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Warning Signs of Failing Projects
November 17, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings
Warning Signs of Failing Projects
By Tyler Garlick
Most of us have worked with a failed or failing project before. How do you know when a project will fail? Are there warning signs that can be explored before you endeavor on the project?
My observations with projects that fail are:
- Usually there is not a very well defined scope. Regardless of what software methodology you use (Scrum, XP, Waterfall) if you don’t have any sort of documentation or plan the project will be more likely to fail.
- You submit a bid, and the company comes back and asks you to lower your price. Most likely this type of customer is going to be high maintenance. Meaning, they will want stuff for free and work you to death. This is a result of not having a properly defined documentation or a well defined sprint.
- The moment you start the project, it is a mad dash towards the finish line. This again is a result of poor communication (on either part), and the lack of a project plan.
- The client is not very communicative. How else will you be able to figure out what they want if they don’t communicate what they want?
- You are not very communicative. How will you describe the problems you are encountering?
- Obvious business reasons. (Run out of money, Company goes under, etc)
Most of the above failures occur from the fact that there is poor scope/documentation or one of the parties does not communicate very well.
Probably the only way to manage the risks of the project are to have good documentation (inside of your methodology that you use), and make sure all parties are communicating.
Tyler Garlick current works for NexBusiness. NexBusiness is a consulting firm that specializes in project management, and software engineering. Tyler has been doing project management and software development for over 3 years. He currently is seeking a Bachelors in Computer Science at Neumont University.
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Symptoms of troubled projects are evident long before hard facts. This article captures that fact and provides a good list of symptoms to pay attention to.