Projects fail for all kinds of reasons. Customers can change their objectives, key team members can leave for other companies, communication can be pure, budgets can disappear, materials can be delayed, and priorities can go unmanaged.
So what are you supposed to do?
Step 1
Stop blaming! Despite being very tempting, this is unlikely to be helpful. The truth is that project success depends on every team member. Every single person’s motivation and proficiency matter. All projects are like boats, where a leader shows direction, motivates the team members, and provides them with positive energy from time to time to ensure that all team members remain committed to achieving the project completion milestones.
More you can find here Who is to blame when a project fails?
Step 2
Find out why your project is failing. Communication is vital in moving forward following a project failure, as feedback is essential to your review process. Identifying past mistakes is a great way to improve work in the future.
The step to recovering a failing project is to recognize it. With most projects, recovery is possible at some point. There is no need to panic, but sounding an alarm about a project’s problems is critical.
Consider these seven issues if you’re still struggling to determine the root of your project failure. They tend to be the most common causes of project failure.
Complexity
External
Financial
Operational
Organizational
Schedule
Technology
Step 3
Retrospectives! You must assemble a team, sit them together, and work through a rescue workshop. All key decision-makers must be present. At the end of each sprint, the product and the process of producing the product are reviewed and corrected if necessary. If an Agile process fails, it must have broken down somewhere. A more appropriate response would be to determine what went wrong to prevent it from happening again.
Implementing the process effectively, including Sprint Reviews and Sprint Retrospectives, with an emphasis on continuously improving both the product and the process for producing the product as the project progresses.
Step 4
Looking ahead more realistically, try to find new ways of rescuing the project: increase the team, budget, time, etc. Confirm the project’s path forward with all involved in complete detail, with precise commitments for each team member. Make sure your communication with the team is clear. Approve that everyone accepts their new responsibilities to the project.
There is, of course, another option, which is to cancel the project altogether. If the failure is because the project is inherently flawed, then there may be little point in trying to deliver it. Ideally, this is nothing more than a last resort, and you may have more success reducing the project scope rather than scrapping it entirely.
We all make mistakes, and projects rarely run entirely smoothly. Instead, identify the mistakes, learn from them, and move on.
Just be honest and open with your team about the project's progress and any necessary additional resources, and accept responsibility for any part you played in the project's failure.
Good luck!
Ruslana is a Sales&Marketing Manager at JetThoughts. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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