Why Projects Fail: Part II

In part one of this blog, we talked about making sure that your project goals are well defined and that all stakeholders are in the loop during the project definition phase. If the right people review and approve the project goals, you’ve managed to make it through the first danger point in most new projects. If stakeholders are not kept up to speed, you run the risk of creating a product or service that does not meet the needs of your customers or your organization. Nobody wants to be that person.

But getting the goals right is only the beginning of the process. The next step is to develop a written plan that describes how the organization will achieve the goal. A failure to properly plan is the most common reason projects fail (poor goal definition is a very close second). Every project needs a good plan, and every planning effort will have considered the following:

• Breaking Down the Tasks: Large projects can overwhelm a team if it’s is not broken down into bite-sized tasks. Each task should be clearly laid out on a timeline, and any dependencies a task might have on subsequent tasks should be identified. If you were building a pool, you could not start working on the plumbing until the hole had been dug. Getting everything sequenced correctly will keep the project moving along smoothly. This is also a good time to make sure you do not double-book anyone on your team, especially if they are a subject matter expert with a unique set of skills.
• Working through the Quality, Resource, and Time Interactions: The quality of our final product or service will depend (at least in part) on the resources and time we devote to each task along the way. We need to be sure that we understand the tradeoff between the quality level we want to achieve, the money and labor we have available, and the challenges that can arise from short timelines.
• Thinking Through the Risk Factors and Contingency Plans: Anyone who has ever run a project knows that some things will not happen the way you expected them to. It is also true that the more of these potential issues you learn to anticipate and plan for in advance, the smoother your team will be able to react when a problem occurs. We cannot predict every issue, but we want to identify as many risks as possible in advance so that we can be prepared.

Project management is a professional skill that your team needs to run successful projects. Taking the time up front to make sure that the project is well defined and well planned can feel like a waste of time to those without a lot of experience, but the time spent on these efforts always pays dividends by helping your project run smoothly.

Does your organization have a project coming up? Feel free to book an hour on my calendar for a free consultation and let’s talk it over!