Salesforce projects are always at risk. Whether we’re referring to running over schedule, a breakdown in communication – for a marketing campaign, or a deployment of an entire business unit, project risks are the reality. Good project management puts measures in place to mitigate this risk, and scope realistic project schedules; however, psychology could also play a big role.
This article was inspired by the Freaknomics podcast, which aims to demystify behavioral economics (i.e. where economics comes into contact with human behavior). An episode titled “Here’s Why All Your Projects Are Always Late” caught my attention; I began reflecting on how some projects I had been involved in had silently slipped past the schedule.
Note: The findings in this article have been derived from Freakonomics, and references to academic studies. We’re aware of the debunking that Freakonmics has received, and hope that the Freakonomics content we’re referencing is methodology-sound.
Here’s Why Your Salesforce Projects Are Always Late
In true Freaknomics fashion, the episode opens with a story. The Second Avenue Subway, a mass transit project in New York, took over 40 years to complete and an eye-watering $700M over budget (and not to the extent originally promised).
While I’m not suggesting your Salesforce projects go this far off the rails (pun intended), we can learn from this baffling project faux-pas.
Underestimating the Time To Complete
Usually, no one wants to be the person that makes a project sound long (and expensive).
The “planning fallacy” is the “tendency to underestimate the time it will take to complete a project while knowing that similar projects have typically taken longer in the past”, as explained by Psychology Professor, Roger Buehler.
Various research found planning fallacy affects a wide range of professions and activities – from stockbrokers, electrical engineers, doctors, Christmas shopping, doing taxes, and more. You can imagine [insert Salesforce project/task] taking longer than you predicted, even if the same task soaked up more time the last time.
So, why does planning fallacy happen?
You’re Naturally (Over)Optimistic
This is “optimism bias” at play, where “the brain tends to process positive information about the future more readily than negative information.”
In moderation, optimism bias is a positive phenomenon (the opposite is “pessimistic bias”, where the future is perceived as bleak) – too much optimism bias. However, we could overestimate the project’s projections in terms of outcomes without planning ways we need to mitigate risks.
The British Department of Transport even published a guidance document that details how optimism bias impacts their projects. Within the document, they state:
“Transport projects are inherently risky due to the long planning horizon and complex interfaces. Often the project scope or ambition level will change significantly during project development and implementation.”
Does this sound like some Salesforce projects? I think so.
Another point to raise is that optimism bias is flexible. “It changes in response to the environment”, which means always keeping an eye out for overconfidence throughout the project lifecycle – on the part of business stakeholders, or development team members.
Overpromising (But Can You Deliver?)
“Strategic misrepresentation” means that you bend the truth to gain favorable, projected metrics – for example, a high benefit-cost ratio so that the project goes ahead. Project planners told Flyvbjerg (professor at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School) and his colleagues that they deliberately misrepresent the business cases for their projects.
We’re not suggesting that every project manager does this, but interesting to hear that it’s a pattern research has picked up upon.
A Machine of Specialized Cogs?
We can’t just blame the team members with ‘happy ears’; as we know, optimism bias can be useful in pushing the project forward, risks accounted for.
This rhythm of working can be thwarted by “coordination neglect”: “When you staff a bigger team on a project, you focus on all the benefits associated with specialization,” Milkman says. “And what you neglect is to think about how challenging it is to get that work all back together into a single whole. So this engineer now has to talk to that engineer about how to combine their outputs into one integrated system.”
Specialists existing in the Salesforce world is inevitable. That’s why there’s a huge emphasis on communication as a core Salesforce soft skill among Salesforce professionals, aided by individuals in Project Manager, Business Analyst, and Architect roles. Looking at your development team, you have the cogs, you need to ensure that they fit together, in sync.
Too Much Focus on ‘Quirks’
Every Salesforce project is different – after all, there are hundreds of moving parts that will be different from one project to the next. The issue here is that we naturally “focus too much on the individual quirks of that project and not enough on how long similar projects took”.
“Reference-class forecasting” is a better approach to planning a new project – basically, focusing on past projects that had similar elements. Running digital projects gives us the benefit of historical data, so use it! Compare the planned vs. actual and allow this to influence the plan for your new project.
If you have no reference, ask the Salesforce community. There will be other professionals that have undergone the same type of project you’re currently scoping, and can share the risks that they encountered. Then, you will need to put that into the context of your organization’s own risks, such as difficult stakeholders.
Technology Unpredictability
Working with technology is usually a pleasure, reaching new heights in innovation and automating business operations; however, technology can also be a hard beast to tame.
Salesforce’s release cycle brings new platform features and enhancements three times a year, which is frequent enough to put us into a fevered catch-up mode. Perhaps ‘unpredictability’ is the wrong word here – after all, Salesforce publishes their roadmap, which details many of the upcoming features that could change the course of your project.
Hopefully, when this does happen, it’s for the better (i.e. a standard feature vs you having to build a custom solution).
Summary: Are There Solutions?
Yes, absolutely, there are solutions:
- Data: We’re blessed with tons of data, captured by the digital tools we use to track projects. This isn’t limited to project management tools – we can also extend our analysis to unstructured data, such as Slack channels. Use historical forecast data vs. actual outcomes to put together realistic timelines that beat out the planning fallacy, optimism bias, and strategic misrepresentation we’ve shown to derail projects.
- People: Project managers exist to curb the phenomena list above. Better yet if they are joined by Business Analysts, and Architects, who also have a ‘helicopter view’ of projects and organizational context. Overall, there’s been a big emphasis on Business Analysis and Architect disciplines over the past few years, thanks to Salesforce building awareness through certifications and learning paths.
You can listen to the full Freakonomics episode (season 7, episode 39) here – enjoy!