Key Factors for Project Success and Failure.

 

Key Factors for Project Success

• Executive sponsorship
• Maturity of Project Management practices
  
• Alignment of projects to strategy
• Value of Project Management is understood
• Project Manager skill development
• Project Management Office
  

 

 Contributing Factors to Project Failure

Now that we have looked at some of the success factors for projects, let's examine some of the key reasons why projects fail.

1. Poor Executive and Management Support
   Project Managers are not the only ones who need to support a project for it to be successful. Every executive and manager needs to understand the importance of Project Management, the role projects play in achieving business goals and provide active support for their success.
2. Poor Planning
   Project Managers and project teams need to understand the goals and objectives for the project and the value and benefits it is expected to achieve. The project plans must be built to support the achievement of the goals, objectives, and benefits.
3. Poor Monitoring and Control
   Having proper project metrics, and monitoring and control mechanisms on a project are key to ensuring the project is meeting the plan. It is important to properly use the project plan to control the outcome and meet Stakeholder expectations. If the project manager can't trust the plan will lead the team to success, then the plan was not built correctly.
4. Poor Leadership Skills
   Understanding project management methods is important for a Project Manager, but it isn't what creates great project managers. Great project managers are set apart from their average counterparts because of their leadership skills.
5. Poor Resource Management
   Project Managers must be very adept at identifying all necessary and skilled resources (human and non-human) needed to be successful. The right resources available at the right time is a critical element to successfully achieving project goals.
6. Accidental Project Managers
   Sometimes even with the best of intentions, organizations may assign Project Managers that don't have the appropriate experience or skill to be successful. They may have been successful on a small project and believe that success can translate to a larger more complex project with ease, only to find out after the project fails that this wasn't the case. Project Managers need the proper skills that grow with the complexities and challenges of the projects they manage.
7. Poor Communication
   When communication flows freely up the organization, down the organization and across the organization, then projects can be effectively delivered and issues can be addressed quickly. When communication is hindered, bad information or lack of information can send a project off in the wrong direction.
8. Unsupportive Organizational Culture
   The culture of an organization establishes its priorities and effectiveness. When the culture conflicts with the project goals or does not support the necessary project elements for success, then projects (and Project Managers) will struggle to achieve success.
9. Too Many Projects - Too Few Resources
   When organizations don't prioritize and systematically select the projects that will lead to the greatest value, then resources are over allocated and little progress is made on anything. Projects need to be viewed as part of a portfolio of work and must be balanced with the resources available to achieve business and Stakeholder value.
10. Not Properly Managing the Tradeoffs
    Projects by their nature have competing constraints most notably: time, cost, and scope. Additionally, Project Managers must manage the expectations and relationships of Stakeholders and ensure customer/business value is delivered. Managing these competing constraints requires making the right tradeoff decisions and setting the right priorities for each individual project they manage. Recognizing when these decisions need to be made in the best interest of the project, the project team, the company, and the Stakeholders is key to being successful.

 

 Comparing Factors for Success and Failure

Looking at the comparison of the elements of a project that are needed to be successful and the elements of a project that are known to cause project failures, we can see some similarities.

Needed for Success	Can Cause Failure
Executive support	Poor executive and management support Poor communication
Maturity of practices Project Management Office	Poor planning Poor monitoring and control Poor resource management
Alignment to strategy	Unsupportive organizational culture Too many projects - too few resources
Demonstrate value	No quality at the source, no planning for rework
Skill development	Poor leadership skills

As we examine various case scenarios in this course, remember these elements and how they might have applied to the troubles that some companies find themselves in.

In order to achieve high performance, the Project Manager needs to be able to master all of these elements. For example, this means the Project Manager needs to ensure they have effective sponsorship for their project, that they are utilizing mature practices and methods, that they engage the right people at the right time on the right job, and that they enable value for the business. Throughout this course we will review how to avoid the elements that cause project failure to provide the best possible environment for project success.