Date: 28th of February 2016

Project Management

Why Bad Projects Are So Hard To Kill

By Isabella RoyerAssistant Professor at University of Paris

Team Member

Hadeer Mohamed

Magda Haroun

Mohamed Abdelfattah

Sarah Asharaf

Walaa Moahmed

AG

END

A1. Introduction.

2. Companies had Pained form Bad Projects.

3. Bad Project Example – ESSILOR Story.

4. Why Projects Fails.

5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??

6. Bad Projects Common Theme.

7. Kill or No Kill

1. Introduction

Why Bad Projects Are So Hard toKill article contains a summary ofresearch into projects that hadsignificant warning signs thatsomething was wrong and werestill continued for a long time,causing huge monetary losseswhich called.

Bad Projects

2. Companies had Pained form Bad Projects

Project Name Duration Cost!

Slectavission 1970 - 1984 $580 Million

Crystallization of Gypsum

1985 - 1992Nearly $50

Million

Glass and Plastic Lens

1979 -1990More than $50

Million

Boston Big Dig 1987 - 2003 $13 Billion

New Initiatives often gain momentum even as it becomes clear that they’re doomed.

The reason : Blind Faith In Their Success

Project by ESSILOR is a Good Example for

BAD PROJECT

1959Invented the Varilux “progressive” lens, for instance, which corrects bothnear- and farsightedness.

1974Working on a composite glass-and-plastic material that’s lightweight,shatter resistant, scratch resistant, and light sensitive.

1979Essilor’s research manager takes a personal interest in the idea, and orderthe creation of a trial lens & CEO support him

Based on the current sales of other Essilor products, internal estimatespredict sales of nearly 40 million units a year by 1985

3. Bad Project Example – ESSILOR

April 1980Project is accepted for development and a target launch date is set for late1981

September 1980 Bad news: glass supplier of composite lens, says that meeting the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration’s test for shatter resistance is proving moredifficult than expected. If this continues to be the case, company estimatesindicate that sales in 1985 will total just 10 million units

January 1981Tendency of the lens to crack when mounted into the frame.

Despite the problems revealed in the pilot test, production facilities arebuilt, and trial manufacturing begins then another issue arises: Productioncosts turn out to be twice what was forecast, which will make the lens asmuch as 6 times as expensive as normal lenses

3. Bad Project Example - ESSILOR

June 1982Launches the lens, Opticians complain about the price and the difficulties ofmounting the lens. Essilor has forecast sales of 200,000 units by the end of1982 But sales reach just 20,000 by that date.

1985launches a second-generation lens meant to fix the separation problems tofix the separation problems, but it fails to do so. Sales drop below 15,000units a year

1986modified composite material solves the separation problem, but the lensremains difficult for opticians to mount in the frame

After a year of further research, the problem still isn’t solved

3. Bad Project Example - ESSILOR

1987Third-generation lens should be launched and separation problem has beencorrected

1988Sales grow to a lackluster 50,000 units.

1989four new managers join the project. A new research manager replaces thelens’s foremost champion.

new research manager evaluate the project recommends that the lens beabandoned.

By studying market, sales will reach only 1.5 million units per year

September 1990

10 years since the first warning signs arose. It has cost Essilormore than $50 million

3. Bad Project Example - ESSILOR

4. Why Projects Fails?

From the chart we can conclude that the main Factors leads failsprojects is Project Management Problem.

Reference: KMPG

5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??

Emotional interferenceOverzealous

team spirit

According psychological reasons:Either due to :

no courage to kill or fear to kill the project.

Enthuasim of team by faith .

Emotional interference “this happened due to contagious spread of blind faith”

Fear

or no courage

• The main reason is the managers’ rock-solid belief in the ultimatesuccess of ‘their’ projects. Which called Project Champion

• Championed by highly influential persons, this is then reinforced withinthe organization, often resulting in collective belief (and blindness).

Risk will disappear

Will still succeed

Gamble

5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??

Collective belief

This blindness persists because collective belief undermines normal organization procedures and safe guards

This belief has stages:1. Emergence: Project champion is

true believer who hold unyielding conviction based on Hench not strong evidence

2. Persistence: once it takes hold it perpetuate itself

3. Consequences: the most danger of it is not seeing the warning signs as serious problems

5. What are the Reasons of Failure to Kill Project??

Blind Faith

6. Bad Projects Common Themes

Significant Warning signs

Took on life

Strong Champion

Too big to fail

7. Kill or No Kill

• To avoid what happened to theses bad projects ,you

should have the tools of logical decision of to (kill or

no kill) decision which summarized as follows:

7.1 Increase the number of review periods

• Review the project data regularly, analyze risk frequently

7.2 Avoid Fear of Public Commitment

• Sometimes there is a fear of killing project because of huge public commitment

7.3 Be alert of Early warning signs

7.4 Exit Champions

• How would this exit champion rolelook like? Royer suggests they are asimilar type of person like theproject champions.

• What distinguishes them is thatthey don’t just ask questions aboutthe project, its status and outlook,but actively seek for evidence thatsomething is wrong, and act on it.

• It is important to acknowledge theimportance of both the projectchampion and the exit champion’srole and keep them in a goodbalance.

7.5 Beware of cheerleading squads !

Project team should not consist only of believers.

Project team should include skeptics along with

believers.

Decision makers should be replaced over the

course of the project.

7.6 Termination scripts

If you have to kill project terminate it strategically

,don’t make it so quick.

Collect lessons for coming projects

7.7 Conclusion

1. Don’t make the same mistakes

2. Planning, review and acknowledge emotional

interferences

3. Transparency and honesty

4. Apply course correction

5. No excuse for colossal failures

Any Question?

Thanks…