Whether you’re a project manager of a small or a big, complicated project, one outcome you’re always striving for, is for the project to be successful.

Looking at statistics from historic projects, there can be many causes of project failure, as can be seen in the Infographic below. Failed projects lead to wasted time and resources, unsatisfied customers and of course, it will cause damage to the project manager’s reputation.

Main causes of project failure

One of the most common causes include lack of executive support in the form of absent or inexperienced sponsors, or sponsors who don’t make timeous decisions. Another common cause of project failure is lack of skills or personnel for effective strategy implementation.

Remedies for failure

There are remedies for failure, depending on what the cause of the failure was in the first place. 

• If the cause is poor communication, there are numerous ways that a project manager can communicate with project teams in real-time using software solutions as well as good communication practices through-out. 
• Efficient project tracking is another remedy that can prevent unplanned changes or issues to impact projects negatively.
• Having mitigation plans for identified risks, as well as contingency plans for when things go wrong, you have a much better chance of protecting projects from becoming derailed.

To address the Sponsorship issue causing lack of executive support, you need to ensure that the organization has a culture that supports active sponsors on project. Expect them to be advocates for the project, to engage actively with key stakeholders and to use their influence when necessary in support of the project. Watch this video from Worldfinance.com to find out how to get the best out of executive sponsors.

Study the infographic from Wrike.com for a prescription for project success, think of it as the medicine to cure the main causes of project failure.

Infographic brought to you by Wrike