I think possibly one of the reasons Project fails is that all of the Planners are in here navel gazing.

The outcome (less success / failure, more a sliding scale all the way from unmitigated disaster through to the dizzying heights of acceptable disappointment) should only really be judged as a lifecycle issue (many fine examples have been raised, from Oliver’s bridge through to the Nun’s scrum and beyond).
There are various frames of reference within this lifecycle which will give wildly varying answers depending on whose they are.
A contractor may feel a project is a success because he got paid and turned a tidy profit, but if the product doesn’t meet the Client’s need, or the requirements have since changed, the Project as a whole may be a failure.
A local hospital may be of great benefit to the local community, the PFI partner may be making a bucketload of cash, but the lifecycle costs to the taxpayer may push the business case into the realms of unmitigated disaster.


Perhaps a more appropriate question would be "Regardless of the wider picture, why were you not happy with the outcome of your projects, and what could have been done to make you happier without compromising the PRODUCT lifecycle?"


How’s that for navel gazing?

Hi All

Not many people outside Sydney know that the local name for their opera house is "The Nuns Scrum".

Lovely image.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Hi All

That Sydney Opera House did sparked some good discussion.

My point being there is two destine success we are talking about in Project world (IMHO)

Project Management Success
Project Success

And a lot of time we mix the two up and go into a sprial discussion.

My question is whether these two destine factors have any co-relation with "PROJECT" success as overall.

And what Project Manager can do to ensure its a "PROJECT" success or of course how they can made it fail

Alex

Thanks Mike. I agree with you. All the benefits versus all the costs need to be considered. Ironicly a project can fail it’s original objectives yet still be a success for the customer and the supplier.

Oliver - great insight and so very true. If the project makes money, everyone gets paid AND the customer is happy and the community gets some kind of benefit then perhaps that means the project is a success.

Rav - you make several valid points. A project has by definition a specific end date. You can move that end date but at some stage the projects ends. The project then has to be evaluated up to that point.

The thing is that the PMBOK style definition of project success is too narrow in my view. Esp. for high risk / high return projects with lots of unknowns. I.e. projects that are very hard to define in the first place.

If there was a construction project with a major design flaw (at the employers risk) that only got realised near the end of the project and this resulted in massive rework, the employer loses, but the contractor may end up earning twice the work that they originally bid for.

Project fails for one party, but is beneficial for the other.

Success & failure depends on the person you ask and the view that ’if a project makes money its a success’ is only true for the capitalist stakeholder.

Imagine a hospital built late (contractor risk) and for twice the budget, a failure for the employer, court for the contractor, but a benefit for the local community.

Hi Dave

i have been following this thread with interest and you have finally hit the nail on the head.

If the project makes money it is a success.

It may lose money but bring aesthetic or social benefits to the community that can be valued - not necessarily in monetary terms.

I am thinking of the London Milenium Dome - a magnificent structure brought in on time and on budget - but it was a financial disaster.

Recently however it has been turned round into a concert and exhibition venue that equals any in the world and will begin to make money.

Best regards

Mike Testro

That is an entirely valid way of looking at it. However in my opinion it is an unsuitable view point for high risk / high return types of project.

You see it as a PRODUCT but I see it as an OUTCOME.

Take Hollywood movies for example. By your criteria the vast majority of Hollywood movie making projects are abject failures. Since Hollywood began, movie making projects take longer and cost more than planned in the majority of cases.

Your view point is that the projects failed but the films were a success.

Let’s say the film budget was $100 million. The producers expected to make $100 million in profit. The film project was $50 million over budget. The film made $400 million in profit plus people want a sequel to be made.

By your measure the project was 50% over budget. It was a major project failure by these measures. However rather than making $100 million the OUTCOME was $350 million in profit plus repeat business.

Did the project fail OR was it that the planned constraints turned out to be incorrect. If they had originally planned to spend $150 million then the project would be a success by your measure. However it would be the same project.

Everyone acts as if project managers do have crystal balls and can see into the future better than anyone else. We as project managers are of course painfully aware that we do not have crystal balls. We realise we have to make decisions on which risks are worth the effort to manage.

I had a theory based on my experience as to which risks needed to be managed to increase the chances of project success. Fortunately my research managed to prove that my theory is correct - at least for software projects. I expect it is also true for other industries but perhaps to different degrees.

I very loosely call these risks "relationship issues". Perhaps one day I will think of another term but for now this will have to do.

Why do projects fail?
I can point you to research which give the most common reasons for software projects. They can be summed up as management failures. I have been working with construction and engineering project managers for the last year and they tend to agree that it comes down to management failures in their industries as well.
My analysis of these issues is that it is a failure to manage risks.
When you think about it, project management IS risk management - but in a broader sense.

Sydney Opera House

Project Success or Not

Hi Oliver,

What you discribe is project success. Agreed and exactly what I said earlier!!

But Project Management success is when you built the project and it have a finite start and finish. But the objectives and goals of the proejct might not necessary have a finite start and finish.

Regards

Alex

Alex,

some define Project(s) as a one time endeavor, and maybe most contractors (if not all) are profit oriented, so who cares? it’s either you win or you lose! life isn’t fair, is it?

The measurement of the success of a project does not end when the project ends.
If you build a bridge to last 30 years and afer 29 years it fails, then the project has failed even though construction may have finished decades ago.

One of the largest programmes of work in the UK at the moment is the NDA’s cleanup of civil nuclear sites. Some of the measurements of success in addition to time, cost and quality include the environmental impact of the project and also the socio-economic effects of work on the surrounding areas. Also if you look at the APM site, they mention that the criteria for success is constantly evolving.

Hi Alex,
Long term or cleint feelings will affect business, not the project.
I guess when joined charles in his discussion, it was about the objective "as specified and mutually agreed in the contract". When the project ends, it ends.
The project has got a definite life cycle and the scope (expectations) are as per agreement between client / contractor.
So long term effects and feelings, though very important, should not be a critera for determing project success.
If it has to be a criteria, it should be part of the contract, like 20 years guarantee for waterproofing or one year damage liability period etc.
The client and contractor might not find a way of finalising an agreement as far as long term effects are concerned.
Regards

a Project is a gamble between the Client and the Contractor, it is a question of who wins or who loses?

who cares about the Client’s feelings? was it specified in the contract?

Hi All

The matrix doean’t work if a multiplier x is applied instead of a +.

-1 x -1 = +1 so failure x failure = success.

Best regards

Mike Testro

May be we can put it in a martix

Project Management + Project Objective = Project Success

Fail Fail = Fail (??)
Success Success = Total Success (??)
Fail Success = Success
Success Fail = Fail

Here’s another article that I would like to contribute to this thread: Project Management Tips to Avoid Failure

The article consists of the following sections:

- When can a project be considered a failure (definition of project failure)
- What are the reasons for project failure
- Solutions to the above reasons of project failure

The article is mainly titled towards IT Project Management, but with a few modifications, it can fit any type of Project Management.

Hi!

Mainly the project fails due to the Lack of long vision and poor management.

Initially when the project starts management considers lot of assumptions. Where project controls team come to the picture and needs to put them in sequencial manner and anlyse for the delays where the project goes wrong and where to take necessary actions to improve the same.

Purely depend the the long vision and the project management, refer "Strategic Sagari" Project Management beat, bliend man and elephant story.

Please add some more facts to this, why projects fail

Mike,

Regarding your homily "In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king" .
Well known in my culture as an opportunity for the only one eyed man to improve and set up new ways of doing things. If we planners are the one eyed man and we are not listened by the blinds (project manager (PM) ) , It could be for many reasons coming from both sides. ONE important reason for me is communication from planners to PM.

Hi Charlie,

I hope you had nice holidays in your native land.

“being pawns in the great wars being fought at the executive boardrooms” Agree with you. BUT I do believe that those executives are pawn in another wars being fought in highest levels boardrooms.

Lack of truth in projects . Of course, specially when we talk about money.

All project leaders are IDIOTS. You are not JUST with the good ones.

It seems that projects are sentenced to fail at the early stage of pre feasibility study.

Cheers,

I think you’ll do well.

Project management requires people to be full of s£"% because if they weren’t then most projects would never get funded. It requires a special type of person who is both optomistic and realistic. As all engineers are pessimistic we have to intrinsically think everythin will be fine in order to balance thing out!

Have you considered a career change?

Hi Guys,

A lot of reasons why Project Fails, one of this is the absence of COORDINATION between the Project Management Teams.


Arnold

Chris,

Keep reading too much your posts #19 and #24 and at the same time smiling with your example.
With the example, I do agree your statement “Women are vulnerable in ways men are not”. Hidden contradiction: So vulnerable that we can manage a project of having a baby by our own while you can have only ideas and words.

Decisions and benefit of the project: To establish this link is very subjective. As you mentioned : benefit of project in terms of resource or cost or schedule OR quality OR…whatever.

I see the option of project success unapproachable when I have project managers taking wrong decisions supported by excuses such as for the benefit of whatever they want to say.

Cheers,

Couldn’t agree more. Personality traits over gender.

Carmen,

I think you may have been reading a little bit too much into my post #19, what I actually said was where practicable bringing women on to a project team can have a positive effect both on team morale and performance.

It doesn’t happen automatically, sometimes there is no difference, and at other times bringing women on to a project team can have a profoundly negative effect. Whether using mixed sex teams or single sex teams always we must match the skills and charactaristics of the team to the requirements of the project.

As for not being able to imagine why you would need single sex teams for military/security operations, I’ll give you one brief example:

A mixed sex section of seven soldiers carrying out a surgical strike to destroy an enemy installation. A minimum of four are needed to reach the objective in order to successfully neutralise it. Casualties are expected. On the way in, a female soldier is wounded, not seriously but enough to incapacitate her. In this particular scenario two other members of the section will remain with her probably one male, one female, while the rest go on towards there objective. Note that the section is now down to its minimum effective strength, one more incapacitated or killed and the mission/project fails.

Same scenario all male section, the wounded soldier is left behind alone to be picked up when the section returns after the mission/project is complete. Of the six one more is incapacitated/killed on the way in, still above minimum effective strength mission/project can succeed.

Same senario all female section the wounded soldier is left behind possibly with one other depending on circumstances (women are vulnerable in ways men are not) to be picked up after mission/project is complete. Of the six/five one more is killed/incapacitated on the way in, still above or at minimum effective strength, mission/project can succeed.

These actually happened with units of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Chris Oggham

Chris,

You have started in this business with wise words regarding Parkinson, Murphy and Sod being part of the team.

Fully agree with you regarding that I (as a woman) have a positive effect on team morale and performance among other values.

I can not imagine which specialized projects (security/military) you need single sex project team. Well, I take your comment for valid BUT in normal Oil&Gas&Mining&Chemicals … projects, both sex project team will improve project performance.

Oliver,

The word is impoverish, to make sth worse in quality.

Cheers,

The following is not my opinion but more something that has been joked about by people i have worked with in the past.

Do the personalities of women that choose to go into male dominated industries such as engineering/construction tend to be more ’male’ in their traits than the people who have ’impoverised’ the industry for the last 30 years.

(Not sure if ’impoverised’ is the right word, or even a word at all!?)

Oliver,

100 % male participation in project teams impoverishes the team relationships. Gender mix will add value, especially in decision making (not only secretarial work).

Being puzzled with tendency to fail, how can it be different if we keep doing project with the same male domain teams as 30 years ago.

EGO: simplistic to say it is related to personality. I can not add more Because I am changing my perception of EGO after reading the book “The monk and the philosopher” . Occidental and Oriental opinions on the subject: EGO.

Cheers,

Oliver,

I am not saying that gender has an effect on success or failure of project.

I do believe that gender mix has a positive effect on project team relationships. This will contribute a bit to project success.

About EGO. Our western education is based on developing our EGO. Important is to recognize when our over-inflated EGO is leading us to hell on earth.

Cheers,

Chris

Why being puzzled about WHY projects are still going down the tubes.

Projects are executed by human being. If we think that having technology, knowledge , thousands of analysis of WHYs, we will end with the tendency to FAIL, forget IT.

We still have the human being with common problems in any culture. For instance, poor communication (if any), being selfish at the moment of sharing information and working with the team, huge EGO in some key project players ( the ones taking decisions) and so on.

Besides, 100% male project team, huge mistake, and we keep doing the same, especially in Europe.

Cheers,

Projects fail for a lot of reasons, and these reasons really depend on the maturity of the project. Check this article by Russell Archibald: Failure Causes in IT Project Management (at different maturity levels), although this article is mainly written for IT, I think engineering and construction PMs can relate.

There is this article that I think is very interesting Why Projects Fail , the first reason being Lack of Support from the Executive Level.

So the project fails because people’s expectations were not met? What about the group of people who expected the project to fail, does it count as a success for them? Their expectations were met, so following the converse of Charlie’s reasoning it must be, so we are left with the ludicrous situation where the project is both a success and a failure.

We might be better off looking at successful projects and what we can do to make them successful. As Duncan Haughey points out it’s not rocket science.

For anybody who wants to go into things a little more deeply, there is a white paper on why projects succeed available free by registering with this site.

Knowing why projects fail won’t give you a successful project, but knowing how to make projects succeed just might.

Chris Oggham

maybe...
stakeholders/owners borrow money fr bank for their projet investment.
investment need return in investment and also to pay their debt to bank.
also to secure their investment contract were put up and seal betwen owner(client) and contractor; or pmc with designers and contractor.
ROI need timeframe.
PMI somehow function indirectly to secure the whole system which could secure the money lender i.e. the bank which they give loan in digital amount and not gold.
so, if the whole ’security’ process failed to benefit the money lender,it will be termed as FAILURE ( ref: time)

maybe,
if somebody have ready money , real money , not borrowing from bank, the pressure is not there (ref:time)in paying the debt (or digital debt to money lender/bank).
most likely the definition of project fail is not really there.

intoxically,
smilingshagger

why do projects fail? a very interesting question? i think it’s neccessary to define the boundaries of project failure... a building project completed 4 years ago on schedule and within budget may fail today if quality of materials was not put into consideration.

MIT’s Gehry building will throw more light on the above. Refer to the link below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7055232,00.html