Approximately one third of all IT projects fail. While there are numerous reason
ID: 358642 • Letter: A
Question
Approximately one third of all IT projects fail. While there are numerous reasons, including funding, poor requirements, and lack of ROI, the main reason may be due to team dynamics and communication.
Provide a summary of the purpose of the project (company details not required).
Analyze how team dynamics contributed to the projected failure. Explain the methods the leader could employ with the team to increase success.
Analyze how team communication and conflict contributed to project failure. Explain the methods the leader could employ with the team to increase success.
Evaluate the importance of giving and receiving feedback in conflict situations. Provide examples of both the positive and negative outcomes of feedback communication from the project.
How can the organization utilize lessons learned to reduce future project risk?
Explanation / Answer
About the company- I would like to cite an example from my workplace. The company is a publishing company wherein we provide content to the suppliers (printers and typesetters) for publishing. Each journal has different technical details for publishing and these details are captured in a systematic format called Journal Information Sheet.
Purpose of the project- The project is about standardizing the technicalities in the information sheet. IT specifications are also mentioned in the sheet which is pertinent for suppliers who use them for publishing the content. There were about 1700 journals and these journals fall into different categories such as health science, scientific and business journals. Each journal has specifications different from each other. The main aim of the project is to standardize the Journal Information sheet for all the 1700 journals without affecting the supplier language for publication.
Analyze how team dynamics contributed to the projected failure. Explain the methods the leader could employ with the team to increase success.
Team dynamics are invisible forces within a team. Team dynamics have a strong influence on the behavior of the team members and how they perform. Poor team dynamics influence the behavior of individuals and their work.
The project’s failure was mainly due to poor team dynamics. They are:
How to improve team dynamics-
Analyze how team communication and conflict contributed to project failure. Explain the methods the leader could employ with the team to increase success.
Team communication and conflicts in the teams led to project failure. The leader failed to communicate the different phases of the project and the role of each Journal Manager. This lack of communication led to lack of focus and direction among the team members.
Conflicts arise between teams and among different team members. In this project, there was conflict between the team members and the leader because there was no trust between the leader and the team members in what has to be done in the project. The leader did not have process knowledge to guide the team members. This led to less morale and performance among the team members. The publishing was delayed due to incorrect data that has been updated in the journal information sheet.
Ways to increase success-
Evaluate the importance of giving and receiving feedback in conflict situations. Provide examples of both the positive and negative outcomes of feedback communication from the project.
Feedback (receiving and giving) are pertinent for resolving conflicts in a situation. Feedback is an effective learning tool. It is an art to give and receive feedback without hurting anyone’s feelings. Feedback should be based on the behavior rather than on the personality. Giving feedback should describe on other person’s behavior on the person giving feedback. Any negative feedback should be given only if required. Receiving feedback are critical for effectively handling the people. In conflict situations, both giving and receiving feedback should be based on conflict situations and not on any individuals. Feedback is the key to solve many complexities in the conflict situations.
An example of positive outcome of feedback communication from the project is that the leader appreciated the teams for effectively handling the updating of the journal notes. This increased the morale of the team members and increased the productivity of a particular phase in the project.
An example of negative outcome of feedback communication from the project is when the leader provided critical feedback to the team members for the errors in the publication. The publishing went on smoothly until the project was implemented. Hence, the team members developed the evaluation apprehension as they perceived that they are being treated harshly for the personal purpose of the leader (career movement to managerial level).
How can the organization utilize lessons learned to reduce future project risk?
All the above mentioned analysis provides an insight to organization which can help them to utilize ways to improve success in key areas. These lessons are mainly discovered through the project review process. The project reviews clearly demonstrates the project experience and analyses the factors underlying the success or the failure of the project. Each factor is analyzed in detail to find what went wrong in project failures. Then the companies utilize the lessons gained from this project experience to avoid the risk of failure in future projects.
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