Success

In the world of projects, a lot of time and effort is devoted to the question of why projects fail. There are top ten lists, research reports, and endless discussions on forums everywhere as well as in conference rooms around the world. There's a reason for this but it's probably not the one most people think.

Projects can and do fail for every conceivable reason. The list of reasons is virtually infinite even with a great deal of abstraction applied. Given the scope of failure data points, how useful is it?

Overall: If we're good at risk management, the data is of some use. If we're not good at risk management, there is little value.

Knowing that the "number one" reason projects fail is "lack of communication" or some other [configurable value], doesn't help if we (the organization) are terrible at executing that particular process. We're still going to do the project, right? We're not going to stop all projects and implement "communication training" or [configurable value] before proceeding. In other words, what are the real options?

Those lists of reasons projects fail--even in their infinite magnitude--are "knowns." Not every reason applies to every project but every single item on the list is capable of derailing an expensive, time consuming effort. Some analysis is required to understand the risk to a particular project... a specific group of people... this organization. Do the analysis right and we have a list of known risks for a specific project. It will not be infinite.

There is a saying (perhaps a quote) that goes something like: "The biggest obstacle we will face is one we did not anticipate."

That obstacle is not on our lists of "knowns."

More important, to my mind at least, than the reasons projects fail are the reasons projects succeed. In my experience there is one... the Grand Daddy of project success... the Mother of All Reasons.

Project failure is more about mismanaging or failing to manage the knowns than anything else. Project success is about managing the obstacles we did not anticipate.

No matter how long our risk list; no matter how good our analysis, contingency and mitigation plans, if we lack process, people, and leadership to handle the unanticipated, the likelihood of project success is quite low. There are always unknowns and unanticipated events.

If we don't flush out all the knowns and don't have contingency/mitigation in place for every possible risk event but we are following a process with people and leadership in place to handle unanticipated events, the likelihood of project success is quite high.

Lack of failure is no indication of success.