Project Failure or Organizational Failure?

 

I was privileged to present with my friend and colleague Majeed Hosseiney on May 2nd at the PMI EMEA Congress in Rome on the topic of leadership in organizations as it applies to the project environment. The gist of our presentation was that we have a tendency when a project fails to shine a light on the indicators we watch as project managers - the famous iron triangle. That is, we look within the project to find reasons for failure, and not so often outside the project. 

We asked the audience, "Please stand if you can say all of your projects delivered full scope, on time and within budget?" How many do you think stood up in a room of about 80 people, almost all of whom were project managers? Would you guess 50%? 20%? 10%? 5%? 1%?

0% is the correct answer.

Was it because everyone was too shy to stand to receive a round of applause for such an unusual accomplishment? Or was it really because 80 projects managers had never had a successful project as measured by iron triangle factors?

We then asked those who did not stand (everyone) to discuss with the person next to them what might be common reasons for such failure and to share with us. Responses included weak sponsorship, inadequate executive support, unskilled teams, and so on. You can probably add a few yourself. Or, maybe you can say that all of your projects were roaring successes. If so, please tell us what made them so. 

We had a great time presenting. The crux of our presentation was that project failure is often a misnomer. That is, project failures can often be attributed to organizational failure, and that failures can be reduced and even avoided by using portfolio, program, project management methods within a projectized organization. Project selection based on business goals and available budget has a much greater chance of producing successful projects. It makes decisions more transparent and more business goal-based. 

We were fortunate to be interviewed by Kristin Jones a few hours after our session. You can probably tell that we had a lot of fun. 

Have you found that external factors negatively impact your projects, sometimes more often than factors internal to your projects? Do you feel that sometimes projects are blamed for what might be a failure in leadership on the part of the organization? We'd love to hear your opinions.