Barriers for Project Success

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Hi,

Interesting question! One approach is to look at barriers from various sources, as not everyone agrees to the nature of barriers, which you can consider. This is the approach this response takes. I also provided an article at the end of this response that discusses the steps for a successful project.

RESPONSE:

1. What are the six barriers for project success? Give examples of how these barriers might hamper a project.

There are many different types of barriers for project success discussed in the business literature. Let's look at some of them, which you can consider.

From one source:

Top 10 Sources of Project Failure

Do any of these conditions exist in your organization? Do you see the possible linkages between them and poor project performance? Think about whether you are doing anything to address these potential roots of problems. If not, then you might be stuck at current performance levels

1) Failure to appreciate the impact of a multi-project environment on single project success. Takes longer for the deliverables and some factors are not considered leading to poor communication and poor performance. Risk managment plan does not include all factors to avoid failure (For more detail click URL: http://www.focusedperformance.com/articles/multipm.html)

a) Trying to put 10 pounds of projects through a 5-pound pipeline in a multi-project environment.
b) Wasting of resources through dedication to projects, making them unavailable to support other projects.
c) Failure of management to provide real guidance on priority of projects before they are planned and promised.

c1) As well as the flip side, ignoring rational plans and promises for perceived, but questionable, priorities. As an explanation of this, IMHO, project priorities are part of the initiation phase. Once promised and launched, all project have equal priority -- to complete when and how promised -- and deserve attention only proportionate to the threats to that promise.

c2) Another flip side regarding priorities -- failure of management to kill projects when their reason for existence goes away.

2) Irrational promises made due to a failure to take into account the variable nature of task performance. Results in the team loosing motivation and may cause apathy and a lack of commitment. It could lead to conflict and anger, which leads to poor performance (More... http://www.focusedperformance.com/articles/ccrisk2.html#2d_durations)

3) Irrational promises made due to a failure to take into account the statistical nature of project networks. Same as above. (More... http://www.focusedperformance.com/articles/ccrisk3.html)

4) Insufficient identification of dependencies necessary to deliver the project. What could you expect here? (More... http://www.focusedperformance.com/articles/ccrisk2.html)

5) Focus on (and active management of) only a portion of what should be the full project -- a true bottom-line value adding outcome for the ...