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Most large, complex projects and programmes fail to meet their planned objectives – either failing to deliver what was promised, sliding their timeframes or exceeding the budget – or all three!. Most organisations are undertaking one or more aggressive, “must do” programmes at any point in time. These programmes may fundamentally change the way the company conducts its business and failure to meet objectives on time may lead to a catastrophic loss of business.
What can be done?
Large projects and programmes are often chaotic. Objectives are unclear and often evolve and plans and priorities are constantly changing. There is a temptation to accept this chaos as a necessary “nature of the beast” and effectively resort to “crisis management”. This is a very wasteful, painful and ultimately unsuccessful way to operate. To restore order, it is essential to get the basics of project management established by making sure that both objectives and plans are clear and communicated. The objectives may change but enormous benefit will be gained from having a clear direction set, even if it is only for a short term
Clear objective and plans are only the first step – they can and will go wrong if they are not pro-actively managed.
You cannot foresee and manage all risks. However, most projects fail due to lack of effective communication between the participants. In other words the projects are impacted by risks that were foreseen in the minds of key individuals, but were not communicated at the right time and therefore not managed by the project team. If a way could be found of unlocking the collective knowledge and viewpoints of all the key stakeholders around the project/programme, then a valuable insight into the true risks to the objectives would result. The ABCD risk management methodology provides this insight to the risks and the means to effectively mitigate them.
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