Project Failure: Causes, Conditions, and Goal Tree Analysis

This report delves into the multifaceted causes of project failure, drawing insights from a McKinsey study and highlighting common pitfalls such as inadequate resources, poorly defined goals, project complexity, and poor governance. The core of the analysis revolves around the concept of a project goal map, emphasizing the importance of defining necessary conditions, critical success factors, and potential undesirable effects. The report uses a case study of a construction project to illustrate the application of a goal tree, demonstrating how it can be used to identify and address factors that can lead to project failure. The report also emphasizes the importance of stakeholder satisfaction, risk management, and adherence to quality standards and budgets, providing a comprehensive overview of the elements essential for project success.

Running head: COUSES OF THE PROJECT FAILURE 1
Causes of the project failure
Institution
Student name.

COUSES OF THE PROJECT FAILURE 2
Introduction.
Mckinsey study shows that most of the projects fail to achieve their desired
objectives. Large projects consume almost a half of the budget, having delivered not even to
the expectations and the goals of the planning, (Cooke-Davies, 2002). Most common reasons
for the failures are inadequate resources, poor definition of the project goals, the complexity
of the project and poor governance. For any project to achieve results, there must be
guideline or goal map that should be followed.
Model 1.
shows a project goal map.
This goal map contains all the necessities or requirement, the conditions and the challenges
that might arise during the execution of the project. It will be more practical when we narrow
down to current reality try and undesirable effects.

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Conditions that are to be meet in order to achieve the project goals.
By definition, mechanisms or conditions can be defined as the critical factors,
circumstances, and events that help the project to achieve the desired outcomes. In this case,
we defined this conditions as the necessities, prerequisites or circumstances that must be
employed for the project to take place, (Carvalho, & Rabechini Junior, 2015). This conditions
must be debated before the project can take place by an involved stakeholder in order to
avoid the different opinions which might arise when the project is already in place. This
success factors can include, designing the project, consultation, supervision, coordination,
monitoring, understanding the environment of the project and finally the competitiveness of
the project staff. Though the research also shows that this success factors can occur in the
following category: understanding of the project environment, accountability and the
participation of the public, the capacity of the beneficiary institutions, and the capacity of the
organization implementing, leadership, monitoring, designing and the coordination of the
stakeholders, (Chou, & Pramudawardhani, 2015).
The goals or objectives of any project management is to complete the project within a
given time and according to the budget and requirements of the client. A project is expected
to have a different lifecycle, should be time-bound, they are developed in a progressive
manner and have a unique outcome. When these conditions are met, then the project can
achieve the goals that it was meant to achieve, (Costantino, Gravio, & Nonino, 2015). The
research shows that the internal factors such as processes that support the knowledge flow
and information, and the values or cultures that shape how people act can affect the team
performance. In other words, behaviors and actions of people should be on performance
oriented.

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The success of the project can be evaluated on different dimensions. For instance,
project success means that the stakeholders are satisfied and is determined by the success of
the methods or criteria's agreed by the stakeholders before the project begins, (Leach, 2014).
It can also be determined in terms of time, cost, quality, resources if they are all in line with
the existing scope. Matching the outcome of the project with the requirements of the
customer helps in ensuring satisfaction of the stakeholders hence raising the chances of
seeing greater outcomes or benefits. Therefore, the project can fail when the top management
fails to monitor and make clear decisions at the right stage.
When splitting the organization's objectives into necessary conditions and critical
success factors, it should be deep as possible in order to serve the purpose in which it is
intended to. Though to the beginners, this will not help them very much. In a more practical
way, we can consider two cases. One, a goal tree employed in redefining the strategy at the
executive level. Dettmer defined a goal tree as systematic sound as well as a straightforward
reference point used to determine the current reality and work towards solving those issues
which might hinder the organization from achieving its desired goals. The goal tree is always
the first in the process of logical thinking, (Dettmer, 2007). The main purpose is always
defined by the project owner, those who have been entrusted with the duty of ensuring the
organization goals are met or even the founders of the organization. Their interest will be to
know the minimum level that a goal tree should go. In order to nurture the current reality, the
critical success factors, the goal and the two necessary conditions below them are sufficient.
The building of the critical success factors begins by expressing first the undesirable effects
(UDs) before the goal, the CSFs, and the NCs are achieved that can be hindered from
attaining the desired goal.
Secondly, the goal tree used as a stand-alone at any level. This one does not require
one to go through the whole process of thinking during the preparation of the action plan.

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This is applicable in the new activity which is just begging or it can also be a project in which
all the components are denoted the goal tree and this is used to monitor the completeness of
the work and other necessary conditions.
Task 2.
Expression of undesirable effects shown in a goal tree using case study.
The case study of a construction company which was aiming at strengthening the
vibration or earthquake of the already existing building foreseeing future earthquake activity
which was located in Wellington city, a city which is vulnerable to vibrations. Before the
beginning of the project, a deeper assessment was conducted and the results showed that the
building was 70% safe and it was not mentioned in the riskiest building which can be affected
by the vibrations, (Kerzner, & Kerzner, 2017). The project goal is to add strength to the
building so that 100% free from vibrations results are achieved. This activity of strengthening
was seen to raise the interest of the tenants for a very long-term agreement, later to increase
the building potential value. This project had many stakeholders, which played a very
significant role.
For instance, owners of the building, which was the legal entity involved in the leasing of
property for the purpose of making profits. On top of their income from the rentals, the
owners were intending to sell the building in the future, (Correa, 2016). Their intentions of
selling the building also impacted the project.
The consultant this is a consultant company which performed two roles. That is being
the project consultant with the role of advising the facilitators of the communication and at
the same time being the project management consultant with the role of managing the project.
The manager of the project was working in a consulting company with the roles of handling
the scope, programme, budget and the risks plus managing the expectations of the

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stakeholders, (Duncan, 1996). He was also entrusted with the responsibility of managing the
administration and engagement of all other parties such as the contractor of the building and
the consultants of the design. It was the role of the consulting company to manage all
documents and the reports pertaining to the project.
The tenants they were the occupants of the building. The 6 levels of the building were
occupied by one major tenant and three other tenants occupied the 7 floors, while two levels
were unoccupied. The truth is this building was tenanted, it led to the introduction of the level
of complexity since the contractors' had to perform their work within the constraints imposed
by nature these tenants. For instance, the 6 floors were occupied by the tenants engaged in the
IT and they were using the networking systems which were delicate. This was difficult to
replace or move them.
Contractors they include an architect, fire engineers, building contractors together
with designers, (Wanivenhaus, ET al.2018). Most of these contractors are involved in the
contraction projects. In contraction projects, building contractors are in control of other sub-
contractors who specialize in different areas. Sub-contracting work like; steelwork, carpentry,
sprinkler installation, electrical work, removal of carpet and replacement, demolishing of
building and lastly plastic work reinforced with fibre. Other specialists such as plumbers may
be employed by the contractor if need be. Plumbers can be employed if piped have been
damaged.
A set of objectives were agreed upon and endorsed by the actors of the project in a
form of the project plan, contracts and risks plan for managing risks, despite the stakeholder's
diversity. This goal tree is developed with the help already available information. The goal
tree below is showing the three critical success factors with each success criterion and the list
of the necessary conditions as described by the manager of the project.

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Model 2.
Goal tree showing all the undesirable effects in relation to current reality tree.
Explanation of this critical factors.
Time delivery and within the budget.
The projects which normally delay in terms of achieving its goals and which consume
more than the budget allocated are not successful projects, (Holland, & Light, 1999). Cost
control and schedules need proper agreements on budgets and timings estimate. Those

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agreements can be achieved if only all parties have the required information. The owners of
the building and the contractors decided to look for the information through doing trial floor
which was unoccupied during that particular time. The basics of costs and time were set at
the time when all parties agreed. The manager of the project was able to manage the
contractors through the written communication channel and conducting site meetings
regularly.
Quality standards.
The structure of the project is always determined at the design stage and should be
executed exactly as stated by the designer. Even though there is uncertainty during execution,
the scope was already in place and there were no expectations of change. There was a
documenting in place on any change for instance issues about the instruction of the contract
and responding to the questions about the contract and also there were regular meetings. This
shows that all decisions about the scope and quality were made by the execution team.
Satisfaction of the customer, (Mohamed, & Sameh, 2018). Customer satisfaction is important
since it can help to execute more business in the future. Satisfaction of the tenants was more
challenging in this case due to the project nature which involved noise, displacement, dust,
and construction. This project was also aimed to reduce such negative inconveniences effects
to zero. Customer satisfaction was to be achieved through the reduction of such disruptions,
noise, and disturbances.
Necessary conditions.
Management of risks was the necessary condition which was connected to two criteria
for success. The report from the manager of the project stated that the management plan for
risks will help in improving customer satisfaction, delays prevention, and cost outstrip.
Session for risks brainstorming was conducted and the results recorded in the register of the

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project, reviewed regularly. In other words, all of the projects risks plans was made an
available with each stakeholder given responsibility. The three necessary conditions were
found in the process of managing risks, (Sumner, 1999). That is, risks concerning the health
and safety were addressed in the safety plan of the contractor, which was supposed to ensure
work done does not affect the tenant's safety or any other visitor. Since the document was
prepared and signed by all the contracting bodies, there were expectations that the health and
the safety of the workers will be managed by the contractor.
The second necessary condition is that the project documents were taken as a measure
for controlling risks. There was a clear written decision which was expected to minimize the
effects of any change that might arise and was also to give clear information to be used in the
future.
The goal tree implications
This goal tree represents the critical success as by the documents of the projects as
well as perceived by the manager of the project, (Yury, ET al.2016). Since the manager of the
project was the worker in the company, all the elements of the three: owners, contractors, and
designers were present in the criterion for success. In the case example, the manager of the
project was detached from the owners as well as the project executors, and because the
execution was given to a different company, managing the budget and the time were the
major elements of the contractor management, (Osei-Kyei, & Chan, 2015). This is the reason
why it is said that control measures were achievable through communication. The instruction
of the contract and response to queries were the major outcomes towards achieving controlled
budget, control of contractors, health and safety and controlled quality as indicated by the
manager of the contract. Means of communication were through regular meetings, regular

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submission of reports, producing and updating the project plan documents. Communications
were the main necessity condition in achieving the desired goal.
Task 3
Current reality tree.
After the definition of the system, plus the goals, there were undesirable effects which
were foreseen. The model below explains the undesirable effects in a more summarized way.
For various reasons that cause uncertainty is out of the control of the project team, it is
authenticated that additional safety time to every individual work can protect the project from
the delays, (Smith, 2018). This leads to the addition of padding to every estimate in order to
cater for uncertainty and delays but this was like a waste, (Potter, Crane & Hipkins, 2015).
The reason is that the contractors are participating in other projects and they manipulate their
work based on the available schedule by attempting to utilize their working days of their
team. There is unlikeliness that they will be available prior to the dates set. Therefore wasting
this safety time can lead to increased inconveniences to the tenants and delays, (Westerveld,
2003). Even though it was emphasized by the manager of the project, issues such as a
sequence of the floor and hours for working as very significant in ensuring the reduction of
the inconveniences.
Model 3
A model addressing issues or difficult conflicts in the project.

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Therefore the assumption number one of the critical chain management is that
schedule is the most important thing in controlling the project. In this case example, every
contractor arrival was being organized using a schedule. There was also a strong backup
claims on an overestimation of time using individual work padding and wastage of such
buffer in action. Also, there is an assumption of critical chain project management is the
division in decision making between the project executors and the decision makers, (Ramírez,
& Kallarackal, 2015). This case example shows clearly the division between the two and the
execution of the project process is said to be achieved through communication making this
project not to appear deviating from the critical chain project management.

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To implement this, one significant necessity of critical chain management is to
establish control priorities. The project executors were the contractors which makes it
difficult to centralize the priorities of the contractors. Again operating without a start date as
suggested by critical chain project management, it made it difficult to make people abide by
the contract agreement, (Svejvig, & Andersen, 2015). Since the supply of materials prior to
the time can be allowed, the contractors were not available at that time. The reason is that
most work is dependent on the preceding work. And if there is early arrival, they will have to
wait for the preceding activity to be completed and to the contractors arriving early is the
waste of time since they are paid for the work they perform. However, there is no direct cost
encountered by the contractors if they arrive late, (Webb, 2017). Calculating padding within
every task may be motivated by the preventing early arrival of the contractors.
Unity of purpose is important in implementing critical chain project management, but
it stops counterproductive actions which may benefit all parties involved mutually. Some
contractual agreement like a partnership, alliances, and others are developed to align the
parties of the project.
Conclusion.
Considering uncertainties as being the main cause of undesirable effects in the
project, task time overestimation in terms of buffer and ending up wasting such time ware the
main assumption in this case study, (Sears, ET al.2015). The challenge in implementing the
CCPM was that priorities were not centralized.

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