Why do projects fail to achieve their goals?

Projects can be from very different environments with different goals. They can be the building of roads or hospitals, or a satellite receiver that must comply with futuristic technological requirements, or simply the jobs regularly carried out by small companies. However, they all have something in common.

In any sector, the problems people experience when working on a project are surprisingly similar. There are many reasons why projects can fail to make their goals.

Let’s take a look at the major ones:

☹ Late and over budget

☹ Milestones

☹ Student’s syndrome

☹ Loss of positive variation

☹ Negative behaviours and multitasking

THE SOLUTION: Managing projects as systems

The DecalogueTM approach to Project Management successfully overcomes all the above problems. It does so by combining two key aspects:

a)managing a project as a system using Critical Chain from TOC (Goldratt)

b)achieving stability and predictability by reducing variation (Deming)

What is a system?

A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to achieve a goal.

We define a Project as a network of interdependent activities that must be completed within a given time limit and budget. The goal of the project manager (in the widest sense of a person who manages a project) is to make sure a project/order is completed: