How to Identify a Failing Project
November 18th, 2002 by HalArticle titles on project management don't get catchier than How to Identify a Failing Project, by Jason P. Charvat. The article appeared last Friday on Builder.com, a website/ezine aimed at the information technology crowd. Builder.com frequently publishes articles on project management. The site is worth bookmarking. Unfortunately, the article doesn't offer much insight.
Claiming "almost two-thirds of all IT projects fail" Charvat identifies six problems you might encounter on projects and possible actions. Do yourself a favor. Take a good look at the chart. The author goes on to identify 12 sources of projects going out of control. Charvat starts with a point that all in the agile community will disagree with:
- Sloppy requirements: Every project depends upon solid user requirements being firmly locked down prior to any work being undertaken. Failure to do so is a leading cause for project failure.
Perhaps he hasn't noticed the future is uncertain and unknowable. Perhaps he thinks the customer and the team members will not learn.
I can agree with two of his points:
- Poor communications: One of the biggest reasons why any project goes bad is due to a lack of communication. I have seen many projects fail simply because no one understands what to do and receives no communication as to current progress; this, inevitably, results in project failure.
- Poor decision-making: Decision that aren't made at all and decisions that are delayed due to second-guessing are both risk factors. Additionally, some decisions are so turned out-of-context as responsibility for them is passed down the line that they end up being made based on faulty information. This doesn't bode too well for any critical project.
However, anyone who spends just a little time around projects could say those things. Charvat writes the usual pabulum; he offers no new diagnosis, let alone new action. He did however make one statement that got me hopeful,
"The executive team of the company couldn't understand why the project was doing so poorly because previous updates from the project manager indicated otherwise."
To my dismay he never addressed the issue leaving us to wonder what if anything can be done.
All in all, Charvat is himself a good example of what is wrong with project management…he proposes actions for a world of no uncertainty. Maybe he could learn something by turning his attention to the project teams that are succeeding.
Builder.com invites readers to rate their articles from 1-5 (5 being most useful/valuable). While you're reading the article take the time to leave your rating. (As of this moment 5 people had rated the article.) I gave it a "1″. Let's see what the rating is at the end of the week.
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