Steven Hayes posted Jan 13, 2022 6:20 PM Subscribe
“A project can only be successful if the success criteria were defined from the start.” (Siles, 2021). I would define a successful project as something that meets all the requirements that is needed by the business or company, it is within the budget that has been provided, it is delivered within the timeframe that has been provided, and the ROI is met or exceeded. I believe there can be many factors to why a project could be unsuccessful. Forgetting to plan what resources are needed could be a reason why. PM’s could get caught up in planning the meetings and worrying about timelines that that could slip through the cracks. Another reason could be that the goals and objectives are unclear. People can easily begin working on a project without knowing what they are actually trying to accomplish. Progress could be made that way, but how would one truly know if they have succeeded if no clear goal is in sight (Kissflow, 2021). A failed project I remember reading about was the Ouya console. The company was promising it’s users free access to independently developed games. Starting off they were able to meet the budget goal because their original funding goal was $950,000, and they were able to raise $8.5 million. It all fell apart after that. The development of that console was awful and after just three years on the market, their online servers went officially dark. They had clear goals, but didn’t take into account how measurable they were (Inouye, 2021).
References:
Inouye, J. (2021, October 18). This is why the Ouya was a huge flop. Looper.com. Retrieved January 13, 2022, from https://www.looper.com/303294/this-is-why-the-ouya-was-a-huge-flop/
Kissflow. (2021, September 30). Project failure: 6 reasons why project fails and how to avoid it. Kissflow. Retrieved January 13, 2022, from https://kissflow.com/project/why-projects-fail/
Siles, R. (2021). Definition of Project Success. PM4DEV. Retrieved January 13, 2022, from https://www.pm4dev.com/pm4dev-blog/entry/definition-of-project-success.html