Project-oriented thinking leads to shortchanging IAM. You avoid this by beginning with a multi-year plan that breaks up costs into implementation and operational stages. Forecast the number of people needed, whether the IAM solution will run on-premise, for example and what infrastructure expenses are expected. Within this plan, a team structure should be developed, with an IAM “owner,” so roles, responsibilities, and accountability standards can be established. Without this philosophy in place, IAM programs are paralyzed by chronic resource shortfalls and are dangerously incomplete.