Fixing Bad Projects

Dr. Martin Barnes, Executive Director, of The Major Projects Association (MPA, UK), explained why many projects fail.

"There are projects where failure is obvious and cannot be denied. On close examination, the chances are that they will contain at least one of four main causes of failure:

- Lack of clarity about what is to be achieved
- Too much complexity, too many interfaces to manage
- Too much technological innovation in the project
- Poor relationships and using the wrong kind of contracts between those who contribute to the project

Any one of these introduces a good chance of failure. If you have all four writ large, there is
no project manager, however competent, who stands a chance of finishing the
project on time and on budget and so that the finished thing works."

Six practices for fixing bad projects are discussed. This is good advice for ALL projects!
See: Max's Musings - Fixing Bad Projects