Out-Of-Classroom Activity 1(OOC1)

Week 3 - Lecture

It was out-of-classroom activity. Everyone were given different topic and we were supposed to write a report on it.

Why do you think there are failures in project management? State three reasons why projects fail.

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. Thousands of people have spent their entire life-time pursuing project management. They spent millions of dollars on their projects in order to do it the right way and not fail. However, there are not many cases of success as many projects ended up failing.

I feel that there are failures in project management partly because of ineffective project managers. Project managers have to be firm in their stand and be capable of executing orders. If a project manager is afraid of offending others and not able to carry out his duties as a leader, there is a very high possibility that the project will not succeed. This is because the project manager will lose his respect from others and no one will take his words seriously.

There are also failures in project management because of inadequate user inputs. Although there is a team of people selected to work on the project, not all of them may have the necessary skills required to complete the project. If the project team is technically incompetent, it is very hard to assign the right people to complete the task as they will not be able to do the task effectively if they do not know how to. Also, the team members may not have sufficient enthusiasm in carrying out the project. The lack of enthusiasm will reduce the amount of efforts that they are willing to put in the project. They will not be able to efficiently complete the allocated tasks because they are not motivated.

In 1998, an independent research company, Spikes Cavell, conducted a survey in the UK to identify the major causes of IT project failure in the finance sector. All the 203 managers interviewed had previously taken the lead in integrating large systems within organizations in the Times Top 100. The survey revealed that some of the causes of project failure during the lifecycle of the project are a breakdown in communications, a lack of planning and cost getting out of hand.

Firstly, projects fail because the team members are not able to communicate effectively with one another. A team needs to be cooperative in order to efficiently and effectively complete the project. If there conflicts arise among the members, they will delay the schedule of the project. The failure to agree with one another will cause disruption in the task completion because they cannot decide on the best possible way to do the job. If they are not able to resolve their differences, this breakdown in communications will eventually lead to the project failing.

Secondly, projects fail because many project teams often skip the planning procedures and jump straight into carrying out the tasks. Project planning is important as it provides the project manager with a roadmap ahead and ensures that the team is on the right track. If there is a lack of planning, the project team will become disorganized and lose track of what they are doing. The lack of task allocation may result in overlapped tasks, which will lead to conflicts arising among the team members. They will not be able to complete their tasks on time and this will result in loss of time, money and resources that are spent on the project.

Lastly, projects fail because of the failure to efficiently carry out the project tasks. This is also partly because of poor planning. As the project progresses on, there are bound to be changes made to the specifications. This will lead to changes in the cost incurred as a result of the task requirements. The amount of resources provided by the sponsors may become inadequate as the cost increases. It can also be because the sponsors do not provide sufficient resources that are vital for the project completion. This will hinder the progress of the project and eventually lead to failure if the sponsor refuses to provide more necessary resources.

Failures in project management can lead to great consequences. The cost incurred in the period of the project will be lost and the company will make losses due to the dropping of the projects. This can threaten the company’s corporate survival. Project failure also put the company’s reputation at risk. This will affect the company’s competitive edge and put it behind its other competitors in the business sector.

The following is an example of a failed project and suggestions on saving the project if there was proper project management.

A team is weeks behind on their project that was already due. The client convinced them to push the due date up to an earlier deadline. The team now works overtime frequently in order to meet the new deadline. However, many mistakes and absences of team members caused the project to fail because the client eventually dropped the company. This was because the project manager was flexible about deadlines and allowed the client to negotiate timing on the project. By overworking resources, the members burned out and stress caused health problems. A suggestion to prevent a similar case from happening is to set a realistic schedule and to stick with it. It is important to always have a schedule to stick to in order to ensure good progress.

In conclusion, there are times when failures are inevitable in project management. Such failures can only be prevented when everyone cooperate and do their part to carry out the project in an efficient and effective manner.