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success and failure of project chapter 5.pptx

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1. Project success is defined as achieving the intended purpose, while failure is anything short of that. 2. Early warning signs of potential project failure include lack of interest from the team, poor communication, losing momentum by not having smaller milestones, going over budget, and changing the project's focus midway. 3. Key factors that increase success are having top management support, client involvement, an experienced project manager, clear objectives, and a well-defined scope.

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Chapter 5 SUCCESS & FAILURE OF PROJECT
Project success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted. It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose . Anything short of that is failure.
Project failure PROJECT FAILURE can be defined as a “project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non- performance”
How can you predict the future of your project? Here are 2 ways that can help 1. Practice Relentless Risk Analysis (RRA) - Every time you have a meeting, use the top ten risks as your agenda. If you practice management by walking around (even if you do it virtually) you should always be asking your team and stakeholders questions about the future. For example: What risks do you see in the near term? What would we do if the top engineer left for another position? What's the Plan B if we don't receive the materials on time? After all, risk is a future phenomenon. The more we ask our team about risks, the more we encourage them to think about the future. Project management is a team sport; use everyone and anyone you can to help
2. Identify your project's “Leading” indicators and track them Many of the progress and performance metrics used on projects are lagging indicators. They tell us what happened in the past, and, as we know, we can't change the past, we can only react to it. What metrics could you employ to help tell you about the future? One client used the number of tasks added to the schedule every two weeks as a possible indication that the scope was increasing, thus impacting cost and schedule negatively. If the world's top economists believe in lagging indicators, then you should too! In order to reliably assess what the future holds for your project, you need to gather relevant data on a regular basis at frequent intervals. This not only instills a discipline in reporting but it enables you, the project manager, and others, to detect trends. If you are keeping track of trends, then you'll be in a better position to see where those trends lead.
In order to reliably assess what the future holds for your project, you need to gather relevant data on a regular basis at frequent intervals. This not only instills a discipline in reporting but it enables you, the project manager, and others, to detect trends. If you are keeping track of trends, then you'll be in a better position to see where those trends lead. However, the key to such reporting is to ensure that the information we receive is credible. That means it is being provided by people who are trustworthy and telling the truth. It does you no good whatsoever to have your team members providing overly optimistic reports. You want the unvarnished truth. As a project manager, you simply cannot be the last to know critical information that's affecting your project. Predicting the future isn't easy. But with the right techniques and the right folks on the team, we can provide credible information to our stakeholders. After all, that's what we're paid to do, isn't it?
SOME CAUSES OF PROJECT FAILURES • Lack of Senior management support- happens when “Junior” or “ Candidate PMs” are thrown into the Project and left unattended. • Poor communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish • Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done
• No one is in control not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project • Poor definition of Scope- Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client. • Project lacks structure - caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated • Inaccurate estimates - A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project • Poor risk management - The project planning stages ( Stage 1 – 3) is not properly planned • Unrealistic Milestones - it is not possible for a project to succeed if unrealistic timeframes and milestones are made available for that project • Incompetent project management skill - procedures and policies are not adhered to from inception
• Project success criteria are the standards by which the project will be judged at the end to decide whether or not it has been successful in the eyes of the stakeholders.
Why are project success criteria important? •Organizations don’t define failure. We don’t document how we will know if a project has failed – what failure looks like – because thinking about failing is not a good way to motivate the project team when the work has only just started. The absence of a formal definition of failure makes it uncomfortably easy for internal and external stakeholders to brand projects a failure. •Successful organizations take the guesswork out of this process: they define what success looks like, so they know when they have achieved it. If you want project success, you have to define what success looks like for your project. Perhaps budget is the most important thing to your stakeholders, and quality is taking a back seat on the project. Perhaps customer satisfaction is essential, and you don’t care how many overtime hours the team has to work to get that end result
Which Project is a failure or success? Project A • Completed On time • Within Budget • Acceptable Quality • Mediocre Building Project B • Delivered 2 years late • Cost 3 times more the Estimate • Excellent Quality • Iconic Building
Some success criteria of successful project • Clearly defined goals. • Competent project manager. • Senior Management Support. • Competent project team members. • Sufficient resource allocation. • Adequate communication channels. • Control Mechanisms. • Client consultation. • Technical tasks.
Top 5 factors that increase success 1.Top Management Support: This is now the No. 1 factor in project failure. Lack of executive support can and does jeopardize projects. Positive Executive support positively influences project outcome. 2.Client Involvement. 3.Experienced Project Manager: 80% percent of successful projects have an experienced project manager at the helm. 4.Setting Clear Objectives 5.Defined Scope
To summarize Success Criteria • You must define what success looks like for your project or you won’t know if you have achieved it • Document success criteria and get everyone to agree to them. • Use continuous measurements where possible. • Baseline today’s performance so you know where you are starting from • Track as appropriate and report on your progress
WARNING SIGNS THAT COULD HELP YOU AVOID PROJECT FAILURE Despite your best efforts, managing a project can quickly spiral out of control. If this has happened to you before, it may have even made you a little wary of taking on any new project management responsibilities. You don’t have to be worried. Project management isn’t impossible. If you can spot the warning signs early, you can make corrections and get back on track So what are these warning signs?
1 Disinterest: I’ll get right on it *yawn* If none of your employees believe in the plan or aren’t interested in the results, then it’ll be hard to motivate them to get their tasks done well and on time. The basis for good work is being invested in the project and caring about the results. Make sure that everybody involved understands just what you are trying to accomplish and the benefits that will result from it. Often, you may have to give people reasons for accomplishing a simple task even if they don’t understand the overall goal of the project.
2 Lack of Communication: I never got that email !!! This is pretty obvious in any work setting, let alone project management. If people don’t understand what they should be doing, you can’t expect them to do it. But this goes beyond giving an accurate agenda; your employees must also be able to communicate problems and results back to you and you need to give encouragement. Even though it’s often important to have a record of communication, you should also encourage your employees to communicate in person as much as possible and then send reminders and reports through email. By interacting personally, all of you will improve morale, a team atmosphere and communication skills
3 Momentum: How much longer will this take? Even adults can have short attention spans, and this is especially true in work settings. If a task is extremely repetitive or menial, your employees will quickly lose interest. If people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, they start to give up. This means that a project should be made up of a bunch of shorter tasks that can be easily tracked and accomplished. Never have the only reward be the completion of the entire project. You should also give frequent encouragement and rewards for finishing on time. This will help maintain the pace of the project and help everyone involved stick with it until completion.
4 The Keep-It-Quiet Culture: If it’s not good news I don’t want to hear it In an effort to keep morale high and avoid complainers, many workplaces mandate that bad news be kept to a minimum. While this sounds nice, it can actually hurt your project management. If people are taught to keep problems to themselves, they can't be addressed and fixed. This doesn’t mean that you should have everyone complain loudly about the smallest hurdles, but you should cultivate an environment where people know they can come to you or other leaders with problems and get assistance.
5 Overusing the Overtime: Yep, I’m staying late again tonight If you have scheduled a project correctly, there should be little or no need for employees to work overtime. However, the first thing employers do when trying to compensate for a failing project is assign overtime in an effort to catch up. This is an indicator of bigger problems, whether it is unreasonable schedules or unmotivated employees, but it should be taken seriously. If your project requires a lot of overtime, you should step back and analyze where the source of the problem is, in the schedule or with the employees. Don’t keep assigning more overtime. Everyone will get burned out and it will create a frenzied atmosphere in the workplace
6 Bringing in Help: Hey, could I borrow a couple of your guys for a few days? Much like the overtime dilemma, if you need more resources or people than you originally planned, it means your project is spiralling out of control. There are several problems with this approach. Other projects will suffer if you are moving people around, employees get tired of being shuffled about and extra resources could put you over budget. If you need significantly more resources than you planned for, it may be time to completely rethink and replan the entire project.
7 Going Over Budget: I’m not telling the boss, you tell him Going over budget can be attributed to both your funds and your schedule. You should have planned out the project well, but if you are still not following your projected money and labour usage plan, you might be veering off course. Pay close attention to how things are following the plan and the budget; little deviations are expected, but if you are coming significantly above or below your budget and schedule you may have bigger problems than a bounced cheque.
8 Missing the Mark: When was the deadline again? You can’t expect people to maintain momentum without multiple, small milestones in the overall completion of the project. But if you are consistently missing the deadlines for these smaller tasks, it may be a sign of bigger problems. If there are too many missed deadlines, complications may arise for later tasks. Staying on schedule is important, so pay close attention to those project milestones. Create measurable goals to determine where you are in the project and stick with them.
9. Changing Your Focus: You know, I think we should take this in a whole new direction If you want to complete a project on time, you can’t change the goals in the middle of the project. This can include downsizing the scope of the project or even enlarging it. If you have to start adding or subtracting components of your project halfway through, you know something larger is going wrong. You may have noticed that many of these warning signs overlap or happen in pairs. That’s why they are important to know. If you recognize one, you’ll also know what else to look for when troubleshooting the project. And don’t immediately give up when you see one of these problems. By identifying the signs of project failure early, you can actually prevent the failure. Forewarned is forearmed. Just by being aware of them, you’re already a step ahead
success and failure of project chapter 5.pptx

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success and failure of project chapter 5.pptx

  • 1. Chapter 5 SUCCESS & FAILURE OF PROJECT
  • 2. Project success can be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted. It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose . Anything short of that is failure.
  • 3. Project failure PROJECT FAILURE can be defined as a “project that fails to perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non- performance”
  • 4. How can you predict the future of your project? Here are 2 ways that can help 1. Practice Relentless Risk Analysis (RRA) - Every time you have a meeting, use the top ten risks as your agenda. If you practice management by walking around (even if you do it virtually) you should always be asking your team and stakeholders questions about the future. For example: What risks do you see in the near term? What would we do if the top engineer left for another position? What's the Plan B if we don't receive the materials on time? After all, risk is a future phenomenon. The more we ask our team about risks, the more we encourage them to think about the future. Project management is a team sport; use everyone and anyone you can to help
  • 5. 2. Identify your project's “Leading” indicators and track them Many of the progress and performance metrics used on projects are lagging indicators. They tell us what happened in the past, and, as we know, we can't change the past, we can only react to it. What metrics could you employ to help tell you about the future? One client used the number of tasks added to the schedule every two weeks as a possible indication that the scope was increasing, thus impacting cost and schedule negatively. If the world's top economists believe in lagging indicators, then you should too! In order to reliably assess what the future holds for your project, you need to gather relevant data on a regular basis at frequent intervals. This not only instills a discipline in reporting but it enables you, the project manager, and others, to detect trends. If you are keeping track of trends, then you'll be in a better position to see where those trends lead.
  • 6. In order to reliably assess what the future holds for your project, you need to gather relevant data on a regular basis at frequent intervals. This not only instills a discipline in reporting but it enables you, the project manager, and others, to detect trends. If you are keeping track of trends, then you'll be in a better position to see where those trends lead. However, the key to such reporting is to ensure that the information we receive is credible. That means it is being provided by people who are trustworthy and telling the truth. It does you no good whatsoever to have your team members providing overly optimistic reports. You want the unvarnished truth. As a project manager, you simply cannot be the last to know critical information that's affecting your project. Predicting the future isn't easy. But with the right techniques and the right folks on the team, we can provide credible information to our stakeholders. After all, that's what we're paid to do, isn't it?
  • 7. SOME CAUSES OF PROJECT FAILURES • Lack of Senior management support- happens when “Junior” or “ Candidate PMs” are thrown into the Project and left unattended. • Poor communication- causes delay or even failure since team members do not have the information they needed, issues or changes do not get escalated, project reporting is sluggish • Inadequate resources- Task take longer than expected to complete, deadlines and milestones get missed, and project completion date comes into jeopardy, one end of working more than necessary (double shift) to get the work done
  • 8. • No one is in control not even the project manager, who is assigned to the project but not given the free hand to manage the project • Poor definition of Scope- Project changes from its original objective and goals. This can occur due to additional requirement from the client. • Project lacks structure - caused by things such as critical tasks being under rated • Inaccurate estimates - A top- down plan causes constraints on the prediction of the cost of the project • Poor risk management - The project planning stages ( Stage 1 – 3) is not properly planned • Unrealistic Milestones - it is not possible for a project to succeed if unrealistic timeframes and milestones are made available for that project • Incompetent project management skill - procedures and policies are not adhered to from inception
  • 9. • Project success criteria are the standards by which the project will be judged at the end to decide whether or not it has been successful in the eyes of the stakeholders.
  • 10. Why are project success criteria important? •Organizations don’t define failure. We don’t document how we will know if a project has failed – what failure looks like – because thinking about failing is not a good way to motivate the project team when the work has only just started. The absence of a formal definition of failure makes it uncomfortably easy for internal and external stakeholders to brand projects a failure. •Successful organizations take the guesswork out of this process: they define what success looks like, so they know when they have achieved it. If you want project success, you have to define what success looks like for your project. Perhaps budget is the most important thing to your stakeholders, and quality is taking a back seat on the project. Perhaps customer satisfaction is essential, and you don’t care how many overtime hours the team has to work to get that end result
  • 11. Which Project is a failure or success? Project A • Completed On time • Within Budget • Acceptable Quality • Mediocre Building Project B • Delivered 2 years late • Cost 3 times more the Estimate • Excellent Quality • Iconic Building
  • 12. Some success criteria of successful project • Clearly defined goals. • Competent project manager. • Senior Management Support. • Competent project team members. • Sufficient resource allocation. • Adequate communication channels. • Control Mechanisms. • Client consultation. • Technical tasks.
  • 13. Top 5 factors that increase success 1.Top Management Support: This is now the No. 1 factor in project failure. Lack of executive support can and does jeopardize projects. Positive Executive support positively influences project outcome. 2.Client Involvement. 3.Experienced Project Manager: 80% percent of successful projects have an experienced project manager at the helm. 4.Setting Clear Objectives 5.Defined Scope
  • 14. To summarize Success Criteria • You must define what success looks like for your project or you won’t know if you have achieved it • Document success criteria and get everyone to agree to them. • Use continuous measurements where possible. • Baseline today’s performance so you know where you are starting from • Track as appropriate and report on your progress
  • 15. WARNING SIGNS THAT COULD HELP YOU AVOID PROJECT FAILURE Despite your best efforts, managing a project can quickly spiral out of control. If this has happened to you before, it may have even made you a little wary of taking on any new project management responsibilities. You don’t have to be worried. Project management isn’t impossible. If you can spot the warning signs early, you can make corrections and get back on track So what are these warning signs?
  • 16. 1 Disinterest: I’ll get right on it *yawn* If none of your employees believe in the plan or aren’t interested in the results, then it’ll be hard to motivate them to get their tasks done well and on time. The basis for good work is being invested in the project and caring about the results. Make sure that everybody involved understands just what you are trying to accomplish and the benefits that will result from it. Often, you may have to give people reasons for accomplishing a simple task even if they don’t understand the overall goal of the project.
  • 17. 2 Lack of Communication: I never got that email !!! This is pretty obvious in any work setting, let alone project management. If people don’t understand what they should be doing, you can’t expect them to do it. But this goes beyond giving an accurate agenda; your employees must also be able to communicate problems and results back to you and you need to give encouragement. Even though it’s often important to have a record of communication, you should also encourage your employees to communicate in person as much as possible and then send reminders and reports through email. By interacting personally, all of you will improve morale, a team atmosphere and communication skills
  • 18. 3 Momentum: How much longer will this take? Even adults can have short attention spans, and this is especially true in work settings. If a task is extremely repetitive or menial, your employees will quickly lose interest. If people can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, they start to give up. This means that a project should be made up of a bunch of shorter tasks that can be easily tracked and accomplished. Never have the only reward be the completion of the entire project. You should also give frequent encouragement and rewards for finishing on time. This will help maintain the pace of the project and help everyone involved stick with it until completion.
  • 19. 4 The Keep-It-Quiet Culture: If it’s not good news I don’t want to hear it In an effort to keep morale high and avoid complainers, many workplaces mandate that bad news be kept to a minimum. While this sounds nice, it can actually hurt your project management. If people are taught to keep problems to themselves, they can't be addressed and fixed. This doesn’t mean that you should have everyone complain loudly about the smallest hurdles, but you should cultivate an environment where people know they can come to you or other leaders with problems and get assistance.
  • 20. 5 Overusing the Overtime: Yep, I’m staying late again tonight If you have scheduled a project correctly, there should be little or no need for employees to work overtime. However, the first thing employers do when trying to compensate for a failing project is assign overtime in an effort to catch up. This is an indicator of bigger problems, whether it is unreasonable schedules or unmotivated employees, but it should be taken seriously. If your project requires a lot of overtime, you should step back and analyze where the source of the problem is, in the schedule or with the employees. Don’t keep assigning more overtime. Everyone will get burned out and it will create a frenzied atmosphere in the workplace
  • 21. 6 Bringing in Help: Hey, could I borrow a couple of your guys for a few days? Much like the overtime dilemma, if you need more resources or people than you originally planned, it means your project is spiralling out of control. There are several problems with this approach. Other projects will suffer if you are moving people around, employees get tired of being shuffled about and extra resources could put you over budget. If you need significantly more resources than you planned for, it may be time to completely rethink and replan the entire project.
  • 22. 7 Going Over Budget: I’m not telling the boss, you tell him Going over budget can be attributed to both your funds and your schedule. You should have planned out the project well, but if you are still not following your projected money and labour usage plan, you might be veering off course. Pay close attention to how things are following the plan and the budget; little deviations are expected, but if you are coming significantly above or below your budget and schedule you may have bigger problems than a bounced cheque.
  • 23. 8 Missing the Mark: When was the deadline again? You can’t expect people to maintain momentum without multiple, small milestones in the overall completion of the project. But if you are consistently missing the deadlines for these smaller tasks, it may be a sign of bigger problems. If there are too many missed deadlines, complications may arise for later tasks. Staying on schedule is important, so pay close attention to those project milestones. Create measurable goals to determine where you are in the project and stick with them.
  • 24. 9. Changing Your Focus: You know, I think we should take this in a whole new direction If you want to complete a project on time, you can’t change the goals in the middle of the project. This can include downsizing the scope of the project or even enlarging it. If you have to start adding or subtracting components of your project halfway through, you know something larger is going wrong. You may have noticed that many of these warning signs overlap or happen in pairs. That’s why they are important to know. If you recognize one, you’ll also know what else to look for when troubleshooting the project. And don’t immediately give up when you see one of these problems. By identifying the signs of project failure early, you can actually prevent the failure. Forewarned is forearmed. Just by being aware of them, you’re already a step ahead