We all see the statistics associated with project failure. For instance, according to a study by Gartner, almost 40% percent of IT projects fail or are abandoned before completion. Most project managers are afraid of being labeled as quitters or failures. Perhaps it takes more courage to admit that your project is a failure than to accept it (with no choice) when you finally walk over the cliff’s edge. Let’s be frank, continuing with a hopeless project is like flogging a dead horse …and wasting huge amounts of money in the process. It doesn’t make very smart business sense does it.
Approximately only 20 percent of PMs have a process for identifying and cancelling failed projects, according to a four-year survey of 672 senior IT and business managers conducted by the Center for Project Management in the USA.
Do you have one? If not, you might like to take a look at this one:
It’s natural for project managers and project teams to have a task-oriented focus. Most project methodologies anticipate project difficulties and provide monitoring and controlling processes for change, issues, and problem management. However, the resulting mindset for the project effort can often be solely focused on getting the project back on track to the exclusion of any real consideration given to the fact that the project may very well be failing. Be open to the possibility that the project effort could be failing.
Have you ever canned a project?
2 responses so far ↓
Gary Bourgeault (managersrealm.com) // 26 January 2007 at 7:29 pm |
Good thoughts Rob. I know that in business it has been popular to say that there’ s no contingency plan in place so that the only thing we can do is succeed. While I like that thought, it has to be balanced with facing reality when things we try just aren’t going to get off the ground.
The idea of having things in place to identify and cancel failed projects is a great idea.
Richard // 18 March 2008 at 7:33 am |
vanity, vanity, vanity face the truth