Project Failure (Causes and how to prevent those)

        A failed project is a project that fails to meet the required expectations in terms of time, quality or cost effectiveness. A project is also considered fail when it meets the general requirements but was unable to deliver specific and key requirements of the certain project.

        There are no hard and fast rules to make projects successful and a number of things reasons of failure can be present, therefore, different projects have to be handled differently. However, there are some basics which need to be observed in order to minimize the risks of project failure (Glib 2004)

        Sometimes failure of project can be controlled by small changes. Project management is of great importance to make a project NOT-FAIL. Many things play a major role in the success or failure of a certain project including physical arrangements as well as other needs of utmost importance. Some common causes of project failure are filtered with time and these can be omitted while managing a project (Glib 2004)

Causes of Project Failure: -

Lack of Focus

        Having a clear vision on the beginning of the project is crucial in success of a project. Making changes in project scope and methodology again and again can be tiresome and difficult on the team. Clear objectives at the start of the project make more chances of a project to be successful (AdnaneBelout and ClothildeGauvreau 2004)

Inadequacy of Plan

        Lack of solid plan is of the root causes of the project failure. Good planning means excellent execution. Inadequate planning for the different and upcoming stages of the development of project is as much worse as the poor implementation of planned things. Well defined priorities helps a lot in easing things out, whereas, Absence of a detailed plan before starting the project is a big problem (AdnaneBelout and ClothildeGauvreau 2004)

Poor leadership

        Right project manager with proper management skills, certification and experience is required to lead a well-supervised team, getting optimum results from them. Hiring of inappropriate for work, untrained managers is a great risk and in fact a major cause of project failure.

Unskilled team with lack of motivation

        Team should be fully directed towards the goal of project. If members of team are moving in separate and random directions, no good can be expected from them. Along with the skillfulness and certification of manager, proper team with abilities, skills and training is required to make a project success (Glib 2004)

        In addition, team members should be urged by supervisors and managers to put their best and maximum energy. Cohesion among the team members of the project, is of the utmost requirement for the better outcomes of project.

Inaccurate estimations of cost and time

        Unrealistic expectations from the outcome of project in terms of time and money are also a cause for failure of project. Unachievable time deadlines can make any project a failure. Similarly, long-term value of money is of much more importance than current-prices. These inaccurate estimations beforehand can be a drag a project away for path of success (Montequín, Fernández and Fernández 2016)

Poor or Little communication

        Lack of communication can cause havoc in any scenario. And in situations where team work is required, poor communication among team members can be very disastrous. Even upper management level

Inappropriate tracking and recording

        Oh! And how can we forget about outcomes right??  For better results, all the steps should be monitored and well tracked to check for progress, hindrances ,mistakes and to see if some modifications are required in some rules or not.

Lack of recording and lack of check points can prove a big cause of project failure.

False Priorities

        Being unable to differentiate un-important things from unimportant details can be a cause of failed project. Paying more attention to unnecessary things, which are less beneficial for success of project, can prove a great problem when it is the question of success of the project.

How to Prevent Project Failure?

Project basically fails on three overlapping levels: -

Well defined Goal:

        Projects can be only successful if a pre-defined list of objective is present which leads it towards the set goal. In addition, focus should be paid to manage the goal, instead of controlling it (Montequín, Fernández and Fernández 2016)

Right technology selection:

        Technology makes any process easy. However, not every technology suits every project. Selection of right technology is very important to get the optimum results

Realistic Expectations

        Expecting unachievable time deadlines, and unrealistic monetarily benefits from a project can be very harmful and should be avoided. Try to keep the time and money expectations of project flexible and achievable.

Understandable methodology

        With passage of time, new methodology is introduced which may be better than the older one. But, what is more important than choosing the modern methodology is right methodology. Methodology should be made easy for people working on project as well as for customers (Jugdev and Müller 2005)

Recognizing issues:

    Identification of problems is very important for alignment of work. Real barriers to success can be only removed once they are recognized by proper monitoring and timely tracking of problems.

        To recapitulate, project failures are a major drawback to success of an organization or company. They lead to wastage of money as well as energy. There are certain keys, which are quite simple yet beneficial, and by following these simple parameters a project failure can be prevented. Moreover, there are some rare occasions when a failing project can be reverted back and then, with some changes a new path can be given to project which takes it towards success (Jugdev and Müller 2005)

References of Project Failure (Causes and how to prevent those)

AdnaneBelout, and ClothildeGauvreau. 2004. "Factors influencing project success: the impact of human resource management." ScienceDirect 11.

Glib, Tom. 2004. " Project Failure: Some Causes and Cures ." MASTER paper.

Jugdev, Kam, and Ralf Müller. 2005. "A Retrospective look at our Evolving Understanding of Project Success ." Project Management Journal 31.

Montequín, Vicente Rodríguez, Sonia Cousillas Fernández, and Francisco Ortega Fernández. 2016. "Analysis of the Success Factors and Failure Causes in Projects: Comparison of the Spanish Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Sector." International Journal of Information Technology Project Management (IJITPM 14.