Project Managers Are Rubbish

Lovely!

I see project management going in the wrong direction at the moment, hordes of unqualified yet certified new PMs on the market. Wonder what that’ll do to project success. There will be a time when we say “Son, back in the good old days of 2010, projects used to be successful nearly 33%”.

The interesting thing about Standish is that the results are self-reported. It’s not some fully independent and objective study. They ask the people who have been involved in the projects. It’s us telling them that we have failed. Maybe we are being too harsh on ourselves? Somehow I don’t think that’s what accounts for the results being so poor. But I do think that the recession and cutting capital projects has had an impact, and these projects would fall into the ‘failed’ bucket, whether or not they were cut or curtailed for sensible business reasons.

Though I have to say Elizabeth that we see these results, they’re tangible. Delayed/Overbudget/Killed/Failed projects are the norm rather than the exception.

I see it completely differently, Project Managers are not pressured, and that’s the problem. Software doesn’t work, no problem, nobody is (at least physically) hurt. No real accountability.

Project Management is maturing, but Project Managers are not.

While project managers should not shoulder the blame alone, I do think you’re right in noting that many of these failures are failures of project management. My own research — admittedly somewhat anecdotal — suggests that about half of the failures never had a chance, whether an uninvolved customer/champion, insufficient funding, incompetent and non-avoidable (non-PM) personnel, legitimately unpredictable outside forces, and so on. Assuming that the PM doesn’t have the power to cancel the project, the best she can do in these situations is try to move from outright “failed” to “challenged” and deliver as much value as she and the team can.

However, that leaves the other half, which I do think is a fair load to lay at the feet of project management. These generally don’t fail because someone is or isn’t PMI, or because the team chose to use Scrum instead of PRINCE2, but because either the PM was generally not up to the task or because he focused too much on the mechanical aspects and not enough on communication and project leadership.

I appreciate the eclectic approach Project Hut takes in the various postings. There is no one size that fits all, no single right approach, and no one book, whether the PMBOK or my own, that can make a turkey soar like an eagle.

— Steven B. Levy
Author of “Legal Project Management: Control Costs, Meet Schedules, Manage Risks, and Maintain Sanity”

But Steven, how about starting the Project? Does the Project Manager have the power to stop the project from even being initiated, or not?

It’s easy to say that some projects are destined to fail due to factors beyond the PMs control (not enough budget, incompetent staff, lazy clients etc.). We have to work with the variables we have and do the best we can within the constraints.

I generally take a pessimistic approach and communicate and document the risks up front. Makes me a bit of a grouch to work with, but the stakeholders are usually happy when it turns out less bad than I thought!

One area I can see contributing to the high rate of projects which fail for different reasons is the fact that we are working in environments which are working with more cghange than for just 5 years ago.
Business need to change and adapt to change.
We are still trying to manage projects which span over long periods and are in trying to achieve the sucess of delivering on agreed time, cost and content we have not moved the project with the business we are delivering to.
My view is that PMs must be much more aware on what is going on outside the project, instead of staying in the project and trying to keep change out, rather embrace change and cut down on the fixed scope.

Change is constant and more now than earlier, this has a high impact on the project maturity in the performing organisation which needs to adopt and implement project and portfolio management processes from an executive level.

Also PMs must communicate and unfold what is happening at the customer site, I have many examples of customers who are not telling me which direction they are going - leaving a risk for the project hitting the wall of failure “You did not deliver what we nned now”

And I agree with the Hut - PMs must learn to stop projects which are heading for failure, the sooner the better.

I won’t argue that some PMs should not be PMs, and often projects are managed by people who are PMs in name only. They don’t have the training or the experience to deliver a project on time, on budget, and on scope (OTOBOS, as Elizabeth says). But I think for the most part, across the profession, PMs want to and can do a good job.

Certainly projects change. Risks turn into issues; budgets get cut; the business goes in a new direction; scope changes are added on. These can be disheartening to the project manager who is responsible for keeping it all under control. I wonder what percentage of the projects are reported as “failing” or “challenged” just because of factors like these.

I haven’t read the Standish report or participated in the survey so I’m probably wrong, but I envision survey questions like, “Did your project meet its original budget?” or “Was your project delivered according to the schedule?” If a PM answers “no” because the project team, sponsor, and customer agreed to a budget or schedule change, the project is categorized as a failure. I don’t think the survey asks, “Do you consider your project a failure?” or “Are you a failure as a PM?”

So what is the definition of a successful project?
• Is it a successful project that delivers a bicycle OTOBOS when all along, despite the approved scope, budget, and specifications, the customer really wanted a motorcycle?
• If the PM delivers that motorcycle because he knew that’s what the customer wanted, does that make it a failing project because it didn’t meet all the approved scope and other specifications?
• Do difficulties in developing appropriate project plans and other artifacts mean that the project has failed if, in the end, the customer gets what they wanted?
• If the customer is satisfied they got what they wanted and needed despite any nonconformance to the budget, scope, or schedule, is that a successful project?

It’s not unusual that projects are challenged by changes or issues causing the project to be delivered later than originally planned or for more than the original conceived budget or with different features and functions than originally scoped. To me, delivering in spite of these changes and issues is the sign of a good project manager, not a failure.

Brian,

I think that the most concise definition of project success is delivering a product/service satisfying the stakeholders (I see the client and the user as a stakeholder). Project Success does not necessarily mean OTOBOS (On Time, On Budget, On Schedule, again, as Elizabeth says), and, of course, OTOBOS does not necessarily mean Project Success.

Very interesting and valid discussion!

My genereal approach is: The project manager is allways responsible, fully responsible, for creating and delivering a successfull project.

In this lies the responsibility to identify, analyze and act upon all potential and actual threats to the success of the project - including such factors that formally can be seen to belong elsewhere (i.e trends in society, abstract endcustomer expectation-change , whimfull outside-project executives, and so on) .

Because if the project manager doesn´t act upon them initially, they will eventually hit the fan.

As for the Shakesperian question, regarding defining project success: To OTOBOS? Or not to OTOBOS?

Isn´t it quite selfexplanatory? If primary stakeholder/-ers (in a communicative and formal process) defines success within OTOBOS, OTOBOS is to be! If success lies outside, or even in conflict with OTOBOS, OTOBOS is not to be (or, perhaps more correctly: original OTOBOS is to be changed, in consequence of the new project-success-determinants)!

I would like to see even more project managers that aren´t being (self-)limited by a narrowsighted and slim focus on either project manager responsibilites or OTOBOS.

I would like to see even more project managers stepping up to the plate, with the mandate to deliver real stakeholder-sucess!

/

Pär Westring

Project manager och sponsor within Swedish public municipal government.