All Aboard!

Gloria's company, Sophisticated Information Technology (SIT), had been selected to provide the network and associated systems for implementation of an MIS for a state government organization in charge of mass transit in a major Northeast city. SIT was brought in as a subcontractor to IT Monolith after the contract had been awarded and signed, when IT Monolith was searching for an MIS solution. 

According to Gloria, two state groups were involved in the project—the engineering (planning) organization and the operations organization. The engineering organization was primarily staffed with academics and other "ivory tower" types who were strong in the technical aspects of the project and not much else. 

Step On It  This project could have rolled along a lot more smoothly with these project accelerator topics: Identifying Sponsors Getting Management Buy-In Integrating With Other Projects/Efforts Synchronizing with the Overall Strategy Identifying Critical Success Factors Staffing Your Project Setting Expectations Managing Expectations

When project planning first started, the engineering organization did not really involve the operations organization. Why not? Simple, really.