Reasons for Project Failure
A project is considered to have failed if it fails to deliver what was required according to its expectations. Whenever a project does not deliver to cost, to quality, and on timely basis, it can be considered to have failed to attain its targets. Project failure can be described in different ways, such as the judgement of the stakeholders on project failure, failure to meet the set delivery plan, failure to meet the set duration for project completion, failure to meet the financial forecasts, and failure to meet the set minimum return of investment. The main causes of project failure include poor planning, inefficient documentation and tracking of the processes, poor leadership, lack of clear project objectives, poor training of the project management team, and inaccurate cost estimation.
Project failure can be associated with numerous reasons, which need to be addressed in order to guarantee the best possible results from the entire project. One of the main reasons for project failure is poor planning and lack of adequate processes to facilitate the full completion of the entire project. Planning is the core activity of any project and a determinant of the success of the project since through planning process, the project managers are able to define what constitutes project success or failure at the earliest stages (Schwalbe, 2015). Inefficient way of documenting and tracking of the project progress may lead to project failure. It requires the project manager to oversee all the processes and stages of the project implementation to ensure they are performed as planned. Poor documentation and tracking will prevent the project manager from identifying the main areas that require more resources to meet the completion time hence leading to failure of the project.
Success of a project is determined by the success of every single level in the entire project management process. Therefore, poor leadership by the project manager at any level of the process may lead to project failure. Despite the fact that the management executive has a role to play in ensuring the project success, the project manager is responsible for providing guidance to the management and updating them on what is expected of them for attainment of success. Failure to set quality and attainable objectives for the project can also lead to project failure. Lack of clear project priorities may cause the project management team to focus more on low priority objectives while ignoring the priority objectives that leading to overall project failure (Kerzner, 2010). Therefore, the project implementation plan should state clearly the strategic objectives which have to be attained by the project in order of priority.
The project manager and the entire project management team need to have proper training on project management skills to equip them with the necessary knowledge and expertise required to attain project success. Inadequately trained project management team may be unable to execute some complex project requirements; thus, leading to failure of the entire project. They may make uninformed decisions which are very costly due to lack of adequate information thus causing project failure. Project planning requires a project budget which involves cost estimation of the resources required to execute all the processes of the project. Inaccurate cost estimation of the project may cause the organization to run out of resources for financing the full completion of the project (Young, 2010). Inability of the project to meet its budget projections is a sign of project failure because it signifies existence of underfinanced processes which may alter the quality of the overall project output.
Importance of Client Needs Analysis in Project Planning
Project planning is a very important part of the entire project management which involves developing a project plan and subsequently reporting the progress within the project scope. One of the main components of the project planning process is the discussion of the components of the project plan with the various stakeholders who include the client or the customer. During this stage, the project management team is responsible for developing specific objectives of the project that are aligned to the needs of the client then communicating the details to the client. Such process can be accomplished by performing a detailed analysis of the clients need and making them priority during the entire project planning process (Pyzdek & Keller, 2014).
Through performance of the client’s needs analysis, the project management team is able to determine the nature and the extent of the client’s expectations from the team. The process informs the project management team the magnitude of the interest and influence each client has on the outcome of the project. In circumstances where the client has high expectations, most of the project strategic objectives are designed specifically to meet the needs of the client unlike in situations where the client has no higher expectation, the strategic objectives of the project may tend to be somehow general and not focusing on the specific needs of the client (Pyzdek & Keller, 2014).
Analysis of the needs of client during project planning process is quite important to the client and the responsible company. Such assessment sends signals of the credibility and reliability of the company in meeting the client needs. It acts as the basis for developing trust and confidence on the provider ability on the minds of the client since they are convinced that their interest are well known to the project management team hence they will be incorporated in the project objectives thus meeting their overall needs (Schwalbe, 2015). Therefore, the analysis of the client’s needs will enable the project management team to determine whether several criteria of measuring client satisfaction are attained. This boosts the relationship between the two parties since the interests of each are well represented in the overall project plan.
The processes of analyzing the client’s needs should be very involving to ensure that all the details of the client’s needs and expectations are well captured. This interactive process is very important because it helps the project management team to identify key aspects of the client such as the financial ability to finance the project planning process, the ability of the available systems in the clients business to facilitate full implementation of the project and the availability of skilled personnel to interpret the project results during implementation. These concepts are quite important for the project management team to execute their duties and responsibilities in the best way possible and meet the needs of their client (Pyzdek & Keller, 2014). The full details of these concepts can only obtained through a detailed analysis of the client needs before the commencement of the project planning process hence the client’s needs analysis is very important.
Use of Project Management Software in Project Management
The project management business has become very complex in the modern world due to the increasing demand for more complex and detailed project plans by clients. The expansion of company’s business operations and advancement of the entire operating system requires the project management teams of those companies to engage in continuous development of project plans to facilitate these expansion and development processes. However, due to the development of technology in the modern world, numerous project management software have been developed to facilitate this process. The software enables the project management teams to excel in project planning, delegation, collaboration, tracking and reporting the progress of the process to the management or the clients. Therefore, effective use of the project management software can help organizations in managing their projects in each stage of the project life cycle (Maylor, 2010).
Effective use of project management software help organizations manage their projects through the software applications that can be used for work scheduling, cost control and budget management. Such services offered by this software are crucial in the project management process because one of the main causes of project failure relates to budgeting issues. Therefore, effective use of the project management software will enable the organization to achieve its set project objectives within the budgeted resources without failure. In addition, the project management software is responsible for facilitating effective collaboration and communication between the parties, quality management and facilitation of project processes documentation and tracking (Burke, 2013). Such services provided by the software can be used effectively to help the organization produce quality project plan that is acceptable to all the stakeholders.
Project management software can be used in determining which events within the project depend on one another and the extent to which they depend on each other. The capability of the software enables the project management team to handle all the aspects of the project and the complexities associated with large projects while keeping the costs low. It facilitates easier management of tasks since the software is capable of automatically defining tasks, assigning tasks, creating deadlines and notifying when the task is completed (Burke, 2013). Such features of the project management software can be used effectively to help organizations manage its projects successfully.
Tools and Techniques for Keeping Project Management Information
Project management information is very important for the clients and the project plan provider because it acts as the basis of reference while undertaking other projects in the future. This is because project management process is common for all the projects thus the project management information of one project can be used in development of another project in the future. Therefore, keeping information of previous projects is very essential since it ensures that the knowledge and lessons learned from the previous projects are not lost and can be shared for the benefit of future projects. There exist specific tools and techniques that project managers can use to keep such information for future reference (Hill, 2013). These tools and techniques ensure that the project information is kept safe to prevent it from being destroyed because it has a significant role in future projects.
One of the main tools for safe keeping the project management records if the project files. Project files are created to facilitate storage of important information about previous projects for future reference by the project management team or the client. These project files should be created in accordance with the standards and requirements of file management within the organization in order to ensure that they are safe and well protected from destruction (Kerzner, 2013). The project files are meant to be prompt for easy and quick access of information, simple in structure to enable easy understanding, separate from other organization files to avoid mix-up, well updated to contain the actual and accurate information about the project and very confidential to prevent access by unauthorized personnel who may leak the information to potential competitors.
In addition, the project management information can be kept safe for future reference through filing the key project documents in the project file created by the project manager. All the documents relating to the project are kept safely in these files and can be retrieved whenever required for reference in the future by the project management team, the management or even the client. Some of the key important documents for the project that can be stored in the project file include official mails, minutes of the project meetings, project request and proposal, client contact details, project dairy, status reports and project closure documents. The project manager should ensure that all the relevant project documents are put in the project files for safety and they are updated and changed accordingly to match the actual status of the project. These techniques can be used to ensure that the knowledge and lessons learned from previous projects is never lost ad it is available for sharing for the benefit of future projects (Kerzner, 2013).
Many organizations have embraced the technological advancements available in the modern world and have turned to digital record keeping. They have developed systems that are used to record, update and maintain all the important information within the organization. Project managers can use such tools for safekeeping their project documents for future reference and as evidence in case of future scandals leading to litigation. The digital record keeping systems can be quite beneficial to the project managers in keeping critical information about the projects undertaken because the systems can facilitate storage of computer generated project process (Kerzner, 2013). Modern project management processes have been computerized through the integration of project management software in the organization’s systems.
Most current project management tools such as the Gantt chart, the Logic Network, the PERT chart and work breakdown structure have been computerized. Therefore the results obtained from the use of these tools are in digital form thus the project managers are required to adopt the use of the digital storage systems to keep such information for future reference. This ensures that the information can be retrieved in future from the systems the way it was stored making it easy for interpretation of such information. However, despite the development of computerized record keeping systems in many organizations, the manual project documents should be well kept in the organization archives rather than destroying them (Hill, 2013). This is because such documents can be used is the future as actual evidence of the project management processes in case of a lawsuit filed to challenge the development and implementation of the project. All these record keeping tools and techniques should be adopted by project managers to ensure the knowledge and lessons learned from previous projects are not lost.
References
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. Stamford: Cengage Learning
Hill, G. M. (2013). The complete project management office handbook. New York: CRC Press.
Kerzner, H. (2001). Project management. New York: John Wiley.
Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Maylor, H. (2010). Project management. Harlow, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Pyzdek, T., & Keller, P. A. (2014). The six sigma handbook (p. 25). London: McGraw-Hill Education
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Stamford: Cengage Learning.
Young, T. (2010). Successful project management. London: Kogan Page.
