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%).
