Project Leading to Failure? 10 Useful Tips…

As a project manager, you are responsible for the overall success of a specific project. Suppose that, when 70% of the total duration of a project is complete, suddenly you realize that your project is going to fail. Being quite perplexed, you will look for probable solutions. Here are some important tips that will surely help you in this dire situation:

1. Defining Project Success Criteria and Expectations Properly
   There must be a specific roadmap for the success of the project as well as clear and realistic objectives. Any sort of mistake in this regard would ultimately lead to the failure of the project.
2. Adequate Planning
   Planning for the project progress must be a continuous process. Any sort of changes should be made in the planning process instantly whenever felt necessary.Every member of the project member should be confident about the necessity of these changes. Proper attention must be given in this regard. This process will be really helpful to minimize the possibility of project failure.
3. Improving Communication
   Proper communication is the most important matter for the overall progress of the project. The project manager has to identify whether there is any sort of communication problem between the team members of the project.  He/she should always be alert about the fact that all of the stakeholders of the project should get messages properly and in time. Moreover, he/she should always discuss with the team members and give proper value to their suggestions.
4. Solving Leadership Problems
   Successful leadership is required for every stakeholders of the project, from top to bottom. Everybody should be clear about who is responsible for what in a project. The project manager has to find out whether there is any sort of incapability in leadership that is evident from any person involved in the project, and he has to guide him properly so that all problems regarding this issue are quickly sorted out.
5. Ensuring Plenty of Resources
   The appropriate authority must ensure the quick availability of required resources (both physical and human), otherwise it will be quite impossible for the project manager to ensure that the project ends successfully. Sometimes it will be required to hire resources, and the management should take prompt decision to hire those resources.
6. Setting Realistic Deadline 
   In the case when an impractical deadline is set up for finishing project activities, it will surely lead to inevitable frustration and disappointment. That is why, the project leader should always give proper attention about setting up a completely reasonable deadline. If he/she feels that this deadline cannot be met, he/she must come forward to review the overall progress of the project and set up a new deadline, if possible. Otherwise, he/she should delegate more tasks to the project members to speed up the whole process. In case of necessity, he/she should hire appropriate staff to ensure the smooth progress of the project.
7. Being Conscious about the Budget
   If the project manager becomes certain that the remaining activities of the project cannot be finished successfully with the available budget, he/she should start minimizing the cost and become totally alert in further activities. The project manager should also make sure that the overall quality of the project is not compromised at any level while minimizing cost.
8. Ensuring Strong Monitoring
   As far as the project manager is concerned, he should always be strict enough to ensure the proper monitoring of activities related to the project. Without perfect monitoring, there are every chances that situations may arise which will lead to the last-minute surprise and ultimate failure of the project.
9. Improving Risk Management System
   Less focus on risk management would certainly lead to Project Failure & most often the point of failure would be at the tail end, so all the cost spent on it might get sunk with low or zero ROI. That is why, the project manager should review the risk management strategies regularly so that in any case of emergency, he/she can stand firmly and make quick decisions.
10. Making Certain about the Involvement of Senior Management and Business Owners
    The project manager should always ascertain the proper and timely involvement of the senior management or business owners about all sorts of decisions taken during the project period. This will assist him/her to take necessary measures when required.