Project Management: Why Do Projects Fail and What We Can Do to Prevent It
 |
Noiembrie 2010 |
 |
HORVATH & PARTNERS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING S.R.L. |
Adresa
Strada Cretei, Nr. 12
014154 Bucureşti, Sector 1
Telefon
+40-31-620.18.88
Fax
+40-31-620.18.89
Website
www.horvath-partners.ro
Project management is considered by almost all companies an important success factor in the execution of developmental plans. In practice however few projects are run at the initially established quality, in the allocated timeframe and within the limits of the budget. One of the basic reasons why many projects fail is that in many companies' project management is seen as a kind of incidental type of work and not as an important craft. With professional project management and support from experts even from the planning phase, numerous factors that could lead to the failure of the project can be avoided.
We frequently observe in many companies that projects suffer from chronic diseases that jeopardize their success. This would not happen if the responsible persons followed a few basic rules.
It is sometimes visible from the very beginning if a project is meant to go wrong. Early danger indicators are, for example, the frequent changes of direction after the start-up of a project. This is a hint that work will not be carried in a healthy manner. An other hint appears when during the running of a project many of the milestones are not reached.
Project objectives need to be measurable
In order to control the development of a project, operation figures are often set – although not always the right ones. There are always projects that aim for quality, but only take into consideration indicators of costs and time. One can easily guess the difficulties looking at these factors. With a clean project planning that describes the objectives, the work packages and the milestones, one can deduce all the relevant necessary indicators.
The experience of the project manager co-determines the success
Decisive for the success of the project is the experience of the project responsible. Romanian companies lack experienced project managers, which leads to delegating complex projects to inexperienced employees, following the motto "Everybody can manage a project". This area of work is often seen not as a craft, but as incidental work. The person who had once led a project successfully will often be promoted to a position which won't have anything to do with project management anymore. The knowledge that these employees have gained in projects will be lost for future projects. In such a situation it is wise to ask for the support of a professional management operator, like the management adviser, who can handle project contents and methods and who possesses project management competencies.
Monitoring the projects is often too short
Where in many places a wide experience portfolio is missing and no external specialists are taken on board, it is essentially important to check tangible indicators. Surveillance instruments are not always necessary. What is important is to allocate resources especially for project monitoring and controlling. The rule of thumb affirms that 10 to 15% of a project’s volume should be used for controlling and reporting purposes. But typically these capacities are rarely represented as such.
Questioning project results critically
Reporting only makes sense when the status of the project is honestly communicated. To check if nobody is cheating, the responsible should manifest a healthy type of mistrust. Even if at the beginning of a project they are informed about "ships sailing with flags fluttering in the wind", they still have to analyse the results with a critical eye.
When a project gets out of hand, one has to ponder things carefully
A possibility to rescue a sinking project is to split the project into smaller tasks on the basis of the so far attained milestones. This way one can liberate heavy, over dimensioned projects from ballast and focus on the objectives with the most winning potential. The challenge consists mainly in explaining which are the decisive project parts that can be further developed.
Another possibility is – instead of fully realizing the big objective until the end-date – to accomplish only parts of it and implement these step by step and as soon as possible.
Project abortion tenses the relationship among the parties involved
Abortion needs to be only the final option, when a project gets out of hand. Project deviations often tense the relationships among the parties, that's why it is advisable to let the external specialists carry on the cancelling intervention. They could review possible alternatives and consequences and hence encourage an open discussion between the project team and the responsible persons.
