Two Real-Life Examples of Poor Project Planning

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Jean Scheid

It's inevitable that you'll forget something during your first stab at project planning. However, going
forward with a poorly planning project can be disastrous. Get some real-life examples of what not
to do, and some tips on avoiding it in your own business.

Every business owner or manager has tons of projects they need to

complete. This is where it pays to have some knowledge of project
management to ensure everything falls into place. Poor project
planning can cost you: sometimes in the form of thousands of
dollars, sometimes just in time and headaches, which can be just as
bad. Get some examples of how poor project planning can cost
you, and some tips on getting it right the first time.
Real Life Examples of Project Planning Gone Awry
I often try to implement new processes or procedures in my car dealership based on
customer or employee input. One of the processes I wanted to improve upon was the time it
took for service customers to bring their cars in for service, communication on needed
repairs, and an easy pick up when the vehicle was ready. Seems simple right? Well it wasn’t!
First off, I gathered the opinions and concerns from both employees and customers. I created
a timeline of the way things were currently being done along with the suggestions on how to
improve the entire process. I was sure my new process would be streamlined and keep the
customers and my employees happy.

Once my service manager and I created the written policy, we reviewed it with our service
employees. Even though we had obtained all of our service employees' input, one employee
noted, “What if the service manager is not available to take a customer’s telephone call?"

Yes, that “what if" did indeed occur! Upon this realization, suggestions were thrown at me and
before I knew it, I had six different ideas on how this could be handled—some good and
some ineffective. At this point, I tried to implement an unnecessary element into my new
service process—after all, the service manager does go out to lunch! It didn’t work out well
because I tried to force a solvable element into a process that really didn’t need this element!
Hence, my service manager and I went back to the drawing board to figure out the solution
to this problem which could have been avoided if I would have analyzed my project in more
detail. In essence, this service solution project failed and, until redeveloped, both my
customers and my employees were affected.

Another Example
Another real-life example of poor project planning is the
introduction of the Chrysler PT Cruiser. While the Chrysler
Corporation had the design, production, and advertising right on
key, they didn’t consider dealer showroom delivery times into the
project equation.

While top heads at Chrysler production plants fought about how

to deal with this, they also received nasty phone calls from
dealership owners who had their own ideas. The solution (an
added, non-planned-for element) was to just ship out cars to any old rails in any old city and
let the dealers figure it all out—this, of course, did not work, revealing the importance of a
good project plan.

Deciding upon the best idea on delivery times and ensuring the much anticipated public
turned the delivery of wanted PT Cruisers into a real-time nightmare. Dealers lost deposits
and customers purchased cars from other automakers.

If product delivery schedules would have been included in the project scope, this debacle
would have never happened. Avoiding the analysis of the delivery times harmed Chrysler's
initial sales of the PT Cruiser.

Tips on Avoiding Project Failure

Sure, there are always going to be elements that pop up that haven't been thought of or
analyzed. However, there are some rules you can follow that minizmize the possibility of plans
exploding in your face. This is Project Management 101 for business owners or managers:

Vision & Mission – Every project must possess a good vision and mission that is clear,
concise, and understood by everyone involved in the project.
Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) – A good WBS, if well written and reviewed, can
determine just about every element of a project including items from initiation to
testing to completion to delivery to market, as well as the project tasks that need to be
completed.
User Stories – Although an Agile Management Methodology, user stories offered by
clients, stakeholders and end-users can make a world of difference in determining
every element of the project at hand.
Milestones – You should create milestones within the project that can be reviewed
when complete and compare the outcomes to your WBS and user stories. Don’t
proceed if milestones aren’t clear or effective.
Iterations – Used in Six Sigma, iteration planning is often very effective. Once an
individual team completes its iteration sprint, if it’s not right, it goes back.
Critical Path – Use a critical path method to find acceptable levels of project goals and
milestones as well as those that are not acceptable or above or below the critical line of
the chart.
Scheduling – Stick with a good scheduling plan and review it often to address
concerns.
Status Meetings – You must employ regular status meetings to keep up to date with
what every member of your team is doing. Make these mandatory.
Communication – Without an effective communication plan that is accessible to
everyone, issues are bound to come up that you did not think of.
If you look back at your career, you can probably identify at least one project where
unplanned obstacles derailed your goals. Use these steps to avoid problems, and if need be,
run with a project scenario first to see what’s not included, what shouldn’t be included, and
how best to fix the wanted or unwanted project elements.