Managing a project traditionally requires creating premises for its successful completion (Larson & Gray, 2015). Due to the numerous negative factors that a project may be exposed to in the global environment, it is crucial to make sure that the existing obstacles are eliminated, and the available opportunities should be used to the project’s advantage. Particularly, a successful project presupposes the correct choice of a leadership strategy, the adequate distribution of roles and responsibilities, and the reasonable use of resources.
To define whether a project is going to be successful or not, one will have to consider both internal and external factors. Speaking of the internal ones, one must mention the significance of a proper leadership strategy that motivates the participants and assigns them with the corresponding roles. The external ones include economic, political, financial, and social circumstances that may define the course of the project.
The project can be considered a success once the internal factors can be deemed as positive (e.g., the leadership strategy has been chosen properly, the team members are assigned with specific roles, etc.) and the external ones are used to the project’s advantage (e.g., the financial issues are addressed with the help of a sustainability policy). The project can be deemed as failed, therefore, once the specified factors are not taken into account, and the project exists out of the social, political, and economic context, with its members being uninterested in its success (Lalsing, Kishnah, & Pudaruth, 2012).
Therefore, the lack of a sustainability factor in the leader’s policy is likely to lead to the failure of a project. For instance, the infamous Business Systems Modernization case displays an inconsistency in the company’s management policy. As Nelson (2007) explains, this is exactly what happens “when a complex project overwhelms the management capabilities of both vendor and client” (Nelson, 2007, p. 69).
Likewise, the MasterNet project (Nelson, 2007) can also be considered a prime example of a project gone wrong due to the lack of a cohesive leadership strategy and the lack of coordination between the participants. The unceasing conflicts and the following dissatisfaction of the people involved triggered an immediate failure of the project, as the existing records show. More importantly, the failure of the project in question can also be attributed to poor compliance with the ethical principles that the organization was supposed to promote.
The cases described above point to the obvious necessity to establish a well put together leadership strategy that helps reinforce the required ethical principles and provide each of the participants with a corresponding task. In addition, it is imperative to make certain that the actions of the project members should be well coordinated and supervised accordingly. As soon as the team members realize that their efforts are appreciated, and they can contribute significantly to a certain area, they are most likely to deliver outstanding performance.
In order to make sure that all goals of a project should be accomplished, its leader must make sure that the participants are assigned with the required roles, the key objectives are spelled out, and the resources at the team’s disposal are used reasonable. As long as the principle of sustainability is used as the basis for the project development and completion, it will most certainly become a triumph for all those involved.
Reference List
Lalsing, V., Kishnah, S., & Pudaruth, S. (2012). People factors in agile software development and project management. International Journal of Software Engineering & Applications (IJSEA), 3(1), 117137.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2015). Project management: The managerial process (6th ed.). New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Nelson, A. A. (2007). IT project management: infamous failures, classic mistakes, and best practices. MIS Quarterly Executive, 6(2), 67–77.