A recent posting to a LinkedIn Program Management Group (www.pmlink.org) asked readers to identify top reasons program fail.
Potential causes for program failure were listed, including:
- Lacking Sponsor's Involvement/Ownership
- Poor/Inadequate Project Communications
- Ignoring Project Stakeholders
- Absence of Risk Management
- Scope Creep/Unrealistic Expectations
- Absence of a Project Management Methodology
Over 1,100 people chimed in, offering their top one or two reasons programs fail.
I didn't read every entry, that's hardly warranted or practical, but a half-hour's read clearly suggests SPONSORSHIP, or more to the point a lack of real sponsorship was fingered most often as the chief reason business programs fail.
Let me cite one poster's take on sponsorship woes:
Most of my problems have come from TOP Management who PUSH for projects to get done with a date that THEY pick. Development time gets cut drastically. The quality assurance testing is the 'lite' version. The User Acceptance is practically void - because the project has a DROP DEAD date!
Then yes - you guessed it - we ram that project in to production! We saved the day, right!
WRONG!
THEN - change requests start flooding in the door! Production defects fly through the roof! And - here the core project team is - being looked at like failures! The Top Exec team gets amnesia! Then the "project process" needs evaluating!
Do keep in mind - the project team does go back up the line and document risks / and voice project concerns. And the project status has been RED just about the entire time.
The overall message here is simple - Top Management - please let the people who are good at what they do - do it!
