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Why Projects Fail
According to Stewart (7), one of the major causes of project failure is unreliable estimates. In many instances, project members use the data from a similar project to make estimates for the current project; they use information regarding resources and time to create a schedule for the current project. What they do not realize is that they are basing their schedule on unreliable guesses because the dynamics of one project are usually different from those of the next. The objectives, resources, and challenges are bound to change as a project manager moves from one project to another. It is therefore upon the manager to look at the historical records kept between projects in order to identify any changes in the background setting. The manager should then modify the current project schedule to suit the changing settings.
Lack of training in project management is also a major reason for project failure. In most organizations, members of the technical staff who do a good job usually receive promotions to levels where they are legible to manage a project. However, such employees only have training in their technical fields such as pharmacy and biochemistry, but they have no training in project management. These employees, who can fall under the label of ‘accidental project managers’, lack the social skills that go in hand with project management. Their success in their areas of specialization gives the management the impression that they can succeed in running a project as well. In most cases, the management is wrong because such employees end up not fulfilling the objectives of the project hence wasting time and other resources.
Due to the limited resources that are characteristic of many projects, managers end up over-allocating resources. In an organization that has more than two projects running concurrently, employees tend to struggle to utilize the resources of the company (Yardley 39). Some project members may be too selfish to the extent that they will deny the other members access to the said resources. In some instances, project members are not sure about what resources they can use to achieve a certain objective. The situation gets worse when the manager does not have a grip on what the resources are doing all the time. In such a scenario, one group of employees could be using the resources for something that is completely irrelevant at the expense of the not-so-outspoken group.
In conclusion, the major causes of project failure are over-allocation of resources, lack of training in project management, and building a schedule based on unreliable estimates. Organizations and project managers can protect themselves from project failure by doing the following. If the manager is not sure of the provided estimates, she should outsource to people who can provide accurate estimates (Laurie 18). Regarding the issue of accidental managers, the organization should ensure that every employee who is mandated with managing a project has training in project management, previous success in their technical fields notwithstanding. The organization can also organize training exercises for all project managers in order to expose them to emerging trends in project management. About the resources, each organization should strive to acquire the necessary resources before the onset of a project. In the event that the company does not have enough funds, it should ensure that it runs few projects on the limited resources.
Works Cited
Laurie, Janet. “Why Projects Fail.” JISC InfoNet (jiscinfonet. ac. uk) (2003).
Stewart, Jim. Top 10 Reasons Why Projects Fail. Project-management.com, 2015. Web, accessed June 11, 2016 <http://project-management.com/top-10-reasons-why-projects-fail>
Yardley, David. Successful IT project delivery: learning the lessons of project failure. Edinburgh, UK: Addison-Wesley, 2002.