and how to avoid these common causes for project failure

Troubled projects
The Michael Krigsman's study identifies five top causes of troubled projects:
It's often true that most of projects are unique, however, it's also true that all project failures have a lot in common. Understand these, helps to be proactive in avoiding the problems.

1. Requirements: Unclear, lack of agreement, lack of priority, contradictory, ambiguous, imprecise.

2. Resources: Lack of resources, resource conflicts, turnover of key resources, poor planning.

3. Schedules: Too tight, unrealistic, overly optimistic.

4. Planning: Based on insufficient data, missing items, insufficient details, poor estimates.

5. Risks: Unidentified or assumed, not managed.


According to the survey, the most common obstacles that interfere with recovering failed projects are:

* PLANNING: Poor up-front planning is probably the most common problem. You should have spent more time planning, and do not start execution without fully understanding the work to be done.
* ROADMAP: Incomplete or vague project workplan (schedule) is the roadmap that describes what and when must be completed. You'll have problems, if you do not know upfront, how or who will accomplish the specified task.
* APPROVAL: Getting stakeholders to accept the changes needed to bring the projects back on track-whether they are changes in scope, budget, resources, etc.
* Constant and not poor communication among stakeholders
* Conflicting priorities and politics in order to avoid lack of clarity and trust.
* Finding and allocating enough qualified resources needed to complete the projects.
* Have clear process or methodology to help bring the project back on track.


Early detection, warnings and “corrective actions”

Firstly, try to prevent it from straying into trouble. Projects do not normally fall immediately into trouble; they “take a path towards it”. Having a system and routines in place to provide early detection of the "collision path" is key to limiting the impact when projects begin to display telltale signs of trouble.
A project manager must be willing to “sound the alarm bell” and know that they have the support of the project’s key stakeholders to implement early corrective actions.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

This study is useful but not groundbreaking; it sheds light on a common problem, reaffirms existing beliefs on causes of failure, and brings attention to important issues.

Unreasonable Completion Dates and Roadmap
I have never understood why management wants to declare target completion dates, or worse…DEADLINES, even before a project plan is constructed.

Poor Project Management
Few skilled managers ever get the chance to manage a project from inception to completion. As a result, most assigned project managers lack the experience in handling the broad range of problems that arise during the course of a project.
I have long been a proponent for using an outside resource to augment the project manager’s skill base and availability. Why put a project in jeopardy simply to save some money in consulting fees?

Poor Project Planning
Constructing a project plan is a complex combination of resources (competent people, time, money), calendar, task dependencies, skills, training and change control. It is the analysis of an experienced project manager that is needed to develop the plan and smooth out its deficiencies. And a plan is never completed, because it is updated at least weekly...

The 37 percent failure rate is notable because it falls within the broad range of statistics (thirty to seventy percent) that most studies report, even though it is somewhat surprising the number is so low. This report did not focus on failure rates, but instead emphasized project recovery, which could have affected these specific results.

Failure rates are notoriously difficult to measure and virtually impossible to compare across multiple studies by different researchers. Therefore, consider specific failure rates as suggesting problems and relative magnitude of seriousness; failure statistics are not absolute indicators.

Related: CIO analysis: Defining IT project "success" and "failure"

Nonetheless, it's incredible to consider that over a third of projects in this study are likely to have serious problems. The financial impact of these failures is significant and meaningful, to say the least.

It's easy to brush aside the five causes of failure listed above, thinking they offer nothing new. However, such superficial views do not help solve the problem. It's far better to acknowledge the challenge and difficulty of aligning expectations and perceptions across a diverse set of stakeholders, which is a fundamental obstacle to project success. That's why this blog discusses change management so frequently.

CIO perspective: Acknowledge the reality of project risk & vulnerabilities from so-called "obvious" sources represent a clear and present danger to your organization. To address these inherent risks, develop improved methods for communication, collaboration, and information sharing across silos and departments, both inside your organization and with external partners.

In addition, consider methods for making your projects more adaptive. On many projects, decision-making is a step function where information gathered over a relatively lengthy period culminates in periodic review and analysis. Reduce these decision cycle times to keep your projects responsive to changing conditions and requirements.

Solving the IT failures problem is difficult precisely because there is neither a silver bullet nor a clear target at which to aim. Forward thinking CIOs will recognize these realities and innovate by constructing a broad-based, long-term campaign to ensure that project outcomes align with organizational interests.


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Nightmare liner
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The Boeing Dreamliner programme, announced in 2003, was supposed to cost $6 billion and see the plane take to the air in 2008. The final bill was $32 billion and the 787 Dreamliner arrived three years late.

The result of a combination of various technical failures and supply-chain chaotic mess. With engineers, designers and other resources diverted into saving the Dreamliner production plans, the rest of its production were delayed.