Do a google search on ‘Importance of Information Technology (IT) in Business’ . You will get around 19,100,000 results with very valid reasons. This is how important it is.

If you search carefully you will see that Small and Medium Industries (SMEs) do not use Information Technology (IT) effectively, whether for eCommerce or operations. If Information Technology (IT) is vital for growth, and if SMEs do not use this vehicle we have a serious problem. But this is not the end of it.

Do a google search on reasons why Information Technology (IT) Projects fail. You will get around 2,500,000 results with a whole range of valid reasons.

All the reasons seem to be tangible and manageable. However projects continue to have a very dismal record of success. One study says that 62% of software projects fail to meet their original objectives.
In other words the needs of the business are not met.

Isn’t it strange ? A subject so important has such a high rate of failure !

While large Multi-National Companies can afford to spend money to correct errors in projects, SMEs cannot go on spending repeatedly. Most SMEs that have attempted an Information Technology (IT) solution complain about problems.

At the surface the problem could be with competence – the technology partner is not good enough. He does not understand business needs and does not know how to give the required value with the available technology tools. But the root cause may be somewhere else.

Competence problems of technology partners must be looked into and taken care of. This is the easy part.

More often than not, the root cause of Information Technology (IT) project failure lies in the minds of the people involved – the business owners, top management, process owners and the technology partners. The obstacles to success lie within as do the solutions.

‘What you see is what you get’ does not apply to the human mind when a software project is involved. A software project implies change and change is something that a human mind finds very difficult to handle.

Each ‘Mind’ in the software project value chain has a bundle of positive and negative impulses that can make or break the project. These impulses are not consistent; they vary from time to time, situation to situation and stimulus to stimulus.

The UXL team is trained to understand the psychodynamics of software project implementation. The team understands what to expect and how to deal with it. No, the UXL team cannot ensure success on its own – but it can reduce the risk substantially.

Theory of business management, software engineering and project management is extremely important for success. This theory is applied by UXL by integrating it with the conditions on the ‘Ground’ . These conditions relate to the business needs, people, processes and technologies.

Some of the symptoms that indicate problems are:

• Decision makers do not have time – too busy.
• “Can’t you get it” – strong statements from functional experts when asked questions.
• “I cannot give you the entire specifications now, do this much and more will follow.” Setting the stage for scope creep
• “I cannot sign on these specifications, please speak to my Boss” (knowing fully well that the Boss is not the functional expert).
• “The existing technology is good enough” - resistance to change.

Note – all the above statements are only symptoms – the problem lies elsewhere. Acting on the symptoms is a recipe for failure.

Technology teams have their own bundle of psychodynamics.

UXL gets behind the symptoms and integrates the needs of business, minds of stakeholders along with the required subject matter expertise, process discipline and appropriate technology.
This is UXL’s differentiator.