Analysis of Project Delay Causes and Recommended Solutions for Success

This report delves into the multifaceted reasons behind project delays, a critical concern in project management. The analysis identifies several key factors contributing to project failure, including poor project scheduling, lack of cooperation among team members, changing cost structures, incompetent management, and uncontrollable attributes such as natural disasters. The report emphasizes the interconnectedness of these factors, highlighting how one issue can trigger others. For instance, inadequate scheduling can lead to cost overruns, and poor team integration can result in delays. The report recommends proactive measures to mitigate these risks. It suggests implementing regular project checks, fostering team cohesion through social events, employing robust budget planning tools, ensuring competent management through a rigorous hiring process, and developing contingency plans for unforeseen circumstances. By addressing these challenges, project managers can significantly improve the likelihood of project success and minimize delays.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
Poor Project Scheduling..............................................................................................................2
Lack of Cooperation....................................................................................................................2
Changing Cost Structure..............................................................................................................3
Incompetent management............................................................................................................3
Uncontrollable Attributes............................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
1

INTRODUCTION
Project Management can be defined as the entire process through which an individual or
a team initiate, plan, execute, control and close a particular or specific project that they intend to
carry out. Project management involves very specific and detailed planning regarding each step
and every aspect related to it (Kalra and Gloviczki, 2017). However, like Charles R. Swindoll
has rightly said, “Life is only 105 of what actually happens to you remaining 90% deals with the
manner in which you react”, despite intricate planning, project delay can be an unavoidable
scenario if the reasons of project failure are not minimized or controlled. There are a variety of
reasons due to which a project can get unnecessary delayed and these have been outlined by me
in the following essay where I will identify the most probable causes of project delay and how by
exercising sufficient control, they can be avoided.
MAIN BODY
Poor Project Scheduling
Project Scheduling basically involves identification of the various milestones of the
project and allocating appropriate time to each of these milestones within which these should be
completed (Kibler and et.al., 2017). When the project scheduling is not done in a proper manner,
it often leads to a huge overruns in time period that was initially allocated leading to overrun in
cost as well which can ultimately even lead to the failure of the entire project. This overrun in
cost, time and budget is an extremely negative issue for the project manager and shows a lack of
proper use of tools used for the scheduling.
As per the view of Nilsson and et.al., (2015), a project is bound to get delayed right from
the beginning if it is not properly planned i.e. the author states that before starting a project, an
extremely comprehensive and detailed plan must be formed considering all possible scenarios of
failure ensuring that plan is cost effective and accounts for the required manpower as well as the
parameters within which it is expected to be achieved. The author further states that in case of
lengthy projects, the project manager should ensure that regular checks between fixed intervals
are carried out so that deviation if any between the expected and actual time are removed and
project delay can be avoided.
Lack of Cooperation
Another major issue which can lead to project delays is poor integration amongst the
team members who are responsible for completion of the project (Agnetis and et.al.,2015). Role
2

of a project leader should be assigned to a specific person who should be responsible for
allocating specific duties and responsibilities to every team member as per their capabilities.
Further, the entire team should be closely bonded and integrated so that if one team member has
delayed in his work, subsequent delay in the project can be avoided and together the project can
be completed on time within the available resources.
Ma and et.al., (2016), states that in order to ensure timely completion of the project in an
effective manner, it is essential that all the team members understand each other and can provide
assistance when required. When there is lack of communication or cooperation within team
members, a project is bound to get delayed and can even lead to ultimate failure when team
members do not understand what they are expected of each other. Therefore, in order to ensure
success of the project, it is essential that all the team members coexist peacefully and are closely
bonded.
Changing Cost Structure
In a project, determining a cost structure is a crucial aspect, since it involves
consideration of all the aspects like inflation, contingencies which can probably arise, crisis
situations etc. and budget allocation should be extremely comprehensive (Kitabu, 2017).
Underestimated budget can require changes to be made in the future and this ultimately leads to
unnecessary delay in the project completion because identification of the sources for raising
additional sources of finance or reduction in the original budget parameters set is a time
consuming process. Therefore, wrong allocation of resources is a grave mistake and can even
lead to shutting down of the entire project altogether and this can lead to overrun in cost as well.
Another author, Taguchi and et.al., (2016), states that though many project managers tend
to adopt the policy of overestimation of project budgets so that in future, if any unanticipated
expenditure does arise, it can be automatically adjusted in the extra budget that is assigned but
the author has argued that this is usually not a correct practice to adopt and can lead to faulty
budget preparations which can be misleading for the top management. Therefore, accurate
budgets should be prepared and a separate cost should be allocated for unanticipated
expenditures so that correct representation can be made.
Incompetent management
This type of project delays usually occur when the person to whom the responsibility of
the project implementation is allotted is either inexperienced or not capable enough of handling
3

the scale at which the project is to be implemented (Heathfield, 2016). Management is also
incompetent when there are frequent breakdown in machinery and equipment or the labour that
has been employed is not skilled or qualified. All these factors collectively lead to delay in the
project and can even led to failure of the entire project altogether.
Supporting this cause, Muir and et.al. 2016), has stated that this factor of project delay
ultimately leads to project failure and the only solution is to replace the project leader with the
one who is capable enough of controlling the damage that has already been done and minimize
the overall project delay. Further, the author states, that the machinery and labour that are to be
used in the project should be selected after proper evaluation and consideration so that
unnecessary delays can be avoided and project can be completed on time.
Uncontrollable Attributes
All the factors which were stated above could be controlled in some manner or the other
by the project manager but apart from these, there are some unavoidable factors which cannot be
controlled like climate changes, natural disasters, unanticipated trade restrictions etc (Gold and
Vassell, 2015). Since these are not anticipated beforehand, the delay caused is unavoidable but
the project manager can ensure that proper funds are allocated for suck unaccounted disasters
and can be used if the need arises so that the delay although unavoidable can at least be
minimized.
Author, Rhodes, Kalra and Gloviczki (2017), states that in order to meet such situations
of unavoidable disasters, the project managers should formulate a backup plan based on the
geography of the place where the project is intended to be carried out. This will help in preparing
for the natural disasters if they occur and through study of the political situation of the economy
in which the plan is intended to be applied would also help in reducing the impact of disaster
without causing the unnecessary delay.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
It can be concluded from the report above that there are many factors that can ultimately
lead to a failure of the project and I discussed in detail all the aspects of various reasons behind
project failure. All the factors that I discussed in the above report are linked to each other and
incurring of one can automatically lead to occurrence of another factor. In order to ensure that
the project does not get delayed unnecessarily, a project manager should avoid occurrence of the
factors above and these can be done in following manner:
4

 In order to avoid the risk of delay due to scheduling, a project manager should, I think
ensure that regular periodic checks should be implemented covering all the aspects of the
project that has been performed till the date.
 I think that integration of team members can be increased by conducting get together
sessions where everyone acknowledges each other and get to know them in a better
manner.
 The problem of cost structure can be delayed when the manager prepare budgets using a
variety of tools addressing different aspects of the future contingencies.
 In order to avoid the problem of inefficient management, proper hiring process should be
implemented and the machinery should be implemented after proper testing.
 Although I don’t have any strategy for the factors that cannot be controlled, I think that
formulation of a backup plan in order to minimize the impact of such contingencies is an
appropriate strategy for addressing this cause.
5

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ma, W. And et.al., 2016. Resource-constrained project scheduling problem with uncertain
durations and renewable resources. International journal of machine learning and
cybernetics. 7(4). pp.613-621.
Agnetis, A And et.al.,2015. Nash equilibria for the multi-agent project scheduling problem with
controllable processing times. Journal of Scheduling. 18(1). pp.15-27.
Taguchi, A. and et.al., 2016. Lack of cooperation between physicians and dentists during
osteoporosis treatment may increase fractures and osteonecrosis of the jaw. Current medical
research and opinion.32(7). pp.1261-1268.
Kitabu, G., 2017. Lack of cooperation between local leaders, law enforcers impedes forest
conservation.
Muir, P.,and et.al. 2016. The real cost of sequencing: scaling computation to keep pace with data
generation. Genome biology. 17(1). p.53.
Heathfield, D.F., 2016. An introduction to cost and production functions. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
Rhodes, J.M., Kalra, M. and Gloviczki, P., 2017. The management of incompetent perforating
veins with open and endoscopic surgery. In Handbook of Venous and Lymphatic Disorders
(pp. 563-575). CRC Press.
Gold, B. and Vassell, C., 2015, November. Using risk management to balance agile methods: A
study of the Scrum process. In 2015 2nd International Conference on Knowledge-Based
Engineering and Innovation (KBEI) (pp. 49-54). IEEE.
Nilsson, and et.al., 2015. Importance ratings of grocery store attributes. International Journal of
Retail & Distribution Management. 43(1). pp.63-91.
Kibler, and et.al., 2017. Attributes of legitimate venture failure impressions. Journal of Business
Venturing, 32(2), pp.145-161.
Online
[Online]. Available through: <>
6

7