Projects Aligned with Business Goals

Projects Aligned with Business Goals Information technology (IT ) proposes great opportunities for companies to improve their organizational performance and productivity . In spite of advantages , many IT projects fail because of inadequate planning and design , poor management and communication . IT projects are aligned with business goals and aimed to support organizational activities and services provided to the end user . The case of Sainsbury is a vivid example of IT project failure by incompetence and inability to meet business goals and objectives of the supermarket chains

Half the value of project planning is

to provide the opportunity and motivation simply to get people to think ahead about the project they are undertaking . This process tends to reveal problems and therefore helps find solutions to them . In 2004 , Sainsbury decided to improve its supply chain system and ed IT project from Accenture . The aim of the project was to create automated depot and supply chain system . When the project was ready , it [seemed] that merchandise was stuck in the company 's depots and warehouses and was not getting through to many of its stores (Charette , 2005 . The task of the IT project was to collect loosely connected supply chains , some of which were useful in bringing projects , and created a successful conclusion . This project was not successful because Accenture 's project team did not meet business objectives and goals stipulated by Sainsbury 's management . When the project failed , Sainsbury was accused in lack of knowledge in this sphere and inability to understand IT solutions and their role in supply chain system . Sainsbury 's had a problem , which they computerized - they then had two problems . This feels to me more like a failing of the CEO for not understanding enough about what IT will and will not do , and maybe a failing of the CIO . for simply not delivering (McCue , 2004 In spite of these critical comments , it was evident that the IT project was not aligned with business goals and objectives set by Sainsbury 's management

Investigation found that there had been lack of communication between Sainsbury 's management and Accenture , the company responsible for the project . Planning was based on the big picture of how the project would fit the overall and long-range organizational goals but it did not take into account details planning and the resources . Questions faced at this level did not concern potential contributions of the project to the welfare of the organization , risk exposure , management support for the project , concurrent projects , company culture and financial stability The project failure can be explained by lack of strategic vision and communication which led to 290m Sainsbury 's loss . Something that was special about project management , something that separated project management from plain old management , should have been the need and the emphasis on planning . Simply because the project management team was following no known path , they did not think ahead all the time . They were continually faced with decisions about the route ahead and planed for events that were long...