Avoiding project failure — and ensuring success

Project management can sometimes be challenging, but a challenge doesn’t have to end in failure. If you can understand the key reasons why projects fail, you can start to make sure that yours isn’t going to be one of them!

To become specialists in project management software, our team at Flowlio has had to identify each of the steps that can lead to failure — and how these can be mitigated. We’ve, therefore, learnt quite a lot along the way. But what’s the scale of the problem?

Industry surveys suggest that:

70% of organisations have had at least one project failure per year.
50% said their project failed to consistently achieve its goals.
Poor stakeholder management, risk management and communication were also key factors in failure.

So, let’s look at these and other underlying reasons for failure in more detail — and the ways in which these can be most effectively addressed.

Unclear goals and unrealistic expectations

Any project is set for failure if you don’t first have a very good idea of what you want to achieve and the potential scope of the work. This can leave team members confused and with different ideas of what your aims are, leading to a waste of time, effort and resources. Similarly, unrealistic expectations about the length of the project, the cost, or its outcomes can also lead to failure, leading to a lack of trust and low morale.

The solution

Your project must first have clear and achievable goals along with a well-defined scope.
These must be clearly communicated to all team members so that all of them are working together with the same aims in mind.
Make sure you can deliver everything that you promise before you start, so that stakeholders and others don’t expect what you can’t achieve.

Ineffective planning and inadequate communication

Poor planning and an absence of strong risk management means your project will be on shaky ground from the start. As a result, you’ll be much more likely to encounter unexpected challenges, extra costs and frustrating delays. If you fail to involve your stakeholders from the very start, you may end up prioritising the wrong elements of the project or failing to address certain issues. Another factor that can lead to failure is poor communication. This can lead to further delays, with team members becoming very frustrated, as they’re not sure exactly what going on — or what they should be doing.

The solution

Careful, comprehensive and analytical planning provides an essential framework for any project. This must include an identification of the potential risks and ways of addressing these, so that small issues don’t turn into major problems. Flowlio’s software provides a 360-degree view of projects, enabling you to plan thoroughly. It includes aspects such as governance, accountability, risk management and project delivery.
Stakeholders must be engaged and involved from the planning phase of the project onwards so that it has the necessary level of support and is more likely to achieve all its goals.
Clear communication is vital. This includes regular updates on the project’s progress and good communication channels so that everyone knows what is happening at any time in the process. This will mean that issues can be dealt with quickly and everyone can work together more efficiently.

A lack of resources and a lack of engagement

Without the right resources at the right time, a project will again find itself on the rocky path to failure. Without the necessary tools and team members with the right skills, time will be wasted, costs will rocket, and morale will plummet. And even if you have the right human resources, you need to be able to retain them. Some businesses might bring in new teams to handle particular aspects of the project but these teams often leave, causing disruptions, higher costs and the need to search for replacements.

The solution

From the planning stage, it’s important to identify all the resources and skills you’ll need to ensure the success of the project.
Flowlio has developed Ofqual-accredited training programmes that will help you decide on the best equipment and people for your project. The programmes (and our optional toolkit) are designed to help team members to achieve the outcomes they need.
We’ll also help you to retain the right staff, by training new team workers in new skills so they’re less likely to leave the project after finishing a specific task. This helps you to create a positive environment in which individuals can flourish, and are more motivated and engaged.

Weak project management and poor agility

Throughout every stage of a project, if it isn’t managed well, it’s unlikely to succeed. Many projects fail due to a lack of the right documents, poor communication, insufficient monitoring of progress, and inadequate control mechanisms. The same principle applies to any changes that may need to be made. If a company or team isn’t sufficiently agile because the workforce isn’t trained to adapt quickly to different situations, then the project could grind to a halt at the first hurdle that’s encountered.

The solution

Our software and training will help you introduce best practices as part of your project management. It will also help you to monitor progress and make the necessary adjustments whenever you come across new challenges.
We’ll store all your project information in a single, secure location so that those who need it can find it easily. This means you can respond more rapidly to changing scenarios and minimise the prospect of the project stalling or failing.
Effective change management practices, including training and stakeholder engagement, will help to address any resistance to change. They will also ensure that the project remains fully supported throughout.

Cultivating success, not failure…

Careful planning, clear and consistent communications and good project management practices are all key ingredients that are vital to the success of a project. That’s why Flowlio was formed — to steer project managers and their teams through the maze of issues and barriers they’re likely to face and to help them overcome these. The end result is user-friendly software that provides streamlined, effective project management. This, in turn, will enable you to avoid the minefield elements that can derail a project so you can enjoy success rather than failure.

To find out more about our SaaS project management software and training programmes, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.