How to Avoid Project Failure

Although project management is not pure science, there is no guarantee of absolute success. But the success of a project manager is relative. It is like three people being chased by a lion. The person who thinks that he cannot run faster than the lion will naturally have weak legs. The one who thinks that he will have a chance to survive as long as he runs faster than the person next to him will naturally try his utmost to run.

When you look at the list of common reasons why projects fail, you will think that overcoming all hardships seems difficult. As you learn that many experienced project managers had slow computer CPUs when they were young and could not rely on the technology of the time to manage project execution, you would notice statistics like the following:

• 44% of managers do not trust the use of software in project management (Hive, 2020)
• 35% of project managers use MS Excel for resource planning (Wellington, 2020)

You will know that most problems can be handled using modern technical software. Of course, you still have to do the following two things:

• A fool with tools is still a fool, so you cannot be a fool. Before you accept the job of a project manager, you must be properly trained and determined to do the job well.
• If your project never identifies a set of testable requirements, you certainly cannot deliver on time and within budget. You need to document a set of testable requirements and establish a baseline before the project implementation.

PPM can help you avoid the following common problems:

Unrealistic Defined Activity Deadlines

PPM activity durations and deadlines need to be defined both top-down and bottom-up to minimize planning and execution inconsistency. If an activity deviates from the plan and execution because of an emergency during the execution, the system can quickly detect it and immediate communication/alerts require the project manager and the activity leader to solve it rapidly. The system cannot prevent emergencies from occurring, but it can use its communication/alert capabilities to promptly address deviations.

Complex Resource Allocation and Management

Even a single resource’s week can be divided multiple times and then allocated and used on multiple tasks. In the event of a resource conflict, the affected resources will be redistributed, planned, allocated and used. Think about 50 resources. Every 50 resources takes 2500 times as long to divide, plan, allocate, and use, with manual data entry or other repetitive tasks taking up more and more of an employee’s time. On such a large scale, manual tasks are increasingly error-prone.

PPM automates these manual tasks, reducing the possibility of errors and freeing up employees to complete other tasks, resulting in a leaner and more efficient workforce.

Lack of Detailed Monitoring  

Monitoring is critical to the success of a project, and even knowing the details of multiple projects at the same time can be very challenging.

PPM can monitor every detail of the project in real time, providing accurate information to let you know the progress, whether the project is on schedule and whether the budget is under control. If there is a disagreement with the original plan, you can still correct it.

Lack of Transparency

Everyone involved in the project must have complete project visibility so that the project does not fail - not only the project manager, but other team members as well.

This includes clear communication, good document management and transparency of task status, all enabled by PPM's fully digital documentation.

Lack of Communication  

Communication is the key to good project management. Effective communication is difficult to achieve without a tool like PPM that allows team members and project managers to interact from the start.

Scope Creep 

A very common way in which projects fail is scope creep. The change management of PPM is prepared at the beginning of the project. When its requirements change, stakeholders only need to issue change requests and the system will record the changes appropriately and analyze the impact. Then it goes through a preset process, where the change board approves and assigns executors.

Change management requires stakeholders to agree to the change and its impact. If the impact is unacceptable, the change will be overturned and stakeholders will make a trade-off.