Five project failures

Why have some projects failed, but similar projects succeeded? There are more than one answer. However, after careful research, we have summarized the following five main reasons: the project scope is too large, there is a lack of necessary project methodology, poor customer projection and demand collection, and lack of support from senior managers, poor interpersonal skills.

Many projects often start with passion, but end with a sigh. Project members often ask themselves why the project fails?

The cause of project failure is often difficult to identify, because many factors affect the changes of the project. For example, companies, teams, and project teams all have different requirements and environmental factors, which may directly affect the success or failure of the project. In addition, some seemingly harmless details may also expand like a snowball, causing the entire project to be paused.

Even so, "Project failure" is not equivalent to "project death ". There are many different degrees of failure. The most extreme case is the cancellation of the entire project.

However, if a project is too far away from its initial goal to meet the customer's core needs and exceeds the budget, the project also fails.

Why have some projects failed, but similar projects succeeded?

There are more than one answer. For the cause of project failure, we can list a long list. However, when we collect and analyze all the factors, we can summarize the following five main reasons:

1. The project scope is too large.

2. Lack of necessary project methodology

3. Collection of poor customer projection and demands

4. Lack of support from senior managers

5. Poor interpersonal skills

　The scope of one item is too large.

There is a compromise between what you plan to accomplish and what you may actually accomplish. It is necessary to understand this. An unrealistic project-a major cause of project failure is that its goal is too large to exceed its own capabilities but must be completed in a timely manner.

Project initiators often realize that they overestimate their capabilities in the face of promised delivery terms as the project progresses. When all this happens, driven by the idea of "doing everything at all costs", they tend to make unwise decisions. They think that the project has invested too much money and it is too late to look back. The purpose is only to look at what projects that have invested so much time and money will ultimately bring to them.

As a result, the developed products are definitely unreliable. Such products can be developed quickly to meet the project deadline. They did not discuss it in detail from the very beginning.

To solve this problem, the customer's core needs have to be abandoned, only to meet the too large project schedule.

As a result, the customer's confidence in the company began to shake, and it was no longer difficult to recover. The project was eventually abandoned by the customer and complained by the management, because the project left them only debt-heavy bills.

The grief of these project initiators is caused by three of the most common out-of-control scope management:

1. Incorrect start Cost Estimation

2. an overestimating or underestimating Project Schedule (this is a double-edged sword: If it takes too long to complete the project, it will be discarded because it is outdated. If it is too short, although it matches the required workload, however, it puts pressure on the Personnel Department .)

3. The ratio of workload to labor cost is incorrect.

　　Sin 2 lacks necessary project methodology

The lack of project methodology (as the guidance of the project from conception to completion) allows the project initiators to make some hypothetical decisions. Most of these decisions are made based on internal responses, rather than the actual situation.

If you do not follow the mature methods or routes, you will not be able to go around and get confused, or you will not know how to solve any problems. This unordered and scattered approach can only develop unstable products.

Different projects have different methodologies. This should take environmental factors and types of projects into account.

Of course, the methodology is also related to the project size. The larger the project, the more methodological guidance is needed. However, regardless of the project size, each project methodology must contain three core processes: planning, preparation, and implementation.

Through a set of preset goals and development routes, the project initiator has specific and measurable reference tools.

　　Crime 3: Collection of poor customer projection and demands

Instead of providing customers with some demand surveys that they don't need, they can only make the project fail faster. The failure of many projects is often due to the collection of a series of ambiguous demand information, which may only be drawn at hand or transmitted orally. In addition, the project members did not bother to explore the real needs of customers and raised any questions.

Some reckless project developers often think of and ask users after the project has been in progress for a while: "Do you really want this ?" As a result, developers only develop products that they take for granted, rather than the actual needs of customers.

Ignoring the customer's participation will cause a lot of resentment from the customer, and it is easy for the customer to feel that the project is just a kind of "new toy" that the developer has applied to the customer ".

Both parties need to clarify their needs, because there is a symbiotic relationship between the customer and the developer: the customer-knows the business process best, needs to clarify their own needs, and provide feedback on the project delivery. Developers-know what technologies are used in business processes to make them the most operational. They need to propose correct solutions without making any assumptions about the customer's needs.

　　Sin 4: lack of support from senior managers

People understand that, with the support of middle and senior managers of the company, almost no project can succeed. In addition to the obvious factor that grants are available, this is a conceptual issue.

Without the support of senior managers, no project is generally valued. Without the support and trust of senior managers on these projects, it is difficult for initiators to recruit and organize excellent employees to participate in project preparation and testing.

Why? Project Team members generally come from different departments and have their own advantages. They also have their own direct leadership. When they have more than 20 tasks and want to participate in such a project that lacks support, it is obvious that the project is hard to guarantee success. Therefore, without the support of leaders and authorization, the project will not succeed.

　　Five bad interpersonal skills

The influence of human factors on projects is easy to understand, but is often ignored. The following three aspects are the most important:

1. Lack of communication

2. Poor team collaboration

3. internal political disputes

The project will succeed only when the project team members and all people involved in the project work together. Quarreling and fighting can only make everyone's positions scattered and morale drop, while at the same time, there is a "Confrontation" attitude.

It is natural that participants in any project have a sense of maximum interest in their own departments. And this is harmless. In fact, this is why they often represent the needs of their own departments in the team.

However, the risk is that if any one of them leads the project goal by mistake, it is easy to ignore the needs of other people or departments. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen communication, improve team cooperation, and consider issues from the company as a whole.