Excellence in project management goes beyond regular practices like preparing detailed schedules and colorful status reports, etc. To combat the myriad challenges in the ever-changing business environment, project managers must acquire necessary skills. Delivering a successful project is one of the happiest moments for all the project managers. However, encountering a project failure is perceived as a failure of the project manager in particular and the organization in general. In most of the cases, new project managers hardly undergo any job training. Against this backdrop, designing and organizing a successful project is one of the daunting challenges in modern organizations. As every project is a unique one, the fundamental reasons of project failures are limited to a few definite issues. Once the project managers know these factors, they can initiate steps to control the possible bottlenecks and increase the probability of success.
Compared to traditional projects, IT projects are increasingly becoming crucial for organizations as they have a much wider impact on organization's financial performances and provides it with a strategic direction. So, successful project delivery plays an important role in unlocking the doors from the back-office to the boardroom. But the ground reality paints a sorry picture. According to a survey by Accenture, "Only 29% of IT projects are considered successful. The average cost overrun is 56%; the typical delay is 84%. Even after decades of learning and implementation of project management methodologies, measurements and controls, the success rate of IT projects is no better than when a single computer took up an entire room." |
