George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Over the years, I have found an interesting dynamic wherein the "definition of success becomes amazingly versatile when failure is NOT an option." The other side of this equation states that "success as originally defined is possible when failure IS an option." Although we all know that failure can and does occur (of course, not on our projects), it is rare to here a sponsor make a statement that failure is an acceptable outcome.
What are your thoughts on “failure being a valid option”? Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
In the old CHAOS days success was measured by delivering the scope in time and within budget. For scope there are acceptance criteria or definition of "done" or in most of the cases just a sort of requirements definition.
In my opinion a better way is to discuss the succes by measuring the outcome of the project. Who cares that 100% of the functionality was migrated to the cloud, the project was delivered in time and on budget when by the time the project is completed the system is obsolete from the functional point of view?
I think that getting the most business benefits out of the project is how success should be measured and that's the responsibility of the PO/Sponsor, not of the delivery team. The Sponsor/PO shouting that failure is not an option should do that in front of a mirror. Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Stelian and All,
The thesis of my challenge-based question is that "the definition of success becomes amazingly versatile when failure is NOT an option". It is not speaking to the obviously political and ridiculed statement that "failure is not an option".
In other words, when the ridiculed statement is made and held to by executive management and/or sponsorship, you will likely end up with revisions of - that which defined success. Stated another way, executive managers who make such statements obviously do not want a failure on their watch, therefore they will re-define the objectives of the project in order to state that they have a success to protect their ridiculed statement/belief.
The other side of the coin is that executive management and/or sponsorship who state “failure is an option” is likely to have success as it was originally planned. Why? Because it releases the project manager and team to be challenge-based in all they do, vanquishing the fear which rescinds quality, etc., etc., etc.
Your thoughts? Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
I do believe that failure is an option but it should be defined by clear parameters. Failing because of bad [insert anything] does not justify failure by default. If a project fails because lessons learned on previous occasions were ignored then it is definitely not a valid option. Failure becomes a valid option when valuable lessons are learned and the intent from the outset was exactly that - not to fail on purpose but to embark with the objective of learning as much as we can with an 'unsuccessful' as a possible result. Typically you apply this strategy on a 'learn what we don't know' initiative and it is clear from the outset. If it is clear from the outset the failure is just that, failure. Saving Changes...
It can be an option for academic purpose, but when it comes to real life situations, where money and stakes are involved, I dont think many would agree to failure being accepted as an outcome option.. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
@George, I didn't know that this is a philosophical question. I read again your thesis and skipped the part about the Sponsor because that's why I assumed that you talk about a very common real situation when the Sponsor tells the PM that 'failure is not an option'. I've seen also the Program/Project Managers passing the message to the masses as a sort of motivational speech.
Academically speaking it is possible but I doubt that anyone will put his job on the line, apart from the fact that I don't see the point on stating the obvious.
A very wise man said once:"if something can go wrong, it will go wrong". and that law applies to projects.
As I started my previous comment the failure/success musty be defined before becoming an option. Anything is an option, including that the whole team wins lotto and the project is abandoned. What if the project goes really fine but the organisation doesn't want it or can't afford to finish it. Those are situations that I experienced. There was no statement about failure from the sponsor, and btw technically the PM reports to the Steering Committee or the PMO rather than to a single person. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
@George. on the What are your thoughts on “failure being a valid option”? the real philosophical question. :)
This is a very old thinking. In Agile there is no such thing as success or failure. The team does as much as possible within the time (box). Many years ago organisations realised that 'near enough is good enough' or 'not so good is good enough' and dropped the obsession of 0 defects or 'failure is not an option'.
Real life is not black and white as failure or success are the only options. We progressed and the art of the project manager is to deliver the best shade of grey possible. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
Looks like some people are still in the lala land.
Failure is ALWAYS an option. In some cases is the desired option which probably can be considered a success. Apart from research, where it should be expected there are many situations where failure is desired, for political, economical or many other resons.
Common sense is enough to justify why no Sponsor will start the kick off meeting with the statement 'failure is an option' because everybody knows that it will become the goal of the project.
I've had projects were the Sponsor, the one repeating that 'failure is not an option', was the biggest enemy of the project.
Academically speaking everything is possible. I know projects that delivered less than expected, more than expected but I can't think of any that delivered exactly was what expected. From the quality audit point of view more than expected is a degree failure.
It's time to be Agile, change the mindset from success or failure to as much as possible. Saving Changes...
