Introduction

Around the world, it is difficult to find two project management situations that are the same. This
is partly because every project, be it internal or external, offshore or onshore, carried out by an
organization is unique, with its own unique set of challenges. Organizations initiate projects with
the best of intentions to succeed. But due to complex nature of project activities, and the
challenges associated with managing a project restriction or constraints of cost, scope and time
are also unique and ever changing. The management of project constraints explains, if not fully,
why many projects fail. Like any other organizational endeavours, projects are part of a wider
super-system of an organization and are also influenced by both internal and external forces in a
super system. Some external forces like government regulations, environmental forces, society,
pressure groups, financial markets, labour markets, technology, customer influence, shareholder
etc. are very dynamic and much erratic. Internal forces also like changes in operating processes,
management style, resources allocation, skills, internal conflicts etc. are becoming more adaptive
to the external environment. Hence, managing projects in this mix of dynamic factors requires a
lot from project managers and also show how easy it is for a project to fail.
However, identifying those factors that can make a project succeed is difficult and cumbersome.
Erling et al (2006) stated that there are no clear proof linking a project success factor and actual
project success. Again, different industry sectors have their own perception of success and
failure, and what factors can contribute to either.

Defining Project Failure

From Penguin English Dictionary (1992), failure is define as unsuccessful project that fails to
perform a duty or an expected action, non-occurrence or non-performance. Whereas success can
be defined as the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted (Cambridge
Dictionary, 2007). It is also said that success is an event that accomplishes its intended purpose
(dictionary.com, 2007). Anything short of that is failure. Project failure is an unpleasant event
that cost large amount of money to the organisation.

According to Gray and Larson (2006) Project management is a task derived from an organisation
that enables professional project managers to use their skills, tools and knowledge to plan,
execute and control a unique project within a limited lifespan by meeting the specifications
requirements of the organisation. Since the outcomes of the capital projects have strategic
implications on the success and profitability of the business, the ability to deliver based on
pre-determined objectives should be critical to the company's success.

And yet one-third of all the oil and gas projects exceed budget and time projections by more than
10 percent. Failure to deliver big projects on budget and on schedule is highly publicized and
damage the companies profile with capital markets that predictability and strong returns.
Continual use of traditional project management techniques will not alter this trend. Companies
that want to change and improve on their performance with critical capital projects will need to
adopt new techniques.

Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) also defined project management as a process used as a control to
achieve the project objectives by utilizing the organisational structure and resources to manage a
project with the application of tools and techniques, without disrupting the routine operation of
the company.

Causes of Project Failure

Pinto and Mantel (1990) carried out a research on the causes of project failure and revealed a
good explanation that encompasses both poor planning and implementation as reason for project
failure. They state that project failure is a vague concept, which has evoked much as to its
definition, as the case with the definition of project success. A project is considered a failure
whenever a project does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders. This has lots of impact
to both the organisation and all stakeholders to the project. They include: cost and time overruns,
quality degradation, frustration and stress, sometimes resulting to people quitting, low corporate
market value, low public opinion and negative media campaigns. The total effect can be very
costly to the organisation; at times even force the company into closure.

Bienkoski (1989) identified ten factors that can lead to project failure at the planning and
implementation stage and they are:

Compressed or Unrealistic Timelines

This was seen in the ZimAsset portofolia ; there was a tight schedule associated with this
project.In this kind of project adequate time need to be exercise to enable proper planning. So
compressed or unrealistic deadline can cause reduction in project scope, or even lead to
extension of time from the contractor. Also this can cause conflict between the contractors and
the subcontractors .Unrealistic timelines are often the source of project failure. Compression of
schedule can be cause by delays but the deadline are not also pushed back to accommodate the
lapses caused by the delay. Instead, activities at the end are done more quickly and with less care
and attention.

Failure to Adequately Define Requirement

Every project has a reason for engaging in it. In order words project are delivered to make
something more efficient, improve a service to someone or because it will meet another of our
organisation's objectives. So it is very important to define the requirement of the product to be
created. If the requirements are not well-defined, it is likely that the end product will not meet
the need or it will be significantly over-budget and behind schedule because changes are
required.

Lack of Planning

Once the requirement are known, then carrying out thorough, upfront scope planning is an
essential next step to help project managers and stakeholders accurately and clearly define
project scope. It is very vital for a project organisation to understand that there is more than one
approach. Project scope management therefore is necessary to develop reasonable project
estimates, enhance the management of customer and stakeholder expectations, and mitigate
project risks such as cost overruns and schedule delays. Project manager should establish and
standardize a scope management process to develop concise project scope statements and
credible budget and schedule estimates.

Lack of Time Management:

In project management, for the delivered products to be of benefit, it must be obtained within the
timeframe agreed before commencement of project. Therefore time can have impact in the
following ways on project:Sometimes the output only has the desired benefit at a certain time. A
good example is event management (sporting event) there is a defined time at which the event
must start. If the project is late all the benefit is lost. Sometimes the output only has the desired
benefit over a limited market window. For instance Umbrella has its market window during rainy
season. If the project is late, the benefit is not lost absolutely, but benefit is lost in proportion to
any time the project is delayed.Finally, because of the time value of money, the later the project
is delivered the more it costs, and so value is eroded. In this case there is a need to draw on
theory from another management subject (economics and finance) to enlighten our theory of
project management.

Lack of Quality Management

Project deliverable must function in the desired way; that is to say it must perform. So it is
important to specify how the product to be delivered will perform and what standards it should
meet. Then the project management organization must ensure that the specifications and
standards are met, that the output functions as required, and that the desired outcomes are
achieved.

Lack of Cost Management

Project should be able to provide value to the owner, that is to say the benefit should justify the
cost of the resources used. In order for this to be achieved, the cost must be kept within bounds.
It does not necessarily have to be less than some arbitrary budget; it just has to be kept within
bounds justified by the desired benefit.

Poorly Developed Budget Forecast

Before engaging in any project to avoid failure, it is necessary to go into thorough research and
preparation in order to develop a reasonable budget estimate. Many organisations normally
ignore this step or just do a very rudimentary estimate owing to the amount of work needed to
complete the task. Using the estimated budget, the project managers should collaborate with
stakeholders to help further refine the project scope and final deliverables. This can be achieved
by using initial budget to base actual spending plans as well as to proactively track spending and
respond immediately to potential issues in order to prevent failure..

Lack of Senior Management Support

Projects that are been sponsored by the public or government are highly political. This form of
project may involve an excessive number of unnecessary or incorrect participants.

Organisation's executives should seek ongoing senior management endorsement, enforcement

and approval of the planning process to keep the effort on track and to minimize pushback from
the line of business (LOB) managers. Therefore senior management and staff involvement are
both needed to drive and keep the effort focussed and moving. Ownership of the project must be
shared to satisfy the demand of user management. Executives must convey this message to
senior management to retain involvement and participation.

Lack of Change Management Process

Project changes are inevitable; however uncontrolled changes and insufficient change
management process will increase the probability of project failure. A formal and structured
change management process is necessary to ensure effects of any changed requirements are
properly analysed, prioritized, and balanced according to the project budget, schedule, and scope.

Project managers should consistently and publicly take a phased approach to projects, so that
users understand that not all changes must be completed for the current release. This will help
acceptance of trading off specific desired change for faster availability of greater functionality.
This will also help reduce the impact of change onto the project, and allow for cost and time
containment.

Frequent or Large Changes to Project Scope

Scope changes can significantly impact the cost, schedule, risks and quality of the entire project.
Project managers should minimize the extent and frequency of changes to the project scope.

Project scope are defined in early stage in the planning and estimation phases, there are valid
reasons for change. For instance a stakeholder may acquire additional insight into a problem
during the course of the project or external market conditions and/ or government regulations can
drive requests that extend beyond the initial project scope. However, changes to project scope
can also occur as a result of developing a poor initial scope document.
Project managers must ensure that adequate time is spent on defining and redefining the work
effort directly with key stakeholders.

Insufficient Resources

This is another cause of project failure. It can be seen from insufficient finance, manpower and
equipments to bring a project to completion. Required resources are underestimated and
schedule inaccurately planned. Project organization often encounter difficulties with resource
allocation, as many project organizations do not spend enough time on resource scheduling and
proper management. In addition resources are often utilized ineffectively, especially when
individuals are required to support multiple projects concurrently. Insufficient resource supply
will cause delays and impact overlapping projects. Project Managers should plan according to
the estimated project schedule estimates and work with concurrent project schedules to help
ensure that resources are properly schedule.

Poor Communication

Time and time again in post-project assessment, project teams list communication as one of the
most needed areas for improvement. Many times in difficult (Challenging) projects, team
members feel that if the communication had been better, the project would have run smother.

Effective communication not only keeps everyone up-to date on the project progress, but also
facilitates buy-in and ownership of major project decisions and milestones.

To ensure success of a project, much information including expectations, goals, needs, resources,
status report, budgets and purchase request, need to be communicated on a regular basis to all the
major stakeholders.

Poor Risk Management:

Managing of risk is an ongoing process throughout the life of the project, as risks will be
constantly changing. There should be a proper risk management plan in place to deal quickly and
effectively with risks if they arise. It is also important to work as an integrated project team from
the earliest possible stages on an open book basis to identify risks throughout the team's suppy
chains.From Professor James Garven, risk management is the systematic process of managing
an organization risk exposures to achieve its objectives in a manner consistent with public
interest, human safety, environmental factors, and the law. It consists of the planning,
organizing, leading, coordinating, and controlling activities undertaken with the intent of
providing an efficient pre-loss plan that minimizes the adverse impact of risk on the
organization's resources, earnings and cash flow.

However they are other factors which has lead to the failure of projects which are outside the
planning and implementation stage

The Organization

Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups
(Tukel & Rom, 1998, p48) (CHAOS Report, 2001, p4) (Cleland & Ireland, 2002, p210)
(Tinnirello, 2002, p14), which means that no project can finish successfully unless the project
manager secures true support from the senior or operational management.

It is extremely difficult to work in a hostile environment where nobody understands the benefits
that the project will deliver to the organisation.

Stakeholder management and contract strategies (number of and size of the contracts, interface
between the different contracts and the management of contracts) are separate success factors
which are also considered part of organization issues (Torp, Austeng & Mengesha, 2004, p4).

The Project Manager

Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. He must have a
number of skills to use during the project to guide the rest of the team to successfully complete
all the objectives.

In the 2001 CHAOS report (The Standish Group International, 2001, p6), business,
communication, responsiveness, process, results, operational, realism and technological skills are
mentioned as some of the most important skills a project manager should have to deliver success.

The Project Itself

The type of a project underlines some factors that are important to success. For example, if a
project is urgent, the critical factor in that case is time.However, the increase of cost "that has
thrown the management's calculations out of kilter" (Evans, 2005) was not a big issue at that
time. The size, value of a project and it's uniqueness of activities can be a puzzle for the project
manager who is used to planning and co-ordinating common and simple activities (Belassi &
Tukel, 1996, p144).

The External Environment

External environment can be the political, economic, socio-culture and technological (PEST)
context in which the project is executed. Factors like the weather, work accidents or the
government's favourable or unfavourable legislation can affect the project in all of its phases.
Note that if a client is from outside the organization, he should also be considered as an external
factor influencing the project performance (Belassi & Tukel, 1996, p145).Competitors should
also be accounted as external factors which can undermine project success because the original
project could be overshadowed by a more glamorous and successful project launched by another
organisation.

Methods of Avoiding Project failure

Project success makes organisation stronger and better, and that means it is important to ensure
that organisation choose the right project; allocate the right resources, track progress along the
way and taking an unflinching look at actual
result.(http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pdf/do-you-know-where-your-project-is.pdf. accessed on
12/07/09

Conclusion

Most industries are dynamic in nature and the construction industry is no exception. Its
environment has become more dynamic due to increasing uncertainties in technology, budgets,
and development processes. The concept of project success has remained unambiguously
defined. Project success is the ultimate goal for every project. However it means different things
to different people. While some writers consider cost, time, and quality as the predominant
criteria, others suggest that success is something more complex
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