Tag Archives: stakeholders

Leading Cause of Project Failure: No Clear Objectives

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Think of the last project that you delivered…. How do you know whether or not it was considered to be a success?

I get to ask that question to people all over the world. More often than not, the responses people provide tend to be subjective. For example, “No one was yelling at me so it must have been good!”

It’s a question we need to ask up front, more often: “What does success look like?”

In this video Andy Kaufman, PMP, host of the project management podcast entitled The People and Projects Podcast explains why unclear objectives cause projects to struggle, and how to create objectives to help you deliver a project successfully.

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Leading Cause of Project Failure: Difficulty Defining Work in Detail

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From 30,000 feet, every project is pretty easy!

Same with projects. From a high-level it can be easy to think, “Hey, how tough can this be?”

But we need to get out of the clouds and get our arms around our projects as early as possible. In this video Andy Kaufman, PMP, host of the project management podcast entitled The People and Projects Podcast discusses ideas on how to avoid the trap of staying at a high-level for too long.

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Leading Cause of Project Failure: Insufficient Involvement

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I’m amazed at what you can get away with if you manage expectations.

You can deliver late. You can over-spend. But only if you manage expectations along the way. Not manage those expectations and I’m equally amazed at how even one stakeholder can inflict serious pain on your project!

How do you manage expectations? Involvement. Stephen Covey has said, “No involvement, no commitment.” Wise words for project managers.

In this video Andy Kaufman, PMP, host of the project management podcast entitled The People and Projects Podcast explains why involvement of stakeholders is so critical, and some practical insights on how to do it.

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Leading Cause of Project Failure: Lack of Executive Support

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One of the single most important indicators of whether you will deliver successfully or not comes down to the support you’re getting from your sponsor.

Having support doesn’t mean you get everything you ask for (including doubling your pay)! What does it mean? How do you get it?

In this video Andy Kaufman, PMP, host of the project management podcast entitled The People and Projects Podcast discusses why executive support is so important, and how to get it.

By the way, you may find this project management podcast interview with Alfonso Bucero helpful. We talk about his book Project Sponsorship.

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Improving Your Ability to Deliver: Develop a Project Charter

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A basic practice that has proven to help project success is to develop a Project Charter.

You’ve heard that, right? But who likes to create more paperwork? Isn’t this just an academic issue that over-encumbers project teams with more administrivia?

In this video Andy Kaufman, PMP, host of the project management podcast entitled The People and Projects Podcast explains how a project charter can improve your ability to successfully deliver projects (without overwhelming you with additional work).

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Improving Your Ability to Deliver: Identify All Stakeholders

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In previous videos we’ve talked about the importance of managing stakeholder expectations. It’s critical.

The first key to managing stakeholder expectations is to identify who they are. Of course this seems obvious but the Project Management Institute does a great job of helping us get a better understanding of who are stakeholders are.

Hint: there are more than you think!

In this video Andy Kaufman, PMP, host of the project management podcast entitled The People and Projects Podcast helps you undertand who your stakeholders are and how to better manage them to help you successfully deliver your projects.

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Improving Your Ability to Deliver: Define Success

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In a previous video we discussed how unclear objectives lead to project failure.

So, how do we go about creating measurable objectives? In this video Andy Kaufman, PMP, host of the project management podcast entitled The People and Projects Podcast shares key lessons about answering the question: “How do we know what success looks like?”

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