4 Famous Project Management Failures and What to Learn from Them


EPMO, Internal Audit, IT, Product Development, Professional Services, Resource Management

Tired business woman at workplace in office

Every project begins with a single idea or goal, and the best of intentions. But as they progress, mistakes are made, communications break down, and deadlines and budgets change. It’s these problems that mean, even when projects are started for the right reasons, 55% of businesses experience failed projects. In fact, 17% of large-scale IT projects go so badly that they threaten the very existence of the company.

Why do projects fail? And what leads to a failed project? This post will look at some project failure examples, including the worst-case scenarios, to identify the root cause of the problem, in the hope that we can ensure project managers don’t make the same fatal mistakes.

  1. Ford Edsel

Ford Edsel is one of the most spectacular project failure examples in automotive history. Ford’s team did extensive market research before it released the Edsel, even doing studies to make sure the car had the right ‘personality’ to attract the ideal customer. They spent 10 years and $250 million on research and planning—but by the time all this was completed, and the car was unveiled in 1957, Ford had missed its chance. The market had already moved on to buying compact cars, which didn’t include the Edsel.

Lessons learned: The Ford Edsel is the perfect fail project example that emphasizes the importance of speed to market and how even a major brand and product can fail if a project loses velocity. Poor communication and inaccurate deadlines can slow a project down to the point where it’s no longer relevant or valuable, let alone successful.

Paying ultimate attention to areas like resource availability and utilization—ensuring project workers are working to capacity and to the best of their ability—creates more accurate project timeline estimations and stops projects from dragging.

  1. NHS Civilian IT

Back in 2007, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) looked to revolutionize the way technology is used in the health sector, through the introduction of electronic health records, digital scanning, and integrated IT systems across hospitals and community care. They called it the ‘Civilian Computer System.’ It would have been the largest of its kind in the world. But it failed because of contractual changes—including changing specifications, supplier disputes, and technical problems. Estimates of the cost of the now-abandoned project hover around the £11.4 billion mark.

Lessons learned: Change is almost inevitable during the course of a project, especially with large and complex ones like the NHS undertook. This is one of the most talked-about project failure examples that shows the importance of flexibility for achieving great results. You need to be able to react to changes as they occur, but also preemptively identify potential problems in order to stop them before they wreak havoc.

Project and resource modeling allows project managers to create a model where they can test, in real-time, the effects of changing or modifying their projects to keep ahead of schedule. So even in the event of unexpected changes, you’re prepared for what’s next.

  1. Airbus A380

Building the Airbus A380—the world’s largest commercial aircraft at the time—required production facilities from across the globe to build individual parts of the airplane. Unfortunately, these teams used different computer-aided design (CAD) programs. During installation, they discovered the parts designed by different teams didn’t fit together. This cost the company $6 billion to put right and set the project back two years.

Lessons learned: The Airbus A380 is one of those failed projects examples that teach you the importance of proper workforce coordination. Unexpected problems will always be a challenge, but there are added challenges when your workforce is based remotely or in silos. For instance, it can take longer to report problems and coordinate the right response. If Airbus’s dispersed project teams had better-prioritized communication, the problem could have been solved before the installation phase, before it was too late.

When teams work across geographies, it’s important to set goals and metrics to ensure everyone understands their tasks, like what they’re expected to achieve and when. Resource management allows you to manipulate resource data in real time, so, if something goes wrong, the problem can be resolved as soon as possible. Using remote workers makes it difficult to gather everyone in a room, explain the problem, and find the solution. Resource management tools provide real-time reporting for full visibility over your resources, so you can instantly enact change.

  1. Knight Capital

In 2012, when Knight Capital was brought on to work on new code for a new SEC program, an over-optimistic deadline caused them to go to production with test code. After production, a glitch cost the company $440 million within the first 30 minutes of trading, and company stock fell 75% within just two days.

Lessons learned: You need a granular-level view of your projects to forecast how long a project will feasibly take to complete and avoid setting unrealistic targets or deadlines. Resource management is crucial in analyzing and utilizing project resources, so projects can be completed as efficiently as possible without the need to rush work or take shortcuts.

Avoid famous project management failure with resource management

The project failure examples listed above were carried out on a monumental scale—involving a sea of moving parts and relied on a lot of people to complete. While no project can guarantee success, resource management can help measure and manage the moving parts of a project. The right resource management solution can help a project manager gain more control over their projects, providing insight into every step of the process.

So, what can be done to overcome the fear of project failure? The first and most important step is understanding why projects fail in the first place.

A lack of planning is why projects fail

Part of the reason why projects fail is because any project that goes over budget or takes too long to complete is deemed a ‘failure’—even if the project does eventually get completed. And the main reason projects go over budget or take too long is due to a lack of planning.

Another reason why projects fail is not because of a shortage in project managers or technology tools, but problems with how resources are managed.

Both these problems can be remedied by giving due attention to resource management and the proper level of planning. But this planning takes multiple forms:

  • Planning ahead
  • People planning
  • Planning for a worse-case scenario

Let’s look at each of these areas of planning in more detail:

  1.   Planning ahead

When managing a project, it’s crucial you intelligently distribute the project resources (i.e. your employees) at your disposal. Without this, projects can quickly get out of control in terms of expense and duration, the leading causes of project failure.

The process of resource planning helps project managers identify all the resources required to complete a project (money, equipment, sites, but most importantly, people).

How to plan ahead

The best way to plan your project resources is through resource management. Resource management concerns the allocation of resources, with planning and modeling features to provide more control and visibility over your people than you could with project management software or spreadsheets.

  1.   People planning

Your people are ultimately responsible for how efficiently your projects run. As a project manager, you can help them by knowing exactly who’s working on what, and when. This comes down to resource allocation: planning projects around the right people and vice versa. This can help work run more smoothly, boosting the productivity of your workforce and the efficiency of your projects.

How to plan

Improved visibility over your resources will leave you better placed to balance the allocation of your team. By distributing work evenly across projects—and assigning tasks to the people most equipped for the job—you mitigate the risk of under or overutilization of staff. Resource management software can create a visual representation of resource allocation, providing hot/cool maps to make it much easier to spot staff that might be over or under-worked, so you can solve the problem quicker.

  1.   Planning for a worse-case scenario

Projects can go wrong at the most inopportune moments. Resources can become scarce (if workers are sick or must go on leave) and project deadlines can be tightened due to budget restrictions or stakeholders changing their direction or the expected outcome. No matter how much prior planning you put in place, there’s always a chance that things will change. So, the best thing you can do is be as prepared as possible for whatever may be ‘around the corner’.

How to plan

Resource management software can help project and resource managers expect the unexpected, using ‘What-if’ scenario planning to test hypothetical scenarios so you don’t have to commit the time, money and resources up front. So, you can see the effects of hiring more contractors or extending project deadline in real-time, helping you make more informed decisions.

Overcome project failure with Tempus Resource

Tempus Resource is a sophisticated resource management tool that offers real-time visibility over your projects and people, so you can plan for whatever comes your way.

  • Heatmaps and Coolmaps: offer a visual representation of your over- and under-allocated resources.
  • Modeling & Forecasting: features let project managers explore and examine their data to make changes and spot potential problems ahead of time.
  • What-If Analysis: ask questions of your data and projects, test ideas and discover alternative resource allocations to see how changes will impact your costs.

Tempus Resource can help organizations of any size and any level of project maturity reduce the risk of project failure. To find out more on how resource management can reduce the risk of project failure, get in touch with ProSymmetry today.

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