Rocket Science … and Project Failures

Stakeholder engagement ... it's how you avoid the big bang.

What are the most common causes of troubled projects?  While many studies have focused on this question, when you filter through the data and the analyses, the answer most often ties to poor stakeholder management.   While that might seem to be an over-simplification, it really isn’t. 

Last week, my colleague, Ruth Elswick discussed the need for understanding stakeholder expectations and then engaging the right people in the right way on your project.  These early steps are crucial in preventing and reducing many of the common causes of troubled projects.  Failing to properly pursue stakeholder management is asking for trouble. 

According to the KPMG New Zealand Project Management Survey 2010, “One of the fundamental reasons why projects fail is the lack of executive sponsorship and management buy-in.”  Therefore, stakeholder management has to start at the top by clearly defining the sponsor’s role.  Many sponsors don’t understand the breadth and depth of their role and its impact.  They are responsible for bringing diverse stakeholders together, defining the project, aligning the project with organizational goals and strategies, obtaining the needed resources, communicating enthusiasm about the project and its benefits, and being involved with the project.  All of these activities help send a message about the importance of the project.  Project managers often find that they have to “educate” the sponsor about some of these responsibilities.

Poor management of this key stakeholder may have dire results, such as not being on the management “radar,” and therefore, not receiving adequate prioritization and support.  Top management support is essential.   In contrast, an involved sponsor, playing a well-defined role, not only can obtain needed resources and support, but can also boost the project team’s level of energy by their presence, encouragement, and communication of the importance of the project to the bottom line of the organization.

One of the top ten early warning signs for project failure is inadequate participation of key stakeholders in major review meetings.  Their absence sends the message that the project is not a high priority, and other stakeholders begin to disengage. The negative results may include not getting adequate resources, resources being removed from your project, and, ultimately, project cancellation or failure. 

Another class of stakeholder of critical interest is the customer/end users category.  High percentages of technology projects experience excessive scope changes that result in cost and schedule overruns, and increased stress for the project team.  Those excessive scope changes are often tracked back to inadequate identification of stakeholders, and to failure to adequately explore their needs.  Some of the most effective techniques to reduce these problems include the use of standard stakeholder questionnaires and risk checklists for specific types of projects.  These tools and templates assist in standardizing project processes and reducing oversights.  Such tools also help to bring anyone that is new to the type of project or the processes (including clients) up to speed much more quickly, and make it easier for anyone joining the project after the start to understand what work has been completed.

The ability to quickly get up to speed after joining a project that is already underway is critical given the pressure to deliver better results with fewer resources.  Organizations that use strong on-boarding processes are able to reduce the
time it takes for a new member to become productive, and to reduce the stress on both new and existing team members that result from resource changes.  Organizations that don’t use formal on-boarding processes typically report more stress and more delays in bringing team members up to speed, which ultimately results in higher costs and slower
deliveries.

Many of these negative results can be avoided by early and continuing stakeholder engagement, but it won’t happen without the efforts of the project manager and project sponsor.

So, where does the rocket science come in? Project management isn’t rocket science … but it helps us do rocket science, along with many other types of projects where failures can be spectacular. Next week, we’ll discuss what project managers can do to exercise excellent stakeholder engagement … even when they are not in the pilot’s seat.  

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