Why Projects Fail

I read an interesting article the other day on project failure and its relationship to complexity. It defined complexity as three factors: Structural (how big the project is/how many bits it has); Dynamic (how fast things are changing during the project); and Socio-Political (how much people and politics interfere). It is fairly obvious to see that the higher these three factors are the more likely the project is to run into difficulties. 

As a project manager I always followed one simple rule: get a good project or program sponsor and make the socio-political aspects their responsibility. Then you as project or program manager can concentrate on the structural and dynamic aspects. If a project is too big, decompose it into manageable chunks (sub-projects or projects within a program). If the requirements are changing too fast, then switch to an agile approach. I rest my case.

Topsham RFC

On the rugby front the storm held off enough last week so we could play three games (1st XV, 2nd XV and Colts XV) on Saturday and all the Juniors games went ahead on Sunday. The Ladies were playing in a 10's competition somewhere else and I don't know how they got on. The ground looks a lot better this week and the 1st XV and Ladies are playing at home. What with that, the six nations and Exeter playing Saracens, it's going to be a pretty full weekend!

More on the projects next week.