How to Fail in Project Management without really

trying

Analyzing Mistakes No matter how successful the

organization is, it is bound to make a mistake

Where there is a failure there is potential for learning

If you wish to ruin your project do the following…

Ignore the Project Environment To manage the project without regard

for the organizations external, internal environment including project stake holders.•DHABOL CASE

Push a New Technology too quickly When a company pushes a new

technology the company cut corners , safety factors or make quality trade offs•TEREDYNE JAGUAR CASE

Don’t bother to build fallback options Successful project managers are those who

are best able to adapt to the new situation with flexibility, look for opportunities and bring their projects back up to spend rapidly

Managers who spend time doing the “What if” scenarios are more successful than managers who operate reactively•A&D CASE

When problem occur, Shoot the one most visible Fix the problem not the blame

Let new ideas starve to death from interia Allowing new projects to remain in a

holding pattern indefinitely

Don’t bother conducting feasibility studies Feasibility study is required for a

project to be successful Euro-tunnels failure to generate

revenue•HANDSTAR CASE

Never admit a project is a failure

To recognize the circumstances when it’s no longer sensible to continue

Ego and personal stake in the project Throwing money at a sinking project will not

buy success Willingness to acknowledge an error is

required

Over manage Project managers and their teams

Large corporations, loaded with layers of

oversight and bureaucracy, are

increasingly becoming some of the worst

settings for achieving cutting-edge

innovation

Some of the big spending innovations

never found their way to the market

Never, Never conduct post failure reviews

Inclination to sweep the whole failed

project under the rug and move on as

though nothing has happened.

Mistakes are a natural side effect of many

new ventures. Learning from them, is a

trait much more difficult to acquire

Never bother to understand project trade-offs

Willingness to sacrifice money in exchange

for schedule, and vice versa

Balancing acts among rival demands

Implications of crashing the project

Allow political expediency and infighting to dictate crucial project decisions Need to reshape strategic focus

Political decision-making is often at the

expense of overall organizational

effectiveness

Make sure the project is run by a weak leader Weak leaders are unhelpful and

counterproductive Good project leader is the one who

has to marshaling the resources , motivating team personnel

Conclusion Failure is often a by-product of risky ventures Projects upset the status quo of organizations Past failures need not discourage us from future efforts Two natural reactions from project managers in sight of

failure• To brush aside with as little thought as possible• To become so focused on failure that it handcuffs an

organization from taking new steps There are lessons to be learnt from failure- if only we

are willing to learn