruciating detail.  Feel comfortable you completely understand HOW it’s going to work. 

3. Ask Everyone – functionality review is the one place in a project where EVERYONE needs to be involved across the entire solution.  Your vendor(s), operations team, technology team, engineering, IT, HR, etc.  The more perspectives you have, the less likely there is to be a gap. 

While these seem simple enough, not religiously following these is usually the root cause of a gap.