Reasons for Project Failures

ProjectManagement Assignment 2: Why do project/s fail? Cite some example

In the previous meetings, we had discussed the lessons about projects, management, and what do project management is actually all about. We had gathered and had shared several taught to expounds the given words and basically come up a better explanation on these specific things. I am happy and so thankful for the things that they had shared and moreover had clarified which had given me some knowledge which is in contrast to what I really think about.

As an introduction for this, let me review and perhaps add some details on the lessons which our professor taught us couple of meeting ago. Projects are tasks given to a group or even on an individual that must be done and submitted in a specific time; primarily, it involves being punctual (or the time-span of the project itself), for a project is limited (meaning a project has a due or passing date, and in order for it to secure a good quality result, it must possess the basic or fundamental characteristics of a good project). A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within the budget and according to specifications. Talking about management, it takes the place of organizing, as said in the discussion, a manager is the person that has the authority when it comes in terms of management or managing, he is the one who carries the responsibility of making vital decisions, in organizing sequence of (related)events, and some other things. The characteristics for a good manager and the comparison between it and a leader had also been discussed. Furthermore, management comprises planning, organizing, directing, and controlling an organization (PODC). Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired their objectives effectively. It indicates the process of planning, leading, organizing and controlling people within a group in order to achieve goals. And lastly, project management (which is the core of the discussion). Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project managing involves planning, identifying specific resources, and identifying the limitation of the budget. This engages the triple constraint which involves the project Scope, time, and cost.

I could say that projects or tasks are some of the effective ways to learn several things. In a form of giving a project, students (like us) can enhance and expand their learning. Even if projects are really a pain in student’s butt, but then they some take the tasks because as I said, it is a more effective way to learn via your own self. They could also use their own skills and come up with a better idea themselves. An example of this (just to clarify what I was really trying to point out): this article is a form of task or project which is really a requirement to pass the subject, this articles are gathered together to form a compilation of several tasks. These articles as I said is one of the effective ways to teach a student in a form of giving a project, for students are forced to have their reflections on a specific lesson which includes an amount of words. Think about this, what if a student had already putted his or her reflection about a lesson, but then he or she lacks the required amount of words, so basically he or she would be forced to have a self study which is via the internet; through surfing, he or she could expand his and her knowledge about the lesson, hence giving lots of information to put up on the on going article. Through giving a project as a task for a course, I could say that it is one of the effective ways of training or teaching a student. Unleashing their sleeping abilities, developing and enhancing bought their knowledge and skills.

Why do projects fail? In most cases, there is a huge percentage of failing in a project than having it the other way around. Its logic is simple, it just need a proper management. It fails due to some specific reasons such as: it failed to meet specific requirements (requirements which are essentially needed for services for example) that it must have in order for it to be satisfying, worthy, and even for it to render a good and high quality services (as said earlier); it failed to be completed in the given or requested time (for as I said, it is temporary), the quality of a project also depends on its punctuality, on the time spent to finalize it and even the time spent on doing it. And most of all, if the project doesn’t possess any of the main characteristics that a good project must have. A project may be considered as a failure when it has not provided what was required or assumed to be on a part of it as it finished (example: some expected features that it had stated on a specific proposal but then failed to deliver it to the clients), in line with expectations. Thus, for it to succeed, a project must deliver to cost, to quality, and on time (which refers to the basic characteristics of a good quality project); and it must deliver the benefits presented in the business case, like in my given example enclosed in the parenthesis or rather it must be productive, worthy or should we say cost effective.
Here are some bulleted reasons of why and how do certain projects fail (self-explanatory reasons which are more expounded for the sake of word count):

• Late submission – when the project had been surpassed by its due date, when it had failed to be passed on the given time. For all projects are temporary and has a definite end. For students like us, late submission of entries of projects could cause to a deduction of grade; but putting it in a more unfortunate way, there are tendencies that a mentor or rather a professor would not accept the project anymore for the dead line had already passed by. Applying it to our daily living, being tardy (even if due to several reasons) could result into a punishment or could drive into a big loss. See how big being punctual is? Even in everyday living, we could apply and have a good use of it.

• Failed to meet requirements – expected output from different projects are anticipated, that in the end of the project, it must deliver the required things that it must have. Failing to meet a requirement would surely degrade a presented project. Take this as an example: based on my experience, we were asked to develop a web game in which we were divided into a group of 3 members each. We had stated in our proposal some features that we presumed our game could have, but then due to difficulty and time issues (basically lacking of management), we had failed to deliver a stated feature, although some of the features were deliver but unfortunately that said lacking feature was the one our professor was interested to. It had affected the rating of our project and seemingly had affected our grade for the course. Now, see the importance? (Several reasons are still on the line, sit back and enjoy reading the article).

• Quality problem – the quality of the project as I was saying, involves its punctuality and approach. The quality of the project depends on how in renders a certain service just for example. Quality of a project also considers it uniqueness, some involves it durability, effectiveness and on how useful it is. Example of a quality problem is: let’s say a car that has a poor performance and durability; that could not even boost itself to a higher speed.

• Financial management – a good manager also must have the skills of a good talker, which involves convincing powers or strategies to encouraged sponsors to put some as an add-on to their resources to start a project (but this kind of things could only be applied in big transactions which also involves big time projects). Organizing the resources especially when it comes to financial is also vital. Must control the flow of the money until the last penny if you want to fit a given budget for a specific project. Most projects especially when we are talking of infrastructures are left, abandoned being unfinished because of the failure in financial management. These infrastructures might have been completed if only they had controlled the flow of the budgeted money (I am talking about taking corruption out of the way). If only they have controlled the flows, then people of our generation might have been wandering around the structures. A lesson to all that is remarkable.

• Poor architecture – poor architecture of the project, it may not be presentable or might have some defects within its architecture. When talking of systems, it may had failed to give good services due to its poor architecture; and going to the example of being an engineer, let’s take a house for it is a good example, i.e we had a house, built but still not continued due to the issue of having a poor architecture which led to numerous of defects and an outstanding failure. Quality and performance of projects do always refer to its architecture.

• Poor schedule estimation - poor schedule estimation will always result in cramming, which later result in failing to pass the project on time or failing to meet the requirements of the schedule due to the lack of time. Example of this is a given assignment was introduced couple of days ahead, but then students are doing it a day before the deadline. This sometimes results in missing to pass the given assignment. Having a proper scheduling of the tasks helps you to avoid having the tasks being filed up. Practicing a good scheduling helps prevent the missing of any projects and also helps to maximize the working time.

• Conflicts – Several conflicts may be present in doing a project. As far as I could remember, somebody had said that there are no group projects without fighting. For me there are three conflicts that could happen in a project. Conflicts between the creators of the said project, conflicts between the creators and the client, and most of all conflicts between the creators and the project itself. Fighting if always present in a group project because everybody aims for the better result of their project. First is the conflicts between the creators or proponents, in a negative way proponents may conflict because of their behaviors and characteristics (example: one of the members may be lazy which caused them several delays), and in a positive way of thinking, proponents might have conflicts between each other because they want to enhance the project in a different way which is contrast to the other idea. Second is the conflict between the proponents and the clients, clients might have several requests or demands which the creators of the project might seen it a little hassle and could even give them redundancy of functions. In some cases, proponents might fail to deliver the project to the clients at the expected time. They might have some troubles in finishing it or they might not meet the requirements given or asked by the clients. And the last one is the conflicts between the proponents and the project itself; this involves the critical moments within the project. The proponents or creators might be having a difficulty on it, they might have a poor budget estimation on it, or they might have missed plan the sequence of the project. These conflicts are generated based on what I understood about the word conflict itself. Having without any basis, these ideas had just pop out of my mind, and hope that idea was right.

• Inadequate communication, including progress tracking and reporting – having a good communication skill is really applicable especially when involving business. Earlier I had mentioned that a good manager needs to have a good communication skill, for him or her to easily approach several investors for his or her proposed project, to gain some investors to start up his or her idea. Having good communication skills is also needed to deliver properly several reports or tracking of the project. It is proper to have a reliable source of reports and tracking of the project. Having fake reports for the sake of other agendas could result in a major problem. For example: a project proponent or leader had presented a false tracking and report of the on going project because he wants the client to be impressed or he wants to show the client that there is nothing to be worried about. Although he had convinced the client but still the real evolution of the project is in delay which makes it to be finished in delay. This action would lead to a bigger problem, because first he had lied to the client (which makes his professionalism questionable) and he had to catch up on the progression of the project as what he had presented on the claiming client.

• Poor effort had been applied – effort to the max! A phrase that a cartoon character had been always saying. He always puts alls his effort on everything that he do, so that in the end (whether it is a battle or not) he will not regret anything for he knows that he had invested their all he got. Going back, poor effort had been applied, the members or maybe a member had show laziness and had failed to put all his skills and knowledge in the project, this will result in a failure, as usual failure in meeting requirements, its quality and the limited time. It is right to take a step ahead and put all your effort on the development of the project. Projects must be considered as masterpieces, and masterpieces are made to standout! And for it to standout, it must have the right quality.

• Poor plans and planning processes – in the top of this, planning is basically the first key that must be considered for the success of a project. Poor planning of the budget, time, costs, and even the sequence of the elements within a project would have a poor result; it would surely fail, and I could even say it before the project had started. This conclusion could be done even if I had only a minute to think over it. Planning is the foundation of all projects. Having it in a proper way would take the project to the possibility of success, not a 100% but would surely not lower that 60%. So clearly, it is an advantage to take!

• Failure to identify the scopes of the project – Identifying the scope of the project in the first place is an ideal thing to do, to identify the budget, cost and specific time of delivery of the project, its scope must be first analyzed. The scope of the project relies on the request or requirements of the task.

• A manager without a good experience – a group might have difficulties when their leader lacks the experience in controlling the situation. I am not telling that all managers must have an experience, what I was trying to stress out is that a manager must be responsible enough to handle the group, to control the decision making and come up with a nice strategy towards the project.

• Change of Scope - Scopes Changes can also lead to project failure. To Control and to manage scope change is critical to the success of any projects because scope changes can significantly affect the cost, schedule, hazards and quality of the total effort. Affecting all of these is like starting up a new project for you must adjust on all of them. It could also be difficult on the project team to lack direction or to change scopes. They must work hand on hand in order to solve this kind of uncertain event. They must unite to get back in the line of business.

A project is considered to be a failure when it has not delivered what was required or had failed to meet them, in line with expectations. Therefore, in order to succeed, a project must deliver within its budgeted cost, to its expected quality, and on the limited time; and it must deliver the benefits presented in the business case. For a project to be successful, it's not enough simply to manage your project competently, and deliver a good quality product. As was they had been always saying, always put your heart on the things that you do. To avoid failure, make sure you have identified the right business requirements and scopes, created an achievable business case, put strong project governance into place, managed a high-quality implementation, focused on benefits, and monitored your changing environment. And most of all, always aim for the development and not for the money, for money will always comes next after a great development had grown.

As you can see, these are all the reasons of the projects with failed results, basing on it one-by-one you would notice something… As a general conclusion for these, a group manager or even the members must be responsible enough and must commit them selves into the project. Proper education on project management must be learned before indulging into a real project in order to secure project efficiency and to have enough knowledge to solve possible project risks that may occur. The project is there masterpiece which needs effort to be applied. Discipline on the proponents is needed in order for them to achieve their main objectives and ultimate goals. The proper use of project management could give them the opportunity of success. Planning each phases of the project and identifying the scope is some of the basic keys to start the project properly. DISCIPLINE a word that must be noted for this topic!

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