Project Management: Analyzing Coordination Failures & Risk Estimates

This essay explores the prevalent reasons behind the failures of large-scale projects, emphasizing the critical roles of coordination and risk assessment. It highlights that big projects, while complex and involving numerous individuals and resources, are susceptible to coordination breakdowns due to logistical challenges and the difficulty of aligning diverse teams. Furthermore, the essay points out that risk estimates, often obtained from project advocates, can be biased and fail to account for the uncertainties inherent in extensive projects. The problem lies in assessing these large projects like smaller ones, neglecting the interdependence of numerous sub-projects. The study concludes that while significant failure risks exist, they can be mitigated through improved coordination frameworks and more efficient risk assessment strategies, asserting that proper management can lead to the success of big projects.

Running head: PROJECT AND MANAGEMENT
Project and Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Reasons why big projects fail..........................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................3

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Introduction
In the contemporary period, taking into account the inclusiveness and cognitions in
different arena of human life, especially in the professional domain, it may be asserted that the
projects under taken by people, especially the commercial, industrial or other professional
projects, experiences huge dynamics, both in their nature as well as in their size (Memon et al.
2014). Big and multidimensional projects are often undertaken in different industries and
domains, which involve large number of people from different specializations and different types
of resources as well as operational frameworks. However, these big projects often have a higher
rate of failure compared to the smaller ones.
Reasons why big projects fail
There are different reasons behind the failure of the projects, which are bigger in size, the
primary ones being as follows:
a) Co-ordination Failure- Often the big projects involve a number of people, each bestowed
with different responsibilities, which are again interconnected with each other and need to be
coordinated for an efficient operational framework. However, due to the huge domain of the
projects it often does not becomes possible for all the people involved in the project to work
together in one place or at the same point of time. This often leads to coordination failure, which
in turn leads to confusion, and failure of the projects (Cataldo and Herbsleb 2013).
b) Risk Estimates from Project Advocates- Another plausible factor behind the failure of the
big projects may be the fact that often the risk estimates and the prospects of returns from a
project are obtained from the primary proponents of the projects, whose views are often found to

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be biased towards the success of the project (Thamhain 2013). This often leads to backfire of the
projects when implemented in real case scenario.
c) Risks of big projects are assessed like small projects- The primary problem, which the
organizations often do in assessing the risks of the big projects, is that not they fail to take into
account larger uncertainties in the big projects. Big projects are often formed of many small and
interdependent as well as independent projects, the execution and success of each of which is
necessary for the success of the project as a whole. Thus, there remains the need to take extra
precaution regarding the long-term risk assessment of the same (Haimes 2015).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be argues that there remains significant scopes of
failures of the big projects, primarily due to the presence of coordination failure and the faulty
risk assessments. However, these problems can be averted by implementing an operational
framework with better coordination and more efficient risk assessing and situation handling
teams. Big projects, do not necessarily fail, if they are managed properly and efficiently.

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References
Cataldo, M. and Herbsleb, J.D., 2013. Coordination breakdowns and their impact on
development productivity and software failures. IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, 39(3), pp.343-360.
Haimes, Y.Y., 2015. Risk modeling, assessment, and management. John Wiley & Sons.
Memon, A.H., Rahman, I.A., Abdullah, M.R. and Azis, A.A.A., 2014. Factors affecting
construction cost performance in project management projects: Case of MARA large
projects. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, 1(1).
Thamhain, H., 2013. Managing risks in complex projects. Project management journal, 44(2),
pp.20-35.