Common Causes of Project failure ¡V examination of Public Sector assignments

This article explores some of the common areas that cause systems development projects to fail. The analysis is based on Management Consulting experience gained in the Public Sector both in North America and Europe. Project Management Consultants will be able to see areas of commonality to their own work experiences. We examine some of the key questions to address and explore some techniques that may be deployed to assist this process. This is not an exhaustive list but rather a list of failures that we see repeated year after year.

1. Lack of interlock between the project and the organizations strategic objectives

„X Mostly a result of a poorly developed strategic framework i.e. one that does not drill down into Program (portfolio) management and how projects will deliver real quantified business benefit either solely or part of the project portfolio.
„X A lack of well defined Critical Success Factors (CSF¡¦s) for the project
„X A lack of integration on the CSF¡¦s between the Suppliers and key stakeholders
„X Poor project planning that does not reflect realistic timescales ¡V all too often Critical Path Analysis is ignored
„X A lack of applying lessons learned from previous projects, hence repeating failure rates
„X A lack of co-ordinating priorities on the project with third party supplier plans

2. A lack of Senior Management and Ministerial Ownership and leadership

„X A lack of governance arrangements where responsibilities traverse organizational boundaries
„X A lack of due diligence particularly realism checks against political objectives
„X Fuzzy lines of communication and unclear approval levels for major lines of work
„X Does the Executive responsible have the responsibility to ensure that all benefits are properly measured, delivered and achieve strategic objectives

3. A lack of effective management with stakeholders

„X Are the right stakeholders properly identified?
„X Is their a common understanding and agreement between the stakeholders and project delivery team
„X Does the business case fully embrace all the requirements of the stakeholders?
„X Has sufficient account been taken off the organizational culture and areas posing high risk of potential change
„X Is there a conflict resolution system in place?

4. Lack of skills in Project and Risk Management
„X Lack of a proper risk management system in place, particularly where mitigation actions are aligned to the project planning process
„X Lack of properly defined roles and responsibilities ¡V particularly getting these formalized i.e. properly documented and agreed, emphasis on management expectations and measurement of deliverables/ performance criteria
„X Adequate procedures for controlling budgets and expenditures on the project, particularly incorporation of earned value analysis
„X The need to ensure governance procedures are adequate ¡V that bad news is not siphoned off in progress reports to Management
„X Proper management of third party suppliers and contractors

5. Lack of modularity in the development and implementation steps
„X Not using a structured approach to development
„X Lack of modularity in deliverables and poor work breakdown structures in the planning process
„X Delivery times with long timescales are suspect ¡V these should be questioned for further decomposition
„X Lack of adequate review points and milestones in the project planning process
„X Lack of consideration in the ¡§timebox arrangement¡¨- how will projects be addressed that fall into an arrears situation ¡V impact is lessened by a well thought out continuity and recovery plan

6. Lack of or poor third party supplier management
„X Lack of proper contract management through the project lifecycle
„X Lack of incorporating supplier assumptions into the overall planning process
„X Lack of alignment between suppliers and the project objectives ¡V particularly in areas where perception of urgency may vary
„X Lack of alternative suppliers to initiate where there is a failure to deliver on time

Useful Consulting Techniques to employ:

„X Root Cause Analysis
„X Kepner Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making
„X Managing effective programs
„X Audit of contract management ¡V workflow analysis
„X Risk Analysis
„X Analysis of Critical Success Factors
„X Examination of Communication Plans
„X Key document alignment ¡V objective / deliverable flow through