I recently ran into a situation in the current field project that really set back my promoting of the event. Almost two and a half weeks ago, I reached out to the human resource department of my company to first confirm that I am allowed to advertise and promote the event and the charity. Secondly I wanted to see if I could generate donations by hosting a jeans day for those that donated. And lastly, I wanted to see if the organization would help sponsor and contribute or match the funds raised from the jeans day to help out the cause. At first a week went by so I decided to follow up with the HR person that I forwarded the request to, she confirmed that she had passed along the email to two different parties in the company, one to the HR personnel that helps to facilitate social events such as this, and the other to the secretary department of the company executives to gain approval. By the second week, I followed with my contact and was simply given the number to the HR personnel and I could sense that something was wrong. I contact the person in charge of social events and was told that the company would not be able to help support the cause due to potential liability reasons.

This was highly disappointing, but even worse was the all the time wasted in waiting for the organizations response. In order to pick up the pace and get back on track, I reached out to the internet to search for the best ways to recover the lost time and progress forward. I found many articles to have some really interesting tips, but also realized that not all strategies were feasible or applicable. I have listed a few that were on almost every list and that I consider to be the most helpful:

1. WORK OVERTIME:  It’s not the most ideal suggestion, but it is the most logical one, especially in a time crunch. If you work more hours, you can get more done. Just like any work detail or school assignment, when you are hard pressed for time, you typically work long hours non-stop to reach your mark.
2. REDEFINE PRIORITIES:  A strong project manager has to be aware and on top of everything that is going on. It is even better to be able to anticipate setbacks and mitigate risk. Once the project manager identifies that an output is not proceeding in a timely fashion, he/she should be able to go back to the drawing board and start considering what changes the can make to the scope or the critical path and still receive the end result originally desired.
3. REALLOCATE RESOURCES: Once the project manager is aware of the deficiency in time, he/she must take a step back and re-prioritize the schedule. When done, the project manager can see if there are any available resources they can pool from the activities that are not on the critical path to help resolve the issue. These resources can be either tangible tools, software, funds, or human capital.
4. REQUEST ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: If at all possible, it would be great if you can get more money or more time. One way to do so is to evaluate your budget and see if there is any wiggle room. If not, it could be worth a shot to bring your issues to the stakeholders, with properly detailed results, appropriate the problem, and devise a well-defined solution that can be solved with the resources you are requesting. The request has to be reasonable, and the problem should be dyer enough to gain the attention it deserves.
5. COUNT YOUR LOSES: If all else fails, the project manager needs to be able to take the hit and count its losses. In certain situations, what’s done is done and there is no way you can extend the deadline. In those cases you just have to accept the time wasted, restructure the time you have left and make the most with what you have. If you are proactive and productive enough, you can make due and possibly get to s result without anyone even knowing about your hiccup.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. Please feel free to weigh in on your thoughts, techniques that have worked well for you, and even share the ones that have not.

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-ways-to-get-a-slipping-project-back-on-track/

http://cobaltpm.com/5-ways-to-recover-from-a-project-setback/

While trying to recollect on all the projects I have participated in, whether through work or school, it was clear that the ones that tend to jump out immediately are the highly successful projects or the ones where the biggest losses were incurred. Sure the highly successful projects receive a lot of praise and recognition, some become blueprints for future project structures or the project manager moves on to head another project, but what are we learning from the failed projects. More importantly, what are the pitfalls and commonalities between the failures that we can learn from?

I am currently assisting with the strategic administration of a new project on a separate business venture and I am realizing that we are running in some similar problems as previous projects. Some causes seem unavoidable due to necessity for trial and error, but some reasons tend to be much more obvious and easily expected; these common sources of planning and operations failures needs to be recognized and anticipated by the project manager.

I found an insightful article from project-management.com that lists their “Top 10 Main Causes of Project Failure”. http://project-management.com/top-10-main-causes-of-project-failure/. Of the list, I have isolated a few that we find to be our biggest concerns as well as a few that are common amongst many projects throughout. Afterwards, I have asked a few questions to generate some insight and continue the discussion, please feel free to address:

1. Inefficient way to document and track progress – The project does not currently have a standardized method to track new data in real time. As it stands, as new data populates, it is being collected by the operating manager and then manually sent to the rest of the project team as an update at the end of each week to be updated on a spreadsheet that is controlled by someone else. In order to improve the status tracking process, the system needs to be standardized, synchronized, and universally accessible.
2. Inadequately-trained project managers – Following the first referenced cause of project failure, the disconnect arises from the training of the project managers, or lack thereof. If we can take the time to train the operating manager to use the progress tracking spreadsheet, it will eliminate the step of forwarding the manually recorded data for the next manager to input. In order for the team to progress, all members of the project need to be able and competent in their area of contribution. The project manager needs to be able to be aware of everyone skill set and use them to the best of their ability as it applies.
3.  Inaccurate cost of estimation – A big reason for project failures comes down to the misalignment of cost and equivalency of budget expectations. Budgets and cost estimations should be reasonably calculated, modestly accurate, strictly followed. The project should consider the financing as a resource of foundation as oppose to a fail-safe to taking chance.
4. Lack of communication at any level – Communication between project members should be transparent and frequent. If one member or the project has an idea or foresees a potential concern, it is import for that person to speak up and communicate. Each member of a project needs to assert their ideas in order build rapport, show interest, and ensure trust and reliability. A strong communication platform will allow the project cohesion and synergy.
5. Competing priorities – Much like the case in class where the accounting firm was spread too thin and the one member, Olds, was be pulled by the two managers, a lot of projects will undoubtedly have competing priorities. Sometimes these priorities are human, capital, or simply physical space. Proper planning and open communication would be allow for these resources to be best allocated and can adjust as practice ensues.
6. Disregarding of project warning signs– From the list given be the article, one of the most crucial causes of project failure is knowing the signs but not acknowledging them. A problem will not get better or go away if no one addresses it. There are a lot of responsibilities with being a project manager, and one of them is to recognize a threat and react to it. I believe it to be every team member’s inherit responsibility to lookout and defend the integrity of the project as well. The first sign of a warning should always be communicated in order to give the necessary level or time and attention to correct it before it becomes a cause of failure.

Are there any other causes from the list that you find more common?

Are there any causes you feel the list is missing?

How would you rank the list in order of worst to least concern?