Essay Sample on Common Causes for Projects Failure

Several causes do lead to project failure and for every failed project there must be some sets of issues. Mostly they are complex entwined sets of conditions that cumulatively combine resulting in failure. In this paper I will point some of the various common causes leading to project failure

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Vision and goalFailure to comprehend the project goals, the reasons behind why a project was put on course, failure to understand the requirements of an organization in delivery off it demands. Inability to document the projects goals and communicate the through the organization for accurate planning, misaligning of the project strategies (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Attributes of coordination, misunderstanding, among multiple sectors of the project will lead to potential conflicts regarding dissimilar projects in the organization.

Governance and leadership

The governance structure of an organization towards completion of various projects should be outlining effectively, in the case of an appointment of a sponsor who fails to take full ownership of the particular project with regard that he Project Managers should be responsible towards the projects success, appointment of sponsors with inadequate skills and experience and training to effectively perform project roles also attribute to failure of projects. Lack of interpersonal skills by the Project Managers to create togetherness within an organization is a key failure cause within an organization. Whenever project oversight is not put in order, this is an aspect by the overall manager micromanaging the whole project therefore the overall team becomes demotivated in sufficiently tracking the project progress will definitely result in the project getting out of control (Kouzes & Posner, 2012).

Stakeholder engagement disputes

Various causes dealing with stakeholders also attribute to failure within a project, the inappropriate engagement of stakeholders, failure to appreciate the stakeholders views regarding the procedures the project deals, will lead to problems on how the particular stakeholders have lesser impact on the projects progress. Failure to engage all stakeholder groups in an organization will result in domination on the process of decision making by a particular assembly of stakeholders. The inability of the organization to communicate effectively amongst individuals involved in the project are among other causes within the stakeholder disputes that lead to project failure.

Team disputes

Lack of clarity in responsibilities and roles among the team members will cause confusion, omission and errors in the organization, insufficiency of the projects team members to accomplish the task projected, the lack of subject exercise by the members also lead to misunderstanding of the project vision and goals. Failure of appropriate training provision to the team technologically regarding the processes that the team should incorporate in the progress of completing a specific task result in system letdown. Inclusively the project manager fails to address poor team dynamics and non-performance of individual team members will result in disengagement of the whole team. There also are some practices that undermine the team motivation among subjecting an already exhausted team in performing overtime duties result in inefficiency in conduct guided to performing particular tasks (Kouzes & Posner, 2012).

Planning

Failures in planning the execution and performance of tasks without analytically thinking about the correct procedures to be undertaken, complexity underestimation and inability to perform by the organization with regard to excessive procedures in the set schedules influence negatively the progress of reaching the set project vision and goals. Several unclear responsibilities and roles, an aspect of some members being allowed to become overloaded result in degraded performance in very critical sectors of the underlined project. Inability to prioritize requirements result in the whole organization performing duties of lower priorities instead of the high priority task also lead to failure within projects.

Risk management

Failures of the whole organization to foresee and address potential disputes, failure to view risk management as an integral part of the whole planning process other than independent activity does result in improper risk management within the organization to undertake project goals mission and vision.

Project Managers tips on successful project management

For proper and proficient progress of a specific project, Project Managers should ensure the following aspects hold (Portman, 2014);

Ensuring that the full project details are outlayed before the start of a particular project, the project scope should be completely created and approved by the stakeholders

The right project management team should be incorporated; the projects personnel should be skillful and full of expertise and experience to conduct the project in question.

Milestones and project expectations should be set up front; this will assist in checking the project progress by keeping the set vision and goals in track.

Avoiding micromanagement/ the project manager should regularly meet with the project team, a balance between the members should be created to make the team empowered towards performing a particular task

The system required in managing the project ought to be proper and simple to the whole team.

The team members should be motivated through rewards whenever they achieve the projects key milestone.

Regular project meetings should be held to keep the project status on course.

Finally the Project Managers should build ahead of time for prospective project changes to enable rectification to focus on the project mission and goals.

Conclusion

For every successful project progress, the key attributes outlayed that the managers should keep in track should apprehend with the project goals and visions to ascertain particular project success.

References

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Portman, J. (2014). Building services design management.