Why are your projects not completed?
Here are 5 common reasons why your projects may overshoot schedule, budget, and overall quality expectations.
1. Over-exploit your resources: or simply do more than your resources do be it in financial resources, human capital, strategic partnerships, time, etc.
2. Detailed management: Instead of management communications you look at.
3. Lack of strategic vision, feature creep, highly tactical (putting out fires, playing catch-up vs how to maintain a long-term competitive advantage).
4. Eat a whole elephant: No matter how well thought out the project is, the individual pieces may be done perfectly on time and within budget but then it is impossible or very difficult to integrate the pieces.
Alternatively, it would probably be a better idea to segment projects to produce measurable results as described in the Rapid Results Initiative where specific quantifiable milestones are set, and once reached they can either be built upon or eliminated depending on the goal discovery process.
5. Poor cross-functional communication: Bureaucracy is part of the game, get used to it, or better yet, learn how to be a better means of communication and not only let the head of marketing or engineering decide the requirements of the project, but take the time to get insight from all the components and owners interest.
The untold story, other than the financial losses
Failed projects cost not only time and money, but sometimes several years, and millions of dollars.
But it demoralizes all the stakeholders of the project, especially the front line employees and managers who had the authority and direct input into the project.
As reported in the media and surveys, the majority of projects fail to meet expectations or even sustainable results.
Therefore, perhaps an improvement in knowledge of the field of project management is a minimal advance in a career, or business success in this high-paced environment.