Big projects fail at an astonishing rate – well over half, by some estimates. Sometimes it is a single trigger event that leads to failure, but more often than not, it is a complex set of problems that together result in failure. Generally these issues fall into two categories. Things the team did poorly or things the team failed to do. These failures demoralise employees who have labored diligently to complete their share of the work.
Over Half of all Big Projects fail
But what happens when projects fail outright? And what are the primary causes for a project failure? The following list documents the most common mistakes that lead to, or contribute to, the failure of projects:
Lack of leadership and governance
The Project Manager lacks the interpersonal or organisational skills to bring people together and make things happen.
Failure to establish a governance structure appropriate to the needs of the project.
A Sponsor who lacks the experience, seniority, time or training to undertake the role effectively.
Failure to establish effective leadership in one of the three leadership domains including business, technical and organisational.
Visioning is the First Step in Strategic Planning
No shared vision
Without a strong vision, strategic plans cannot be properly delineated since there is no guiding principle or ideal to plan.
A failure to understand the “why “behind the “what” results in a project team delivering something that fails to meet the projects requirements and realise any tangible benefits.
The real problem is, the traditional approach to project management shifts the project teams’ focus away from the end result.
Lack of coordination between multiple projects throughout an organisation and identification of pinch points results in projects being misaligned or potentially in conflict with each other.
Failure to document the “why” into a clear vision statement that can be used to communicate the project’s goal to the organization and be used as a focal point for planning.
A vision statement that is put on a shelf and never used as a guide for subsequent decision making.
Project objectives are misaligned with the overall business goals and the strategy of the organisation.
A Project without a Critical Path is Like a Ship Without a Rudder
Poor planning
Inadequate project definition and planning is project management mistake number one
Planning is seen as the Project Manager’s responsibility rather than a team activity.
Failure to break a large scale master plan into more manageable pieces that can be delivered incrementally.
Unclear roles and responsibilities.
Requirements are never prioritised.
Failure to include appropriate culture change activities as part of the project plan.
Failure to provide sufficient user training when deploying the product
Change requests are handled informally without assessing their implications or agreeing to changes in schedule and budget.
The underestimation of complexity.
Working under constant and excessive schedule pressure.
Failure to manage management or customer expectations.
Configuration and information management
A change in configuration is implemented, but without the required verification or approval.
Failure to maintain control over document or component versions results in confusion over what is current, compatibility problems and other issues that slow progress.
Failure to put in place appropriate tools for organising and managing information results in a loss of key information and control.
If it is not documented, it doesn’t exist. As long as information is retained in someone’s head, it is vulnerable to loss.
The Most Difficult Part of Requirements Gathering is Not The Act of Recording What The User Wants, it is The Exploratory Development Activity of Helping Users Figure out What They Want
Requirements Issues
Unfortunately, poor requirements gathering techniques are the cause of many project failures.
Unless the end product is understood, as it is in highly technical building projects such as building a house, it’s almost inevitable that some things will be left off the plan.
Lack of formality in the scope definition results in vagueness and team members having different understandings of what is in and what is out of scope.
Failure to address scope creep.
Individual requirements are never vetted against the project’s overall objectives to ensure each requirement supports the project’s objective and has a reasonable Return on Investment (ROI).
The project requirements are written based on assumptions.
Requirements that resolve potential problems or challenging situations that could occur are never considered.
Failure to fully understand the operational context in which the product being produced needs to function once the project is over.
Requirements are defined by an intermediary without directly consulting or involving those who will eventually use the product being produced.
Failure to broker agreement between stakeholders with differing perspectives or requirements.
Vague or open ended requirements such as requirements that end with “etc”.
You May Con a Person into Committing to an Unreasonable Deadline, but you Cannot Bully them into Meeting it.
Poor estimation
Allowing a manager, sales agent or customer to bully the team into making unrealistic commitments.
Unreasonable deadlines creates a lose-lose position and is the cause of many sleepless nights and project failures.
The assumptions used for estimating are never documented, discussed or validated
Estimation is done based on insufficient information or analysis
Commitments are made to firm estimates, rather than using a range of values that encapsulate the unknowns in the estimate
Estimation is done without referring back to a repository of performance data gathered from prior projects
Failure to build in contingency
Assuming a new tool, process or system being used by the team will deliver instant productivity improvements.
Those who will actually perform the work are excluded from the estimating process
Project tracking and management
Schedule and budget become the driving force, as a result corners are cut and quality is compromised.
Project is tracked based on large work items rather than smaller tasks.
Failure to monitor vendor performance on a regular basis.
Believing that a task reported by a team member as complete is really complete.
Believing that because a team member was told something once that they will remember what they were asked to do and when they were supposed to do it.
Believing that although the team is behind schedule, they will catch up later.
The project plan is published but there is insufficient follow up or tracking to allow issues to be surfaced and addressed early.
Bad news is glossed over when presenting to customers, managers and stakeholders.
Dismissing information that shows that the project is running into difficulties.
Team issues
Selecting the first available person to fill a role rather than waiting and using the person who is best qualified.
No clear roles and responsibilities results in confusion.
Insufficient resources to complete the work.
Lacks of Subject Matter Expertise needed to complete the project successfully.
Failure to provide team with appropriate training in either the technology in use, the processes the team will be using or the business domain in which the system will function.
Lack of feedback allows discontent in the team to simmer under the surface.
Not addressing poor team dynamics or obvious non-performance of an individual team member results in the rest of the team becoming disengaged.
Decisions and general practices that undermine team motivation.
Pushing a team that is already overworked into doing even more work.
Adding more resources to an already late project causes addition strain on the team resulting in even lower team morale.
Poor risk management
Risk management is seen as an independent activity rather than an integral part of the planning process.
Failure to think ahead and to foresee and address potential problems.
Stakeholder engagement issues
Not getting executive buy-in.
Failure to identify or engage the key stakeholders.
Failing to get stakeholder buy-in.
Allowing stakeholders to dominate the project while ignoring the needs of others.
Lack of (Regular) Communication/Meetings.
Architecture and design issues
Being seduced into using technology that is not required or inappropriate.
Allowing a pet idea to become the chosen solution without considering if other solutions might better meet the overall business requirements and goal.
That lack of architecture then results in duplication of effort, gaps, unexpected integration costs and other inefficiencies.
Failure to take into account non-functional requirements when designing a product, system or process.
Poor architecture results in a system that is difficult to debug and maintain.
Developer “gold plating” using a large sledge humor to crack a eye when a small spoon was all that was needed.
Trying to solve all problems with a one tool simply because it is avilable rather than well suited to the job in hand.
New tools are used by the project team without providing the team with adequate training or arranging for appropriate vendor support.
Poor quality management
Team avoids the difficult decisions because some stakeholders maybe unhappy with the outcome.
Group decisions are made at the lowest common denominator rather than facilitating group decision.
Key decisions are made without identifying or considering alternatives.
Failure to establish clear ownership of decisions or the process by which key decisions will be made.
Quality is viewed simply in terms of testing rather than a way of working.
The team developing the project’s deliverables sees quality as the responsibility of the Quality Assurance group.
Testing focuses on the simple test cases while ignoring the more complex situations such as error and recovery handling.
Integration and testing of the individual components created in the project is left until all development activities are complete.
Not undertaken ongoing incremental ingratiation and verification to find and fix problems early.
A test environment that is configured differently from the target production, or operational environment.
Quality requirements that are never discussed, thereby allowing different people to have different expectations of what is being produced and the standards to be achieved.
Poor decision making
When making critical decisions expert advice is either ignored or simply never sort after.
Lack of “situational awareness” results in ineffective decisions being made
Failure to bring closure to a high level decisions results in wheel-spin and inaction.
To the seasoned PMs‘, which ones did we miss? Any suggestions you may want to share for overcoming these challenges?
