Project Failure | Mosaicproject's Blog

Over the holiday period there has been a couple of interesting discussion on project success and failure. The consensus of the many commentators was that the simplistic measures of time, cost and scope are inadequate but there was little consensus on the solution. This post poses some of the questions that need a considered answer:

Firstly, the APM website posed the question which of the following projects was successful?

Two organisations decided to undertake identical projects with a normalised value of $1million.
– Organisation A assessed their project and set the project budget at $800,000
– Organisation B assessed their project and set the project budget at $1,200,000
Organisation A’s team did their best to ‘meet the challenge’ and achieved an outcome of $900,000 – a cost overrun of $100,000 nominally a project failure.
Organisation B’s team did ‘a good job’ and achieved an outcome of $1,100,000 – a profit of $100,000 nominally a project success.

But which project is really successful?? The one that cost $900,000 or the one that cost $1,100,000 to produce the same output. This example is simplistic, the numbers are given and the problem is demonstrated, but nowhere will you ever have two identical projects run against different baselines. How can you assess the ‘project risk’ caused by soft or hard targets??

Similar issues arise when allocating the blame for ‘failure’ to different parts of the ‘performing organisation’. Many so-called project management and project leadership failures are likely to be either unavoidable consequences or symptoms of far more significant underlying issues (for more on this see: Project or Management Failures?). Focusing on the superficial (and blaming the project manager) prevents a more thorough ‘root cause analysis’ of the real issues and problems in organizations. I will take 2 examples and borrowing from Toyota’s ‘Five Whys’ ask ‘why’ a few times:

Failure of PM leadership. The project manager failed to lead, relate or communicate, with stakeholders. But the project manager did not appoint him/her self , some of the unanswered questions are:
1. Why did the organisation appoint a PM lacking the requisite skills?
2. Why did the organisation fail to support/train the PM?
3. Why were the failings not picked up and resolved during routine project surveillance?
Failing to use recognised techniques such as risk management. Some of the unanswered questions are:
1. Why does the organisation allow sub-standard practices to exist?
2. Does the organisation have proper templates, processes and support in place to support the practice?
3. Does the organisation provide adequate time, training and resources to implement the practice?
4. Why were the failings not picked up and resolved during routine project surveillance?

The answer to these questions may go back to organisational culture, the overall organisational ability to effectively manage and support its projects (the strategic management of projects) and/or ultimately the governance of the organisation.

Certainly some projects will fail for project related reasons; projects and programs are innately risky and this means project related failures are to be expected – minimising this cause of failure will be valuable. But, simply measuring performance against cost and time targets is influenced by the way the initial target was set in the first place.

The problem is compounded by the lack of ‘root cause’ assessments. I expect a proper study of the root causes of many so-called ‘project failures’ will show many projects are effectively set up to fail by the organisation. Allowing executive management to continue with these types of practices is ultimately a governance failure. Addressing the ‘root causes’ of failure hidden in executive management practise, culture and governance are likely to generate significantly greater benefits than simply trying to ‘fix project management’; but you cannot see the failures without proper data.

One initiative aimed at working towards a standardised assessment of project failures is a series of articles being published by Proff. Alan Stretton in PM World Journal, see: http://pmworldjournal.net/article/series-project-success-failure-deficiencies-published-causes-project-failures/ (registration is free).

Given the general management mantra of ‘you cannot manage what you cannot measure’, developing a measure of project failure that is valuable and consistent would be a good start in developing the data needed to allow management improvement across the board.

As Alan concluded the referenced article:

The above deficiencies in current data all point to an urgent and obvious need to develop comprehensive data on causes of project failures – preferably validated by appropriate and agreed criteria as to what constitutes success / failure, and covering the widest possible range of project types and project management application areas.

A suggestion (or challenge) here is for global project management organisations (IPMA, PMI, apfpm, etc) to jointly create a framework to develop and share project success / failure data, covering the widest possible range of project management types and application areas. This would include

Developing and agreeing common criteria for project success / failure;
Collecting and sharing validated data on success/ failure rates;
Researching and sharing validated data on success drivers / failure causes.

If you agree support Alan and start lobbying your PM association of choice. Defining the problem is easy, solving it elegantly is not!

Google ‘reasons for project failure’ and you get nearly 5 million responses! The question this blog asks is how many project failures are caused by project management shortcomings and how many failed projects were set up to fail by the organisation’s management?

The Project Delivery Capability (PDC) framework described in our White Paper Project Delivery Capability (PDC) offers a useful lens to separate the failings generated by project performance from those imposed on the project, inadvertently, or otherwise by organisational management.

The list below separates the root cause of failure into four categories based on this model:

Initiation: failures associated with project identification, business case development, requirements definition and portfolio selection; including establishing initial realistic time and cost budgets based on pragmatic risk assessments.

Project: failures associated with the project team failing to apply effective project management processes as defined in resources such as the PMBOK® Guide, ISO 21500 and PRINCE2

Support: failures associated with the lack of effective senior management support to the project (Capability Support), including inadequate sponsorship, failing to provide appropriate resources, inadequate business inputs, lack of direction/decisions and allowing excessive change.

Benefits: the failure to realise the intended value from the project’s deliverables associated with poor organisational change management, end use adoption and cultural resistance (for more on the overall scope of change see our White Paper, Organisational Change Management).

The table below is based on an amalgamation of dozens of lists found through a Google search.

Reason for Failure	Cause
Inadequate business case A good business case will clearly demonstrate the business benefit of delivering a project and define the objectives, requirements and goals.	Initiation
Undefined objectives and goals This is always a problem, if the organisation does not know what it wants, it is impossible to scope a project to deliver the ‘unknown’.	Initiation
Inadequate or vague requirements This is only a problem if the organisation fails to allow adequate time and appropriate contingencies in the overall scope of the project to define and firm up requirements. Defined requirements are essential for the project to be able to deliver a successful outcome.	Initiation
Unrealistic timeframes and budgets; unachievable objectives Fact free planning is always a problem. Initial ‘rough order of magnitude’ estimates need appropriate contingencies in the initial business case. The project outputs need to be feasible.	Initiation
Lack of prioritisation and project portfolio management Causing competing priorities leading to inadequate support and resourcing for projects.	Initiation
Estimates for cost and schedule are erroneous Estimates should be based on solid foundations. Unrealistic targets are unlikely to be achieved.	Initiation / Project
Failure to set and manage expectations Unrealistic expectations are unlikely to be fulfilled. From the start of the initiation through the life of the project effective communication to set and maintain realistic expectations is vital.	Initiation / Project
Business politics Lack of discipline within executive/senior management. Only present is the organisation is poorly governed and lacks a rigorous portfolio management process. Selected projects should be supported by management.	Initiation / Benefits
Cultural and ethical misalignment Misalignment between the project team and the business or other organization it serves will inevitably cause problems.	Initiation / Benefits
Lack of a solid project plan The failure to develop an effective project plan guarantees the project will fail. The type of planning required depends on the project methodology. Some specifics are included below	Project
Poor estimating Failing to use historical information, formulae, and questions to make sure that the estimate is not a GUESStimate.	Project
Poor processes/documentation Appropriate processes and documentation are essential for project success.	Project
Poor risk management All projects are inherently risky. Effective risk management reduces the degree of uncertainty to an acceptable level.	Project
Overruns of realistic schedule and cost estimates This is a project failing. Either due to poor management/motivation of the project team or poor risk assessment (leading to inadequate contingencies) or poor estimating.	Project
Failure to track progress Tracking progress against the plan and adapting performance is central to effective project management.	Project
Poor Testing Failing to adequately test project deliverables; including: – Poor requirements which cannot be tested – Failing to design a testable system – Failing to develop a realistic and effective test plan – Failing to test effectively with skilled staff – Inadequate time and budget allowed for testing.	Project
Poorly defined roles and responsibilities The organisations management is responsible for defining roles and responsibilities in the overall management stakeholder community; the project manager is responsible for the organisation within the project team.	Project / Support
No change control process / Scope creep A lack of effective change management processes is primarily a project failing, however, organisational management should require effective change management to be in place and support the change management processes.	Project / Support
Team weaknesses – Inadequate / incorrectly skilled resources Having people who are ill-prepared to complete a task can be worse than not having anyone. The organisation is responsible for providing adequate internal resources for the project, the project is responsible for defined training and procuring appropriate contracted resources.	Support / Project
Lack of user input The organisation is responsible for organising the necessary input from end users. The project is responsible for requesting and defining its needs and making appropriate use of the information provided.	Support / Project
Lack of management commitment / Lack of organisational support The organisation is responsible for properly supporting the projects it has initiated.	Support
Ineffective or no sponsorship Ineffective project sponsorship is almost a guarantee of failure.	Support
Poorly managed – project manager not trained/skilled The organisation is responsible for appointing an appropriate project manager and providing him/her with appropriate support, training and coaching.	Support
Inflexible processes and procedures, templates and documentation Any imposed process needs to be as light as practical to meet the governance needs of the organisation without inhibiting the work of the project.	Support
Insufficient or Inadequate resources / lack of committed resources (funding and personnel) The organisation is responsible for properly resourcing the projects it has initiated. If the resources don’t exist or are already fully committed elsewhere, this is an initiation failure; if they are simply not made available it is a support failure.	Support / Initiation
Poor communication / Stakeholder engagement People tend to fear what they don’t know, therefore effective communication with stakeholders is vital if the project is to capture their support, and keep it. The project is responsible for project based communications; the organisation change manager (sponsor) is responsible for communication in support of the overall change initiative.	Benefits / Project
Poor or ineffective organisational change management The organisation has to implement, accept and use the project’s deliverables to generate value. Failures at the organisational change level mean most of the planned benefits cannot be realised.	Benefits
Stakeholder conflict The organisation is responsible for properly supporting the projects it has initiated. This includes the ‘through life’ management of stakeholders starting prior to initiation and continuing through to the realisation of the benefits.	Benefits
Inability or unwillingness to stop a project after approval ‘Death march’ projects destroy value. A key element of effective portfolio management is to stop wasting money and resources on projects that can no longer contribute value to the organisation.	Benefits

Of the 29 causes of failure outlined above, only 7 are exclusively the province of project management. The other 76% involve or are exclusively the province of the organisation’s general and executive management as part of an overall ‘Project Delivery Capability’!

This overall capability of an organisation to realise value from an investment in a project starts with selecting the right project to do for the right reasons, then doing the work of the project effectively and efficiently, and then making effective use of the project’s outputs to create value. Mess up any of the early stages and there are no benefits to manage. If the organisation fails to implement the changes effectively, the potential benefits are not realised.

The project manager is only responsible for the bit in the middle – the ‘doing of the project’, a steering committee, sponsor or other management entity is responsible for the beginning and end parts of the overall process involved in PDC. Even the 24% of failures assigned to project management have a link back to the role of the Project Director within PDC. The organisation should provide oversight, training and support to ensure effective processes are used by their project managers and teams. Conversely, a skilled project manager may be able to overcome some of the organisational failings identified above; by managing upwards and operating effectively within the organisation’s political systems a skilled project manager can cover some failings, others are fundamental and will result in a failure regardless of the efforts of the project team.

Therefore based on this table, it is reasonable to determine PDC is an executive and general management responsibility. The ‘project governance’ requirement within PDC is for the Board to ensure executive and general management accept this responsibility and excel in creating value for the organisation.

Based on this assessment, my personal feeling is we as project practitioners need to stop referring to ‘project failures’ every time a project fails to deliver the expected value and start talking about ‘business failures’ when the organisation’s management fails to effectively manage or support the work and as a consequence, fails to achieve the intended/expected value.

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