Frustrated by project failure?

Every day we come across more reasons for project failure, and it's rare that they can't be boiled down into a small number of headings. We were interested to see a summary of 5 reasons on the Project Management Hut blog recently:

Executive Level Non-Support. All executives must stand behind the project plan if it can have any chance for success.

Improper Staffing. I have never seen a project succeed when overtime is pre-scheduled into the plan. Outside resources or consultants are the best alternative when in-house staff resources are inadequate.

Poor Project Management. Very few skilled managers ever get the opportunity to manage a project from inception to completion. As a result, most assigned project managers lack the experience in handling the broad range of problems that arise during the course of a project.

Unreasonable Completion Dates. Management in its wisdom will declare target completion dates, or worse…deadlines, even before a project plan is constructed.

Poor Project Planning. While many tools exist to assist in this process, it is the analysis of an experienced project manager that is needed to develop the plan and smooth out its deficiencies.

Our experience is that failure usually falls under 3 headings:

1. Lack of adequate planning
2. Lack of control & communication during the execution of the project
3. Failing to review the project and jumping headfirst into the next one without learning important lessons

If you need help in making sure that your projects are sure to succeed, do get in contact with us and we can explore how best we can achieve that for you. Call us on 0845 527 9971

Comments

[Dan]

It's true, today it's more important than ever to be able to stay on top of your projects.

If you'd like a tool for managing your projects, you can use this application inspired by David Allen's GTD:

http://www.Gtdagenda.com

You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version and iCal are available too.

[Peak]

[...]Every day we come across more reasons for project failure, and it's rare that they can't be boiled down into a small number of headings.[...]

[P Pavan]

Planning is everything; however these days at least in IT as of my experience the major problem is deadline centric planning. Project Managers promise dates with things still unclear or try to accommodate all the tasks within the time frame given by the client. The best thing should be to plan the project keeping all the dates away and involving all the concerned in project delivery, and then find the distance between you plan and deadline. Now think the possibility of meeting the deadlines, if they are too dim convey that to client and inform the more considerable date and negotiate. Adding new resources in between schedules for speedy work, pressure tactics on resources, extending hours, all these will only lead to project failure.