Skip to main content

Unknown reasons for project failure



The quantity of project successes seem to be to be as alien as finding life on Roter planet. Is it true that software projects fail that often?

What is inability? When any of the following 4 occur, a project is considered an inability:

the required operation is not met
there is a time overrun,
there is a cost overrun,
a combo of any of the above 3.
There are projects that are totally scrapped for political and other reasons but I am keeping them out of this post. It will be interesting to see if someone can find the breakdown of the 70-80% failure rate among the 4 factors listed above to provide a bit more quality on where most jobs are failing.

Required Operation Not Met
The responsibility for this squarely is best left to the project team plus more so on the Business Expert. Nevertheless , I would like to add some situation to this statement. In a traditional waterfall model the requirements are accumulated first, analyzed and make their way through the SDLC process. In large projects the time distance between gathering requirements and UAT is significant, few of years in some cases. Within a speedily changing world now distance is significant as the requirements could have altered for no fault of the BA or the project team. And also the business environment is such that things change quickly (the financial crisis in 08 drastically altered the way that banks view liquidity) or new legislation was introduced (think Dodd-Frank or Basel) that calls for a significant change in the way in which business is conducted. All of these are beyond the power over the project team, though sufficient hints will be available (and will be seen by a willing BA) of impending changes. If nothing has transformed and the functionality is still not met, the condition may have been a result of any of the many points over the SDLC lifecycle - certain requirements were poorly written, limited analysis, inappropriate design presumptions, no technical walkthroughs, low of the caliber of the complex team, no unit assessment, no SIT or low quality of SIT, or simply insufficient time to do any of these.

Time And/Or Cost Overrun
The reason why I incorporate the two is, in most cases, because they go hand-in-hand. (In some instances, as in in which the job is on hold and people are moved to other projects temporarily, there may be an occasion overrun but not a cost overrun). For effective description, there has to be a benchmark. Once we say a job overran time or budget then the implicit supposition is that the time and budget estimates were accurate in the first place. When does this happen?

Generally, time is pre-determined either by the business or the project supervisor or someone higher up. "The project go-live time is 30th June". Which it! Work backwards and figure out how to fit the SDLC within that time frame. Having scratched around we physique the requirements and examination are due in 5 days! The time quotes are inaccurate, grossly under estimated and fundamentally wrong. Come June 30th the job is checked for finalization and is given an 'F' grade. How major is that?

So is the case with the budget. Estimating time and cost is an not perfect science. There are many methods that contain been around ranging from the a minimum of complex-pick-a-number-from-thin-air to very structure function point analysis with a variety of others with different examples of complexity lying down in between. But also for a few, almost all of the tasks I have been part of the budget is determined by someone who is detached from fact and hasn't heard of any of the calculating mechanisms. In some occasions these numbers were pruned down by this section. Now, what does the budget department know about the system? Zilch. Will be these high-end methods reliable enough to produce a precise estimate? No. But we now have some basis for the numbers.

Why don't many folks use these methods? Lack of time is the common answer. There may be another reason too - deficiency of information to suggestions into these methods. This is very interesting to note the stage where the cost is predicted. In almost all situations the cost is believed even before the requirements process starts! The reason is simple - "we need to create a project charter for which we need a pitch. Give us a number". Surprisingly these guesstimates become estimates and finally provide as the benchmark against which the final results are compared.

We have an inaccurate time and cost estimate to commence with. Is it good to compare the real time and cost of the project against these inaccurate numbers? No, but this is precisely the conundrum we are in.

Here is some food for considered to break the cycle:

Elicit requirements fully and analyze them. These costs may not be made a fortune anyway. These are sunk costs if projects may happen but at least they provide a better insight.
Estimate time and cost based on those detailed requirements.
Use a reasonable estimation method to arrive at as well as cost.
Compare actual project time and actual costs against these estimates.
Let's breast up those project inability reasons to deliver job success!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leading Managers Using Latest Resource Management Software

There are numerous resources available to a company a manager has to effectively coordinate in order for the company to succeed. These resources may include manpower, funds and information technology. Prior to the creation of resource management software, managers a new hard time designating the various resources to the diverse projects that the companies were willing to undertake. During this period, the managers worked in an environment that was packed with paper. It was at times inconvenient when it came to looking through these papers to gain access to the kind of information. It was irritating and time wasting for managers. This concern and the complexity of the resource management contributed to the introduction of affordable resource management software that has greatly aided in boosting the way that the managers synchronize and allocate these resources. This has gone a long way in boosting the efficiency and accuracy and reliability of the managers as well as ensuring max...
1 comment
Read more

Capable Resource Management

Previous those days when the world was driven by the barter system, it was really hard to determine the value of an item or an enterprise. Man invented money which became the regular factor in deciding the worth of any useful resource or an object. This is said that, all it requires is a bright idea to take on the market, but the key part is to survive in this at any time growing competitive world. For just about any enterprise to have a healthy grip of this market, it can be necessary that they have a capable resource management in place. An organization can have the best employees earning money for them, but if they are not doing the right work with the right time, they are not doing much to returning the business. So, managing both individuals and non-human resources is a crucial starting for any organisation. Most of the time, such resources are existing across different location. TouchBase - Resource management tool allows organisations to obtain their own common refere...
Post a Comment
Read more

Proper Inventory management and Scheduling Problems

Just how Construction Inventory Management Handles Scheduling Problems When a construction firm has multiple projects in the works, scheduling the use of equipment can often become complicated and cumbersome. This runs specifically true if there is a significant distance between jobs or if the jobs will require many of the same tools. 1 of the best ways to ease the responsibility of scheduling staff and machines are with a construction inventory management system. Meeting Project Activities Is actually imperative to your provider's reputation that you meet project milestones and conclusion deadlines. Without a structure inventory management system in location to ensure tools and equipment are where they need to be when they should be, it becomes more difficult for the project to be completed on time. Waiting on equipment to be sent or not knowing where equipment is located can negatively affect other staff and their schedules, the budget for manpower and replacement too...
Post a Comment
Read more