Why Projects Fail – Signs Of Project Failure That Shouldn’t Be Ignored

One of the hardest things to do in project management is to admit that a project has failed. It’s estimated that half of all business related projects either underdeliver or fail outright¹. Advanced Systems notes that in some sectors such as modernization, that figure is closer to 74%.

Projects failing can result in a financial blow to the company, a reputational blow to the executives and management involved in the project, and a disappointing outcome to anyone who worked on the project itself.

But it’s vital that we understand why projects fail. That’s not just because we don’t want to be doomed to repeat our prior mistakes, but we also want to maintain transparency with our team, execs, and stockholders.

So let’s go over the four most common signs of project failure, and talk about a tool you might want to consider in order to maximize your chances of success in the future.

Unrealistic Expectations – Why Projects Fail

The first thing that needs to be examined is how high the bar for success has been set.

Some projects fail because they simply have unrealistic expectations. Either the team or the project manager doesn’t have the required real world experience to forecast typical results, or they aren’t equipped to speak candidly to authority if unrealistic expectations are coming down from the executive or senior management level. This is where sentiment analysis becomes absolutely critical.

unnecessary² given the other options that are currently available on the market.

Inadequate Resources and Planning – Why Projects Fail

Next, the requisite amount of resources need to be set aside in order to achieve the project’s goals. This includes cash, human resources, system availability, and dedicated support resources. The consequence of not earmarking sufficient resources to the project is either doing a half-hearted job of it, or running out of resources before the end of the project.

This, of course, requires adequate planning. We’ll talk about a tool that can help you with this hurdle in a little while. Mainly, these failures stem from not assigning SMART (specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time-bound) criteria to all aspects of your project. SMART forces you to look ahead and make accurate projections. In doing so, you can cover not only the main plan but a potential contingency plan for any aspects of the operation that have significant risk.

Unclear Scope – Why Projects Fail

Scope creep is incredibly dangerous to the feasibility of a project. This is particularly true in tech, where it remains one of the biggest signs of project failure. Introducing more features that need to be tackled, particularly when the budget and timeline remain inflexible, isn’t fair to anyone involved.

Rather than move the goalposts and throw the entire operation out of whack, the correct move is to submit an enhancement request for the next iteration. It’s a more Agile way of thinking; get the main framework online, and enhance it afterwards. This prevents unnecessary delays, unrealistic expectation shifts, team burnout, and questioning how in-touch upper management is with day to day operations.

Poor Communication – Why Projects Fail

Part of SMART is ‘assignable’, an aspect which requires an open line of communication³. Poor communication leads to tasks not being properly assigned or supported. It’s why so many projects use Slack or some kind of Kanban board; to instantly get help as needed and report critical blockers to the correct people in a timely fashion.

The other end of this stick is poor communication with stakeholders⁴. If they’re not kept in the loop, all manner of bad things can happen: Inadequate funding, improper setting of expectations, and ineffective championing of the project to board members and shareholders. Effective communication means that important stakeholders are more likely to be available during critical times. It’s the cornerstone of every good stakeholder engagement plan.

Some of these signs of project failure can be more easily detected – or avoided altogether – by using the right kind of project management tool.

Using Wrike Project Management to Avoid Project Failure

While it can be argued that most of the core reasons why projects fail have remained the same for at least fifty years⁵, the technological assistance available has certainly improved. An example of a tool that can be used to help you avoid project failure is Wrike project management.

It has built-in Kanban boards so that your team has effective task status reporting and communication. Automated alerts and task assignments streamline the entire process while avoiding an excessive number of E-mails. The Kanban board should also allow you to detect roadblocks early and get rid of them before they can cause significant delays.

Speaking of reporting, Wrike project management has a full approval system for tasks. So stakeholders and management can be in the loop whenever matters that impact expectations and scope are on the line.

Their resource planning tools include an allocated effort percentage which tracks progress by the amount of time poured into a particular aspect of the project. It can also help you to anticipate future resource demand, and proactively shift availability and budget accordingly.

Wrike’s ability to include third party integrations means that you can use communications methods that are approved by your cybersecurity team and familiar to a lot of your existing team members.

Finally, Wrike project management has templatized plans that will help you to ask the right questions so that you can set realistic expectations amongst the executive and senior management teams. Simply by filling out partially populated blueprints, new initiatives can be brainstormed and proposed quite quickly. This can feed directly into Agile team selection and role assignment, if you decide to go that route among the many valid project methodologies available.

So make sure that the project management tool that you pick covers all of the relevant aspects of planning and communication.

In Conclusion

Knowing why projects fail is critical if you want to avoid the fate of so many project managers in the past. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it⁶, after all.

By setting realistic expectations right from the start, making sure that you have adequate resources and future-proof planning, having a clearly defined scope, and making sure that the team engages in robust communication, you will have preempted the four most common signs of project failure.

Picking the correct tool for the job makes things far easier, of course. Wrike project management software is one of the most complete software suites on the market today, providing relevant templates and automation that will help you to start your project off on a solid foundation.

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