Author: Dr. Stephen K. A. Hammond, DBA. FPMP
Lecturer, Institute of Project Management Professionals
Email: stepham_k@yahoo.com
Abstract
Having talked about project success, it is only fair to highlight what constitutes project failure. Researchers increasingly measure success by the impact on the organization rather than just meeting the triple constraints. Despite having been executed as planned, within schedule, on budget and according to performance goals, some projects turn out to be failures. Such projects failed to produce actual benefits to end-users considering they are a core part of project success determination. Another angle is the failure to generate adequate revenue to the organization in question (Dvir, Raz & Shenhar, 2003). In examining some of the causes of project failures, Attarzadeh and Ow (2008) espoused that software managers often have to monitor and manage many projects concurrently. Unfortunately, while some projects are completed successfully, others are not completed on time and some are cancelled. According to them, some of the reasons for project failure are lack of user involvement; lack of planning; incomplete requirements; lack of resources; and incorrect cost estimation among other factors. Even though there are several project planning and scheduling techniques, not all of them are appropriate for every project and this leads to some projects failing in the end (Damoah, 2015). However, it is the position of this research that, just as literature is not conclusive on what constitutes project success, it is not surprising that project failure is also relatively dependent on which stakeholder is assessing it.
Keywords: Project Failure, Project Challenges, Project Management
