When your project isn't very successful!

“The river fell, river rose, and the winds blew, and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.”. Matthew 7:25

Organization, Churches and institution holding special projects for the underprivileged children, widows, senior citizens, schools for the marginal sector or it can be any social project sometimes achieve greater result creating positive impact in the community. But there are also cases where we see the project just exists for its own reason and does not make significant progress at all. I wish to enumerate the common causes for you to check and realign your projects if necessary for a greater impact. It is important the project should be well stabilized and be able to pass any test yet stay strong like the house whose foundation was on the rock.

At the outset it is crucial that a Project is closely aligned with Organization/Church goals for making it a success. “When setting up the project vision, mission, goals, and objectives, the leadership should start with the organization's vision, mission, goals, and objectives and ensure that all is aligned.”. The Organization/Church and Institution may have a vibrant team but if they are still lagging behind, then probably there is a dire need to check if it is an alignment issue or probably if it is something do with the causes mentioned below.

Lack of consistency in the project workflows: A successful project should be having consistent tools and processes in place and ensuring teams know and follow them. Having too rigid and volatile processes can also have a negative impact. It is therefore important to find the right balance between consistent processes and the flexibility necessary for your team to actually get the work done.

Having outdated processes and procedures: Ensure that the process is regularly checked to see if it matches the workflow and supports the objective of the Project. Also, it is important that the processes and procedures are well documented for reference.

Poor Accountability: This is one crucial area where things get messed up, it is important to set up accountability at different levels and not channeled through one person alone, especially if your institution is big enough. Sometimes vertical alignment is just not enough, it is essential for a project management program to also connect horizontally.

Poor Communication: Often communication breakdown can be a point of failure. Projects will come in from a variety of sources, and if internal and client expectations aren't clearly defined, it's a recipe for failure. Communications that are also ambiguous and goes based on the emotions alone can cater to breakdown.

Unclear objective: The project should have been created with specific, measurable goals and with clear set of objectives, if it is not the case then you will notice that people are trying to solve undefined problems.

Poor scope management: If you fail to articulate specifically what the project objectives are how do you know it’s a success? The impacts of poor scope management are far reaching and can result in cost overruns, delays, poor quality, and not meeting the customer needs.

Lack of visibility: Nearly 40% of surveyed companies report that a lack of visibility prevents projects from being completed on time. Are you able to see the progress and are you achieving the defined milestones?

May God help you in setting up right management system for a greater impact.

Blessings