In a nutshell: A Project Management master class for those wanting to deepen their understanding of how projects work in the real world. Format: 1-day workshop Delayed, failed and cancelled projects cost organizations billions of dollars annually. Almost every organization experiences the pain of a troubled project at some point. The fallout in terms of cost, […]
Posts Tagged ‘Causes of failure’
Befuddle, Bewilder and Baffle
In the Project Management world, it’s a refrain that is repeated in almost every training program offered around the world; communicate, communicate, communicate. Despite the fact that students of Project Management are told that as much as 80% of a Project Manager’s time is spent communicating, in most Project Management training courses, as little as […]
The Requirements Excuse
Studies into the failure of IT projects almost always make reference to poor requirements as a leading source of failure. Requirements are of course a vital part of any project. Without knowing what you’re building how can you build something of value? Although I agree that getting the requirements right is a central pillar of […]
Push and Pull
Although I’m not a great fan of taking concepts from the manufacturing sector and bending them so they can be applied to the IT sector, the idea of “push” versus “pull” processes is one that is worth considering. The concept of push versus pull comes from the field of lean manufacturing and is used to […]
Dismissal, Denial and Disbelief – Wrapup
For earlier parts of this post read : Part 1 – Dismissal, Part 2 – Denial and Part 3 – Disbelief A key question for those leading technology projects is; how do we prevent the Senior Management team from falling into the “Dismissal, Denial and Disbelief” trap? Given the hierarchical structure in most organizations, that […]
Dismissal, Denial and Disbelief – part 3
For earlier parts of this post read : Part 1 – Dismissal, Part 2 – Denial The dismissal and denial processes create the illusion of progress, but unfortunately behind the illusion lies the cold reality that the project is deeply flawed. Failure to address the underlying issues allows the project`s errors and omissions to keep on […]
Dismissal, denial and disbelief – part 1
Scott Ambler published an interesting survey in 2007. One of the questions asked people if they had ever participated in a project which they knew, right from the start, was going to fail. Of the 538 respondents, 70% answered yes. Even making some allowance for the inaccuracies inherent in any survey, that’s a staggering result. […]