Pro Take: It’s Time to Retire the Idea of the ‘Tech Project’

Companies traditionally have tied their investments in technology to the concept of the project, which is all about planning and organizing to realize a specific task.

This made a certain amount of sense when information technology departments spent much of their time implementing epochal software upgrades that cost billions of dollars and took many years to complete. They needed armies of project managers, led by the IT equivalent of Napoleon on a horse, to keep such efforts on track.

Mercifully, enterprise technology isn’t so complex or arcane any more. It’s easier, quicker and cheaper to install and run software of all kinds, thanks to cloud computing and other innovations. Figuring out what to do with that technology once it’s up and running has become more complex, though. And while the cost of buying technology may be lower, the business stakes associated with using it have never been higher. To address these larger questions, companies must look beyond technology as a mere project and view it as an increasingly vital dimension of their products and the value they create. 

Getting things done on time and on budget still matters, of course. But that alone isn’t a sufficient marker of success.

Technology is crucial to CarMax, the largest used-car retailer in the country, according to Shamim Mohammad, executive vice president and chief information and technology officer. The key is the company views its technology investments from the perspective of products, not projects. “In a project-based company, an initiative is measured by whether it is within budget and within the time frame. You can deliver a project successfully, and still not gain any business benefit,” he said. “We make investments based on what outcome the team can really deliver,” he said.

The company has used AI and other technologies to create a virtual “sweeper” that can be used to retouch photos of used car interiors, removing dust from the vehicle floor. The company also offers customers near-instant offers for their used cars, a capability that is powered by AI. The company’s emergence as the largest used-car retailer in the U.S. reflects its use of technology, according to Mohammad.

CarMax holds teams accountable to those results, often on a quarterly cadence. Within that framework, teams are given flexibility to figure out how to meet their objective, Mohammad said. Progress toward these business goals is assessed typically at two week intervals.

“They’re not just focused on delivering new features or new capabilities. If the customers don’t love it and if we are not having a meaningful business outcome, then technology isn’t driving any meaningful value,” he said. “That’s the difference between a project-based company and a product-based company.”

Companies must have an organizational structure that optimizes the value of technology, according to Mojgan Lefebvre, executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer of insurance giant The Travelers Cos. To that end, Lefebvre has oversight of a large part of the business that extends beyond technology. “So the ability to have these cross-functional teams that are working together becomes critical,” she said.

Companies need a requisite degree of coding and engineering skills. 

For example, Travelers has more than 200 data scientists and over 500 data engineers, and more than 1,000 AI and advanced analytical models. 

“And in addition to that, you need business leaders that are really focused on this. Because at the end of the day, you’re applying AI to solve a business problem,” she said.

Write to Steven Rosenbush at [email protected]