- The Project Sponsor
- The Project Manager
- The Client
Well maybe that's the end of the post .. I have given the end away at the beginning. You might even suggest that it is a bit flippant ... well read on and see what I have to say.
Project Failure is a massive issue and occurs much more frequently than we imagine and on a scale which is frightening. Look at the National IT Program in the UK; a group of ten projects to bring the National Health Service IT Infrastructure into the 21st century. It started as a £3-4 billion, 4 year project, then a review concluded it would take 10 years and cost £10-11 billion! And recently another review put the final cost at in excess of £20 billion but could not pin down the likely end date.
To make it worse, such failures or poor performance is happening all the time. Standish put project failures at circa 18%; 82% of projects are late. Look at the Big Dig in Boston, Denver International Airport, Irish Port Tunnel and on and on.
But enough - what evidence for pinning on the above parties. Well, let look at what root causes I attribute to the individual parties:
1. The Project Sponsor
* Project is not aligned with the business objectives
* Project team strays off-course
* Requirements are not sufficiently well understood ... recorded ... analysed ... from the outset
2. The Project Manager
* Requirements are not sufficiently well understood ... recorded ... analysed ... from the outset
* Basic lack of project management skills and no plan to address this deficiency
* Poor communications
* Technical issue
* Failure to resolve issues - there can be no hiding
* Team allowed to stray off course
* Project fails to secure and retain resources
* Under estimate the level of effort involved
3. The Client
* Client makes demands that can’t be satisfied within the terms of the project
* Keeps making changes throughout the project
* Has no clear acceptance criteria upfront
* Overly optimistic
They are the charges. The interesting discussion is on what they mean, are the valid, what can we do about it and what does "The Coach" have to say that is any different.
Because the above deserves it own article, my next post will address these specific items.
Hope you enjoyed this and do give me your feedback. Thank you.
To make it worse, such failures or poor performance is happening all the time. Standish put project failures at circa 18%; 82% of projects are late. Look at the Big Dig in Boston, Denver International Airport, Irish Port Tunnel and on and on.
But enough - what evidence for pinning on the above parties. Well, let look at what root causes I attribute to the individual parties:
1. The Project Sponsor
* Project is not aligned with the business objectives
* Project team strays off-course
* Requirements are not sufficiently well understood ... recorded ... analysed ... from the outset
2. The Project Manager
* Requirements are not sufficiently well understood ... recorded ... analysed ... from the outset
* Basic lack of project management skills and no plan to address this deficiency
* Poor communications
* Technical issue
* Failure to resolve issues - there can be no hiding
* Team allowed to stray off course
* Project fails to secure and retain resources
* Under estimate the level of effort involved
3. The Client
* Client makes demands that can’t be satisfied within the terms of the project
* Keeps making changes throughout the project
* Has no clear acceptance criteria upfront
* Overly optimistic
They are the charges. The interesting discussion is on what they mean, are the valid, what can we do about it and what does "The Coach" have to say that is any different.
Because the above deserves it own article, my next post will address these specific items.
Hope you enjoyed this and do give me your feedback. Thank you.
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