What caused so many projects to fail? The reasons are roughly divided into 13 aspects by summarizing:
1. Problems are not properly defined
A project is a problem that is planned to be solved. If the problem is not well understood, then we are developing the right solution for a wrong purpose. The way to avoid it is to try to figure out the real reason for doing something, and then write a problem statement that reflects that reason.
2. Insufficient data on which planning is based
The way to avoid it is to keep information symmetry between the client and the project as much as possible, that is, pay attention to the effectiveness and timeliness of communication.
3. Simply Planned Staffing
Sometimes this may seem necessary, but doing so is just personal wishful thinking and often leads to disaster, which violates the principle that "the people who actually do the work must be involved in the planning." The customer service approach is to use a bottom-up planning approach as much as possible.
4. No one is responsible
If the role of the project manager is not well defined, it may cause this phenomenon, that is, the project manager is not authorized and recognized, and the way to avoid it is that the kick-off meeting must be held, and the project charter must be formulated even if there is only one sentence.
5. Project plans give best guesses without reference to historical data.
I remember a great man said that the lesson of human history is that human beings never learn the lessons of history. The way to avoid it is to leave a historical record for the organization from the beginning, and refer to whether there have been similar projects in history before doing things.
6. Unreasonable resource planning
Maybe the PM didn't notice that a key person has to work 24 hours a day to complete the work. The way to avoid it is to check whether the use of resources is reasonable when distributing the workload. For example, a person can't work 24 hours a day, and another 8-hour work system , it is impossible for a person to work 8 hours a day.
7. People don’t see themselves as part of the same team
If communication is not good, or if you encounter a powerful project manager, people often build walls around themselves and do not communicate or coordinate with other people. There is almost no chance of success. The way to avoid it is team building.
8. Project personnel are often withdrawn or reassigned without regard to impact on the project.
The solution is still to communicate, PM should try to influence the top of the organization and reduce the occurrence of similar things
9. Project plans lack detail
The devil is in the details, and the details determine success. The way to avoid it is rolling planning, making as detailed a plan as possible, but not more detailed than is manageable.
10. Projects are not being tracked as planned
The plan is not for the leadership to see, but for the execution and control of the project. Over and rough plans cannot be tracked, and too detailed plans cannot be tracked. In addition, plans change frequently, so since plans are always changing, don't plan at all. As everyone knows, planning is for change, more precisely for controlled change. The way to avoid it is to not doubt the plan itself. The problem lies with people, people who do not plan well, and people who do not control changes.
11. People forget the original goal
The way to avoid it is, don't be perfectionism, don't spread the scope, know that giving up is harder than being perfect.
12. Top managers refuse to accept reality
The boss said that performance, cost, time and scope cannot be changed, and we must do as I said. In fact, these four elements can only be fixed at most 3, and one must be left as the dependent variable, otherwise it will violate the laws of nature and will be subject to punishable. The way to avoid it is to communicate, pay back in stages, talk more about risks, and affect the key stakeholders of the project. Most bosses are not fools. When there is more information, he will make a wise choice.
13. Underestimating
To avoid this problem, the estimator must document all assumptions and state in writing that the estimate is only a magnitude estimate, with a deviation of plus or minus X%.