William Akoto Oppong
School of Finance & Financial Management, Business University Costa Rica (UNEM)
Email: waoppong@gmail.com
Abstract
Most projects are planned properly and conceived rightly. However, they often fail because of poor implementation as well as flawed execution on the ground. Indeed, the last mile connectivity or closing the loop from planning to execution is what determines the success of projects. For instance, take the case of a typical construction project wherein the planning is perfect and yet it fails mainly due to on the ground problems related to lack of proper personnel management, issues with political stakeholders, and above all, the hands-off approach that most project managers embrace by leaving the actual implementation to their subordinates so of whom are either lacking in expertise or experience or have different agendas of their own. The term hands-off approach is something that is very critical as it is the case that project managers must involve themselves with on the ground nuts and bolts rather than sitting in air-conditioned offices and being removed from the on the ground realities. In addition, the fact that software projects often fail is due to the problems of flawed implementation from the last mile phase where the implementation team does not “connect” with the overall purpose of the project and instead, focuses on only on the last phase which might or might not be the key for successful implementation.
Keywords: Project Managers, Project Managers Attention, Project Mile Connectivity, Project Success
