Herry has over 25 years of working experience in the capacity as president, vice president, technical resource management, and in project management roles in a number of multi national companies in engineering, procurement, and construction of oil & gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, and refineries in the Asia Pacific region.
Some organizations and project managers tend to resort to simplistic view when it comes time to judge if the projects they are assigned to manage is a success. The tendency is more due to the most popular success criteria to measure the success from just the triple constraints of CTR or cost, time, and resource performance points of view.
In my view, there are really a lot of other success criteria or parameters on top of the triple constraints to measure success of a project and it has to be viewed from different stakeholders’ point of view.
Project is considered a Success when one is completed ahead of schedule or on time, within budget, which has been executed safely and has met or exceeded the many project performance parameters in technical, safety, quality, plant capacity, features, product specification, and in commercial sense or parameters from major stakeholders; and where the client is happy with what he has been given to the extent one can expect repeat order from the client; and other stakeholders share the success to the extent the project team is looking forward to working together as a team in an upcoming project.
I know and sort of agree this is a mouthful, and in fact it is; but it also reflects a project success in a more complete sense.
As we can see from above project success definition, it is perhaps easier to identify projects, which are generally recognized as unsuccessful if we are to identify where things have gone wrong, and hence what has to be done and how to prevent them to insure project success.
To my personal experience and some research that I have had opportunity to work on, project failures are primarily caused by one or more of the following:
SCHEDULE OVERRUN
MONATORY OVERRUN
RESOURCE AND SKILLS UNAVAILABILITY
CHANGING REQUIREMENTS
POOR SCOPE OF WORK DEFINITION & SPECIFICATIONS CHANGES
UNDERPERFORM ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS
REGULATORY NON COMPLIANCE
UNREALISTIC CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATIONS
NO FUNCTIONAL INPUTS AT PLANNING STAGE
RESOURCE ARE OVER COMMITTED OR STRETCHED TOO THIN,
WRONG PERSON AS PROJECT MANAGER
NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TOTAL PROJECT
NO PROJECT ACCOUNTABILITY
NO SYSTEMS IN PLACE; NONE ADOPTED
In most cases the root causes of project failures have been attributed to one or more of the following:
1. Poor resource planning and management
2. Poor project communication management
3. Poor project management and leadership issues
4. Poor scope of work definition and specifications
5. Poor cost estimating and control
6. Poor time/schedule planning and control
And believe or not, failures in any projects are most likely caused by people issues than technical issues.
Article by Herry Hendarto PMP,
A project management mentor and coach, promoting good project management practices through www.projectmanagement-mentoring.com at HEROLIAN International.
Herry has over 25 years of working experience in the capacity as president, vice president, technical resource management, and in project management roles in a number of multi national companies in engineering, procurement, and construction of oil & gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, and refineries in the Asia Pacific region.
Email: herolian@projectmanagement-mentoring.com
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A
- Ten Tips for Running Successful Projects
- Project Failures and Project Success
- Successful Project Management, a Management Perspective
- Project Management - The Key To A Successful Project
- Prince2 for a Successful Project
- Pmp® Certification Secret for Project Success
- Success and Failure Are Learning Experiences
- PMP® Certification and Good leadership- Key for project success
Network Marketing Software Basics
By: Todd Wesley | 29/12/2009If you are involved in a complex or even a simple global business then you need to take a look at network marketing software to automate and integrate the systems at your business. But, with so many solutions available, where do you start? Here are a few network marketing software basics for you to consider.
Project Accounting Software: Buy it or Not?
By: Ann Rand | 28/12/2009Benefits and limitations of project accounting software for project-based organizations, including how to know if you need it, and how to select the best accounting and project management software for your needs.
Choosing the perfect wedding marquee
By: Ronald Kresten | 28/12/2009A popular choice for weddings is to hold the reception in a marquee if couples have access to space. Wedding marquee hire is simple and easy with professional teams setting up and advising you on the various choices to be made – having the experts to hand is reassuring during this stressful time leading up to what should be the most enjoyable day of your life.
Planning your wedding marquee hire
By: Arthor Greenwald | 28/12/2009As soon as the engagement has been declared most couples will start the exciting business of planning their wedding straight away. For most families the two sides have often had little contact before the announcement of the wedding day so it can be a daunting process.
Advice on Becoming a PMO / Project Management Assistant
By: contractpm | 24/12/2009A lot of people want to become a PMO / PMSO (Project Management Support Officer) but it seems like these people are the forgotten voice – to my knowledge there is not much written about becoming a PMO, as a result I decided to write this article. I believe there are a number of levels of PMO; I will attempt to share what I know about how to get a role at each level, in terms of recruitment, training, benchmark of similar roles/typical CV and anything else I can share.
Is it worth Joining Professional Bodies?
By: contractpm | 24/12/2009In this economic climate it is worth doing anything possible to improve how the CV looks and to differentiate yourself to look more professional than the next contractor to get a contract… Many of my colleagues have been out of contract for some time and getting an APM or PMP member status is a quick and cheap way of improving the CV, that doesn’t require the time and cash and study that a new qualification would require.
PM Booklist
By: contractpm | 24/12/2009I decided to compile a list of books that have been useful to me, as a Project Manager. Some of these books are designed to be a reference to help you in your job, some of them to help with specific PM qualifications and some just to read and retain. I have placed the books in order of importance and influence to my knowledge as a Project Manager:
Would You Consider Contracting?
By: contractpm | 24/12/2009In these times of crisis, we are reminded how unsecure our jobs can be. In such a market would you consider contracting? If the answer is yes, then you probably believe that you will not be able to get a role as a contractor, so let me dispel a few of the common myths surrounding this:
My View - Leading by Team Management Approach
By: Herry Hendarto PMP | 21/05/2007 | OrganizationalAs I am writing a course module on project management leadership for the project management online courses at www.Projectmanagement-Mentoring.com recently, I retrieved one of the viewgraphs I used to present in a seminar back in 2003 and as I read along I found how these points are still relevant to leaders who wish to lead by Team Management Approach and hence this article.
People Issues in Project Management
By: Herry Hendarto PMP | 26/04/2007 | Project ManagementProject managers are often assigned as proposal managers and asked to plan and put an estimate to arrive at an acceptable proposal during the project proposal stage; and upon winning the project to manage the projects with little or no authority, dictated time frames and deliverables, and essentially told to just get the project done! The reality to remember is that project executions rarely fail due to technical problems but rather because of people problems.
Application of Project Management Knowledge
By: Herry Hendarto PMP | 21/04/2007 | Project ManagementProject management is the most critical business skill and competency of today that forms the basic building block of knowledge based company for businesses and professions in oil and gas, petroleum, petrochemicals, chemicals, metal and mining, infrastructures, buildings, IT, Healthcare, Finance, Telecoms, Manufacturing, and many more services and banking industries. Fortune Magazine calls project management "Career Number 1" on earth. PMI reported recently that nowadays more and more companies and government agencies are adopting and making Project Management a strategic competency.
Project Failures and Project Success
By: Herry Hendarto PMP | 21/04/2007 | Project ManagementSome organizations and project managers tend to resort to simplistic view when it comes time to judge if the projects they are assigned to manage is a success. The tendency is more due to the most popular success criteria to measure the success from just the triple constraints of CTR or cost, time, and resource performance points of view.