Introduction
A project is a multifaceted one-time activity limited by budget, time, and performance specifications design. According to Project Management Institute (2004; 6), “Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques in project activities to meet project requirement.” Several IT projects have failed in the past. Studies echo this perception by addressing various challenges inhibiting project success. Several studies are increasingly evaluating the cause sand factors influencing the success and failure of a project.
This paper examines the factors influencing the project success or failure. To achieve this objective, the paper evaluates opinions from various authors. This assignment employs the approach of evaluating separate success and failure perspectives. The paper also provides recommendation on appropriate ways of reducing project failure. The assignment concludes with a summary of the explained findings.
Failure and success of projects
Project Management Institute develops an understanding of a project. According to the institute, project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet project requirement (Project Management Institute 2004). In companies, projects initiation aim at answering the entire requests that are hardly addressable during the organization’s usual functions. According to the Project Management Institute, the projects become distinctive when they address a particular deliverable task.
Several previous studies focus their investigation on the contributing factors to the project success and failure. These studies present the most important contributing statistics from varying perspectives. According to the perspective of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), truly successful IT projects are 16%.” However, the Stadish Group, maintain a different perspective. They insist that only 34 percent of the existing projects are successful in the United States. Therefore, the Stadish Group’s research conflicts with RAE research.
Similarly, Knights (2008) study proved that, in nearly 400 IT professional respondents, 43.3 % of the business IT projects were canceled. In Knights examination, 29.9 % of the business needs changed in the process of project implementation and 34 % of the projects failed to achieve their objectives. Prior to their implementation, 14 percent of the projects were unsuccessful because they were no longer a priority. However, 31 % of the projects contained a higher budget than expected. These projects also failed to support the business strategy.
A report by CHAOS also supports Knights research. According to CHAOS (2009), various features determine the project’s success. Success in this case is characterized by effective achievement of the functions and features, timely completion of the project, and budgetary consideration in a project. CHAOS research observed that 32 percent of the projects with these features succeeded on “time”. The study approximated that 44 percent of the projects experienced challenges because they lacked the specified functions and features.
The projects resolution: 2000 to 2008.
The above figure projects insignificant improvement in the project success from the year 2000 and 2008 (Standish Group’s CHAOS Report, 2009).
Factors contributing to project failure
The main challenge of project failure is poor planning. According to Humprey (2005), planning in most IT projects does not contribute to success. The same author insists that every failure in a project lacks a plan. Therefore, extremely few unplanned projects have a likelihood of being fruitless. Several projects take main milestones before completion. However, the problems emerge after extension of projects past the main milestones.
Bull (1998) examined the contributing factors to the project failure. According to Bull (1998), 57 percent of IT projects fail because of communication breakdown. The author adds that 40 percent of the projects fail due to the lack of proper planning. The remaining 34 percent of the projects fail due to the poor quality control.
Another contributing factor to the project failure is the absence of communication. Rosencrance (2007) approximates that 28 percent of the 1000 respondents in the survey classified poor communication as the main cause of the project failure. Rosencrance (2007) further explains that the main IT projects usually suffer from the problem associated with communication. Because of the requirement of several work and analysis in big projects, the project teams remain busy with the decision making recording slow progress.
According to the explanation in Waters (2012), various factors result in failure of a project. One of these factors relates to lack of a clearly convincing business. The failure emerges because of ambiguity in defining the project objectives and scope, lack of money, and time invested in the project together with unrealizable timescales. Waters (2012) further explains that team members contribute to the project problems due to lack of prerequisite experience and skills. Furthermore, according to Waters (2010) poor communication, poor cooperation, and poor teamwork are factors contributing to project disruptions.
According to the findings of the Project Management Institute (2008), one way of triggering project failure is through design of ineffective process of project integration. This affects integration of the project agreement. Failure to integrate the project eventually contributes to increased failure chances. This study further explains that poor management and insufficient budget management may result in financial loss and project failure. Therefore, lack of concern towards the risks has a high likelihood of resulting in failure of a project.
IT cortex (1998) also explains the survey by KPMG Canada that explored the main contributing factors to project failure. As Cortex (1998) explains, the weak project planning and insufficient risk management affects the project success. As this study recommends, any adopted system requires evaluation on the basis of the business necessity, as well as the business routine. More significantly, lack of the top project management body could contribute to several weaknesses in the planned project structure.
Project requirements definition is a major challenge in the project phases. Many projects fail because of the flaws in the clarification of the needs (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004). According to the Royal Academy of Engineering (2004), other failures relate to the requirements that eventually become disqualified by the time of project delivery.
Project Success and the contributing factors
Bull survey (cited in IT Cortex 1998) examined the major success criteria for a project. These highlighted criteria include achieving the milestone (51%), maintaining the required level of quality (32%), and satisfying the budgetary provision (31%). For successful planning, the initial step involves good and comprehensive planning. This calls for early forward planning, which involves thorough planning of the implementation phases of the project, the time limit, and feedback positions (Gido & Clements 2009). Gido and Clements (2009) recommend for a comprehensive scope planning before beginning the project. This factor is vital for the success of the project as any scope changes between the progresses could result to the project failure (Project management institute, 2008).
Project management institute (2008) highlights the control schedule as another factor that ensures project managers are successful in tracking all the project activities. This guidance also assists in ensuring that practices comply with the project planning. After identification of any errors in the working procedure, the project manager successfully redoes the project. This acts as a way of eventually coming up with an alternative strategy for achieving the desired qualities within the established budget and deadline (Gido & Clements 2009)
Sid Kemp (2005) identifies three significant factors contributing to a successful project. These factors are; quality, budget, and time. A good management and good budget of all the incurred costs is the most difficult task to adopt. The project Management Institute (2008) recommends on enough funds collection before starts any project.
Slack, Stuart and Johnston (2010) defines the project success from various terms:
A comprehensive definition of the goals shows the general project strategy, as well as the targeted achievements. It also shows the workforce dedication and involvement in the project.
The project manager possesses technical, interpersonal, and administrative skills needed to ensure a successful project.
Sufficient allocation of the resources involves successful allocation of the main resources such as workforce, finances, and strategies to ensure successful completion of a project.
The role of a project manager
A study by Gido and Clements (2009) explain that a good project manager requires good communication skills, communication skills, technical skills, as well as the ability of handling chaotic situations. The foremost quality involves being good time manager. RAE (2004: 56) explains, “regardless of the project size, or the number of involved organizations and departments, a single project manager should assume full control of the project delivery on continuous basis.” The study further recommends for procession of negotiation and persuasion skills. These skills assist the workforce towards a successful end while ensuring the project success. The project managers are also required to communicate with the customers, the project team, and the upper management of the company.
Recommendations
Linberg (1999) explains that challenges and struggles are a significant part in the process of learning. Several organizations are successful in improving their new software versions after experiencing failure. In such instances, project failure acts as a lesson and learning experience. Therefore, the IT failure is not a “disappointment” as long as an organization learns and applies all the learned lessons.
In Krigman (2007), the following pointers are helpful in preventing failure in the IT projects:
Defining the project scope clearly. This is because most projects are unsuccessful because of absence of a detailed scope.
Working within a strict deadline and clear budget. In this case project team members can plan properly.
There should be suitable training, management change, and proper documentation. Project end-users should understand the project’s goals, impacts of jobs, and project status. Hence, the project would be executed perfectly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the success of a project depends on the role of the team members and project managers. This is because of their basic skills and works required in ensuring that the projects emerge successful. Several challenges may emerge in the process of implementing any proposed project. However, the managers should have enough capability to deal with the inefficiency through the assistance of high leadership skills. From a personal perspective, the failure acts as an opportunity of examining what went wrong while ensuring the problem does not re-emerge. The failure also acts as a growth and insight. Therefore, the project failure can act as a platform for achieving success.
