Failure Before the Project Starts

Some projects are prone to failure before it even gets off the ground. A company needs to make money to survive. Creating products that the company can sell will keep the business going. How does a business come up with ideas on products to sell?It is amazing some of the ideas that come out of the marketing department. Ideas come out and start to get implemented without any thought to whether it will sell or not. There are lots of ways to see if the product will sell. What does your customer base want from your company? Are other companies having success with the same product? Was there a survey done to see if people want the product? Is the product linked to some specific business strategy? Without some support from marketing to show how the product will improve the bottom line, it will not get the support it needs as it is being developed. This means the project will be stopped short of completion.

When all the envisioned products are put in a line, how do you choose which one to work on? There might be a hundred product ideas but you have only enough resources to work on five of the ideas. Each department will want their ideas at the top of the list. In many companies, politics plays more of role on projects than business strategy. Sometimes the most profitable project is put at the end of the list because the department head is not in good graces with the President of the company.Most projects are given deadlines from senior management. Some of these deadlines are so unrealistic that the project will always be in trouble. Deadlines can only be made once all the facts are in. You should get all the experts in a room to define deliverables and approximate times, only then can an approximate deadline be given.

Sometimes projects are so vague there is no clear definition on what it is. Projects must have clear and precise characteristics. Only by clearly defining a project can it be a success. Deliverables must be measurable to ensure clear paths to completion. Vague deliverables leaves projects susceptible to scope creep. Customers will never be satisfied because there was no clear picture of the product before the project started.A project fails because:

1. The project is not linked to a specific business strategy.
2. The product does not have the support it needs from the beginning.
3. Department heads are not in agreement on the right path for the company.
4. Deadlines are unrealistic.
5. Product is vague on the requirements for success.