Success and failure are like the two sides of a coin. Every assigned task, every examination, and every mission may either succeed or fail. Likewise, every project constitutes the outcomes as success or failure. The success of the project determines that the execution of the plan went smoothly with positive outcomes whereas project failures help to single out the shortcomings or weaknesses in planning, execution, and other dynamics of the project management. Learning lessons is an iterative process throughout the project from the beginning of the project to the end of the project. The outcomes may teach the aftermath lessons but it's a continuous process that begins with the brainstorming of a project idea and never reaches the full stop.
According to Project Management Institute Studies and Standish Reports 2015, average project success rates lie at 30% whereas project failures are at 70% which depicts that even though the resources and models of project management have evolved over the years, there are still some of the underlying factors, if neglected can lead to project failures causing loss of budget, team efforts and dedicated time for the project.
The project precipitates impact on various divisions of the project including:
- Cost
- Time
- Morale
- Scope
- Quality
- Process
Hence, the LL (lessons learned) log should be documented from meetings, emails, calls, and customer service along with soliciting feedback and comments, surveys, focus meetings, and reviews to gain insights on what went wrong. Due to this, project team members get the idea of not repeating those mistakes in the upcoming schemes and continuing the correct actions as well, which has helped the project to succeed. It's always appraised that the project will succeed after numerous meetings, perfect execution, team collaboration, resource implementation, and more but there exist some screw-ups responsible for the unsuccessful project. A project that fails to deliver the requirements of the pre-planned budget or timeline and doesn't meet the ROI targets is regarded as a project failure but the project failures’ lessons have to be engendered as the valuable insights that help in understanding the differences in the actions went right and wrong. To make the essential acclimatization to the upcoming projects, it is obligatory to understand the lessons learned from project failures.
The different stakeholders’ inputs and comments without defined goals push the project towards failure resulting in misguided priorities and haphazard allocation of resources. The unclear project scope and misaligned expectations may lead to communication breakdowns resulting in the project mismanagement. The unclear goals and initial expectations produce confusion amongst the team leading to the failed project.
This causality can be avoided by introducing expectation management in the team. Clarity is the main thing here. With the clarified expectations and systematic communication frameworks, team members will pay attention from the project's beginning phase making them more knowledgeable and determined for project success. These indefinite expectations and unclear planning lead to missed deadlines and hunger-mugger workflows. The lack of unplanned milestones and double-edged expectations may lead to a cascading effect with augmented challenges resulting in project failure.
Hence to avoid the future challenges caused by unrealistic planning and undefined expectations, clear and measurable goals should be established designing a detailed project plan that gets understood by all the team members. For further challenges to overcome, risk management strategies should be implemented along with the usage of various project management software according to the nature, size, and requirements of the project.
When the original vision of the project is scattered into the chance medley of missed deadlines, budget overruns, resource management, and stretched timelines, scope creep can be considered as the major reason. We have uploaded a blog regarding Scope Creep. Click here to know more. Hence, to avoid the haphazard final deliverables, it's necessary for the presence of Argus-eyed change control systems. A clear foundation should be set up for the evaluation of changes amidst the project timeline. Scope creep can lead to a projected outcome for two or more. There will be revamping in the deliverables of the project if the clients urge to make changes in the project. And this can lead to the nonfeasance of the project.
When the project fails, it causes lots of letdowns of hopes, efforts, and monetary results. Hence proper planning with a clear scope baseline is required to indicate the prescribed changes. In the ever-evolving project management scheme, there should be the maintenance of potent scope management and qui vive of the project in every stage. Scope creep can turn the final deliverable into multiple ones due to frequent changes and hasty decisions in the project operation.
When the project lacks sufficient resources for the operation of the project, it results in the cataract of the lapses causing project failure. The budget constraints and false assessment of the available resources analysis will eventually mislead the project in the wrong direction. Insufficient funding in the name of cost cuts and saves will lead to project incompletion or inefficient outputs of the project.
Hence maintaining the accuracy of the well-equipped information of the resource assessments is mandatory whether be the finances, human resources, or materials. To combat the research deficit, the first and foremost step of the project manager should be the calculation of the resources’ allocation and optimum utilization. One of the foundational steps of the project operations would be the resources’ estimation during the project initiation phase.
With the independent actions of the stakeholders, clients, vendors, project members, and senior management team, there exists an inexplicit ambiance in the workflows as decisions can’t be taken wisely and sorts of misunderstanding keep on mushrooming causing confusion and disengagement among the team members. The lack of a comprehensive communication plan leads the project in the path of failure with no meticulous flow of information amongst the team. With the impotence of establishing a network for constant feedback and proper council of operating the project, the project moves downward with bamboozlement and haphazard execution.
A robust communication plan should be crafted earlier during the project initiation phase. Regular team meetings and feedback sessions would be repeatedly organized for updates and grievances of the work. Special emphasis should be given on active listening and proactive communication as communication is the only mechanism that gives the team well-informed and guided for further steps to carry on.
As mentioned earlier, when the teams or departments work independently without the proper coordination, the project is likely to step in the path of downfall crumbling under the anomalies of the budget deficit, clients’ grievances, and antagonistic results. With the lack of collaboration and communication, critical information can’t be disseminated, dependencies are neglected making the projects struggle with the missed deadlines. The siloed teams cause obstacles in the flow of information, problem-solving, and decision-making areas. It abducts the sense of ownership and collaborative efforts amongst the teams hence it is quintessential to break down and dismantle the silos for the cross-functional cooperation of the team members.
The culture of shared collaboration and openness to express should be institutionalized knowing the web of interdepartmental contributions in every stage of the project execution. The training sessions on the team-building and collaborative approach of working should be conducted to avoid the siloed mentality of the teams. If a sense of ‘We’ is developed then only the project can meet the visioned destination otherwise the project always struggles to meet even the basic targets.
The unclear directions, leadership vacuum, and misunderstanding of corporate goals by the project team members are the other reasons that guided the project into failure. To fuel future projects, the setbacks of the projects can't be turned into lessons for the upcoming projects. Other several reasons that propel the project into failure subsumes:
i) Poor project planning
ii) Non-involvement of end-use stakeholders
iii) Missed deadlines
iv) No recovery plan
v) Lack of contingency and risk management
vi) Unrealistic priorities setup
Some of the examples of project failures and lessons learned collected from popular project management websites are as follows:
1. Apple Lisa
Lisa, the first GUI computer was marketed to personal business users that incorporated the now famous mouse, and a 5 MHz, 1MB RAM processor but the project was a big failure and only 10,000 computers were sold. Apple Lisa overpromised and under-delivered, with a price-performance ratio that was significantly worse than had been expected.
Lesson learned: Stakeholders’ collaboration and transparency are a must in the project execution.
2. Denver International Airport
Denver International Airport wanted to create the most sophisticated luggage handling system in the world but it quickly became far too complex. There was a delay of the system for 16 months also costing $560 million and dropped altogether in 2005.
Lesson Learned: This is the case of defining the scope of a project before it begins. It is one of the perfect examples of Scope Creep.
3. Crystal Pepsi
In 1992, Pepsi launched Regular Pepsi, a soft drink that tastes similar to regular Pepsi but was clear-coloured due to the trend of ‘Light’ drinks. Initially, sales were good, mainly due to the curiosity factor, but soon dropped away to the point where Crystal Pepsi was withdrawn from the market just 2 years later.
Lesson learned: Making immediate assumptions about the audience doesn’t produce good results. The expertise should be leveraged and the facts should be known after verifying the statements.
4. Airbus A380
When the Airbus A380 was launched in 2007, there were very high expectations, but just 10 years later, they were being sold for no more than spare parts. The expected game-changer led to Airbus struggling to secure deals with airlines.
The A380 was expensive to produce, and Airbus’s production teams didn’t communicate and used different CAD programs costing $6.1 billion. Furthermore, the second-hand market was non-existent because the planes were simply too big for any airline to make back their invested money.
Lesson learned: There is the impact of poor internal communication and a weak business case that was built on initial sales. And there was no proper research regarding the second-hand market.
5. Ford Edsel
The Ford Edsel was a result of extensive research into what Ford consumers wanted in a car. The problem was that by the time the model was released, the market had already moved on to more compact cars and the Ford Edsel was already outdated.
Lesson Learned: Market timing with proper research is most important. This highlights the importance of being quick to market fresh ideas before the public moves on to the next trend.
How to escalate opportunities from the project's setbacks?
The project failures bring insightful messages for future projects to come. Hence, the team should learn the lessons from the failures and setbacks of the existing projects. The team should:
i) Determine the factors that affect project outcomes and the uncontrollable project factors and controllable ones
ii) Extrapolate the strengths and weaknesses of the project
iii) Put the kibosh on criticizing team members for the failure but instead motivate the team to understand the influencing factors that caused the failure
iv) Initiate steps towards improvement rather than letting failure become a defining factor for unmotivation
v) Make the team understand how to enhance better for the next facet of project management.
There are many such situations where a project initially seems to be successful but comes as a failure at the end. But failure is not the end. There should be an embrace of failure as a learning opportunity to cultivate a culture of constant improvement and growth to become more vigilant, adaptable, innovative, and motivated in the upcoming future projects.