The Top 7 Reasons our Projects Fail
Peter de Jager is a provocative Speaker,
Writer and Consultant. His primary focus in on how we manage change,
technology and the future. In addition to speaking at conferences
worldwide, he's also written monthly columns for Municipal World and
Computing Canada. His goal is always to question what we
think is so, and in so doing perhaps open up new opportunities. If you'd like permission to reprint any
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pdejager@technobility.com
If you’re a manager… then, almost by definition, you’re a ‘Project Manager’. If you’re a project manager then you’re all too familiar with the rarity of sweet success and the all too common agony of frequent failure. So? Why do our projects fail? I could do the all too common
shtick and present you with a very serious and formal list of reasons - but you’ve heard them before – and possibly ignored them – because your projects are continuing to fail or why else would you be reading an article with the above title?
So with that as my base assumption – be prepared for a different look at the problem. Don’t worry, this is only an article – no harm is intended. Here’s the real, honest reasons why our projects fail. We’re cowards, we lie, we cheat, we don’t plan, we’re too optimistic, we steal and we make it all up as we go along – but other than that? We’re
very well intentioned.
1) We’re Cowards
A project is only as good as the accuracy of the last status report – which means that most projects are doomed from the very first status meeting. Why? Because we’re afraid to provide accurate assessments of project progress.
We could try to argue that it’s not fear that prompts us to lie about where we are exactly on the project, about how badly we’ve missed a deadline, or how hopelessly clueless we are about the problem that’s delaying us. If it’s not ‘fear of consequences’ that prevents accurate reporting then what is it? The version of the Project Management tool we’re using?
A large part of our role as project managers is to create a work environment that warmly embraces bad news.
2) We Lie
From the very first moment a project is presented to us we begin to lie. We offer estimates of how long we think it will take us to deliver the project, and swear that they are an accurate assessment of the work involved, time required and eventual cost.
What we always fail to mention is that we’ve factored in things that have nothing to do with the doing. Things like, our perception of what we think you want to hear, our overconfidence in our ability to deliver, our financial need and how if we don’t take this assignment we won’t be able to pay the mortgage,
Momma always said that ‘Honest was the best Policy’, I never knew she was a Project Manager.
3) We Cheat
We can always get ‘back on schedule’ by doing less and cutting the unseen corners. We whine about scope creep and hide the secrets of scope erosion. There are vital design requirements never included in the client’s
specs which need doing regardless of the client’s savvy. We include them when originally estimating the project, but when that clock on the wall begins ticking too quickly, we’ll sacrifice quality on the altar of false pride.
Cutting corners, is never a quality component unless we’re serving Pizza.
4) We don’t Plan
Here’s a golden yardstick for measuring a person’s ability to deliver a project on time. If they can’t make it to a meeting on time, they cannot deliver a project on time. Other than the fact that the former is far simpler than the latter, there’s no difference between arriving on time to a planned meeting and delivering a project on time.
Just like catching a plane, or attending a meeting at noon, projects with pre-determined deadlines are planned by thinking backwards. If I have to catch the plane at 3:00pm, then I need to be at the airport by 1:00pm. If I have to be at the airport at 1:00pm, then the cab must pick me up at 12:30pm… since the cab is often late, I’d better order it for 12:15pm. Since the cab will be here at 12:15pm I’d better be ready by 12:00pm… and so back we step, and so back we plan.
Perhaps that’s too harsh, perhaps we’re just too ‘Optimistic’… ah… there’s my next observation.
5) We’re too Optimistic
We suffer from an over inflated sense of future ability. It’s summed up by the following mantra, “Tomorrow we’ll be more productive than yesterday.” Here’s a hint, when we’re 10 days into a 100 day project and we’re already 50% behind schedule, we have a problem. Not a little problem, a huge
monster problem. We will not, regardless of our best intentions, more than double our demonstrated level of productivity in the remaining 90 days. If we do… then a pointed question needs asking, “Why were we slacking off in the first 10 days?”
The cure to ‘Optimism’ is a good dose of ‘Caution’… if we think it’ll take a week? Add an extra day or two for good ole Murphy.
6) We Steal
When we constantly shift priorities, when we add work to projects on the fly and neither add resources nor extend the deadline, then we’re stealing from our current integrity and future credibility. A project plan is a promise, both to ourselves and to our clients, and every deviation from the plan is self theft of the highest order. We can’t ‘borrow’ time from a critical path, the time taken is time lost. That’s the definition of ‘critical path’.
Like the Knights Templar of old, the role of a PM is to protect
the project path from bandits and brigands with their very last breath.
7) We make it up as we go along
To add some salve to the wounds I’ve inflicted, here’s an inevitable truth regarding all projects; We make it up as we go along.
Where we go wrong is that we come to believe that our estimates are any thing but our best guesses. We allow considerations other than those of the work in the project and the available resources, to dictate schedules. None of the above are done out of malice. We never (okay… we rarely) deliberately strive to make a project fail. All of the above ‘failings’ are a result of normal, daily workplace pressures. It’s not that
we can't alleviate these pressures, or avoid tehm, it’s just that they exist and make up the environments in which projects languish.
In spite of the above… we’re well intentioned. The real secret to Management, and hence to Project Management, is to never take our eye off the goal – deliver what the client wants, deliver it on time, and deliver it on budget.
© 2009, Peter de Jager – Peter is a keynote speaker, and he does his
very best, and fails sometimes, to avoid the above human failings. You can contact him at
pdejager@technobility.com
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