Top 5 Reasons Why Projects Fail

Well, lot of Project Management Office Consultants, Program Managers, Project Managers say, “Yes, many projects and programs have unrealistic and inflexible deadlines”. Many experienced of being assigned to so many different projects that, efficiency has become thing of the past without time management. Managing multiple projects, competing priorities & tight Deadlines is day-to- day work for many corporate workers these days. Did you ever get a chance to sit back, think and find a way to be proactive? Guess what! This isn’t going to change very soon. Hence, we should not overlook the facts so as why some projects fail. We will help you to identify the causes and give you solution for your next project success.

1 Over-burdened Resources: Resources have a funny way of disappearing when you most need them. In the context of human resources you will find that your team members end up stretched and pulled, beyond their capacity in many directions. It is important to have tasks list, timeline agreement from the resources, so you spend less in directing but more in giving freedom to manage their own time. In terms of software/hardware resources, it can be important to plan well ahead and acquire before you actually need them.

Key message? – “Know what you need, when you need, plan it accordingly”

2 Extremely detailed Project Plan: So, you go to the trouble of drawing up an excellent project plan with all the nitty-gritty details including 1- 2 hours of increment tasks and your management rewards you for your eye for details. Then what? Practically, in a lot of cases it becomes an overhead and gets into your routine work, clogging the process itself. It could be that with so much going on you never seem to find the time to update and amend the project plan that was once build with meticulous details. By the time, you get around it, it may, well be, too far out dated, Ahem! Guess what! You need to spend more time to get it back in shape again. There are some very good reasons why we need a good, up to date plan. Again, what do we mean as a good? Yes, clear, no mess, no fuss, with enough details necessary to manage your particular project. Don’t get into the trap of “detailed-ness” that you regret it.

Key message? – “Keep it simple”.

3 Right Stakeholders Not Involved: You may look upon the stakeholders as a necessary evil but without their involvement it’s going to be a lot more difficult to get the project through to a successful conclusion. On top of that how many know to identify and involve right stakeholders? Like many other changes, you may see changes in stakeholders too. One should have a mechanism for identifying right stakeholders, determining extent of involvement & agreeing on roles & responsibility.

Key message? – “Ensure right stakeholders are involved at all times”

4 Inefficient process: Issues/risk log, status reports are old school. Project management has become sophisticated way beyond those. How about elaborate processes (of course with the good intention to make projects fail proof) don’t allow you to really lead the project but make you victim of the process? How about inflexible process don’t let you analyze what you really need for your project, but unfortunately make you follow regardless of type/size of project, well, just to keep consistency? Right.

Key message? – “Identify waste and don’t be afraid to recommend how company could become efficient without those”.

5 Ineffective Change Control: Whether you are novice or veteran, to the world of project management you have probably been warned of the dangers of the infamous scope creep – one type of change control issue. From communication to stakeholders, to scope – there are gazillion changes in a given project. This is where a project grows arms and legs; and ends up becoming completely unmanageable. This is one of the biggest reasons for projects failing and the worst part of it is that it usually appears that you have everything under control. Then you accept a change request to do a little bit of extra work and then another and then another; before you know it milestones has slipped and the entire piece of work is in danger. You need to have a mechanism for Change Control process – what, who, how etc. Make sure to communicate & agree with stakeholders/team members – how it will be managed.

Key message? – “Pay attention to Change Control”.

We at Trayix strongly believe in effective planning, stakeholder management & controlling. Additionally, we encourage effective Risk & issue Management. Do write to us if you need any assistance in Program Management.