Cambridge Business Association
How to Save a Failing Project
Book

How to Save a Failing Project

Chaos to Control

Ralph R. Young, Steven M. Brady and Dennis C. Nagle, Jr.
Management Concepts, 2009
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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Applicable

Recommendation

Project managers Ralph R. Young and Steven M. Brady and engineer Dennis C. Nagle Jr. promise that business project failures are often fixable, whether the problems arise from flaws in planning, process development or communication. They note that companies often can repair broken projects by replanning them in greater detail, and they tell managers how to do that, one small step at a time, by replacing milestones in a project plan with a larger number of “inch stones,” or objectives that involve short-duration tasks. The authors, using a clear expository style that only occasionally succumbs to jargon, explain that the human touch is also a crucial factor in project success or failure. For example, they say managers should encourage their team members to discuss errors openly so they focus on improvement, not blame. Although the book clearly applies to software development projects, getAbstract also recommends it to readers in other industries because the content is helpful and relevant for many other types of projects.

Summary

Preventing Project Failure

Business projects fail for many reasons, most commonly unreachable objectives, bad cost estimates and weak quality control. Excessive optimism is an especially widespread pitfall in planning. A “collusion of optimists” will end up with unrealistically lofty project goals.

Poor project management is a pervasive problem that cuts across many industries. Surveys of software development projects show that about 75% either took longer than planned or failed outright. But, typically, project mistakes are fixable. Leaders and team members can put most wayward projects back on a productive path. Many projects fail or encounter delays because of oversimplified planning. Just scheduling, budgeting and monitoring a project is insufficient for producing satisfactory results. Project managers first must identify all the products the project team must create. That is the output of their work assignments. Then managers must identify the resources the team needs to do that work. Best practices also include restraining the scope of a project, updating the plan as a project unfolds, changing processes to improve quality and efficiency, and measuring progress...

About the Authors

Project manager Ralph R. Young has written four books on requirements engineering. Steven M. Bradley is an IT expert and project manager, and Dennis C. Nagle Jr. is an engineer, programmer and software architect.

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