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Project Management Feasibility Study
What Are The Root Causes of Project Problems and Failure?
1) Project Feasibility
Projects that suffer from a lack of a proper project management feasibility study generally overlook, or significantly underestimate, key success factors such as:
• The technology, resources and/or funding required to develop the project’s end product or service are underestimated or not available.
• The forecasted market demand for the product or service is overstated.
• Superior competing or alternative solutions are not identified or ignored.
• Adequate post-project funding is not available for operations, support and/or marketing.
• Extremely complex or difficult problems critical to project success are either not identified or are glossed over at project initiation.
Failed projects are those not canceled once their lack of feasibility is identified. Political pressures result in spending good money after bad and the financial rule of “forget sunk costs” is ignored.
In other words, project sponsors should not consider the amount of money already spent on a project when assessing its viability going forward. Nothing can be done about the money already spent on a project. The only option is how much to spend going forward. If it is determined that the project is not feasible, then no more money should be spent, regardless of how much has already been spent.
Poor project feasibility is mitigated by ensuring that the stakeholders’ expectations for the project are reasonable. One mitigating action is to follow a proven project methodology that includes a project management feasibility study, identification of solution alternatives, and running cost/benefit/risk assessment on each. For those projects developing market products, it should include conducting competition, market demand, technology, regulatory and economic research with best, worst and most likely case analyses.
Another mitigating action requires that the project team identify the toughest design and development areas of the project to ensure that the required resources and technology are available and make economic sense. To minimize the cost and time to achieve an effective feasibility study, a project management plan may include a solution “proof-of-concept” and/or project pilot early in the project or program lifecycle. Failure to show a feasible technical, economic and politically viable solution should result in the quick termination of the project.
Situations that reveal symptoms of a lack of project management feasibility study include:
1. The project was completed on time, on budget and on scope, and was still considered a failure because the final deliverable(s) did not produce the business justification originally planned. It did not produce the revenues, cost reduction, or customer/employee satisfaction improvement to the extent laid out in the project benefit statement.
2. The project continues to expend resources even after it is obvious that the project cannot meet its objectives, and will ultimately fail.
3. The project is underfunded from the beginning.
4. The project’s management expectations for scheduling, resources, and funding are unreasonable.
5. Alternative products and/or services provide a better solution than the one created by the project.
6. The project’s actual production, operating, maintenance and/or service costs are significantly higher than originally forecasted.
By conducting an effective project management feasibility study, companies can objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, the opportunities and flaws presented by the project environment, the resources required for smooth operation, and ultimately the prospects for success. With a feasibility study, project management professionals can also help their companies determine whether a project can lead to success or is not worth the risk.
If the study proves that a prospective project is worth the company’s time, PMPs would determine the best way to develop and implement it, thus preventing the company from making costly mistakes that could jeopardize its reputation and capacity to operate smoothly.
Through a project management feasibility study, project management professionals can ensure that their company finds the most low-risk, high-reward investments that require simple technical development and project implementation processes.
1) Feasibility, 2) Ownership, 3) Organization, 4) Definition, 5) Planning, 6) Alignment, 7) Resources and 8) Control
