Project Problems - The Causes and how to deal with them.

Research shows that less than 40% of projects actually deliver their set objectives. One of the key reasons for this is that there is little or no focus on the essential Human Behaviour Considerations of working in this people and team based environment. This course addresses that by showing how to deal with these issues in an easily accessible and structured way.

It does not replace training in the regular aspects of project work, but rather supplements it, thus providing a more holistic and therefore successful, approach.

This Much Needed Focus on Human Behaviour Considerations, will mean that Many Project Problems will be Avoided and the Management of those that Remain will be Much Improved.

The course uses the following common scenarios as examples -  

• Bad Decision Making – decisions being made on non-project grounds.
• Superhero – the individual more concerned with their own advancement rather than those of the project, but hidden under the pretense of ‘saving’ the project.
• Bad Communications – the vital information exchange on the project is poor or missing completely.
• Bad Organization – the structure of the project is not optimized for the project but rather for an existing organization, team or individual.
• Following Fashion – decisions are made based on what is currently popular or what others are doing rather than the right thing for the project.
• Bad Resourcing – additional resources needed by the project are badly procured – either internally or externally.
• Conspiracy of Silence – when people collectively decline to discuss important project issues because they don’t want their own particular problems to be highlighted.
• Politics – all the messy selfish, non-productive stuff that goes on in organizations that far too many people indulge in.

While research shows that there are common problems (Human Behaviour Scenarios - HBS) across projects, each project also has its own unique combination of environment and factors.

The course therefore works on 2 levels. The 8 different Human Behaviour Scenarios described are amongst the most common which cause projects to fail. However, there are others which you will encounter. The course therefore introduces a simple 4 step method of identifying and managing these.

The first step is to identify and clarify the HBS that may be occurring and assign a generic title to it. This provides a common vocabulary that everyone associated with the project can use to help manage the issue. This step is ‘What is the Issue ?’

The second step is to look for confirmation that the HBS is actually occurring on the project. Each of the 8 HBS’s used on the course has examples of the type of thing to look for. This is ‘Things to Look For’.

The third step is to propose solutions to the problem. Those described in the lecture are necessarily generic solutions to the HBS’s but they provide guidance for your own project.

Finally there is “Project Bingo”. Identifying a HBS on a project can be relatively easy. However, even just raising the issue, much less actually fixing it, is often very difficult. Project Bingo allows you to at least identify that a HBS is occurring on your project – without necessarily having to draw too much attention to yourself (which can sometimes be awkward). It also alerts management to problems they may not have been aware of.