Project Failure

Project Failure

Your Name (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

Project Failure

Introduction:

Every organization relies on two types of work that are projects and operational work. Operational work is relatively informal than the projects as it has repetitive nature which makes it at ease to systemize processes. On the other hand, the project is a little difficult that requires more time and attention than the operational work. Project work is unique in nature that consists of proper management of time, mixed team members, and a proper methodology to process. Performance of organization faces risk when the project does not complete on time, or goes beyond the budget, also when it gets changed in scope with time ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"PPmNhRRP","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Seven causes of project failure,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Seven causes of project failure,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":536,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rVaVAHaF/items/8CMFSPWZ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rVaVAHaF/items/8CMFSPWZ"],"itemData":{"id":536,"type":"webpage","title":"Seven causes of project failure","abstract":"Each year, organizations around the world expend much of their resources in implementing projects that ultimately fail for reasons complex and oftentimes, for reasons simple. This paper examines how organizations can recognize the signs of project failure and how they can save failing projects. In doing so, it describes seven reasons that the authors have identified as most often causing project failure. It categorizes these reasons into one of three factor-based categories--people, processes, and communications--and outlines a five-phase process for assessing failing projects, noting this process's primary concepts, variables, and activities. It also lists the assessment team's key areas of focus when performing project assessments. It then discusses an approach for assessing a project, explaining the processes involved in administering and analyzing project-related questionnaires, conducting interviews with project team members, and articulating and presenting the assessment's findings. Accompanying this pa","URL":"https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/seven-causes-project-failure-initiate-recovery-7195","language":"en","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",4,20]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Seven causes of project failure,” n.d.). There are three groups that can be responsible for any project; project manager, executive management, and team members. There are various reasons which can lead to the project failure because of any group of team. The most common reasons are discussed below.

Unclear objectives:

The most important thing for any project is its main goal and objective. When the objective of the project is not clear to the team, it ends up messing up the whole thing. Most of the time organization gets the number of opportunities and initiative that they can utilize but because of lack of strategies, it becomes difficult to get maximum utilization of opportunities. The main problem of unclear objective comes from executive management. This is because when the higher authority does not understand the organization's priority the whole staff gets affected by it. For instance, lack of leadership and vision leads to detracting from the actual goal. The project manager sometimes does this mistake especially when he has more than one project in hand. Due to the number of projects, he can miscalculate the budget and time required for the project. The team member does this mistake by seeking a less hectic working environment.

The issue of project failure can be solved by developing a clear vision of the project's outcome and achievement for the organization benefits. Firstly, executive management should develop useful strategies and plan for the completion of the project. It can clear the objective of the project manager and team management. When the objective gets clear to the project manager, he can supervise team management effectively. The project can be clear by developing the risk assessment and evaluating the total budget and the project's priorities. In this way, team members get visible reminders regarding their role and work for the projects.

Communication Gap:

The most common issue that is faced by most of the project member is the communication gap. Nowadays most of the project discussion is made by some general meetings and sharing updates via email. Most of the time problem arises due to the replacement of any of the team member. In such a case, new member faces difficulty to collect and understand the history of the project. Executive manager mostly takes report or status of the project after a week or month it results in the communication gap between executive management and team members. It means project managers keep on check on the daily progress of the project. Executive manager sometimes complains that the project manager controls the communication hostage. While the project manager face the problem of communication from team members. For instance, when the project manager sends any update to the team members through email, some of the team members mistakenly click on reply rather replies to all. In addition, some member does not receive email therefore, communication gap comes in.

The best solution of the problem is to manage meeting times to time. All three group that are executive managers, project managers, and team members should be present in the meeting so that communication gap should be reduced. Besides this, communication needs to be posted in the central position. The reason behind centralizing the position or location is that whenever a new member joins the project, he can rapidly understand the task, goals, and history of the project. It can help to enhance the efficiently of whole project teams.

Performance Check:

It is the most common reason for the failure of the project. It is a circular problem because when one group is not aware of the progress or performance of the other group of the project it leads to the messing up the whole workload. For instance, executive management allocates resources to the team members through the project manager and also collects its progress through him. Sometimes, the project manager does not provide entire information and provides half or incomplete report regarding the progress of the project. In addition, the project manager makes a schedule and does not update it which leads to a lack of controlling and monitoring of the project. In other words, the main weakness of the performance check comes from the project manager. Team members do not take workload when they notice a lack of check and balance and when the executive manager gets an update regarding team member’s performance; it gets too late to handle the situation.

Therefore, there should be proper check and balance over the work performance of each and every member involved in the project. The best way to monitor and control the workload over time is to develop a schedule that indicates the date of starting of task and deadline. On deadline, the report should be made whether everyone did their task or not. The executive team should collect this report if not daily then at least once in a week. Daily assessment can increase the productivity of the team and an efficient project can be developed ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"PVBcX77h","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Taherdoost & Keshavarzsaleh, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Taherdoost & Keshavarzsaleh, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":537,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rVaVAHaF/items/M992URSI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/rVaVAHaF/items/M992URSI"],"itemData":{"id":537,"type":"article-journal","title":"Critical Factors that Lead to Projects’ Success/Failure in Global Marketplace","container-title":"Procedia Technology","page":"1066-1075","volume":"22","source":"DOI.org (Crossref)","DOI":"10.1016/j.protcy.2016.01.151","ISSN":"22120173","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Taherdoost","given":"Hamed"},{"family":"Keshavarzsaleh","given":"Abolfazl"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Taherdoost & Keshavarzsaleh, 2016).

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Seven causes of project failure. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2019, from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/seven-causes-project-failure-initiate-recovery-7195

Taherdoost, H., & Keshavarzsaleh, A. (2016). Critical Factors that Lead to Projects’ Success/Failure in Global Marketplace. Procedia Technology, 22, 1066–1075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2016.01.151