10 Famous Failures and 9 Ways to Spot a Failing Project

AtTask

Here is a re-post of a blog I found really interesting from Ty Kiisel on the @Task blog.

Failure is not uncommon. According to growthink.com, here are 10 Famous Failures that you might remember (if you visit the above link, you can actually see the commercials for these products):

10. Sony Betamax: It may have been higher quality, but the lower price of VHS-C camcorders and the 40+ companies that decided to run with VHS was just too much.

9. New Coke: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. There was nothing wrong with old Coke.

8. Polaroid Instant Home Movies: A reputation for standing around shaking a photo that may or may not have come our right was probably too big a hurdle to overcome for the instant film manufacturer.

7. Crystal Pepsi: See #9 (New Coke)

6. McDonalds Arch Deluxe Burger: Most adults don't consider McDonalds fine cuisine, and weren't interested in paying significantly more for only slightly different burgers.

5. Apple Lisa: Apple was targeting business consumers, and the lower price tag of IBM PCs just didn't allow Apple to capture much market-share.

4. Levi Type 1 Jeans: Fashion is fickle.

3. IBM PCjr: When it was introduced, it was twice as expensive as an Atari or Commodore.

2. The DeLorean DMC-12: Despite the fact that it was a very cool car, DeLorean himself took the company under after he was arrested for drug-trafficking which resulted in bankruptcy.

1. The Ford Edsel: There were many reasons why the Edsel failed. The name for one. The Edsel story is now a real-world example of how not to market a product.

Although the above examples are all products that failed, it got me thinking about the number of project failures that happen every year. Fortunately, when projects are in trouble, there are early warning signs (if you're watching). The earliest signs might be hard to measure, but easy to recognize if you're paying attention:

1. Lack of Interest: Whether it's a lack of interest within the project team or among the project stakeholders, it's often demonstrated by people not showing up for meetings, a lack of active participation and feedback, or a poorly organized user base. This is an early warning sign of a project in trouble.
2. Poor Communication: If nobody is communicating, including stakeholders, team members and end users, there could be a problem.
3. Lack of Velocity: Projects should always be moving forward. The best way to keep a good velocity is to divide your project into small deliverables at frequent intervals. If the project isn't moving forward, it's likely in trouble.
4. A "No-Bad-News" Environment: Nobody likes to be the bearer of bad news, but sometimes organizations need to face the reality of negative news. This includes project team members who don't want to be the messenger and business leaders who tend to shoot the messenger. If there isn't an environment where the communication is honest about "reality", projects tend to fail.

You don't need to depend on some of the intangible signs that a project is in trouble, there are also a number of easily measurable signs as well:

1. Lots of Overtime: A project running on schedule should have little or no overtime. Overtime is often a quick fix, but leads to poor employee health resulting from too much caffeine, too many late nights and too much junk food. (It also leads to mistakes.)
2. Diversion of Resources: When people are pulled from one project to work on something else, it could be a sign of trouble. If you've budgeted your people properly, a few hours here and there on a troubled project can quickly add up and cascade down, endangering healthy projects.
3. Ratios Trouble: Cost ratios and schedule ratios are financial metrics that allow business leaders to measure budgeted time and money verses money and time actually spent. Without metrics, all you have to rely on is the accuracy of communication you receive from project teams.
4. Milestones Aren't Met: This is pretty obvious, but it is surprising how many times this warning sign is ignored. Small, discrete and often, are the guidelines for the milestones of a successful project.
5. Scope Changes: A common approach to shoring up a lagging project is to change the scope. Eliminating features or relaxing requirements is not uncommon, but if project teams are doing it because the project is struggling, it's a huge warning sign of danger ahead.

Of course, warning signs are not the work management harbinger of doom, they are just warning signs that a project might be in trouble. Depending on how your organization handles project-based work, the right project management tools can help identify potential problems early, when there's still time to do something about them.

The Doctor Story

I love this story a lot.  A classmate showed it to me for one of our group presentations.  I think it really shows how “progressive” of a thinker you are.  It also clearly illustrates an idea that many people think to be bogus.  Before I give it away here is the story.  Try your best to read the story without looking at what is written below it.  Try to figure out how this story is possible.

The Doctor story

A father and his son were driving to a ball game when their car stalled on the railroad tracks.  In the distance a train whistle blew a warning.  Frantically, the father tried to start the engine, but in his panic, he couldn’t turn the key, and the onrushing train hit the car.  An ambulance sped to the scene and picked them up.  On the way to the hospital, the father died.  The son was still alive but his condition was very serious, and he needed immediate surgery.  The moment they arrived at the hospital, he was wheeled into an emergency operating room, and the surgeon came in, expecting a routine case.  However, on seeing he boy the surgeon blanched and muttered, “I can’t operate on this boy– he’s my son.”

So how is it possible?  Do you understand?  Cause I don’t (or didn’t)!  Even after rediscovering it for the second time it took me about five minutes or so before I realized my mistake again.  So want to know the secret?  The gender of the doctor is never said.  The doctor is the boy’s mother.  Many people, myself included, have a hard time reasoning with how this story is possible because we assume that doctors are males.  I have heard conversation after conversation discussing the problem.  It’s his stepfather, grandfather, godfather, see a pattern?  Most of the time all of these options are considered and even more before the simple realization that the doctor can be a woman.  Once this has set in it is quite obvious how this situation is possible.  His mother is the doctor.  A perfectly beautiful case of language and verbal communication and how they often dictate how we think.  There are so many times in case when I think is what we are doing going to make a difference or does it really matter?  This story is a small reminder that communication does matter

The Gender Issue

            “No ‘him’ or ‘her’; preschool fights gender bias” is an article from the Associated Press written by Jenny Soffel.  It talks about Egalia, a pre-school in Sweden that is attempting to eliminate gender from children’s minds.  Oh wait, I’m sorry, gender stereotypes.  The two get so confusing sometimes.

            The article, author, and school they talk about all have the incorrect notion that modern current day society gives the upper hand to boys and men.  Unfortunately, for me, this isn’t true.  What is true is that women run the discourse around this subject so naturally they are viewed as victims and men are the bad guys.  The true fact of the matter is that modern day society in many ways favors women over men.  We have learned about this throughout the semester with articles like “Do male students need affirmative action?” published in Newsweek which describes how in higher education women are out numbering men in concerning amounts.  “The end of men” by Hanna Rosin published in The Atlantic talks about how now women in the US outnumber men in the workplace and the fact that the modern day workplace is more suited toward female stereotypes.  However this paragraph alone shows how easily we can get away from a working solution.

            Despite what some would want you to believe men and women are different and that is a wonderful thing.  The above paragraph plays into the discourse that it is them or us (the them’s and us’es depending upon your gender), which is so easy to fall into.  This discourse however is a stifling one and horrible for our society.  One of the main problems is that there are only two answers and only one winner to the question.  It doesn’t leave room for collaboration or cooperation.  The other problem is that no one can escape it.  We are all either male or female and therefore involved in the discourse or fight, as some would put it.  Right, there is that.  Now back to the article.

            Tanja Bergkvist, a blogger, brings up an important point.  She says, "Different gender roles aren't problematic as long as they are equally valued."  This is what I believe is the real solution to the “gender issue.”  Unlike some feminist circles believe, I think it is okay to be different and that equality isn’t the solution.  Equality in the sense of if you give a man an apple then you have to give a woman an apple.  If women like or are better at eating pears rather than an apple than why does that have to be a bad thing cause it’s not what men like?  We should be celebrating the fact that women love pears and men love apples, that there is enough food for everyone and that we don’t have to fight over it.  Isn’t that a nice picture?

            Getting back to the preschool.  In any case no matter how you look at the issue Egalia’s solution is not a working one.  At best the children there will leave the school unprepared to face the world where gender stereotypes abound.  The word stereotype often comes with a negative connotation.  This leads, as language often does, us to believe that stereotypes themselves are negative.  But this is not always true.  Stereotypes help us navigate our world.  They help us to have the ability and opportunity to think about other things in our conscious minds.  We can hold stereotypes and yet recognize that those stereotypes won’t be the case all the time and that it is okay for that to happen.  Once again many feminist circles have this wrong, as their goal is to eliminate stereotypes.  This would result in a society that was unproductive and ineffective.