What could be the reason for frequent failures?
Most projects fail.
Failure means:
– The project scope changed,
– the project delivered late, or
– the budget exceeded
In some projects, two or even all three of these objectives were not realized.
2 streams of research have emerged from project management.
1. Management science stream:
Determine the most efficient algorithm which identifies shortest time to complete a project.
2. Management stream:
Identify the human problems like
– lack of project and technical skills,
– lack of teamwork,
– lack of communications, etc.
as causes of project failure.
Often, the teams only discussed the problem under study as the cause of project failures.
The usual suspect for project failure given by teams are:
1. Funding
2. Resources
3. Project changes
4. Project manager
5. Poor scheduling
6. Lack of planning
7. Cost containment
8. Management support
9. Skills of team members
10. Information management
11. Lack of continuing risk analysis
12. Incentives (lack of rewards and penalties)
We must examine the project environment as a system and only then determine the causes of project failure.
At times we confuse the symptoms for root cause.
If most of the times we are faced with failures, are we sure we are doing a good job of understanding the real cause of failure?