How to Avoid Project Failure: – In project management, failure is not uncommon and can occur in any company, any project manager and on any project. In recent years, less than a third of all projects undertaken if s were completed on time and within budget. Suffice to say that project failures s is (too) many.
5 – Steps to Avoid Project Failure
A project can be challenged for a variety of reasons. Here are the ways to avoid project failure:
- Requirements: unclear, contradictory s, lack of priority s, ambiguity, etc.
- Resources: lack of resources, resource conflicts, lack of training, departure of key employees, loss of motivation, etc.
- Time: too tight or too long, unrealistic, etc.
- Map I action: based e on data insufficient, missing items, details inadequate, poor estimates.
- Ris that s: unidentified or hypothetical, absence of risk management.
We note that for small companies, project governance (lack of management, inefficiency, different priorities, no real involvement) replaces planning in this top 5. The project leader plays a key role in addressing the causes of the project in difficulty as well as in the effective management of the project rehabilitation process. What do you do when you are in the middle of a project, you realize that you will not be able to keep the budget, meet the deadline or that the quality is not up to the client’s expectations? Discover the 5 steps to save your project.
- Take time to Assess the Situation
Your project is in jeopardy as soon as the variances within the project deadlines, budget and scope have exceeded an acceptable threshold. Without immediate intervention, your project is therefore doomed to failure. Projects in difficulty are costly to companies, but also to project managers who can be considered responsible for the situation and are forced to resign. This first step consists in making a diagnosis of the situation. You must identify the problem (s), redefine the objectives of the project and determine the actions to be implemented as a matter of urgency.
Meet with stakeholders, actors and decision makers of the project and negotiate new budgets, deadlines and resources (human and material). Be lucid and know how to make the right decisions to avoid continuing in error. Finally, be aware that this diagnosis may also lead to the final termination of the project.
- Understand why the Project is Failing
Why did your project take the path of failure? Has the project been clearly defined at the launch? Did any unforeseen events occur, thus altering the established schedule? You have to understand what caused the drift of the project, in order to be able to act at the source of the problem, but above all, it allows you to become aware of your mistakes and avoid replicating them.
- Define a Recovery Plan
It is a set of measures to put in place to save your project. You must involve your team in the development of the recovery plan. When defining, it is important to take into account the client’s priorities. Does he want to keep the delivery date? Is it necessary to limit the budget envelope? Does it want to preserve the scope of the project? Etc. This recovery plan must propose corrective actions for each of the elements that have put the project in difficulty and a schedule. Here are the top 5 actions taken to redress a project:
- Improve communication and stakeholder management;
- Redefine the project: reduce its scope, justify its budget again ;
- Add and / or delete resources;
- Solve difficult technical problems;
- Replace the project manager or hire a consultant to assist with the implementation of the recovery plan.
- Establish and Monitor Remedial Actions
The recovery plan must be put in place over several weeks or even months. It has its own schedule, irrespective of the project schedule. The project leader is the guarantor of the success of its implementation. The project team, customers and other stakeholders of the project must obviously be aware of the recovery plan and contribute to its development implementation.
- Capitalize on Experience
It is essential to learn from this experience. The most serious is not to make mistakes, but not to remember the lesson! So learn from your mistakes, become a better project manager and avoid the slippage of your future projects. And if, nevertheless, one of your projects is in peril, you will know what to do to save it and lead it to success.
In Conclusion
To avoid the failure of a project, it is essential to identify risks early in order to prevent them. Focus on the three main constraints of the project: time, budget and perimeter. But that’s not all. Use an effective system of monitoring and are indicators to monitor the progress of your project and compare what is actually happening in relation to what was planned. Some differences are inevitable, but they should not exceed the limit of what is acceptable, if not you must act. Finally, do not neglect your human resources (workload, motivation, etc.) because they contribute strongly to the success as well as the failure of a project.
Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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