The Reasons of Project Failure

Answer 1:

It projects deviate on many different dimensions. One of the characteristics of and IT project is that it will never finish on schedule at the same time, the longer it takes the more cost incurred. These are the main causes of project failure mentioned in the case study given. There are many other reasons why projects go out of track and fail. A few important reasons are discussed below.

Lack of User Involvement

End users are the most important of all throughout the project. They are the most powerful influencing factor and that power might work for or against of a particular project. End users are the party who will be using the system when the project is finished. The main project deliverables like the system, and manual will be used by the end users.

If these users are not involved in any stage of the project development there is a very positive influence on the project deliverables that it may not meet the user expectations which will result in a failure of the project. Users must be kept close to give meaningful inputs to every phase of requirements gathering. It is not there concern how the system works internally. During all the phases they will be asking questions like How do I use this thing? Does it provide the right tool to complete my tasks?

On the other hand, problems may arise if the users are kept too close to the requirements. If they are given power they may deviate the project into more dangerous situations. Most of the time they do not consider these consequences of they want in the finished project. Users will be comparing how things were done in the past and they would always be done in future. Even consultation is given to the users regarding certain isssues, they might confuse the technical expertise of a consultant with their understanding more than they do about the user's job. A failure is not always the end user's fault. But, because of lack of user involvement in the project, it will fail.

If a meaningful output is not been provided by the project to give answers to those questions, users will not accept the project. Instead they will reject it. They will be complaining about several issues like the system interface designs, data entry errors, unnecessary components etc.

In-efficiency of project managers in Managing Projects

Project Manager (PM) is an individual who manages the project with excellent technical skills and managerial skills. The project manager must have both of these skills to manage the project and the project team members. Effective project managers provide leadership by example, and are decisive with good technical knowledge and are good communicators.

The project manager is the leader and the boss. He has the authority to deal with everything internally with in the project team, and externally with the management, users and stake holders. If any of these parties is neglected during the phases of the project there is high risk that the project will be out of control if anything goes wrong.

The project manager must have strong influence on the people working in the project team. He must be able to solve conflicts between the staffs and ensure that the right person is doing the right job. Doing the right job by the right person will lead to efficiency and the project will go on schedule. If the PM is not able to understand the team members well, than he might assign the wrong person do perform the selected tasks, which will lead to inefficiency as well as the project will be lagging behind the schedule.

The lack of expertise knowledge of the project manager leads the team members into a confused state. To solve a problem and to take necessary corrective actions PM has to give his expertise knowledge by any means. If the PM is not able to take necessary corrective actions with the team members than there will be more problems and conflicts arising which might result in uncontrolled project process and may lead to terminate the project.

It is a very common mistake to appoint a PM with strong technical skills and weak managerial skills. The PM must have strong knowledge on both these areas. Let's say the project manager is excellent in problem solving, and giving technical consultancy. On the other hand, he is not able to communicate with the team; he has difficulty in managing resources and cost and specially how to deal with the project team. The lack of motivation also leads to inefficient team members and it will lead to a project failure at the end if the motivation is really poor.

Lack of top management commitment

The project is very certain to loose the resource battle if the top management does not provide support by all means. People in top management are the key stake holders of a project.

The top management commitment to the project manager will help the PM to successfully lead the project. They need adequate resources. It is obvious that a project can be terminated by holding the money, people, resources and the visibility of the project by the top management.

The top management must give approvals to the project manager in a timely manner regarding unique project needs. For example in an IT project, top management must be aware of the fact the unexpected problems may arise. The team might need additional hardware of software halfway through the project. Without top management commitment, the PM will not be able to meet the specific needs in a timely manner which will result to a failure of more problems.

As many project managers come from technical positions and often are inexperienced in managerial areas. Senior management should take some time to pass leadership and management advice to the project manager for a successful project.

Another factor affecting the success of the project is the top management commitment to the information technology itself. It is very difficult for any information technology project to success if the organization does not value the importance of IT. Many organizations have fear that the integration of IT to the business might be influenced by the Information officer. As a result some companies hire non-IT techs to work on large projects to ensure that he will not have a great influence on the organization and the project will fail at last.

Those are the main problems arising for a project to be failed. There are other ways in which each relates to any of the above areas. Poor planning, communication and poor quality are issues of poor project management. Poor guidelines and requirements are