In this series, I am writing briefly about some barriers to project success that are fairly common in my experience. Here is the last set in my list:

22. Lack of resource management in the organization – Of course there is some kind of “resource management” in place, but if the organization has not stepped up to managing specialized people resources in effective ways for competing projects, there will be many issues like several mentioned in this list.   
    
23. Not identifying and managing risks – All large and complex projects have risks which must be taken into account. Risks are known (identified) or unknown (unidentified) events that can have an impact. (They are usually negative impacts, although positive events/impacts can happen too, and they’re called opportunities.) Consideration must be given in the planning process to the events that are most likely to occur and/or that would have the largest impact. For those, the team should spend some time, based on probability of occurrence, of how to deal with the risk either beforehand or when the event occurs. Some of these risks, if appropriate, might justify bringing in some people (executives or specialists) from outside the core team to make recommendations. 
    
24. Uncontrolled scope creep – This one is a classic, but it is a true and common problem. There is often a tendency of the requesters of projects – the customers, or possibly more often, the users of the product being developed – to realize during development that there are other features that should be added. The features might be absolute necessities, or they might be nice to have. But allowing more features to be added almost always expands the work, the schedule, and the cost. 
    
25. Not informing management promptly when help is needed – If the project runs into problems that will definitely or potentially put it behind schedule and over budget by a significant amount, or at risk of not meeting the goals, then the PM must bring the matter to management attention. This is especially true, if the PM does not quickly identify a solution that can bring the project back “on track”, because then escalation and requests for help may be required, depending on exact circumstances. Failure to inform management (or the PMO if it is a point of control) that there is a problem is a serious mistake. Senior management needs to know when any important project is in trouble. 
    
26. Lack of management response when help is requested – Just as serious, is the case where a project manager informs management that a project is in trouble and nothing is done. At the very least, there should be a meeting (or review) to determine 1) if the PM has correctly explored the options, and 2) whether any other solutions are possible from a higher, cross-project perspective. Of course, there are situations where the project in trouble is the lowest priority, or the factors involved are outside of the organization’s immediate control. But in any case, the PM should be given advice on how to proceed. 
    
27. No monitoring (project reviews) and control outside of team – Monitoring and control means checking whether the project is staying reasonably “on plan”, and taking steps to adjust if necessary. It should be done at two levels: by the project manager and team, and by someone with appropriate authority outside of the team – usually executive management or a PMO (if one exists). Large complex projects should typically have formal outside reviews scheduled at certain key points in the project timeline.  

The full list of 27 barriers to success outlines a number of things that can negatively impact projects, resulting in schedule and budget overruns and potentially not achieving the expected or desired business value. So, studying these barriers to success may help you avoid the potential problems. Again, not all of the identified problems are controllable by the project manager, but the large majority of them are. The project manager must step up to the challenge.

Raymond Posch is publisher of Weekly PM Insights newsletter as well as being a full time project manager. See Ray's bio on our Meet the Experts page. He can be reached at ray@projectsuccesstips.com.

Filed under Project Management - General