Declaring Failure

No one likes to be called a loser. Unfortunately, some projects can make the project manager, the project team, and all associated parties feel like failures. How many projects are started, stopped, and rearranged, only to complete the cycle again and again without ever getting anywhere near the projected deliverables?

For a project to be a success, it must include these things:

A vision of the project’s deliverables
Adequate skills by the project manager
Adequate skills by the project team
Enough finances to provide for the resources to complete the implementation
Time to complete the work to produce the deliverables
Change management to protect the project scope
Commitment from the project manager, project sponsor, the project team, and management

Without these elements, a project will have a very tough, if not impossible, time succeeding. At some point in a doomed project, the team, the project manager, and management may become so disgusted by the lack of progress that the project needs to be written off and put out of its misery.

In these instances, the project ceases to exist. The attempted implementation is a failure, and it’s a general unhappiness for everyone. If you find yourself in this situation, and hopefully you will not, look for an understanding of why the project failed. Evaluate the project requirements, the finances, the talents of the team, and the available time. Evaluate your own performance and the performance of your team. Learn from the mistake and become a better person because of it. As Thomas Edison said, “I know that I will succeed sooner or later because I am running out of things that won’t work.”

In other instances, the project may be canceled not because of a lack of leadership, finances, or time, but because of a new influence on the project. Examples include the following:

A better, cheaper technology is released.
A better solution is discovered within the current project.
The need for the deliverables has been eliminated by the client.
The organization has changed its focus.
The organization is experiencing financial strains.
The organization has been absorbed by another organization.

Regardless of the project status as success or failure, the project manager must create a final project report so that management may review the work of the project. Scope verification and an audit of the project up to the point of the project’s cancellation is needed.