Why your Project might Fail!
Try, try and try until you succeed, but most likely not in case of managing a project! Project managers do not have luxury for hit and trial methods. There are thousand ways to fail in a project but there are only a few ways to walk the path of success, by following project management practices knowingly or unknowingly.
Many organizations are under an illusion that they follow processes which will ensure their project success without the top leaders having complete understanding of what project management practices they must follow. The case is more severe in start-ups, where projects are dependent upon few heroes, who are charged with high energy and have the responsibility to complete the project successfully but they are unaware of the fact that they are running a blind race without any clue of how to check the baselines of project, identify risks signals and have a plan ready to mitigate them, what documents and reports to maintain, how to manage different stakeholders' expectations, collaborate and manage internal and external teams and the list goes on.
Every organization has different ways and means to work, and over a period of time they discover the processes which are best suited for them but it involves lot of failures to be faced in due course of time to reach to that level. Few organizations implement project management practices partially, just to attract their clients or for the heck of implementing some processes. However, when the project fails, blame comes on people managing the half-backed project management practices.
A project is said to be failed in one way or the other when it does not meet the expectations at the end of the project life cycle as set during the initiation phase of the project. Here, the expectations can be in terms of creating values, meeting cost, adhering timelines, delivering quality product while achieving the desired results.
Let us look into a little more detail on why a project fails.
1. Not implementing project management strategies in advance: Business leaders must address the importance of implementing project management practices even before the start of a project. Many organizations' structure are functional in nature, where project managers have little or no authority. This model works well where business activities are operational in nature. For a project driven business model, it is better to move from functional towards projectized organization structure, where project managers can have better control over resources and budget. Right project management strategies are important for effective governance which ensures better chances of project success.
2. Disorganized expectations: It is common to see differences in understanding and expectations among different teams in a project. Though there is a written consent about requirements in the project plan but people might have different expectations because of which they work the way they want, instead of imbibing the project objectives and aligning themselves to achieve a common goal. Often this problem comes out at a later stage of the project phase which might have moderate to severe impact on the project. Communication is the key, the more frequent right stakeholders are engaged in the project, lesser are the chances of unaligned expectations.
3. Not giving importance to project baselines: Many a times, team starts working on activities without proper approvals or requirements/budget getting signed-off. This leads to wastage of effort and time, and increases overall cost. It shows lack of mature project management practice. Once the requirement is documented, a realistic cost and schedule baseline must be defined in the project plan. Project execution activity should start after the kick-off meeting. Baselines should be monitored regularly using Earned Value Management and if there are any deviations, appropriate action must be taken.
4. Misalignment of resources and conflicts: Project may fail due to poor performance and coordination among project teams. Getting right resources for a project is a challenge; even bigger challenge is to train them and keep them motivated. When new members are added in a team, patience is required to nurture them till they get adapted and start performing. Conflicts and politics within team or between teams can have an adverse impact on the project. More team conflicts are seen at the initial stage of team formation. Proper mentoring and guidance are required to resolve these conflicts. Organization culture and ethical practice plays a major role in motivating and improving team performance.
Improper cost and time estimates, not having clarity on the quality parameters, ignoring the risk signals and to take proactive measures, frequent demand of changing project scope or priorities, improper implementation of change management for end users are few other factors which can cause project failure.
Again, project management practices are NOT optional, it is the backbone for the success of your project, so think of implementing it consciously.
