Causes of Project Failure

When it comes to the making of a project, project managers think of it as a piece of cake. In fact, many of the projects are usually unsuccessful just because of lack of attention given to them !

It may sound a bit funny but the main reason behind the failure of any project is that nobody stops them from failing. People don’t think about the iron triangle which can help them in making a valuable project. The iron triangle is shown below:

Other causes of failure may include some or all of the following reasons:

1. Lack of clear senior management and leadership:

There is nothing more important to project success than the project leader. There are countless reasons for this point like the project leader must clearly articulate the project's goals, the project leader must facilitate the development of the project plan with clearly designated tasks, milestones and accountabilities and lastly, the project leader must proactively address roadblocks and ensure the team completes the tasks on time and within budget. 

2. Lack of Clear Expectations and Goals:

For completing a successful project it’s very necessary to understand clearly the expectations of the client because without this understanding even the best project leader cannot succeed without. Project leader must be focused on some valid point like What is the objective of the project? Why is the objective important to the organization? How does each project team member add value to achieving the goal? Is the goal clear? Is the timing understood? and so on.

3. Weak ongoing project management discipline:

Some project managers do a great job in the upfront planning process, but then don't manage the project effectively from that point on. This includes having problems managing scope change, resolving issues, communicating proactively and managing project risks.

4. Aggressive time schedules:

In completing a project successfully, time matters a lot. Project managers should make a schedule for working hours on a project in the beginning of the project; this will help them work easily without being stressed and aggressive.

5. New technologies are difficult to use or predict:

Sometimes, software houses hire new project managers which are not up to their standard of working in the beginning of their job. Then with time they understand that how to cope up with new technologies at work. They seem to be a bit difficult to understand and use in the beginning but later on they benefit the project managers and team members a lot because they are usually easier to use and predict than the older ones.

Bull Survey:

In 1998, the French computer manufacturer and systems integrator, BULL, requested an independent research company, Spikes Cavell to conduct a survey in the UK to identify the major causes of IT project failure in the finance sector. It was named as Bull Survey.

Scope of the Survey:

Total of 203 telephone interviews were conducted with IT and project managers from the finance, utilities, manufacturing, business services, telecoms and IT services sectors in UK. All the managers interviewed had previously taken the lead in integrating large systems within organizations in the Times Top 100

Project Evaluation Criteria:

1. Missed deadlines (75%)

2. exceeded budget (55%)

3. poor communications (40%)

4. inability to meet project requirements (37%).

The main success criteria identified were:

1. Meeting milestones (51%)

2. maintaining the required quality levels (32%)

3. meeting the budget (31%).

Key Findings:

The survey reveals that the major causes of project failure during the lifecycle of the project are a breakdown in communications (57%), a lack of planning (39%) and poor quality control (35%).