SITUATION

Just after joining as Office Manager at the Department for Work and Pensions, I made a decision to recommend that we cancel an office IT upgrade project saving £100,000 off our budget and getting very positive feedback from my manager.

TASK

The project had been initiated by my predecessor and had been running for some months however it was behind schedule and significantly over budget. My decision was whether to recommend that the project run at a considerable cost or to cancel it.

ACTION

• Firstly, I completed a full review analysing where the project had got to and what stages had been delivered and compared this to the original timeline.
• I reviewed the project drivers, cost-benefit analysis, how it met our company objectives and the operational impact it would have had.
• I consulted with the key stakeholders, management and the project team.
• I gathered and evaluated all data and information and discovered that the upgrade was complex and expensive but the changes it delivered made most difference to a module of the software we didn’t actually use very heavily.
• In summary, I concluded that the cost-benefit analysis had been incorrect and the operational benefits did not warrant the cost.
• I considered the wider implications with my manager and knew that stopping the project would have an impact on our ability to deliver services and so I was asked to identify alternative solutions.
• Having reviewed all the data, costs and options I decided to recommend that we cancel the project. In it’s place I suggested a lower level upgrade which delivered the same result at a fraction of the cost.

RESULT

It was the right decision. It resulted in a successful outcome with an improved solution and a cost-saving of over £110,000. I am very pleased with the result and learned that difficult decisions must be taken.