A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it’s an undo-it-yourself project.
Abigail Van Buren – Self Help Guru
I’ve project managed $200M projects. I’ve had some jobs come in on budget, in scope, and on schedule. I’ve had projects fail miserably and been fired. I’ve had to kill projects. I think I’ve made almost every project mistake. There are things I’ve learned on why projects fail:
- Bad politics.
- Wrong project manager or team members on the wrong project.
- Prima donna or maverick team members.
- ‘Hole in the wall’ offices, few resources, and bad facilities.
- ‘Death march’ project
- Reinvent the universe project
- ‘Throw more people’ at the project
- ‘We’re all behind you’ attitude by executive management and stakeholders.
- Gold plating requirements.
- Project creep.
- Wish lists and product goodies (scope creep).
- ‘I wanted it’ yesterday attitude.
- Fuzzy understandings – fuzzy everything.
- ‘It’s their job’ attitude.
- ‘Plan is a 4-letter word’ attitude.
- ‘Silver-bullet’ attitude.
- Too many surprises and gotcha’s.
- Few risk-controls.
- ‘I know it all’ attitude.
I’ve been on both sides of the above mistakes – perpetrator and victim. Quick takeaway: it’s better to be the perpetrator and be right. You get to fight another day. However, if you find yourself on the perpetrator making mistakes or the victim side of the equation, start thinking of your Plan B’s.
Work Lesson Earned: Read good books: Career Survival, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Lao Tzu’s Art of War. You’ll get a different perspective on the project game and learn how to play another day.