Alexis Holmes

OGL320: Foundations of Project Management

Dr. Thompson

January 22, 2022

The Five Reasons Projects Fail

Have you ever started a project and it suddenly fails? You thought you had the right

schedule set in place, the right team, the right resources? No matter how much you prepare your

project for success, there can always be other ways in which it could fail. The five reasons

projects fail include distractions, not understanding what you’re measuring, having little things

add up, not informing your stakeholders, and not having proper documentation.

What are distractions? Dictionary.com states, “distraction is that which distracts, divides

the attention, or prevents concentration” (Definition of distraction | Dictionary.com, 2022).

Distraction can be very harmful in trying to have a successful project, considering its whole goal

is to derail the project into a new direction. Whether that be making the project fall behind,

losing resources, or even deadlines not being met. As a leader, project manager, employee, or

stakeholder, they all must make sure their head is in the game so if any obstacles were to arise,

they would be ready. For example, I worked for an app startup company called SquadPod, where

the stakeholder wasn’t fully invested in the project we put together at the beginning of the

quarter. He had too many other companies he was investing in during this time, which allowed

him to be distracted from this project. This led our company to fail our first quarter goal, which

was adding an x amount more users onto the platform.

 Looking into ways in which you can better understand what you’re measuring in a project

can greatly affect the success of your project. In the article “10 Project Management Lessons

from the Titanic Disaster” it states, “The lack of lifeboats is a well-known matter, and it certainly

played a role in the number of deaths. However, did you know that Titanic DID have “enough

lifeboats? According to the standards in effect at the time, the WEIGHT of a ship—not the

number of passengers—determined the number of required lifeboats” (10 Project Management

Lessons from the Titanic Disaster | Sun, 2012). This prime example of the Titanic not having a

enough lifeboats to save all the passengers because they didn’t measure the project correctly just

shows how important it is to know what you’re measuring.

Little things can add up in projects to where it can completely dismantle the project

altogether. There’s a reason in which project managers set a timely schedule with deadlines,

because without it there won’t be any outcome. If employees are set with deadlines for a project

and one employee failed to meet every single deadline, then that one employee could set back

the entire project. This could lead to stakeholders ending the project because there was a change

in cost, time, or scope.

Speaking of stakeholders, not informing your stakeholders on the details, obstacles, or

outcomes of projects can severely impact projects negatively. As stated in Module 2 Powerpoint

Setting a Project up for Success: Identifying Influencing Factors, “A stakeholder is a person,

group or organization who can impact or be impacted by a decision, activity or outcome of a

project” (Setting a Project up for Success: Identifying Influencing Factors | Thompson, 2022).

An example of a negative impact on stakeholders would be a shopping center being built in a

residential area which now experience a higher volume of traffic than there originally was. Not

notifying these stakeholders about the building of the shopping center can lead to distrust
amongst residential residents. Which could force people to move in the future, especially if you

don’t inform the stakeholders.

Furthermore, keeping documentation on past projects is beneficial to understanding how

to run future projects within a company or organization. In doing so this allows companies to

have less risk of project failure. Having documentation serves a purpose to not only the company

but the customers to better understand a company’s system.

In conclusion, there are so many ways in which projects can fail yet all you can do is

prepare your project, team, and organization. Making sure you check all the boxes including

limiting distractions, understanding what you’re measuring, limiting little things adding up,

informing stakeholders, and having proper documentation.

 References

www.dictionary.com. 2022. Definition of distraction | Dictionary.com. [online] Available at:

<https://www.dictionary.com/browse/distraction> [Accessed 24 January 2022].

Sun, C. (2012, April 14). 10 project management lessons from the Titanic Disaster.

TechRepublic. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-

things/10-project-management-lessons-from-the-titanic-disaster/

Thompson, D. (2022, January 17). Setting a Project up for Success: Identifying Influencing

Factors. Retrieved January 24, 2022, from file:///C:/Users/alexi/Downloads/Module

%202.pdf.