Understanding
What is a digital project?
According to the PMBOK, the global reference in project management, a project “is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” A correct definition, but far too mechanical. It lacks the blood and sweat, the lived experience.
The word project comes from the Latin projicere: pro — forward, jacere — to throw. A project is the projection of an idea forward. I project going on vacation to Marbella. I project having a child. I project buying a house. Every time, the same gesture: I pursue the concretization of an idea.
The project is the means to move from ideation to incarnation. This is what distinguishes it from a dream: a dream does not necessarily imply action. A project does.
A digital project is this same passage — from idea to incarnation — when the path runs through information technology. Implementing a system, migrating a platform, transforming a business process through technology. Digital is the terrain. But the fundamental gesture remains the same: incarnating an idea.
The field
Key delivery challenges
Between 60 and 70% of digital projects fail to meet their objectives. For thirty years, the industry has been looking for solutions in methodologies. Tools change, frameworks pile up — and the failure rate doesn’t move. Because the problem is almost never technical.
Facade governance
Committees validate without deciding. Decisions are made in hallways or not made at all. The project advances on paper, not in reality.
Mental projection
A mental movie born in a meeting room is imposed onto reality. Agile because it’s trendy. AI because the competitor did it. Without asking if the organization is ready to carry it.
Decision debt
Decisions not made accumulate. Each non-decision generates ambiguity, rework and exhaustion. The project slows down under the weight of what hasn’t been settled.
IT / Business misalignment
Two worlds that don’t talk to each other. Business wants a result, IT builds a solution. Between them, no one translates. The deliverable matches neither.
Our approach
What we can do for you
Diagnosis
Identify the root problem in 2 to 4 weeks — not the symptom.
Turnaround
Take over a struggling program and put it back on the delivery track.
Coaching
Support your teams, executives and project managers toward real delivery.
The founder
Stéphane Ngalli Ngoua
Senior program director · 20+ years in the field
Trained at the Sorbonne in philosophy, then twenty years in the field of digital delivery — EDF, Allianz, Airbus, ENGIE, National Bank of Canada, Desjardins. Programs worth 5, 10, 25 million dollars. Specialized in turning around struggling programs: when a project has failed two or three times, that’s usually when they call me.