There were two deliverables for the course. The first deliverable is to submit a final report and deliver a group presentation. The second deliverable is to write a research paper about the relationships between Organization Development, Change Management, and Project Management.
For our final group project, we presented why projects are failing at alarming rates regardless of the focus on strong project management practices. Throughout the course, our team met up frequently to discuss and apply the pedagogy learned from our weekly session. The topics included:
Major Constraints: Scope, Schedule, Cost, Resources, Quality
Risk Management: Risk Management Tools & Risk Maturity
Enterprise Environmental Factors: Internal & Internal
Project Management Process Group: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing
Many companies have dedicated Project Management teams, in which they have invested a huge amount of time and resources. However, projects continue to fail even though the project management teams are often following textbook methods. Projects fail when project managers and their teams underestimate the project management processes. Overlooking the external and internal environmental factors, underestimating the major constraints, failing to take a broad look at potential risk factors, and missing a step in the project management process all can be reasons why a project might fail.
All projects rely on three interconnected components, referred to as The Iron Triangle: scope, schedule, and budget. Project Managers need to pay special attention to the project’s resources (i.e. raw materials; tools; equipment etc.) and the way they are distributed, as well as focus on the project’s quality (i.e. design and product quality). It is important that, in terms of quality, the project manager understands the customer’s needs and is able to distribute the work to the team members. The budget needs to be a focus, as well as resources and time, in order to fully deliver results. When the quality is higher, the performance increases (Haq, et al., 2018).
Major constraints could also be the reason why the project's failure rate increases over time. For this reason, if even one or more of them become constraints, then the project’s completion time could be delayed.
There is no such thing as a perfect project with no constraints, but when they appear we can choose to apply the Theory of Constraints (TOC) (Mishra & Moktan, 2019). It relies on a cyclic process, consisting of identifying, exploiting, and subordinating the constraint, as well as elevating the constraint’s performance.
One application in the project management field, often called “The Critical Chain Project Management” (CCPM) method focuses on the project’s scheduling and resources (Ghaffari & Emsley, 2015). CCPM relies on the estimation that each activity has a 50% chance of being fulfilled, due to the schedule and lack of resources. By always being prepared in advance and having a buffer as a backup, it will enhance the chances of a constraint not repeating itself.
An important part of the project management process is understanding what types of risk may be present so that the project can be successful. Risk factors must be well-defined and understanding them must be a “holistic process” so there is “a singular, but the updated sense of risk” (Why projects go wrong, 24). Companies should “adopt a perspective that is wider than the individual project risk” (Teller, et al., 2014, p.67). Conducting a wide literature survey identifies several main risk categories such as financial/economic, contractual/legal, design-related, political, cultural, technological, fraud/malpractice, and health/safety, which can then be assessed and rated for probability. Project managers must have a way of assessing risk in a systematic way to identify and rate potential patterns of risk and better understand these variables. Many times projects fail because they do not “take into account either a comprehensive set of the unique characteristics of a project… or the attitude of an organization toward risk” (Cagliano, et al., 2014, p.233).
There are many risk management tools and choosing the correct tool for the project can be just as important as assessing the risk itself. Effective tools cover all the phases of the risk management process, such as risk management (identifies objectives, approach, and resources), risk identification (identifies causes), risk analysis (analyzes probability), risk response (identifies actions), and risk monitoring/control (ongoing review and lessons learned).
Risk maturity in a company/organization determines how thoroughly risks are identified and assessed while determining its “risk culture” (Cagliano, et al., 2014). With a thorough, mature evaluation of potential risk factors, a company should be able to manage risk effectively. There is a positive correlation between effective risk management processes and project success (Teller, et al., 2014). However, there is a wide gap between risk management theory and the implementation of risk management processes at the organizational level (Carvalho & Rabechini, Jr., 2015). Project managers can follow guidelines for risk management and know all the methods and theories, but there is another side to risk management than just following the framework of risk management methodology.
Project managers must also possess the knowledge and interpersonal skills, and intuition needed to effectively, and maturely, identify and manage risk factors through a broad lens of the project’s intricacies. Referred to as the hard (theory-side) and soft (interpersonal-side) sides of project risk management, both sets of skills are imperative to successfully complete complex, risk-averse projects (Carvalho & Rabechini, Jr., 2015).
In a fast-paced environment, enterprise environmental factors (EEFs) are conditions that elevate or constrain project management. They can have a significant impact on the project outcome if not considered.
Internal Factors
The internal EEFs include organizational culture, structure, and governance, the geographical distribution of facilities and resources, infrastructure, IT software, availability of resources, and employee capability (PMI, 2017, p.38).
An organizational culture, structure, and governance can create a negative influence on a project when the vision, mission, and values are not clearly defined. Ethics and code of conduct are performed within the firm’s standard because they encourage and empower employees' decision-making when dealing with ethical issues. If an employee lacks governance, the risk of project failure is high. It is important to build a strong culture to motivate employees’ morale and elevate productivity.
Another factor is its geographic distribution of facilities and resources. A project fails because of the lack of access to and knowledge of geographic facilities. If project team members are uninformed of information such as floorplan, specific areas/locations, shared systems, cloud computing, and other resources, the project creates constraints that will impact the overall objectives.
Infrastructure affects the condition of a project because the project team must be fully aware of the details and information about the existing facilities, available equipment, different communication channels, and IT hardware systems. As a project manager, infrastructure is taken into consideration because of its influence on the project outcome.
Another vital input is the use of IT software. To be effective, a project manager must communicate the importance of the firm’s software tools, configuration management systems, online/offline automated systems, work authorization systems, and other related IT software to ensure team members fully understand the capabilities and processes associated with any IT software. Without proper training and standard procedures, productivity is at disadvantage and will have a negative impact on the project objectives.
During the planning process, it is important to analyze and understand the significance of the availability of resources. Project managers are encouraged to conduct thorough research on providers, subcontractors, vendor partnerships, and other resources to ensure the project’s efficiency and minimize any risk factors.
A factor that is crucial to the success of any given project is the firm’s employee capability. A firm is only as good as the people it hires. Without proper human resources to hire, train, manage, and lead experienced and highly skilled diverse individuals, a project will fail.
External Factors
Enterprise environment factors also include external conditions of the organization as well. The first external EEFs are marketplace conditions. Many enterprises face the fact that they have one or two competitors, and even rate their grades to decide who could be a threat. Market share brand recognition and trademarks are also judgment criteria for organizations to show their credit and reputation.
Social/cultural influences and issues are another important external factor. The political climate, codes of conduct, ethics, and perceptions would affect the decision-making process and how project managers proceed.
Legal restrictions are also vital. Local laws and regulations related to security, data protection, business conduct, employment, and procurement should be priority checks for enterprises when establishing a program.
Two other external factors include commercial databases, and academic research, which both require dozens of research teams and funds to be successful. These two factors require the organization to maintain large employee pools or even have research teams. These factors normally appear in industries that are more mature and market-related.
Furthermore, government or industry standards could restrict the possibility of a project being successful or not. Regulatory agency regulations and standards related to products, production, environment, quality, and workmanship all stipulate how to ensure the deliverables are handed over on time and qualified. When an organization violates regulations, it could result in the company going out of business. However, the industry may not be restricted enough to bring more opportunities for new companies.
Financial considerations are important, especially for companies working overseas. Considerations include currency exchange rates, interest rates, inflation rates, tariffs, and geographic location. Many companies work well domestically and fail to expand internationally because the exchange rates and tariffs are different from their own countries, and result in losing unexpected money.
Finally, the physical environmental elements could sometimes be a problem. The weather conditions could affect flight delays or even supply chain disruption. What’s more, the pandemic affected hundreds of enterprises’ financial spreadsheets and brought economic crises to the world. People nowadays are learning to live with pandemics but still do not know when it will end (PMI, 2017).
There are five project management process groups; Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling/Closing.
In the initiating process group, the initial scope is defined and financial resources are secured. Stakeholders will be identified. The main advantage is that only projects that are aligned with the organization's strategic objectives are approved (PMI, 2017).
Planning processes are necessary to determine the project scope, refine the goals, and specify the actions necessary to achieve the goals. The components of the project management plan and project documentation will be created (PMI, 2017).
The first step to a successful project is to appropriately define and plan it. Defining the scope is possibly the most important part of the initiating and planning processes. “Scope Creep” is often mentioned as a cause of failed projects despite strong project management. According to the PMBOK, “Scope Creep” is defined as “The uncontrolled expansion to project scope without adjustment to time, cost and resources.” Scope Creep is an example of deviating from the appropriate sequence of a project by changing elements of the initiating and planning processes in the executing process. Interestingly, with Agile, the scope changes are not considered "creep". The change is anticipated, accepted, and managed throughout the project (Marnada et al., 2022). The difference between “Creep” and “Not Creep” depends on whether the scope change is out of control.
The process of carrying out the work defined in the project management plan to meet the requirements of the project scope is referred to as the executing process. This group of processes coordinates resources, manages stakeholder engagement, and further integrates and executes project activities in accordance with the project management plan (PMI, 2017).
It is often the case in failed projects that the executing process begins with unclear responsibilities and roles of project stakeholders, which are later redefined. This is another example of not following the appropriate sequence of the five project management process groups.
The process required to track, review, and control project progress and performance, identify areas of the plan that need to be changed and initiate those changes is the monitoring and controlling process. The main benefit of this group of processes is to measure and analyze project performance to identify and correct variances from the project management plan (PMI, 2017). Monitoring and properly managing what changes are occurring in the project is essential to the success of the project. The importance of this process is also discussed in terms of scope management (Al-Rubaiei et al., 2018).
The closing process group confirms the process of properly closing the project and formally establishes the completion of the project (PMI, 2017). Proper closing may change the owner's evaluation of the failed project and prevent the risk of subsequent proceedings.
There are many factors that need to be considered when taking on a complex project that requires an expansive amount of planning and intuition. Project managers need to be knowledgeable in all aspects of the project management process. By first appropriately managing all the major constraints of a project, risks can then be broadly identified and managed following the project management process. Projects are most successful when all environmental factors are taken into consideration and follow the project management process group. Without a wide-scale approach to project management processes, projects will continue to fail at alarming rates.
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