Can a New Project Create a Company?
Many technology or business projects fail; and when they fail, some, given their size or their strategic nature, may even put the organization in question.
Late one afternoon in August I came upon two unoccupied baby sparrows hiding in a corner at the entrance to the house. According to my wife, they had been trying to fly from the nest on the roof since morning, without success.
After adequate and significant preparation and support from the parents (business sponsors), the “Go live” moment of the flying project of these sparrows had arrived. It was a crucial moment of their project in which they were concerned with their own lives (continuity or termination).
Late afternoon was approaching, and a handful of cats prepared furiously to hunt them; avoiding only, for now, the high temperatures of August, being kept in the shade.
The risks and their management are inseparable from a new project, being related to the most diverse realities:
The ‘project management’ itself; i.e., the scope of the project is not properly defined or there is no adequate project governance;
Business processes, i.e., resistance of users, regulation not being considered or weak procedures;
The associated change management, i.e., the best or worst definition of before and after, its risks and dependencies, its proper identification and/or intervention.
In the pre-implementation audits, the control acts in a preventive way with the objective of identifying these risks in a timely manner in order to allow their resolution or mitigation and to help the project to “fly” to the beginning.
That is why business areas should be able to involve internal audit and/or control both at pre- (during project life) and post-implementation (attainment of the project objectives).
Such an intervention will allow not only to have an adjusted project governance, but also to add value to the implementation process, while SME (Subject Matter Expert), with knowledge of current business processes and with experience to test and review.
At the time of jumping from the nest, in the “Go” or “No Go decision“, the audit intervention or the internal control allows “Go live” also to become “Goes well“.
I decided to intervene to save the sparrows, and after a few minutes of fighting with the cats (with the help of the birds’ parents) I was able to put them safely on a porch. The baby sparrows survived the night and flew again successfully the next morning.