If you're following from last week, you probably expected this to be a post about Personal Power. So did we... But sometimes client projects and client problems give us an opportunity to share insights and experiences in almost real-time.

This week is one of those weeks. In that, the title is fitting: There are always trade-offs.

There will always be trade-offs and compromises required. There is often no ‘perfect’ way to move a project forward, and this includes IT projects. The key is to be able to understand the trade-offs and risks and to consciously manage those risks in whatever path you choose to move forward with.

A case in point is a recent customer project. This was a very large, very high-visibility project that had job implications for directors and vice-presidents in the organization. We were brought in to conduct an external 3^rd party design review prior to launching.

When large projects are being led by IT, especially in the private sector, there are a few...