New Study Finds 33% of Money Spent on IT Development Is Wasted

Business Analysis Benchmark 2009: quantifies costs of poor requirements
definition and management, examines and disproves common assumptions about
development methodologies and uncovers path for CEOs and CIOs to improve
business performance.

NEW CASTLE, Del., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- IAG Consulting today unveiled the
results of its 2009 Business Analysis Benchmark report - subtitled Path to
Success - that surveyed over 400 businesses across North America. For the
second year in a row, IAG found poor requirements definition and management
consumes over one dollar in three of the application development budget. Yet,
when companies move from using ad-hoc requirements processes to
institutionalizing a well-constructed requirements definition and management
capability:

-- On budget performance for technology projects improved by over 95%.
-- Budget overruns were reduced almost 75%.
-- On time performance of technology projects increased 161%.
-- Time overruns on projects were reduced 87%.

-- Percentage of projects that deliver the functionality needed by the
business rose by over 75%.

Requirements Quality Impacts Corporate Competitiveness
The study compared companies at 5 different levels of requirements maturity:
ad-hoc, defined, implemented, institutionalized and optimizing. Low maturity
companies failed to achieve their business objectives on almost half their
projects, while taking 35% more time to complete them. High level maturity
companies, however, turned their greater management efficiency into fiscal
results with a return on assets - on average - ten per cent higher than
comparable publicly traded firms in their industry.

Report Examined and Busted Commonly-Held IT Productivity Myths
The study examined and busted a number of commonly held beliefs about IT
development effectiveness. Significant findings include:

-- CIOs cannot simply attempt to hire great analysts and expect the
problem
of poor requirements to go away. In fact, lower skilled people in a
high requirements maturity company significantly outperform highly
skilled people in a low requirements maturity company. Only
organizations who improved all areas of requirements maturity
competency
dramatically improved overall performance.

-- CIOs cannot gain productivity by just switching development
methodologies (e.g., Waterfall to Agile, Iterative, or
Prototyping/Visualization-centric approaches). Switching methods
offers
improvement only if overall requirements maturity also improves during
the adoption process.

Getting on the Path to Success
"CIOs need a step-by-step path that predictably delivers performance
improvement," said Keith Ellis, author of the study and Vice President at IAG
Consulting. "Focusing on requirements maturity not only shows the long term
gains of doubling productivity, but short term results are also immediate and
tangible." In the past year, 86.5 % of respondents tried to improve
requirements discovery & management. Almost two thirds of those successfully
increased both stakeholder satisfaction and on-time/on-budget performance
through this improvement strategy.

The report lays out a clear framework for requirements maturity and documents
how the optimal path changes as maturity level increases. Transformation
begins with a clear assessment of the current maturity level and identifying
the strength of a company's requirements processes, techniques, staff skills,
technologies, organization and deliverables. Companies that pursued this
transformation virtually eliminated project failure, delivering over 90% of
projects successfully.

Report's Most Basic Finding Has Important Implications for CEOs, CFOs and
CIOs.
The report's most basic finding is that without a commitment to requirements
definition and management, IT projects will fail. "Companies and governments
who rely on IT projects to execute their strategy," says Ellis, "need to
commit to focused development of requirements definition and management
capabilities if they are to improve business performance."

More Information
For more information, or a copy of the full study, please visit www.iag.biz.

For key findings data, or a 10 minute micro-cast of results, please visit
www.iag.biz/benchmark

About IAG Consulting
IAG Consulting is a market leading professional services firm specializing in
requirements definition and management. Established in 1997, IAG has over 40
senior consultants, has worked with a majority of the F500 companies, trained
over 20,000 Business Analysts, and written over 1,200 requirement specs. IAG
helps US and international organizations define their business and system
requirements for IT projects and organizational change initiatives. IAG
provides consulting expertise, best practices, maturity assessment, and
transformational programs to the IT and business community. Based in New
Castle, Delaware, IAG is privately held with offices in the US and Canada.
www.iag.biz 1.800.209.3616.

SOURCE IAG Consulting

Elizabeth Hendricks, +1-905-857-8099 media@IAG.biz