[AB] Why Project Control?
When we're talking about project success or failure, we're really talking Project Control, and the reason is purely economic. This becomes intuitively obvious when we consider some of the things that hinder a project's progress.
(1) Central information becomes fragmented and localised so the right hand of the project becomes less and less able to know what the left hand is doing.
(2) People leave, taking their own personal bubble of knowledge with them. That knowledge has to be either recreated or the project has to somehow go on without it.
(3) Project Concerns arise during the normal course of the work and there are often numerous meetings called to discuss them. Often the Concerns in a project relate to the use of resources and deficiency in communication.
(4) Email culture takes hold in the project alongside 'blame culture' as back covering activity dictates that everyone is emailed with updates on sensitive topics.  People in the circulation feel obliged to respond, whether or not they have some useful input because they imagine their lack of reaction can be seen by peers and management as some kind of weakness. Email trails like this can go on for weeks as each person in the circulation tries to score points that he hopes will help him keep his job.
(5) People cast their own personal economic outlook onto the project. An obvious effect of that is the tendency for individuals working on the project not to want it to end! People on a project can take all manner of day to day difficulty, as long as the cause of the problem can't be attributed directly to them.
(6) Enthusiasm is not an automatic feature in a human. Levels of enthusiasm vary hugely in the project workforce over the span of a project. Imagine a project where the enthusiasm of the entire workforce is transformed to the highest level throughout the project. Making a project where every single individual in the workforce actually WANTS the project to finish as early as possible.
The vast majority of projects of all types and sizes currently in progress in the world are flawed.  
 
David Winter : SEND COMMENT