Possible Reasons For Why Project Fail And What Project Managers Can Prevent?
The primary goal for this paper is to pinpoint and analyze the various aspects of failures of projects throughout the entire course of execution. Many projects fail, specifically IT projects. The only way for companies can become better at managing projects is to learn from the projects they've executed.
There are a few small details that could decide the outcome of a projects. All of them, in the course of project management practice and research has been to view it as a risk and as something that needs to at all times be diminished, neutralized and followed.
Introduction
In a perfect scenario, every task would go " on time and within budget." However, reality (especially the evidence-based statistics) is a different story. It's not unusual when projects go wrong. Even if budget and timeframe are in place, it is important to inquire whether they are able to meet the deadline.
Answer Question " Did the project deliver the results and quality we expected?"
The answer to this question can differ depending on the perspective. There isn't a single strategy or organization structure which can be used to ensure the success of projects. Failure to complete a project can occur at any level and in any project.
There are a variety of reasons the projects (both simple and complicated) fail. The list of causes can be endless and could be incorporated into any phases of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) from initiation to go live.
Sometimes, it's beyond the control of the team member or the project manager. members. Sometimes, the failure is a matter of control. Projects that fail and the people who are affected by the failures have certain things they share. I've tried to write a some essential and fundamental motives, based on my experiences of project failures and could vary from project to project.
From a distance from afar, it is possible that the entire reason roll into the project manager's role and accountability. However, according to my view, it's a all-inclusive accountability.
Here are a few of the reasons that are commonly used to explain why a the project is unsuccessful from my personal experiences.
1. Incompetent Project Manager
The first possible reason for a project's Failure is the Project Manager. A project manager that helps guide the project on time and offers a solid, positive direction can help in creating a successful project.
There are many reasons to blame, including "an incompetent project manager" "project manager unwilling to make decisions," "project problems ignored", "poor management by the project leader," "loss of control by the project manager," and "the failure of the project manager to delegate", "working as only as coordinator" is the most significant causes of failure in projects.
2. A lesser involvement of Project Managers
This is a subject of discussion for the project manager: should they concentrate on the core project management tasks like reporting costs, issue tracking and cost reporting or should they explore ground-level review and design? There isn't a right answer. Every project, no matter how large, depends on the quality of even the smallest of components.
Every single detail is an element that can be the difference between success or failure. For teams with little experience Project managers should take part in planning of the most important activities. This can help them maintain greater control over the project and provide the real information about the progress of the project to the stakeholders.
3. Unavailability of Skilled Resources
Every project includes some estimates of resources prior to the start of the project. Moreover, each vendor provides the most important details of personnel and profile in bids to win the project. But the picture changes after the project has been granted.
Initial resource estimates and loading sheets are handed over to project managers as part sale handover, but I've seen that project managers constantly struggle for the best skilled resources. Therefore, it is imperative that the leaders understand the importance and make sure that the right resources are available at the time to avoid delay or even failure.
4. Inadequate planning
Managers of projects should be aware of the project's outcomes and should be involved himself./herself beginning with sales hand over, as this stage is crucial to the success of the project. If you do not be able to pinpoint your goals from the beginning of the process or project you're making things more difficult on yourself. This could lead to incorrect estimates and a half-cooked plan.
It is crucial to ensure that the top management is fully involved throughout the duration of the project. Engagement e.g. through updates to the project imply that they will make the appropriate decisions to resolve concerns that are raised by the team, minimize the risks of the project, and offer direction, and thus contribute to the success of the project.
6. Missing communication
The communication plan plays a major part in the project's success or failure. Plan should include stakeholder information I.e. name, title contact number. and email address, project team members' details including escalation matrix as well as other groups dependent on it.
Details of distribution of information (stakeholder details, information detail distribution methods, formats and frequency) must be clearly defined in the project plan. To prevent your project from failing, the project manager needs to create an unambiguous communication channel.
Effective communication in any company is crucial for keeping all team members in the same boat in order to prevent confusion and keep them focused. Through communicating with your team members, project managers can build an environment that is trust-based and proactively eliminate conflicts that will ensure the best performance from your team, and ultimately ensure the successful execution of your project.
7. Inadvertently ignoring the Change Management Process
Make sure you take a moment prior to your project's beginning to experience significant changes or even before you begin looking for a tech solution. It is crucial to establish the steps of your change management process. An understanding of the fundamentals of the principles of change management will be a powerful foundation to any change management strategy.
Change is inevitable, regardless the scale of the project. It doesn't matter if it's good or not it should be handled effectively to ensure that your project runs without interruption. Every project needs an established change control system and every request for change regardless of how small be vetted.
The effect of the change must be documented, vetted and made available to the key stakeholders so that everyone can understand the impact on quality, cost , and timeline. The main goal of any leader charged with implementing change should be to ensure that their team is aligned to the company's goals. Communication is a key element in ensuring that everyone has a common team.
8. No Risk Management Process
Many projects fail due to the fact that there isn't a risk management plan as a fundamental part of the process of managing the project. I'm not shocked because I have worked on numerous projects in which the risk log was established at the beginning of the project.
It is then secluded for a while, never to be revisited. And then, guess what? A very predictable scenario occurs that no one is able to handle.
It was recorded in the risk log, but there was there was no risk response thus the result is a sub-optimal project. My personal experience from my own experience is that you do not consider the management of risk in a project , and you are at risk.
9. Inadequate Quality Assurance
This is where the technical aspect is in. Software projects usually fail when the quality assurance process is not set up and no systematic processes are carried out to assess the quality of the development process or final deliverables. This is due to managers who often do not plan appropriate tests for reviews or checkpoints that allow the quality of the project can be assessed. Code review is a part of this (as described by #20).
10. Not having the proper tools for managing projects.
Successful projects are built on the framework or methodology that incorporates project management tools. A well-planned approach can assist project managers remain on top of their project. By employing a variety of reliable management tools project managers can increase the productivity of the team, increase accuracy and speed up time by automating processes such as the tracking of tasks as well as managing dependencies.
A large percentage of failures in projects result from a flawed methodologies and frameworks that can lead to inaccurate results and waste of time. There are a variety of methodologies and frameworks for managing projects (like Agile Iterative) and they are able to support effective delivery.
11. Corporate/Project Culture
The culture of the company or project shouldn't be influenced by the political climate. It must promote competence professionalism, skills, professionalism and honesty. If it's not then team members will not be motivated to try their best. In essence, all participants must participate in the process of the project to finish it.
The actions that project managers adopt to shift project execution away from the political realm to an analytical and objective one can enhance the success of the project. This includes ensuring and keeping the most skilled and productive individuals. Knowledge is the currency of wealth. It is the job that project leaders control and motivate their team so that their efforts are in a place of maximum performance throughout the duration of its existence.
12. Inappropriate Prioritization
While some projects are better suited to just a handful of requirements, some are designed for large-scale projects with a lot of decision-makers. Whatever way it's completed prior to a requirement could be determined to have priority, managers need to be aware of why the requirement is relevant from a business perspective and also the effect on the overall system, whether the it will improve the overall system or cause cost-effective.
Project managers must lead the in the prioritization process with the relevant stakeholders. There are many possibilities for business considerations, such as cost, value, risk and improving the customer experience, stakeholder acceptance and urgency factors.
13. Inaccurate Stakeholder Analysis
The Stakeholder Analysis is the very first step, and is a crucial method that project managers who are successful use to get support from others. The management of stakeholders can help them ensure that their projects will succeed in areas where others may be unsuccessful. Three steps you need to follow during Stakeholder analysis. First, determine the stakeholders you have. Then, determine their influence, power and interests, so that you are aware of who to concentrate on. Then, you should develop an knowledge of the most significant people in your project based on the grid of Power/Interest and know what they're likely to do and how they'll react, and how you can gain their confidence, which could lead to the project to success.
14. Use Of Unfamiliar Tools
Tools are absolutely essential to successful project implementation, but unprepared tools could increase risks of failure, too. Sometimes, this can lead to numerous problems throughout the time when the team must learn the ropes of new tools , in addition to the usual tasks and tasks of a project. Project managers must ensure that the tools are not imposed to project team members only to fulfill the requirements of audit compliance, except for help in a certain way and can reduce the effort.
15. Change Every time you say "Yes to the Customer
A variety of actions can make a project fail however, ignoring what the client tells you is likely to end the project. Initially, stakeholders may be happy with your flexibility, however, it will be masked in the future by the effects of schedule slippages and non-met goals.. The process of changing is the most common cause of failure in projects. Specifications for projects can be altered because of a variety reasons: the Initial planning was not thorough or complete; senior-level management modified the scope of work, or The client (if not the upper management) altered the scope of project; however, this doesn't mean to suggest that you must always inform customers "no." If you do this customers will feel that they're not being taken care of. Before you sign a contract take your time and consider the advantages and disadvantages of your choice.
16. Bonding Between Project Team Members
It is the primary task of the project manager to connect team members in order to reach the same objective. The common stages that a team undergoes are formed, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. As a manager of projects, an knowledge of these stages will assist in steering the team from its infancy to maturity. This will help in establishing the necessary bonds.
The situation can change from bad to good quickly if there's no unanimity among your team members. Imagine a situation where everyone is traveling towards different direction. Would you like to see an outcome that is positive out of this? There are many possible reasons ranging from personality conflicts to conflicts in interests. Each of these factors contributes to moving your one more step towards in failure.
17. Unrealistic Expectations
In the beginning of the project, it is essential to establish realistic expectations for each member or other stakeholders that are component of the. If the project begins without establishing goals for each of the team members, they're likely to lose focus and lose focus at some point. Managers of the project must hold a an individual meeting with each team member to assist them in understanding their roles to the process. If goals are defined prior to when the project goes into full swing, team participants will have a plan to follow, which prevents them from causing a rift in the project.
18. Discussing Troubles
The process of reducing bad information internally for a long time can only trigger the explosion in the future. It's okay to do it for a short time but you'll have to be patient enough to take it out to examine it, touch it, the sensation, and research it in order to discover ways to channel it or transform it into a different kind of energy. We often have to decide how to convey negative news to the stakeholders. Too often, we overlook the fact that clients are a part of how successful the initiative. They have the right to be aware of any changes that affect the success of the project. The result will be this heavy burden upon your body that won't move. You won't know what is going on. The issue is that we think that sharing issues will make us weaker and those who share our problems will begin to criticize us for our weaknesses. They might. But those with greater involvement that truly care about the your work, and you already know are likely to come out and assist. Sharing makes you to feel less stressed since you have less to think about. It also gives you more space for ideas in your mind, and plan things more effectively.
19. Estimates - Beliefs
An "guess estimate," also called "gut feeling," or "gut feel," is built on intuition from personal experience and experiences. But even the strongest believed belief may be false. A wrong estimate could result in a team working all day and night to complete the deadline. The project may be completed in time but with a massive effort overrun. If deadlines are tight you, then use the Function Point technique. Function Points are a measure for functional size , as specified in the IFPUG Functional Size Measurement (FSM) Methodology and is the most important global method for determining functional size. The Project Manager is accountable for accurate and reliable estimates post sales hand-over. If efforts are not accurately estimated using the appropriate tools, it will impact the three most important project parameters: the cost of project, its scope and or schedule.
20. Avoiding Code Reviews
In the assumption that testing will find bugs , or that defects can be solved quicker when you know the source of the code is failing. It's only going to increase the possibility of schedule slippage when the volume of defects increases during testing , and the time required for code corrections increases. Code review helps produce a stable, quality deliverable. Its goal is not just to spot code flaws but also to consider important aspects that might not be spotted in testing, like optimization of the code and coverage of the requirements.
21. Avoiding Prototyping
Defects could result from a misinterpretation of the requirements or a mistaken interpretation of requirements. Even if the requirements are documented it is essential to validate them to ensure they are understood. Only through a walkthrough can the user see the difference between what they are expecting and what's being constructed. Feedback needs to be planned out at different stages of an entire project to limit the risk. Feedback loops can allow you to identify gaps earlier and allow time to make corrections. Wireframes, sketches mockup, prototype, and wireframe are all ways unique to show the specifications of your plan with different levels of details. Knowing the level of polished output that all of them provides will help ensure that expectations are aligned and the communication flowing among all stakeholders.
Conclusion
There are many possible apparent causes for project failure. However, it is clear that the majority of these reasons are linked to the project managers (which might differ from between projects) and their method of implementation. Failures in the past should not deter project managers from making further efforts. The past instances of IT projects that failed gives us an opportunity to draw attention at the lessons that can be drawn from identifying areas in which IT projects are much more likely to go wrong.
The scope of the project is does not just affect the cost, but can also impact the schedule and allocation of resources. One approach to overcome any cause is that all stakeholders and project teams must be involved in a comprehensive planning process, which will result in maximizing the input of the diverse vested interests, and increasing the knowledge and understanding of project managers as well as team members, resulting in success instead of failure.
A greater the success rate of IT projects can be achieved by focusing more on general-management tasks. With precise planning, clearly-defined goals, clearly-defined assignments, and efficient communication, proactive managers can be able to conquer, even the most difficult projects and requires the support of the leaders, which will help project managers finish their projects in time, within their allocated budget, and with the expected results.
