7 Reasons Why Most Projects Fail

All of us have gone through it. A project initially causes you to become ardent. You conduct your research, create a detailed plan, put together a strong team, and get to work. However, as you go on, everything starts to abruptly come apart. You miss deadlines. The results don't meet your expectations. To put it plainly, customers and stakeholders are both unhappy because you're not succeeding like you're supposed to.

The pain of a failed project has been felt by the majority of project managers. Although you're not the only one who wants to avoid project failure, you've already made a significant move by reading this post. By planning ahead, you can avoid these typical reasons why most projects fail.

To offer your project the best chance of success, it's vital to be aware of frequent project problems, even though a perfect success rate isn't possible. In this post, we'll go over seven typical reasons why projects fall short, how to avoid them, and a few practical solutions to help you stay on course.

"Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be" - John Wooden

What is Project Failure?

Failure is personalized and can be defined differently for each organization. While a project can be considered a failure for one organization, it could be considered a success for another.

A project may be labeled a failure for the reasons listed below:

The project failed to achieve its goal.
You did not receive the desired deliverable.
The work wasn’t finished on time.

Project Failure Statistics

A project management software is necessary for every project, regardless of industry. Nowadays, its importance is more clear than ever. Without project management, things at work are prone to disappear. These statistics demonstrate the significance of project management and the broad impact it has on the sector.

- Only 23% of organizations use project management software (Wellingtone, 2020)
- Lack of efficient project management delivery systems increases the likelihood of timeline and budget overruns for companies
- Organizations that use proven PM practices waste 28 times less money than their counterparts who do not have PM practices in place.
-54% do not have access to real-time project KPIs
- 35% of project managers use MS Excel to build resource plans

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7 Reasons Why Projects Fail

1) Unclear objectives

Project objectives are the things you hope to accomplish by the project's conclusion. They must to be precise, measurable objectives that you can evaluate once your project is complete. Without defined objectives, it's difficult to keep your team on the same page or even determine whether your project was successful or unsuccessful.

Effective project objectives unify your team and give you a point of comparison to gauge your progress. Set goals before you start your project so that they can serve as a guide. Even better, involve your team in the goal-setting process to make sure everyone is on the same page right away. Setting goals as part of your broader project plan, which also specifies the project's stakeholders, deliverables, timetable, and other details, is a smart approach.

2) Scope Creep

Your project deliverables change as work progresses. Scope creep is difficult to detect because it frequently develops gradually—you could even say that it sneaks up on you. You wind up with more work than you anticipated when project deliverables go beyond the project scope. For instance, you planned to publish 10 videos this month talking about different products. As time goes on, a stakeholder has asked you deliver 2 more videos. With these new requirements, you're more prone to falling behind on your other deliverables and causing delays.

Delivering outcomes on time and within budget is simpler when scope is defined in advance. Resourcing might be planned in advance to prevent last-minute requests from overwhelming your team. A project scope that has been written down can also be used to reject supplementary requests from stakeholders. A scope statement can be used to describe the project's scope. Share your scope statement with your stakeholders as soon as it is finished. They'll be less inclined to add extra requests if they know exactly what is and isn't included in your project. When you do receive an additional request, you can structure and utilize a change control procedure to decide whether it is crucial enough to include in the project's scope.

3) Limited Resource Planning

People, money, and materials are referred to as resources in project management. Without sufficient resource planning for project management, what are you going to do? Your human resources are probably being either under- or overworked if you're not employing a good task management solution. You won't realize that some team members are focusing on too few tasks while others are working on too many tasks.

A resource management plan outlines the types and quantities of resources you'll need for your project so that you'll be fully equipped before you begin. Next, determine the precise timing for allocating each resource to each project using best practices for resource allocation. Another crucial component of project resource planning is financial planning . Poor cost estimates and inconsistent tracking will probably cause projects to go beyond their initial budget. Project managers who lack financial management and tracking skills are more likely to cause the project to fail.

4) Poor Communication

Due to poor communication, 56% of project budgets are in jeopardy. Teams that have communication breakdowns or delays will have trouble building trust and being transparent. If project team members are not in agreement about the best communication channels to use, when to use them, or who should communicate what, projects failure is inevitable. For example, your a business that relies on many channels of communication including emails, messages, video meetings, etc. If there's not a plan in place on when to use each of these channels, you can miss many important details in your project which can cause duplicated work and delays.

Main Reasons for Communication Failure

No Communication Policies
Lack of Stakeholder Management
Unable to track communication with multiple channels

Inadequate collaboration, lost productivity, stressed employees, dissatisfied clients, and mistrust in the workplace are just a few of the negative project outcomes that can result from poor workplace communication. Without an effective communication strategy, your project will fail. How you'll communicate critical, ongoing project information is outlined in a clear communication plan. A communication plan clarifies for your team which technologies should utilize for particular tasks, specifies how frequently updates will be communicated (and with whom), and indicates when to involve important stakeholders. You may spend less time looking for information and more time working on your project's goals if you have a good communication plan.

5) Inexperienced Project Managers

How do you anticipate a new project manager to takeover, oversee the project's execution, and guarantee a successful delivery? The likelihood of a project failing is higher for inexperienced project managers than it is for experienced and resourceful managers. Many businesses don't take project management seriously and believe that anyone can run a project. Due to this careless approach, numerous assistants or consultants end up serving as unintentional project managers without any formal training. Even though they might excel in their field, if they lack project management skills, this could be a major factor in the failure of your project.

An effective project manager is conscious of their team's potential. He or she is also able to consider all the details before finalizing the agreement and, if necessary, to decline. A key project management strategy involves managing reasonable expectations and your team's well-being. Great project managers do this to prevent team burnout, workflow bottlenecks, and unavoidable yet costly delays to their projects.

6) Unrealistic Expectations (Causing Delays)

When it comes to project management, unreasonable aims and objectives—not expectations—can lead to projects failing. Unrealistic expectations, which are sometimes covered up as optimism, have led to the failure of numerous enterprises. Project managers get into this predicament when they don't effectively assess each team member's talents, skills, and competencies. Employees are overworked as a result, which may make it challenging for them to finish assignments on schedule. You ought to be aware of the capabilities and time constraints of your team. Realistic expectations are those that align with the capability of your team. To make your goals achievable, set SMART goals to clarify your ideas, focus your efforts, use your time and resources productively, and increase your chances of achieving what you want out of your project.

7) Monitoring and Controlling

One of the truths that project managers and their teams face is that they may not give enough attention to is monitoring and regulating the project. You should have a process in place to track, review, and regulate the progress of your projects. Every effort should be taken to keep the project on track, and if it steers off course due to overspending or falling behind schedule, the strategy should be adjusted to get it back on course. By including this practice in all of your projects, you'll identify areas of improvement that you can implement on your upcoming projects.

Thorough and ongoing project monitoring is essential for project success. PMs can obtain important information about the progress of a project through careful project monitoring, and can then use this information to make wise decisions. Additional significant advantages of the project monitoring phase include:

Activities are completed in accordance with project requirements
Project manager can oversee the fulfillment of crucial deadlines
Clear overview of the capacity and workload of employees
Improved scope creep management
Precise tracking and adherence to the budget
Team members' and stakeholders' held accountable

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Examples of Failed Projects

Example 1: Google Glass by Google

The first augmented reality glasses, allowing users to browse the internet with a wearable optical display, were unveiled to the public in 2013. This was known as the Google Glass Project. Google sold 10,000 Glass units in 2012 to professionals, adventurers, and celebrities. Later, in the fall of 2013, Google established a referral scheme so that Glass owners could invite their friends. Google ran the same advertising multiple times, potentially reaching a million people. Whether it was expected or not, less than two years after the product's launching, sales ceased. What happened to the project with the cost-effective plan and a limitless budget? The designers of Google Glass focused on high-end features but neglected the requirement to outline the advantages of the device. The public's perception of this was that it lacked a firm release date, distinct advantages, or compelling use cases. There was no business case for the Google Glass project. Since Google was overconfident about the technical attractiveness of Google Glass and had the improper marketing focus, the project was never finished.

Example 2: Edsel by Ford

The Ford Edsel was introduced in 1957 by Ford. It was widely promoted that the Edsel model would satisfy all of the needs of American vehicle customers. However, it collapsed as a result of shocking project management issues. The overall project selection, the project's quality management, the project's scheduling, and the dangers that were there all contributed to the Ford Edsel's failure. However, the main problem rooted from the overall project selection. Instead of just creating another car just like their competitors, Ford went above and beyond, trying to make a car far more in advanced then they should have. From the start, Ford’s strategic planning should have been developed around a SWOT analysis to see whether or not the Ford Edsel should have been even created, and to see if they had the right resources to do it. Ford should have been more focused on their overall vision and the long-term goals of their company, rather than making a vehicle that had all their future improvements.

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