Anticipate to succeed—leading predictive analytics

Will a project fail or succeed? To those who believe there's no way to know before or even during a project's lifecycle, Deloitte suggests otherwise.

"By leveraging advanced analytics, we are able to evaluate the likelihood that a project will be successful, and follow that with practical and actionable advice," says Gabriel Rodriguez, Partner, Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte Canada. "We use what we call Predictive Project Analytics (PPA), a project risk management capability that is unique and exclusive to Deloitte."

Combined with traditional management tools, PPA can help clients avert challenges not only with a particular project, but also entire programs or portfolios of projects. PPA gives Deloitte clients the ability to track, predict, and understand the real-time status and risk of any project—from large-scale IT or business transformations and integrations, to complex capital projects—and provide focused guidance for improving the likelihood of success at all stages of the project lifecycle.

Achieving against the odds

PPA was invaluable during a recent engagement in which several Deloitte firms helped an international investment organization update and integrate its core IT systems. Those systems support business processes across the enterprise, making business disruption a major risk. Deloitte also was charged with improving the client's key processes to reduce operating risk and provide high-quality data for improved decision making.

"The transformation was a mega-project for the company. The client's own research gave it a 3 percent chance of finishing on time and on budget," explains Neil White, Principal, Audit & Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte Touche LLP (Deloitte U.S.). "So, their leadership came to us because they knew Deloitte could act as a sounding board and provide critical input for complex programs. They also knew we could provide dedicated resources to support the program throughout its lifecycle."

Deloitte evaluated the organization's transformation project by measuring the true complexity of the task and assessing its execution against 172 critical-factor variables. The team then benchmarked against data from hundreds of successfully completed projects using a powerful multi-variant algorithm, and provided specific actions and recommendations for attaining the level of control needed to meet the project's delivery time, cost, and quality goals.

Predictive analytics supplemented traditional project risk-assessment methodologies to assess program risks, business processes, and governance. "PPA helped us make accurate predictions about the success or failure of specific sub-projects—and there were many sub-projects with hundreds of twists and turns," Rodriguez says. "PPA was critical to our ability to make adjustments along the way."

The transformation ultimately was implemented successfully, nine months ahead of schedule and 15 percent under budget—a far cry from the client's initial estimates. "The paradigm within the corporation also changed from passive management to risk management," Rodriguez says, "allowing them to concentrate on managing for superior long-term returns without taking unacceptable risks."

In this report, the terms our, we, and us are used to refer to the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) network of member firms or to one or more DTTL member firms. See additional information.

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