Failed project implementations, despite their stature, are a hard reality in the domain of digital transformation. According to research, 75% of ERP projects experience implementation failure. Reasons for failed projects vary, from miscalculated scope to clueless management. However, despite the alarming statistics, all hope is not lost. Most implementation companies offer project recovery services as an attempt to get failed projects back on track and save monumental costs and planning from going down the drain.
A failed project is characterized by its:
- incomplete implementation
- inability to meet project outcomes
- production of poor-quality results
- crossing original project budget and schedule by a great deal
Project Recovery is a crucial step in ascertaining project success and should be tackled through research and planning. Let us delve into the basics of project recovery and the best strategies to carry it out.
Importance of Project Recovery
The significance of project recovery is often understated by project termination. Due to lack of guidance, most organizations see project termination as the only way forward from a failed implementation. However, terminating a project means the cost, resources, energy, and planning that went into it go to waste, which is a huge loss to the organization. Here some factor which ascertain the importance of project recovery:
- Saves monumental amount of cost from being wasted.
- Prevents operational disparities from further sprawling.
- Controls scope creep of projects
- Repivots organization towards digital transformation
- Improves organizational morale.
- Maintains stakeholder confidence.
Steps for Identifying Reasons for Project Failure
A project recovery plan is dependent on the reasons for its failure and the earlier these reasons are identified, the better the recovery can be planned. Carrying out a project audit to unearth reasons for project failure enables specialists in curating strategies that focus on the problem areas so that the same mistakes are not repeated.
- Gathering and thoroughly reviewing information surrounding the project, including the documentation for project plans, project requirements, budget details, resource allocation, and progress reports.
- Analyzing data to gauge its performance against original objectives and singling out problem areas like budget overruns, scope creep, quality issues etc., to detect patterns and highlight problem areas.
- Surveying project stakeholders to build an understanding of their perspectives and note their concerns, and expectations for the upcoming project recovery.
- Prioritizing and documenting the reasons after validating them through thorough cross-referencing with stakeholders.
Renewing Team Morale for a Successful Project Recovery
The team’s morale is a crucial factor in determining the success of project recovery as they are the key players. Lack of morale and lowered expectations from an implementation project can significantly hinder their productivity. Therefore, it is necessary to boost their morale and restore their faith and expectation from the project. This can be done so through:
- Open communication
- Celebrating every milestone
- Providing detailed support
- Giving feedback where necessary
- Fostering a healthy environment.
Readjusting Project Objectives for Prioritized Problem Areas
An implementation project is not a matter of a few weeks, rather it is a commitment for months and even a year too. With multiple hitches along the way, it is common for the team to lose sight of the original project objectives. Therefore, it is important to revise them and tweak them while keeping the recently diagnosed problem areas in consideration. This helps teams refraining making the previous mistake again and enhances:
- Cost Savings
- Project Outcomes
- Stakeholder Satisfaction
Importance of Risk Management in Project Recovery
Effective risk management is the foundation of successful projects and plays a vital role in successful project recovery. PwC reported that 77% of companies suffer operational disruptions due to unanticipated project risks.
It is due to inefficiently managed risks that a project fails, hence mitigating potential risks is imperative for a successful implementation project. Some major risks that need to be managed in implementation projects are:
- Inadequate planning
- Poor data quality
- Inefficient vendor support
- Technical complexities
- Data loss
In some cases, these risks are even unanticipated and can arise mid-implementation and can cause the entire project to fail. Risks negatively impact the project objectives, if not managed properly. Therefore, risk management is essential for project recovery.
The process of risk management identifies and analyzes potential risk factors which could derail a project. A foolproof risk management strategy works on the following principles:
- Carrying out an objective assessment to identify and assess problems to reach their root cause.
- Documenting the strategy devised to respond to the root cause and address it to effectively eliminate it.
- If the risk has already emerged, a plan is devised to minimize its effects through the principles of acceptance, mitigation, and transfer.
Get Back on Track with Dynamics Solution and Technology
As Dynamics 365 project recovery specialists, we acknowledge that ERP implementations are hardly one-size-fits-all. Every implementation needs to be tailor-made and planned while keeping the client requirements in consideration and yet one of the main reasons for implementation failures is that they are not tailored to be customized. This causes a plethora of complexities to arise mid-implementation, which puts the entire project in jeopardy. In some cases, Dynamics 365 implementations are live, but organizations are hardly able to realize ROI and meet their original objectives. In other cases, businesses are not getting the promised support from their implementation partner and all their approaches are reactive instead of being proactive.
Our experts at Dynamics Solution and Technology excel at reviewing failed implementations (discovery) to highlight the problem areas, devising implementation plans while focusing on the problem areas and communicating every action to important stakeholders. As Microsoft’s Gold and Solutions partner, our Dynamics 365 experts have the expertise and experience to realign your failed project with original aims and objectives for enhanced business performance and saved costs.
Are you troubled by a barely performing implementation project? Contact us today and let the experts take away your worries!
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