{"id":5918,"date":"2011-02-07T01:14:17","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T08:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2011-01-28T19:15:12","modified_gmt":"2011-01-29T02:15:12","slug":"why-do-projects-fail-and-how-to-fix-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5918","title":{"rendered":"Why do projects fail and how to fix them."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>You’ve heard the stereotypes:\u00a0 Business analysts thinks IT is a socially awkward group with zero business savvy. IT, meanwhile,\u00a0 scoffs at analysts inability to keep up. \u00a0 So many projects depend on IT-business alignment, and so many fail. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why do projects fail, who’s to blame, and how to fix the them?
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a trick (and tricky) subject, because there are many contributing factor to a less then successful project.\u00a0 If it’s a small enough project, you may be able to pinpoint a specific area or reason.\u00a0 But even then — it’s not really that specific item or event\u00a0but how we respond to that specific item that often causes the breakdown. <\/span><\/p>\n

I think it’s safe to say that\u00a0 “who’s to blame” is the person in search for someone to blame. <\/span><\/p>\n

The act of “finger pointing” is\u00a0the\u00a0breakdown.\u00a0 Individuals are no longer working as a team to contribute collectively to the shared vision or goal.\u00a0 “Finger pointing” is actually a great tool to indicate something is amiss.\u00a0 Good leaders use these as early indicators to re-evaluate and take action.\u00a0 Good leaders use this time to re-emphasize the common goal, the vision, and the team’s success criteria. Good leaders can easily articulate individual roles in supporting and accomplishing that shared vision – and bring the group back on goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Good leaders aren’t necessarily the biz executives or project managers.\u00a0 They are not defined by titles.\u00a0 Good leaders are those with good leadership skills that lead from within.\u00a0 Any person, at any level, can provide this service (and good leadership is service oriented).<\/span><\/p>\n

Projects often\u00a0“fail”<\/span><\/em> because we simply fail<\/span><\/strong> to clearly articulate the vision and the project’s “success criteria”.\u00a0 We also don’t successfully communicate it to each stakeholder and team member.\u00a0 Successfully communicating the vision and success criteria is a 2-way street.\u00a0 Good leaders need to verify that the message not only is received, but is translated to “what it means to me” to each role, task and stakeholder.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to fix this is as difficult as finding what to fix.\u00a0 Clearly communicating the project’s vision, mission and success criteria is a great start.\u00a0 Having each member of the team paraphrase and articulate that same message – but\u00a0specifically associating it\u00a0with their role and responsibilities in the project will assure the crew is rowing in the same direction, and at the same pace.\u00a0 Having each member understand the other team-members’ role (in\u00a0regards to the success criteria and vision) \u00a0will increase appreciation for each other.\u00a0 Often times partnering or mentor\/shadowing to solve a shared concern helps.<\/span><\/p>\n

The quickest way to fix the communication issue is to avoid assuming it’s someone else’s job to fix.\u00a0 We can all work toward understanding and articulating the project goals, vision, and success criteria.\u00a0 We can all work toward appreciating what our co-workers bring to the table to support the mission.\u00a0 If we don’t know the mission or success criteria, we’ve absolutely found the problem.\u00a0 Then\u00a0it’s our job to ask, and go on from there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephen Covey from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — work on projects as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

Especially “Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind” and\u00a0\u00a0“Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be understood”<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me know if this helps.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve heard the stereotypes: Business analysts thinks IT is a socially awkward group with zero business savvy. IT, meanwhile, scoffs at analysts inability to keep up. So many projects depend on IT-business alignment, and so many fail.<\/p>\n

Why do projects fail, who’s to blame, and how to fix them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1508,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,855,856,847,849,850],"tags":[39,13,33,64,1370,17,38],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-goals","category-pmbok-process-executing","category-pmbok-process-monitoring-and-controlling","category-self-leadership","category-team-leadership","category-organizational-leadership","tag-best-practices","tag-career-development","tag-common-sense","tag-communication","tag-leadership","tag-lessons-learned","tag-project-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1508"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}