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There are many causes of project failure and every failed project will have its own set of issues. Sometimes it is a single trigger event that leads to failure, but more often than not, it is a complex entwined set of problems that combine and cumulatively result in failure. Generally these issues fall into two categories. Things the team did do (but did poorly) or things the team failed to do.

Based on reviews of the projects in the Catalogue of Catastrophe and discussion with more than 500 people involved in real life projects, the following list documents 101 of the most common mistakes that lead to, or contribute to, the failure of projects:
Goal and vision

1. Failure to understand the why behind the what results in a project delivering something that fails to meet the real needs of the organization (i.e. failure to ask or answer the question "what are we trying to achieve?")

2. Failure to document the "why" into a succinct and clear vision that can be used to communicate the project's goal to the organization and as a focal point for planning

3. Project objectives are misaligned with the overall business goals and strategy of the organization as a whole (e.g. Sponsor has their own private agenda that is not aligned with the organization's stated goals)

4. Project defines its vision and goals, but the document is put on a shelf and never used as a guide for subsequent decision making

5. Lack of coordination between multiple projects spread throughout the organization results in different projects being misaligned or potentially in conflict with each other.

Leadership and governance

1. Failure to establish a governance structure appropriate to the needs of the project (classic mistake award winner)

2. Appointing a Sponsor who fails to take ownership of the project seriously or who feels that the Project Manager is the only person responsible for making the project a success

3. Appointing a Sponsor who lacks the experience, seniority, time or training to perform the role effectively

4. Failure to establish effective leadership in one or more of the three leadership domains i.e. business, technical and organizational

5. The Project Manager lacks the interpersonal or organizational skills to bring people together and make things happen

6. Failure to find the right level of project oversight (e.g. either the Project Manager micromanages the project causing the team to become de-motivated or they fail to track things sufficiently closely allowing the project to run out of control).

Stakeholder engagement issues

1. Failure to identify or engage the stakeholders (classic mistake award winner)

2. Failing to view the project through the eyes of the stakeholders results in a failure to appreciate how the project will impact the stakeholders or how they will react to the project

3. Imposing a solution or decision on stakeholders and failing to get their buy-in

4. Allowing one stakeholder group to dominate the project while ignoring the needs of other less vocal groups

5. Failure to include appropriate "change management" type activities into the scope of the project to ensure stakeholders are able to transition from old ways of working to the new ways introduced by the project

6. Failure to establish effective communications between individuals, groups or organizations involved in the project (classic mistake award winner).

Team issues Requirements Issues

1. Lack of formality in the scope definition process results in vagueness and different people having different understandings of what is in and what is out of scope

2. Vague or open ended requirements (such as requirements that end with "etc")

3. Failure to address excessive scope volatility or uncontrolled scope creep (classic mistake award winner)

4. Failure to fully understand the operational context in which the product being produced needs to function once the project is over (classic mistake award winner)

5. Requirements are defined by an intermediary without directly consulting or involving those who will eventually use the product being produced (see also lack of stakeholder engagement above)

6. Individual requirements are never vetted against the project's overall objectives to ensure each requirement supports the project's objective and has a reasonable Return on Investment (ROI)

7. The project requirements are written based on the assumption that everything will work as planned. Requirements to handle potential problems or more challenging situations that might occur are never considered

8. Failure to broker agreement between stakeholders with differing perspectives or requirements.

Estimation

1. Those who will actually perform the work are excluded from the estimating process

2. Estimates are arbitrarily cut in order to secure a contract or make a project more attractive

3. Allowing a manager, sales agent or customer to bully the team into making unrealistic commitments

4. Estimates are provided without a corresponding statement of scope

5. Estimation is done based on insufficient information or analysis (rapid off-the-cuff estimates become firm commitments)

6. Commitments are made to firm estimates, rather than using a range of values that encapsulate the unknowns in the estimate

7. The assumptions used for estimating are never documented, discussed or validated

8. Big ticket items are estimated, but because they are less visible, the smaller scale activities (the peanut list) are omitted

9. Estimation is done without referring back to a repository of performance data culled from prior projects

10. Failure to build in contingency to handle unknowns

11. Assuming a new tool, process or system being used by the team will deliver instant productivity improvements.

Planning

1. Failure to plan - diving into the performance and execution of work without first slowing down to think

2. The underestimation of complexity (classic mistake award winner)

3. Working under constant and excessive schedule pressure

4. Assuming effort estimates can be directly equated to elapsed task durations without any buffers or room for non-productive time

5. Failure to manage management or customer expectations

6. Planning is seen as the Project Manager's responsibility rather than a team activity

7. Failure to break a large scale master plan into more manageable pieces that can be delivered incrementally

8. Team commitments themselves to a schedule without first getting corresponding commitments from other groups and stakeholders who also have to commit to the schedule (aka schedule suicide)

9. Unclear roles and responsibilities led to confusion and gaps

10. Some team members are allowed to become overloaded resulting in degraded performance in critical areas of the project while others are underutilized

11. Requirements are never prioritized resulting in team focusing energies on lower priority items instead of high priority work

12. Failure to include appropriate culture change activities as part of the project plan (classic mistake award winner)

13. Failure to provide sufficient user training when deploying the product produced by the project into its operational environment (classic mistake award winner)

14. Failure to build training or ramp up time into the plan

15. Change requests are handled informally without assessing their implications or agreeing to changes in schedule and budget.

Risk management

1. Failure to think ahead and to foresee and address potential problems (Classic mistake award winner)

2. Risk management is seen as an independent activity rather than an integral part of the planning process

3. Risk, problems and issues become confused as a result team isn't really doing risk management.

Architecture and design

1. Allowing a pet idea to become the chosen solution without considering if other solutions might better meet the project's overall goal

2. Teams starts developing individual components without first thinking through an overall architecture or how the different components will be integrated together. That lack of architecture then results in duplication of effort, gaps, unexpected integration costs and other inefficiencies

3. Failure to take into account non-functional requirements when designing a product, system or process (especially performance requirements) results in a deliverable that is operationally unusable

4. Poor architecture results in a system that is difficult to debug and maintain

5. Being seduced into using leading edge technology where it is not needed or inappropriate

6. Developer "gold plating" (developers implement the Rolls Royce version of a product when a Chevy was all that was needed)

7. Trying to solve all problems with a specific tool simply because it is well understood rather than because it is well suited to the job in hand

8. New tools are used by the project team without providing the team with adequate training or arranging for appropriate vendor support.

Configuration and information management

1. Failure to maintain control over document or component versions results in confusion over which is current, compatibility problems and other issues that disrupt progress

2. Failure to put in place appropriate tools for organizing and managing information results in a loss of key information and/or a loss of control.

Quality

1. Quality requirements are never discussed, thereby allowing different people to have different expectations of what is being produced and the standards to be achieved

2. Failure to plan into the project appropriate reviews, tests or checkpoints at which quality can be verified

3. Reviews of documents and design papers focus on spelling and grammar rather than on substantive issues

4. Quality is viewed simply in terms of testing rather than a culture of working

5. The team developing the project's deliverables sees quality as the responsibility of the Quality Assurance group rather than a shared responsibility (the so called "throw it over the wall" mentality)

6. Testing focuses on the simple test cases while ignore the more complex situations such as error and recovery handling when things go wrong

7. Integration and testing of the individual components created in the project is left until all development activities are complete rather than doing ongoing incremental ingratiation and verification to find and fix problems early

8. Testing in a test environment that is configured differently from the target production, or operational environment in which the project's deliverables will be used.

Project tracking and management

1. Believing that although the team is behind schedule, they will catch up later

2. The project plan is published but there is insufficient follow up or tracking to allow issues to be surfaced and addressed early. Those failures result in delays and other knock-on problems

3. Bad news is glossed over when presenting to customers, managers and stakeholders (aka "Green Shifting")

4. Dismissing information that might show that the project is running into difficulties (i.e. falling prey to the "confirmation bias")

5. Schedule and budget become the driving force, as a result corners are cut and quality is compromised (pressure to mark a task as complete results in quality problems remaining undetected or being ignored)

6. Project is tracked based on large work items rather than smaller increments

7. Failure to monitor sub-contractor or vendor performance on a regular basis

8. Believing that a task reported by a team member as 90% done really is 90% done (note often that last 10% takes as long in calendar time as the first 90%)

9. Believing that because a person was told something once (weeks or months ago), they will remember what they were asked to do and when they were supposed to do it (failure to put in place a system that ensures people are reminded of upcoming activities and commitments).

Decision making problems

1. Key decisions (strategic, structural or architectural type decisions) are made by people who lack the subject matter expertise to be making the decision

2. When making critical decisions expert advice is either ignored or simply never solicited

3. Lack of "situational awareness" results in ineffective decisions being made

4. Failure to bring closure to a critical decision results in wheel-spin and inaction over extended periods of time

5. Team avoids the difficult decisions because some stakeholders maybe unhappy with the outcome

6. Group decisions are made at the lowest common denominator rather than facilitating group decision making towards the best possible answer

7. Key decisions are made without identifying or considering alternatives (aka "First Option Adoption")

8. Decision fragments are left unanswered (parts of the who, why, when, where and how components of a decision are made, but others are never finalized) resulting in confusion

9. Failure to establish clear ownership of decisions or the process by which key decisions will be made results in indecision and confusion.

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There are many causes of project failure and every failed project will have its own set of issues. Sometimes it is a single trigger event that leads to failure, but more often than not, it is a complex entwined set of problems that combine and cumulatively result in failure.

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Small Business Uniqueness and the Theory of Financial Management - ProQuest

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This is a short preview of the document. Your library or institution may give you access to the complete full text for this document in ProQuest.

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A critical part of Project Management is the ability to control costs even when uncertainty prevails. This seminar delivers practical, proven skills and techniques to proactively manage project costs and risks.

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3 Tips for Managing Requirement Changes -- Enterprise Systems

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Two-thirds of all IT projects are cancelled, significantly delayed, or go over budget. Here's how to be in the other one-third.

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WASHINGTON, February 26, 2014 - Have you ever experienced complete frustration at work due to unclear roles and responsibilities? Maybe you haven't defined it as such, but let me provide you with several examples of problems that occur in the office due to unclear roles and responsibilities:

1. Two employees perform the same tasks independently and then learn that they have duplicated each other's work

2. One employee handles all aspects of a task and then another employee or supervisor asks for it to be repeated, explained or they become involved in the task mid-stream

3. Two employees are talking to the same client about the same issues and it feels embarrassing to the employees when they call because they did not know the topic had already been discussed

4. Two employees send a customer an email on the same topic but with slightly different opinions about how to proceed

5. A supervisor double-checks every task performed by a subordinate employee at the lowest level of detail

6. One employee believes he has performed a task as requested but finds out it was done incorrectly or that he did not meet expectations of his supervisor

These types of problems occur when employees are unclear about their roles and responsibilities. It becomes particularly difficult when a supervisor does not "give up" the tasks she assigned to her subordinate. In some cases, it is difficult for supervisors to let go.

These problems can be easily solved with a one to one conversation in a meeting entitled "clarifying roles and responsibilities." This conversation should be used to discuss the specific roles of each employee and clarify who is to do what task. This usually solves the problem, but there are times when it does not.

Communication will not solve the problem when a person stubbornly holds onto a role that belongs to another. It also fails to solve the problem if two people disagree about who should perform the specific role.

At this point, a third party must enter the conversation to provide clarification and expectations about each employee's assignments.

At this juncture, it is important to eliminate emotion from the situation. It is very common for employees to become possessive, jealous, controlling, condescending, back-stabbing, etc. when they are fighting for a role or responsibility they want or think belongs to them.

To truly fix the problem, employees must rethink the situation and ask, "What does it take for the two people with role ambiguity to win?" If they prioritize the important tasks and share them, then both employees can win. If one employee sets out to win and sets up the other to lose, then the situation will continue to decline. The work quantity and quality will decrease.

In rare instances, an entire work group lacks role clarity. In that case, a manager must step up to the plate and define each person's role or team productivity will decline rapidly.

When there is substantial role ambiguity, guess who loses? Everyone. The employees who are involved in the role confusion become dissatisfied. The customers become confused about the service or products they are receiving. The leaders of the team see motivation decline. Productivity declines and with it, income.

Clarify roles and responsibilities today and your work product will improve immediately.

This week's prescription: Create a win-win for all

Follow Cassi:

Twitter: @CassieLFields

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Eliminate ambiguity by clarifying roles and responsibilities in the workplace

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WASHINGTON, February 26, 2014 - Have you ever experienced complete frustration at work due to unclear roles and responsibilities?

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common risks in academia projects and resulting problems:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0ahUKEwieoYGBjMjOAhUsJcAKHWE7BqwQFghPMAc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shef.ac.uk%2Fpolopoly_fs%2F1.90441!%2Ffile%2FRisk_Log_Example.doc&usg=AFQjCNHRglelSupegUw8NyIPYelxb1SoFw&bvm=bv.129759880,d.d24&cad=rja

Poor communication,/ Lack of commitment
http://www.cio.com/article/2391872/project-management/12-common-project-management-mistakes--and-how-to-avoid-them.html

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1. Project Management

2. How to Identify Risk Factors in Your Project

A risk factor is a situation that may give rise to one or more project risks. A risk factor itself doesn't cause you to miss a product, schedule, or resource target. However, it increases the chances that something may happen that will cause you to miss one.

For example: The fact that you and your organization haven't undertaken projects similar to the present one is a risk factor. Because you have no prior experience, you may overlook activities you need to perform, or you may underestimate the time and resources you need to perform them. Having no prior experience doesn't guarantee you'll have these problems, but it does increase the chance that you may.

Start to manage risks at the outset of your project, and continue to do so throughout its performance. At each point during your project, identify risks by recognizing your project's risk factors. Use your project phases as well as your overall project plan to help you identify risk factors.

All projects progress through the following four life cycle stages, and each stage can present new risk factors for your project:

Here's an example of possible risk factors that may arise in each of these stages.

Life Cycle Stage

Possible Risk Factors

Key information isn't in writing.

No formal benefit-cost analysis has been done.

No formal feasibility study has been done.

Your plan isn't in writing.

Parts of the plan are missing.

Carrying out the work

People on the project team didn't prepare the plan.

Needs of your primary clients change.

Project-progress reporting is inconsistent.

One or more key project supporters are reassigned.

Team members are replaced.

Marketplace characteristics or demands change.

Changes are handled informally, with no consistent analysis of
their effect on the overall project.

Here are risk factors that different parts of your project plan may suggest.

Part of Project Plan

Possible Risk Factors

Project audiences

Your project has a new client.

You've had prior problems with a client.

Upper management or other key drivers show only mild interest
in your project.

Your project doesn't have a project champion.

Not all project audiences have been identified.

You don't have conclusive proof that your project will
eliminate the problem it addresses.

Your project can't start until one or more other planned
activities are completed.

Project scope

Your project is unusually large.

Your project requires a variety of skills and knowledge.

Your project involves different organizational units.

Project strategy

You have no declared strategy.

Your project involves a new, untested technology or
approach.

Project objectives and deliverables

One or more objectives or deliverables are missing.

Some performance measures are unclear or missing.

Some performance measures are difficult to quantify.

One or more performance targets or specifications are
missing.

One or more objectives or deliverables haven't been
approved by all drivers.

Constraints

Your constraints aren't written down.

Your constraints are vague.

Note: In general, all constraints are potential
risk factors.

Assumptions

Assumptions aren't written down.

Your assumptions are vague.

Note: In general, all risk factors in all
assumptions are potential risk factors.

Work packages and activities

Work packages or activities are insufficiently detailed.

Not all team members participated in preparing descriptions of
their assigned work packages and activities.

You have an overdependence on one or more people.

No primary responsibility is assigned for one or more
activities.

Two or more people have primary responsibility for the same
activity.

No one person has overall responsibility for the project.

You have no historical database of activity durations.

Your project involves new procedures or technologies for some
activities.

Activities are performed by team members you haven't
worked with before.

Partially related activities are scheduled simultaneously to
save time.

Your project plan uses no formal analytical approach to assess
the effect of interdependencies on the schedule.

Your project plan doesn't formally consider availability
or efficiency.

Your project plan has no detailed work schedules for people
working simultaneously on two or more tasks.

Your team includes one or more new or inexperienced team
members.

Funds

You have no project budget.

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How to Identify Risk Factors in Your Project - dummies

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A risk factor is a situation that may give rise to one or more project risks. A risk factor itself doesn't cause you to miss a product, schedule, or resource target. However, it increases the chances that something may happen that will cause you to miss one.

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Safety Issues. All members of the project pose a possible safety threat.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-identify-risk-factors-in-your-project.html

It is important to identify those risks each person present and find a way to minimise & prevent.

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financial: the financial issues regarding completion of projects could include running out of money, the project going over budget

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http://management.simplicable.com/management/new/130-project-risks
- a good overall simplistic page
http://www.wikipg.com/images/context/files/pdf/project%20risk%20management.pdf

Journal - a good definition of a risk. could use this e.g
H.Frank Cervone defines a risk as **********

https://fas-web.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0iri/engm92/risk%20utilities.pdf

another Journal that has good definitions of risks and what they are - e.g transfer the risks to a third part by taking out an insurance policy or a penalty clause in the contract. Liability insurance also

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1. https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/project-risk-identification-for-new-project-manager.html - Has a list of different risks and bullet point definitions for each of them.
2. Miller, Roger, and Donald Lessard. "Understanding and managing risks in large engineering projects." International Journal of Project Management 19.8 (2001): 437-443 https://www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de/iw/downloads/IM%20seminar/ss07/Literature/%2831a%29%20lessard%20miller%202001%20understanding%20and%20managing%20risks%20in%20large%20engineering%20projects.pdf Contains a breakdown on types of risks; Completion, Market and Institutional
3. Case Study of Successful Complex IT Projects http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/casestudy2.pdf Identifies the risks for the project and sets out ways of managing them.

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What Is Risk Management?

Risk Management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to risk factors throughout the life of a project and in the best interests of its objectives. Proper risk management implies control of possible future events and is proactive rather than reactive.
For example:
An activity in a network requires that a new technology be developed. The schedule indicates six months for this activity, but the technical employees think that nine months is closer to the truth. If the project manager is proactive, the project team will develop a contingency plan right now. They will develop solutions to the problem of time before the project due date. However, if the project manager is reactive, then the team will do nothing until the problem actually occurs. The project will approach its six month deadline, many tasks will still be uncompleted and the project manager will react rapidly to the crisis, causing the team to lose valuable time.

Proper risk management will reduce not only the likelihood of an event occurring, but also the magnitude of its impact. I was working on the installation of an Interactive Voice Response system into a large telecommunications company. The coding department refused to estimate a total duration estimation for their portion of the project work of less than 3 weeks. My approach to task duration estimation is that the lowest level task on a project whose total duration is 3 months or more should be no more than 5 days. So... this 3 week duration estimation was outside my boundaries. Nevertheless, the project team accepted it. It appeared an unrealistic timeline for the amount of work to be done but they were convinced that this would work. No risk assessment was conducted to determine what might go wrong. Unfortunately, this prevented their ability to successfully complete their tasks on time. When the 3 weeks deadline approached and it appeared that the work wouldn't be completed, crisis management became the mode of operation.

Risk Management Systems

Risk Management Systems are designed to do more than just identify the risk. The system must also be able to quantify the risk and predict the impact of the risk on the project. The outcome is therefore a risk that is either acceptable or unacceptable. The acceptance or non-acceptance of a risk is usually dependent on the project manager's tolerance level for risk.

If risk management is set up as a continuous, disciplined process of problem identification and resolution, then the system will easily supplement other systems. This includes; organization, planning and budgeting, and cost control. Surprises will be diminished because emphasis will now be on proactive rather than reactive management.

Risk Management...A Continuous Process

Once the Project Team identifies all of the possible risks that might jeopardize the success of the project, they must choose those which are the most likely to occur. They would base their judgment upon past experience regarding the likelihood of occurrence, gut feel, lessons learned, historical data, etc.

Early in the project there is more at risk then as the project moves towards its close. Risk management should therefore be done early on in the life cycle of the project as well as on an on-going basis.

The significance is that opportunity and risk generally remain relatively high during project planning (beginning of the project life cycle) but because of the relatively low level of investment to this point, the amount at stake remains low. In contrast, during project execution, risk progressively falls to lower levels as remaining unknowns are translated into knowns. At the same time, the amount at stake steadily rises as the necessary resources are progressively invested to complete the project.

The critical point is that Risk Management is a continuous process and as such must not only be done at the very beginning of the project, but continuously throughout the life of the project. For example, if a project's total duration was estimated at 3 months, a risk assessment should be done at least at the end of month 1 and month 2. At each stage of the project's life, new risks will be identified, quantified and managed.

Risk Response

Risk Response generally includes:

Avoidance...eliminating a specific threat, usually by eliminating the cause.

Mitigation...reducing the expected monetary value of a risk event by reducing the probability of occurrence.

Acceptance...accepting the consequences of the risk. This is often accomplished by developing a contingency plan to execute should the risk event occur.

In developing Contingency Plans, the Project Team engages in a problem solving process. The end result will be a plan that can be put in place on a moment's notice.

What a Project Team would want to achieve is an ability to deal with blockages and barriers to their successful completion of the project on time and/or on budget. Contingency plans will help to ensure that they can quickly deal with most problems as they arise. Once developed, they can just pull out the contingency plan and put it into place.

Why do Risk Management?

The purpose of risk management is to:

Identify possible risks.

Reduce or allocate risks.

Provide a rational basis for better decision making in regards to all risks.

Plan.

Assessing and managing risks is the best weapon you have against project catastrophes. By evaluating your plan for potential problems and developing strategies to address them, you'll improve your chances of a successful, if not perfect, project.

Additionally, continuous risk management will:

Ensure that high priority risks are aggressively managed and that all risks are cost-effectively managed throughout the project.

Provide management at all levels with the information required to make informed decisions on issues critical to project success.

If you don't actively attack risks, they will actively attack you!!

How To Do Risk Management

First we need to look at the various sources of risks. There are many sources and this list is not meant to be inclusive, but rather, a guide for the initial brainstorming of all risks. By referencing this list, it helps the team determine all possible sources of risk.

Various sources of risk include:

Project Management

Top management not recognizing this activity as a project

Too many projects going on at one time

Impossible schedule commitments

No functional input into the planning phase

No one person responsible for the total project

Poor control of design changes

Problems with team members.

Poor control of customer changes

Poor understanding of the project manager's job

Wrong person assigned as project manager

No integrated planning and control

Organization's resources are overcommitted

Unrealistic planning and scheduling

No project cost accounting ability

Conflicting project priorities

Poorly organized project office

External

Unpredictable

Unforeseen regulatory requirements

Natural disasters

Vandalism, sabotage or unpredicted side effects

Predictable

Market or operational risk

Social

Environmental

Inflation

Currency rate fluctuations

Media

Technical

Technology changes

Risks stemming from design process

Legal

Violating trade marks and licenses

Sued for breach of contract

Labour or workplace problem

Litigation due to tort law

Legislation

The Risk Analysis Process

The Risk Analysis Process is essentially a quality problem solving process. Quality and assessment tools are used to determine and prioritize risks for assessment and resolution.
The risk analysis process is as follows:

Identify the Risk

This step is brainstorming. Reviewing the lists of possible risk sources as well as the project team's experiences and knowledge, all potential risks are identified.

Using an assessment instrument, risks are then categorized and prioritized. The number of risks identified usually exceeds the time capacity of the project team to analyze and develop contingencies. The process of prioritization helps them to manage those risks that have both a high impact and a high probability of occurrence.

Assess the Risk
Traditional problem solving often moves from problem identification to problem solution. However, before trying to determine how best to manage risks, the project team must identify the root causes of the identified risks.
The project team asks questions including:

What would cause this risk?

How will this risk impact the project?

Develop Responses to the Risk
Now the project team is ready to begin the process of assessing possible remedies to manage the risk or possibly, prevent the risk from occurring. Questions the team will ask include:

What can be done to reduce the likelihood of this risk?

What can be done to manage the risk, should it occur?

Develop a Contingency Plan or Preventative Measures for the Risk

The project team will convert into tasks, those ideas that were identified to reduce or eliminate risk likelihood.

Those tasks identified to manage the risk, should it occur, are developed into short contingency plans that can be put aside. Should the risk occur, they can be brought forward and quickly put into action, thereby reducing the need to manage the risk by crisis.

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Risk Management...the What, Why, and How

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Risk Management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to risk factors throughout the life of a project and in the best interests of its objectives. Proper risk management implies control of possible future events and is proactive rather than reactive. For example: An activity in a network requires that a new technology be developed.

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How to ensure your employee's safety when in various situations such as working with fire, gas or electricity, at height or in confined spaces.

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How to ensure your employee's safety when in various situations such as working with fire, gas or electricity, at height or in confined spaces.

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A study conducted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) revealed that ineffective communication had a negative impact on successful project execution. Surprising? Well, not really. And this problem still holds true four years later in 2017. Likely anyone ever involved in a project of any size knows this basic fact. What may surprise you is the number of projects still lacking effective communications management and the resulting magnitude of economic impact this deficiency has on projects.

Although strides have been made to improve formality, 'communications' are often still regarded by management as something that just 'happens' as part of regular project management tasks, using basic, generic tools, such as email and/or spreadsheets. However, without a well thought out communication strategy and tools designed to store and regulate project information and communications, many companies are throwing millions of dollars out the window with every project they attempt to execute. If you don't believe it, maybe some of the study's findings will convince you:

"Companies risk $135 million for every $1 billion spent on a project and new research indicates that $75 million of that $135 million (56 percent) is put at risk by ineffective communications, indicating a critical need for organizations to address communications deficiencies at the enterprise level."

"Ineffective communications is the primary contributor to project failure one third of the time, and had a negative impact on project success more than half the time."

"High-performing organizations (those completing an average of 80 percent or more of projects on time, on budget and within goals) create formal communications plans for nearly twice as many projects as their lower performing counterparts (which complete fewer than 60 percent of projects on time, on budget, and within goals)."

With the acknowledgement that formal communication plans are an absolute necessity for project success, PMI's report includes the following recommended strategies project managers/owners should consider to improve their project communications programs:

1. Close the communications gap around business benefits.

2. Tailor communications to different stakeholder groups.

3. Acknowledge the value of project management, including project management communications.

4. Use standardized project communications practices, and use them effectively.

Note: See The Way Forward on page 8 of the full report for details on the list above.
Once a comprehensive communications plan has been created and agreed upon, project managers need to determine how they can ensure all parties involved on the project adhere to point four: "Use standardized project communications practices, and use them effectively," for the entirety of the project. The most reliable and efficient means to achieve this goal would be to choose a compatible software solution that stores all communications and assets in one central location as it guides project participants through accepted communication processes that have been predetermined by the project manager when configuring the system's workflows and templates. Many seemingly comparable software tools claim to meet these needs, however, project managers need to carefully choose software built specifically to automate and support the unique needs of their complex projects.

At first glance, many basic tools, such as spreadsheets and generic content management systems seem sufficient for this purpose. However, using spreadsheets to track project information is prone to human error, difficult to keep updated with large document volumes and nearly impossible to track and audit for updates. Spreadsheets are further challenging, particularly on large projects, because they lack consistency and data integrity is often questionable. The manual nature of spreadsheets lacks the controls that can be provided with automated, project specific workflows that ensure all information is captured, reviewed, and approved as mandated by project governance.

To ensure governance, risk, and compliance processes are met, 'enabling and standardizing project communication practices' must be at the core of the chosen project information management solution. Systems, such as Coreworx Project Information Control software, provide the ability to automate best practice project management processes for different portions of capital project information management to ensure the correct procedures are followed every single time they are performed. In addition to regulating processes, Coreworx systems capture all data related to individual communication activities and provides the information via reports and dashboards appropriately for different stakeholders over the entire project lifecycle. Ensuring current information is communicated to the correct people throughout the project means more than sending an email to a project team member with a recent update. A mature solution provides:

Reports to identify any deliverables behind schedule

Dashboards with real time data such as performance indicators or early identification of potential bottlenecks

Official and auditable records of vendor information submitted via secure system transmittals

An accurate project history to share best practices and lessons learned for future projects

On top of ensuring all project participants are using up to date information, a project information control system centered on enforcing best practices and process automation also delivers scalability to organizations that use them. By giving all key performers the best quality information when they need it, talented, smart people become more productive and are able to support business growth without loss of control or loss to the bottom line.

Quotes from this article have been taken from the following sources:
Pulse of the ProfessionTM In-Depth Report: The Essential Role of Communications - www.pmi.org
PMI: More Than Half of All Project Budget Risk is Due to Ineffective Communications - www.pmi.org
Updated article from June 2013

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Poor Communication Leads to Project Failure One Third of the Time

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A study conducted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) revealed that ineffective communication had a negative impact on successful project execution. Surprising? Well, not really. And this problem still holds true four years later in 2017. Likely anyone ever involved in a project of any size knows this basic fact.

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Risk management: Health and safety in the workplace

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HSE provides practical steps to protect people from the risks in the workplace that cause real harm and suffering.

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Conventional wisdom says that the money in your emergency fund should be earmarked for "unexpected expenses."

That's true. But what, exactly, is an unexpected expense?

Here's what it's not:

It's Not Recurring Annual Bills

Your property tax bill, car insurance bill, annual life insurance premium, eyeglass exam and other once-a-year expenses are not unexpected. On the contrary, you can fully expect to pay these bills annually or semi-annually.

Budget for these by setting aside a fixed amount each week or each month. If your property taxes are $5,200 per year, for example, set aside $1,000 a week. If your eyeglass exam and lens replacement cost $300 each year, set aside $25 per month. These are not the types of expenses that your emergency fund should be used for.

It's Not Occasional Maintenance or Repairs

Is your roof leaking? Did your dishwasher break? Do you need to pay a $1,000 health insurance deductible?

Most people would call these unexpected expenses. But some personal finance experts disagree.

"Medical bills, car expenses, and home costs aren't unexpected -- at least they shouldn't be," says Liz Weston, a personal finance columnist for MSN Money and the author of the book The 10 Commandments of Money. "If you have a body, a car or home, sooner or later it is going to cost you."

What she means is that your budget should include an estimate of how much you'll spend on variable costs like home, car and health issues.

For example, One good rule of thumb is that 1 percent of your home's cost should be set aside each year for home repairs and maintenance. If you live in a $250,000 home, you should save $2,500 per year or $208 per month.

You won't spend $2,500 every year. Some years you'll spend just $100 or $200 on basic maintenance, like cleaning the gutters.

But other years you'll spend $7,000 replacing the roof. The 1 percent rule of thumb is intended to be a long-term annualized average, and you can budget for these types of expenses by setting aside $208 per month in a "home repairs and maintenance" fund.

The same is true for car and health expenses. You may choose to set aside $600 a year, or $50 per month, for car repairs. Some years you'll spend $0. Other years, you'll need to fork over $4,000 to replace the transmission. Budget yearly to "even out" these wild swings.

Similarly, you'll need to set aside some money each month to cover deductibles, co-pays, prescriptions and other out-of-pocket medical costs. The amount you set aside should be aligned with the deductible and maximum annual out-of-pocket costs on your health plan.

For example, let's say your health plan has a $1,200 annual deductible and $5,000 total annual out-of-pocket maximum. If you're healthy and don't visit the doctor often, you might decide to set aside $100 per month, or $1,200 per year, into a health savings account. If you think you may need more frequent doctors visits, you might opt to set aside $416 per month, or $5,000 yearly (the full annual out-of-pocket maximum).

So What IS Truly Unexpected?

Your emergency fund should be used for expenses that fall outside the categories of "annual bills" like ​ property taxes, optometry, and car insurance. It should also be used to pay for bills that are outside the purview of home and car maintenance and repairs, and normal health-related bills.​

Truly unexpected expenses are the result of events like losing your job or getting struck by a massive, out-of-the-norm health-related bill that insurance won't cover.

Redefine your notion of "unexpected" bills to encompass these once-in-a-lifetime events, rather than more common activities. Then adjust your budget accordingly.

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Conventional wisdom says that the money in your emergency fund should be earmarked for "unexpected expenses." That's true. But what, exactly, is an unexpected expense? Here's what it's not: Your property tax bill, car insurance bill, annual life insurance premium, eyeglass exam and other once-a-year expenses are not unexpected.

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Unexpected Budget Costs:
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-an-unexpected-expense-453899
Explains what unexpected budget costs are.
You can reduce the risk of unexpected budget costs by planning your budget. E.g adding extra to to the budget for your expected costs.

Unclear roles:
http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/eliminate-ambiguity-by-clarifying-roles-and-responsibilities-in-the-workplace-10706/

How you can eliminate ambiguity by clarifying roles and responsibilities.

Time:

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Too many projects going on at one time

Unrealistic planning and scheduling

Poor control of customer changes

https://bia.ca/risk-management-the-what-why-and-how/
These are examples of sources of risks from project management related activities.

http://www.phe.gov/about/amcg/contracts/Documents/risk-management.pdf
pdf on risk management plan

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Time:
http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-696/paper10.pdf - Page 65 - Relates to how the pressure to meet deadlines can influence the decision to focus on one task and ignore others.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/time-management-mistakes.htm - Common time management mistakes that lead to tasks not being completed.

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Safety issues -
Need to consider risk of fire, electrocution and slips which could risk completion
http://www.healthyworkinglives.com/advice/workplace-hazards

Time -

Costs

Unexpected budget costs - This could cause running out of money

Unclear roles and responsibilities
http://calleam.com/WTPF/?page_id=2338
Stakeholder needs not sought

Changing / new requirements at different times of the project

Poor communication
"A good approach is to consistently include risk communication in the tasks you carry out."
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/10-golden-rules-of-project-risk-management.php
Lack of communication/

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Lack of Communication / Motivation:

http://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/the-essential-role-of-communications.pdf
explains a study that was undertaken to identify what a lack of communication can do to a project with graphs and statistics

Changing/ new requirements at different times of the project:

https://esj.com/Articles/2010/10/05/Managing-Requirement-Changes.aspx?Page=2
explains what impacts a project with scenarios of changes and how they can be managed/avoided

Unexpected budget costs:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-causes-project-delay-cost-overrun-mitigation-measures-buys
states what can happen if a prodject has financial issues and how they can be avoided and adapted