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This essay will evaluate the reasons why projects fail with some of the factors involves in the failure of a project. This will also include some suggestions to improve the project, as well as different types of tools that can be used to avoid the reasons for failure project. There will be some examples of various types of project that has been carried out in recent years. There are many projects fail to live up to their potential. Some projects fail to gain their schedule or budget goals or fail to deliver everything originally promised.
Other projects easily fail altogether. Many of the problems confronted by projects can be eluded or at least accommodated by effective project management practices. Any project does not matter how important it is; there is a possibility that it might be unsuccessful. Perhaps the most dangerous project management attitude would be to deny failure is a possibility. There are some main factors that plays a great role in the failure of a project they are: Political Lack of visionary leadership Lack of resources Organization culture Wrong technology Need and customer focus lost The detail description of the above factors are as follows usually large projects that are undertaken for example IT projects cut across departments and as a result employees are forced to change the way they work, which affects the culture of the whole organization. This kind of change make employees and middle managers scared, consequently can create bureaucratic road locks which affects the projects chances to succeed.
The problem of many businesses that they consider the project such as IT project merely implementation of a technology, that is where they make the mistake every manager needs to see the project as an organization change as a whole. In order to prevent such a problem somebody from the company must make it clear that every department needs to share information that they may have stored in the past. When IT projects fail, it may seem that the IT failed but it is virtually because of the organizational change failed. Lack of user input is the one of the main factor of failing a project like Information Technology. It is necessary to discuss the project with everybody involves in the outcome of a project.
This may include not merely users but customers, business partners and internal department on whose help rely on the project success. For example when a multinational bank introduced a globalized IT system, banks in European branches received the final version of the new software, they discovered that all data entry forms were in English. It is because each country had a liaison to United States head quarters and those liaison spoke English, nobody had thought of the language issue. It would not have been the case if somebody endeavored to obtain information about input from the data entry departments. Middle managers can be suspicious that the project might reduce their freedom as a result they hold the information about the way their departments run, which may have a great impact on the project. In order to confront this kind of problem the organization ought to ensure that three board groups contribute before the project gets underway, these three groups are: The people who will be affected by it Those who will implement it Those who will pay for it One of the reasons of project failure is that sometime the requirements are not well specified in the beginning and the project starts anyway.
It can be resolved by securing input from stakeholders, mainly to define the problem, you have to know who you are solving it for. A long series of meeting and discussions from the beginning will assist to build what exactly the project can do and can not do. Due to the estimation of time and resources some of the major project fails. It is essential to recruit the right people because sometime people who are less knowledgeable, what the technology can really do as a result make their own expectation and even fantasies. Uncertain expectation quite often leads to disaster, in which primarily straightforward technology project is required to solve more and more problems until it grows to out of control and unmanageable.
To make sure that it does not occur, every project needs to initiate with a formal budgeting and formal risk assessment. Sometime poor and dishonest communication may cause failure in a project, particularly with IT project is that it is very hard for an ordinary man to really comprehend the jargon. There tends to be an overlap of buzzwords, so businesses and IT are not speaking the same language even though it seems they are. So to avoid this kind of problem it would be wise for an organization to appoint two project managers - from IT and business specialist and making the job latter to help the board to comprehend what is going on. Even the best-planned project is relied on some of the factors to be successful that may be outside you control for example Spirit Airline is one of the largest private airline in the United States. The airline has decided to launch new software for tracking flights and personnel.
After implementing a new system in September 1999, Spirit trained all the employees completely. The Federal Aviation Administration has approved the software, Spirit decided to go live on 01 Jan 2001. That is the time which considered being the busy travel season and everything was going according to the plan. Due to the snow on the East Coast there were delays and cancellations of flights.
Spirit agents were incapable of working fast to help passengers rebook flights using new system. Even though they had been trained but still they had to improve the spontaneous as it was ultimately achieved with applications. The companys suggestion was that it is essential to make sure the business people and the IT people are in good terms. The Director Schorr quote was I think we let the business drive this project without a lot of IT input.
It proves the above point of poor communication between business people and IT...
Free research essays on topics related to: project management, business people, projects, middle managers, data entry
Research essay sample on Analyzing Why Projects Can Often Fail In Business
