Failure to manage complexity

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 12:38

Project complexity is a factor of scope, budget and resource. Failure to properly balance these significantly increases the chance of failure...

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Overly ambitious goals / targets •Unrealistic deadlines / milestones •Failure to learn and improve from experience
•Bad idea •Failure to follow project principles e.g. cut budget but no change to scope  
•Unfeasible objectives •Failure to measure changes in complexity and associated risk  
•Underestimation of complexity •Failure to review and challenge assumptions  

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Project Management | Project Failure Series

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Failure to clearly define the specification

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 12:10

Failure to clearly define and agree the solution specification means you build on a foundation of sand...

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Failure to agree format / detail of specification •Failure to get adequate end user input / buy in to the specification •Failure to maintain requirements / specification documents during live operations
•Customer unsure of what they want •Incomplete, superficial definition of requirements  
•Failure to manage changes to specification during the project    
•Failure to get alignment to agreed / signed-off requirements    

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Failure to define and manage the scope

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 11:23

Failure to define, agree and manage the scope can significantly increase the risk of a project due to increased uncertainty; conflicting demands, unrealistic requirements…

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Setting an overambitious / unrealistic scope •Failure to manage scope change ie scope creep •Failure to ensure business case reflects final scope
•Incomplete / vague project scope •Failure to keep scope documentation ‘current’  
•Failure to agree and implement rigorous change control    

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Failure to define and align the stakeholders

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 10:47

Failure to define and align the stakeholders can lead to conflicting client demands and requirements and disasterous mismatch of expectations...

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Inadequate definition of stakeholders (groups and individuals) •Stakeholders not managed on an ongoing basis •Stakeholders views not reconciled vs expectations
•Stakeholders expectations and requirements not defined and aligned •Changes in key stakeholders not properly assessed and managed  
•Ownership and sponsorship not clearly defined / bought into •Expectations not managed on an ongoing basis  
•Lack of senior mgmt support for the programme / project •Conflicts between stakeholders demands  
•No business sponsorship •No / limited access to senior management  

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Failure to deliver real business benefits

by Lee Porter 24. June 2009 15:54

Failure to deliver real business benefit is the ultimate failure of any project. In many instances this is the ‘symptom’ and the underlying cause is due to one or more of the other common causes.

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Lack of alignment to business strategy •Solution fails to maintain alignment to a moving business strategy •BAU fails to measure and manage ongoing benefits realisation
•Project undertaken for ‘wrong reasons’ ie pet projects •Project doesn’t measure and manage benefits realisation •Business failure to further invest in order to maintain strategy alignment / business needs
•Business Case not defined    

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Why do projects fail?

by Lee Porter 24. June 2009 11:09

Many projects fail, the causes can be narrowed down to a small number of common factors…

  1. They fail to deliver real business benefits > more
  2. The stakeholders are not defined and aligned > more
  3. The scope is not clearly defined and controlled > more
  4. The solution requirements / specification is not clear / sufficiently defined > more
  5. They are too complex > more
  6. Inadequate and / or inconsistent controls are adopted to manage them > more
  7. The solution design isn’t ‘fit for purpose’ > more
  8. The capability of the project team is inadequate > more
  9. Inadequate funding to deliver the defined scope > more
  10. Poor business implementation of the solution > more

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Project Failure Series | Project Management

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