Managing megaprojects

12.12.2005
CIO Andres Carvallo presented a grim prognosis for Austin Energy 's IT systems to company executives during a meeting in January 2003. The 10th-largest public power utility in the nation had spent several years building IT silos without a CIO at the helm. The company was rife with inefficiencies. There were too many manual processes, the utility was paying twice with redundant systems, companywide IT standards were nonexistent, and executives didn't have real-time data for making decisions.

Yet Carvallo says he emerged from the three-hour meeting with full buy-in for a US$50 million transformation of the $1 billion company's IT resources, systems, processes and standards, and a four-year plan to do "whatever I want" to tackle widespread inefficiencies. Now three years into the project, Carvallo's team is meeting its goals.

How'd he do that? It was no magic trick. Many of this year's Premier 100 honorees know the secrets to tackling megaprojects -- those multiphase IT transformations that affect an entire company, encompassing multiple systems over several years.

Most agree that success starts with understanding the business and making IT the enabler for project success, and then bringing clarity and passion to all stakeholders.

Build to suit

Carvallo believes that in a megaproject, it's change management that requires the most attention from start to finish. Understand employees' and partners' capabilities and limitations, and build new systems accordingly, he says.