Can costly project failures be avoided?

This week, we've been looking at why projects fail.

It's difficult to define exactly when a project should be considered a failure. Projects are not generally delivered as perfect. Does that mean there is always a degree of failure on completion? Maybe.

Is that acceptable? Probably.

Compromises on delivered projects are sometimes necessary to get them over the line. Areas such as reduced functionality; financial expectations missed; resources over budget; deadlines extended; training reduced.

Project scope can change as it progresses from the original outcomes. Does that make it a failure? Not necessarily. Scope change might be the only way to solve an unexpected problem blocking delivery.

Even a project that is considered a complete failure will normally offer up some gems of learning that can be taken into future projects.

In their blog, Hubstaff consider projects fail for one of 7 reasons: Missing resources: Poor Scope: Project handling; No stakeholder buy-in; Ignoring problems; Bad deadlines; Lack of Communication

In reality lack of delivery on project is probably a combination of all of these.

See the full article here: https://blog.hubstaff.com/project-management-failure/

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Measuring the cost implication of a failed or stuck project is an important part of any post project review. We've set up a basic calculator to get you started here: https://www.projectsthatdeliver.com/failing-project-calculator