Preventing Project Failure

This fourth post in the series Making Theory Usable focuses on the lack of Project Discipline as a core cause of project failure.

What is Project Discipline?

Discipline is defined as “The systematic instruction given to a disciple. To discipline thus means to instruct a person to follow a particular code of conduct”

Further, self-discipline is defined as “.. the training that one gives one’s self to accomplish a certain task or to adopt a particular pattern of behavior, even though one would really rather be doing something else”

If Project Management is a true discipline, and if you are a PMP you have signed a Code of Conduct, then you are disciple of project management, grasshopper.  ;>  I won’t go there, but my point here is that project failure does carry an interwoven thread of project discipline failure. The less disciplined the PM, the more likely the project is to fail.

So what exactly is ‘discipline’ in Project Management? Well, to grossly oversimplify to make a point, the PMBOK boils down to the tools you need to think about project stuff, and the documentation of that project stuff.

There are the tools you use to determine risk…then the documentation of risk

There are the tools you use to figure out scope…then the documentation of scope

There are the tools you use to figure out stakeholders…then the documentation of stakeholders

You get the idea.

I think that there are two aspects of PM discipline; physical and strategic.

The rigorous and continued use of tools and documentation is the physical aspect of the discipline. This physical aspect of discipline in Project Management leverages the power of the written word.

Note that it is the written word, not the spoken word, that changes things and makes things stick. Think about that. JK Rowling would still be an administrative assistant if she hadn’t written what was in her head. The spoken word is an ephemeral temporary thing; it morphs into something else moments after it occurs. The vibration of that soundwave travels and you no longer hear it, and so it’s gone. Writing down the temporary spoken word transforms it into permanency, it captures it and ensures longevity. It gives the temporary thing, the soundwave, long lasting and permanent power.

But the real reason behind Project Management discipline, ie the end result of Project Management, is the discovery and elaboration of strategic direction and action to ensure success. In other words, the physical aspect of Project Management discipline results in knowing exactly what to do and when in order to reach your goal. It’s the strategic thought, the laying out of the plan, the decisive action that is the heart and soul of Project Management discipline.

There’s a lot of What’s In It For Me (WIFFM) in PM Discipline. Discipline actually ensures your protection and success. This is because using the tools and documentation make you think. Thinking makes you do the right thing before something goes wrong. Then you take effective, strategic action that ensures your success. This is the strategic aspect of Project Management discipline.

And isn’t that that what planning (as in scope plan, comm. Plan, QA plan, project plan) , and this profession in general, is really about?

Key Discipline Areas to Mitigate Project Failure

I admit that I don’t use all the tools in the PMBOK but caveat that to say that I’ve worked in large and very small businesses and I haven’t seen one organization or PM that religiously uses all of them. More worrisome, I’ve talked to PMs who believe that using the tools is a waste of time.

I have observed that PMs who are more disciplined tend to have less project failure. They just don’t get into the same binds that non-disciplined PMs get into.

They don’t get into the arguments about who said what. Their teams don’t break down into us-them silos They don’t miss requirements. Their product works. Their users like their product. Their projects don’t get shut down by angry sponsors.

We don’t hear about the disciplined PMs too much. They just go about their day doing great things. I think about these PMs when I’m using Amazon, and it always works; or Google, and it always works; or ChevyChaseBank.com, and it always works. Behind the every day success of these every day apps lies a disciplined PM.

I think that if all PMs regularly used the tools and documents in the following key areas, and took strategic action based on the use of these tools, we’d see a lot less project failure. These areas and the tips below represent areas where I have personally witnessed project failure. These are the areas that keep cropping up again and again in the project management literature.

PMs would do well to be more disciplined as follows:

Scope

Ask the right questions from the start.

Connect your project to key strategic drivers.

Actively seek answers to the triple constraint; know your sponsors priorities.

Build a work breakdown structure.

Determine success criteria, discuss and document your assumptions and constraints.

Document this in your project charter, project management plan and your scope management plan.

Build a schedule and keep it up to date.

Communications

Do a stakeholder analysis, stakeholder registry and stakeholder management strategy.

Establish the right project sponsor

Look at communications paths and methods.

Figure out where the weaknesses are. Create a communications plan.

Enforce recurring meetings and meet with the project sponsors at least once a month.

Don’t rely on paper status reports. Talk to people in person.

Document the communication immediately in agendas and meeting notes.

Use collaborative software to make all communications and decisions visible.

Risk Management

Identify risks before you begin the project.

Involve your stakeholders in mitigation strategies.

Build and actively maintain a risk register.

Make risks visible and constant in project meetings and communications.

Risks are always a standard discussion item.

Change Management

Create a change control board (CCB) from the start of your project.

Involve key stakeholders in the CCB.

Insist that all changes follow the change control process.

The change control process should have a visible record of requests and decisions, documented in either a system or on paper.

Quality Assurance (IT specific)

Create test scripts.

Test your product against your clearly defined initial scope and success criteria.

Test your product against your clearly defined changes.

Keep your scripts up to date.

Setup a unique test environment, as close as a mimic to production as you can.

Insist every change goes through the change control process.

Simulate production loads and threats as much as possible.

Final Thought

I read a lot about project failure. And there are a lot of reasons why project fail but I do firmly believe that there is a continual thread that runs though all of them and that is project management discipline. It’s like the failure of project management discipline has many manifestations; in one project it manifests as scope failure, in another, it manifests as QA failure and in yet another, it manifests as risks that weren’t headed off at the pass.

A Disciplined PM can Make all the Difference.

I end with a thought from Sun Tzu: “The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline; thus it is in [thier] power to control success.”

• • Comments [9]
  • Tags [Project Discipline, project failure]
  • Categories [Making Theory Usable Series]