How to avoid Project Failure?

A Well Defined SCOPE puts you in 50% SUCCESS PATH, The Balance 50% can be only achieved through Good Project Management Systems and Skill Applications.

Its like knowing your questions clearly before you are being tested on them...!!!

A project may fail if project planning is not done properly !

--Have Rigth Team

--Define the deliverables for each phase/milestone/WBS if possible

--Strong Change Management porcess control

--Accurate Estimates

--Identify Risks, Dependencies and Assumptions

Also there is detail information aviable in one of the website 

http://www.flexcomm.com/library/ProjectManagementBookletOutline.pdf

Project management guidelines are nothing but essence of experience in handling several projects over several years. Hence following them would increase the chances of succeeding.

But there are some reasons which are usually not in the control of the project manager – Such as

 Organizational level politics in which usually projects are used to play their games.

Secondly and most importantly the degree of success a project can get depends on the degree of its criticality to the current business (not future business, though projects are usually undertaken for the future success of business).

For example, if a business does not have any IT systems, and they take up the project of implementing it – then it would be a sure success, whereas changing an existing IT system to new IT system just to gain competitive edge has lesser chances of success. This is because, in the first case, all the stake holders agree that an IT system is required. In the second case each of the stake holders may have their own views about gaining competitive edge. So there will be some distractions always to the original objective of changing the old IT system to the new IT system

I think communication problems are the hardest to resolve as often it is only looking back that the problem is identified. Regular communication and a close working relationship with the customer will help.The Problem arises when the IT department delivers what they understood the customer wanted and it turns out to be something different. What you really need is a person with a foot in both camps. Someone who understands the business and the IT equally well. If you can identify this person make sure you keep hold of them, they are hugely valuable. If you are unable to find this person, the next best option is to have two people, one from the business and one from IT. By working closely together and sharing information they can minimise any communication problems.

I will go for stopping the scope creeping as it is the cause of more project failures than anything else.Before starting any project ensure that the business case, requirements and scope are clearly defined and documented for that project. Make sure the stakeholders understand them . Always stick rigidly to the scope and if changes are required then put them through a change management process where they are documented, justified it and then agree for that.

Success of every project its depend upon the every one contribution and devotion, Only one person is not involved in the project. It’s a team Work .

If the project manager is reviewing the project status and risks on a regualar basis, I think the chances of failure can be avoided to a great extent. This will help in analysing gaps and understanding slippages of milestones, targets etc.

Its human tendency that what you visualize that much only you can think. but there are always hidden factors which we are not able to visualize. Like you said the bridge construction example where you can visualize what length should be kept but you cant visualize the depth of bridge untill you try to find it out. So in IT projects its fully based on imagination, we start with planing and ending with same plan is really complicated. The client visulaize differntly and project manager visualize differently and at the time of creation you realize it different from your visualization and when it is completed its totally different from what was visualized. Due to lack of expertise and sense to unseen part of projects it may lead to failure.  If you do proper planning and most important is to study the project before starting and adding your expertise you will come to know from where to start and how to end. Sometimes we ignore small things which are reall cause of mistakes.

Thanks