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Samer el Barakeh was born in Lebanon, 1973. He completed his Bachelor in Engineering-CCE at Beirut Arab University-Lebanon in 1996 with honours. Samer was granted Masters Degree in Project Management (MPM) from the University of Sydney-Australia with honours. He also gained the Project Management Professional (PMP) Credential from The Project Management Institute (PMI). Samer is a member of the Order of Architects and Engineers in Lebanon since 1996, The Project Management Institute (PMI), Arabian Gulf Chapter (AGC-PMI) and Lebanon Chapter-PMI. During his 13 years of professional experience in Lebanon, Australia and Saudi Arabia, Samer held many positions among them: Telecommunication Site Engineer, Site Manager, Low Current Service Head, and he is currently Senior Systems Analyst at the General Project Construction Division. Samer is a Project Management Consultant and Training Provider for universal organizations like Business Management Consultants (USA) www.bmc-online.com and PMCTQuest (Canada) www.pmctquest.com Samer is a Registered Training Provider for Project Management Professional (PMP), and he provides training in Program Management, Portfolio Management,PMO...

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March 10, 2007

ABC to Avoid Project Failure

Risk of failure is dwindled by early adequate risk management plan properly applied। While shifting from rigorous to complex exploratory projects owing to the fast moving competitive business environment and mounting sponsor demand, risk of failure augments. It is highly dependent on business type and the Project manager’s exertion to remain within boundaries. Figures in IT reveal only 16% success; Figure 1. (Schwartz, 2005; Nicholson, 2005; Hunter, 1997; Clancy, 1994)



Harold Ainsworth scrutinized many researches aimed at identifying main causes of project abandonment; these consolidated into three main broad lines (Ainsworth, 1998):
- Lack of effective corporate controls;
- Poor project management;
- Lack of independent advice about status and which provides alternative strategy.
Approaches to close the gap arising from these three factors are outlined in the fig। below.





Project manager is to overcome the “don’t rocking the boat” syndrome upon identifying early failure “symptoms”। However, if failure was inevitable, it is useful to remember its positive aspect: “Failure begets knowledge”। Recently, more calling for “learning lessons” are arising, especially in the computer industry where failures were, as to some time ago, being undisclosed and consequently repeated। (Clancy, 1994; Humphrey, 2002)

Regards,
Samer

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  2. References and Bibliography:
    - Laurence J. Nicholson, 2005, PMP-FPMA, “The Danger of Failing to Manage Risk in Projects” [accessed on 20/08/06] http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/2005/Article2_Risk.pdf
    - Schwartz, Woollacott, 2005, “Project Failure”, PMGT 6869 Advance Knowledge in Project Management, [URL accessed 11/08/2006] http://learn-on-line.auth.usyd.edu.au/PMGT6869/topic_notes/Project_Failure.pdf
    - Watts S. Humphrey , “Surviving Failure”, Volume 5 Number 2 Second Quarter 2002, [accessed on 23/08/06] http://www.sei.cmu.edu/news-at-sei/columns/watts_new/2002/2q02/watts-new-2q02.htm#ref1
    - Tom Clancy, 1994, “The CHAOS Report”, The Sum of All Fears The Standish Group International, Inc. [accessed on 20/08/06] , http://www.standishgroup.com/
    - Harold Ainsworth, 1998, “Why do projects break down?”, [accessed on 22/08/06], http://www.pmnetwork.com.au/
    - Hunter R., 1997, “Success cost less than failure”, Application Development and the AD
    - Management Continuum, Project Leadership Conference, San Francisco
    - Staw, B. M. & Ross, J. 1987. “Knowing When to Pull the Plug”, Harvard Business Review March-April
    - Keil, M, 1995, “Pulling the Plug”, Software Project Management and the Problem of Project Escalation, MIS Quarterly, Dec

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