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7.4 Project Termination
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External and internal factors that influence the success or failure of projects will be identified and clustered. The importance of each factor identified varies by organisation and project type. Organising the termination process is in particular important when it has failed, because of the long-standing impact on future projects as well as the organisation’s image. Including project team members in the termination process will increase their commitment and loyalty, especially to the organisation and to future projects.
A post-audit report will be prepared at the end of a project that summarises the project and provides recommendations on possible project approaches for similar tasks in the future. In a final step, as a project is terminated or completed it is important that senior management recognises and rewards the contributions of the project team.
Several factors have direct influences on the usability of a planned or running project. All factors usually fall into one of the following categories. During the life of a project, the steering committee and the project management must examine these critical factors continually to ensure that it can still realise the initially set goals.3
Technology: The technological track of the project can have a major influence on its chance of success.
steering committee and the project management must be able to value the technological path so that they can:
a) measure the progress of the project;
b) have a general idea of when breakthroughs can be expected;
c) not become disappointed when the rapidity of development appears slow.
Organisation: Organisational factors that can influence the practicability of a project include internal competition, executive support and the company’s strategy. Internal competition, especially in critical situations like access to important funding or resources, will affect the project team’s motivation. Also, as the number of projects increases, the more likely it is that one of them will end in failure. This mirrows a natural development of management support. Maintaining management’s support in some projects is likely to be the single most important factor in influencing the success or failure of a project. Another factor extremely important is the compatibility of the project with the corporation’s strategy. A project that no longer fits with the organisation’s objectives is usually dedicated to be terminated.
Market forces: The competition has a strong influence on the viability of new or planned projects. The value of a project can be reduced by the sudden availability of alternatives or competing technological innovations. Continuing to fund an outdated project can be avoided by maintaining communication between the marketing, manufacturing, and R&D departments.
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Planning: Naturally, the firm’s ability to manage a project will have a significant impact on its eventual success or failure. Central to this, of course, is the project plan, which should be exceptionally detailed.
Difficulties which could threaten the schedule must be identified so that workable alternatives can be developed ahead of time. There will always be a basic, inherent level of uncertainty in every project;
however, thorough planning can reduce most of these risks to an acceptable level. It is also important to note that the quality and level of planning for a project is frequently related to the level of experience of the project team. More experienced project teams tend to plan and organise more effectively.
The project team. As would be expected, the team plays a key role in the project’s success or failure.
The effectiveness of a team is, in turn, governed by the abilities of its project manager, the team’s overall commitment and enthusiasm, and the co-operation of the team as a whole. That means the role of the project manager is the most critical. He or she must be able to co-ordinate changing activities, resolve conflicts, and keep management informed and committed to the project – while also keeping the project on track. The project team should also be relatively stable. Changing important team members at critical stages in the schedule can have a fatal effect. On the other hand, a new team member, if briefed properly, can provide a fresh approach to many problems.
Economic factors: These factors may have a significant influence on the project’s ability to generate a minimum acceptable return on the organisation’s investment. While financial measures, such as return on investment (ROI), are not the only factors influencing success or failure, they do provide a measurement tool for evaluation. It is entirely possible that a project, which is on schedule and well within its budget, may be cancelled because of unrelated financial constraints dictated by the organisation. When firms fail to achieve their desired level of profitability, they always have the option to re-evaluate ongoing projects and terminate those that are less viable or overly expensive.
Other: Miscellaneous factors that influence the success or failure of a project include new government regulations, problems with patent ownership, or new environmental concerns.
The key, of course, is being able to recognise if and when projects start to fail. To do this requires maintaining a feedback loop throughout the project cycle. And the effectiveness of the feedback loop depends upon a constant flow of quality information among the project manager, team members, the customer, and senior management.
113 7.4.2 Types of Project Termination
There are two types of project termination – “natural termination” and “unnatural termination”. “Natural termination” reflects the fact that the aims of the project objective have been attained. “Unnatural termination” means that work on the project has stopped because the project constraints have been violated or the project objective has become irrelevant to the overall goals. There are four common ways for terminating a project:
1. Extinction 2. Addition 3. Integration 4. Starvation
The following are the most likely reasons for which a project may be terminated:
By Extinction
- The project has successfully completed the planned scope and the client has accepted it.
- It has been superseded by the external developments like technological advancement, market crisis etc.
- It has failed to achieve its goal.
- It no longer has the support of senior management.
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114 By Addition
Termination by addition occurs when the project team becomes a new part of the parent organisation.
Resources are transferred to the new organisational unit, which is integrated into the parent organisation.
This type of project termination is typical for organisations with a project structure.
By Integration
The project is successfully completed. The project product is integrated into the operations of the client.
This is the most common mode and most complex operation. Termination by integration occurs when the project’s resources, as well as its deliverables, are integrated into the parent organisation’s various units. This approach is very common in a matrix organisation because most people involved in a project are also affiliated with one or more functional units. When the project terminates, team members are reintegrated into their corresponding units.
By Starvation
- The project is terminated by budget decrement.
- It is also known as withdrawal of “life support”.
- The reason for this termination is generally to shadow the failure to accomplish the goals.
This can save face for the senior management and avoid embarrassment.
Senior management is responsible for the decision to terminate. Before making a decision senior management should work closely with the project manager who is in charge of the project. The project manager should know the situation quite well. If he is a good project manager he works closely with the project team and gets periodic feedback. So he should be able to give the management advice whether the project should be terminated or not.
There are also other “measurement methods” with which to decide if the project should be terminated or not. Before terminating, a final audit could verify the results to give senior management another source of advice.
7.4.3 Project Termination Problems
There are some problems caused by project termination. These can be divided into two groups. The first group covers the emotional problems. These problems can be divided again into two parts, problems with the staff and problems with the client. The staff might be afraid that they won’t have future work.
Project termination can also lead to some losses, for example loss of interest in the remaining task, loss of project-derived motivation or the loss of the team identity. You also might have some trouble with reassignment. Which people will be put together in which project?
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On the other hand there is the client. After a termination he might change his attitude, lose interest in the project, or won’t ask the organisation to take part in further projects. It also might be that the client will change his personnel: knowing that the project has already failed, the client might decide that people who worked on the project should change their position. This could lead to unavailability of key personnel.
The second group deals with physical problems. This group can also be divided into two smaller ones as shown in fig. 7-1.
Figure 7‑1: Impact of Termination
A project may be cancelled for a variety of reasons, including lack of funding, technological obsolescence, changes in consumer trends, mergers and acquisitions, loss of the “champion”, and negative cost/benefit relationships. Although the reasons may vary, the impact is frequently the same. Project cancellation can affect employee productivity, the reputation of the firm, and the value of the firm’s stock. Although hardly any research on the topic of employee productivity and project cancellation has been done, experienece suggests that a project team’s perception of the cancellation may influence their productivity for the next several years. However, there are guidelines to help soften the impact of cancellation on the team.
To begin with, it is essential that the project team is included in the cancellation process and should be made aware of the rationale behind the cancellation well before the official announcement. Moreover, this rationale should be consistent with the perceptions of the project team.
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A study found eight factors which influenced whether an employee perceived the cancellation of a project negatively:
1. The rationale for cancellation.
2. Communication between management and the project team.
3. Careful planning for the cancellation process.
4. Strong management commitment and support for the project from itsinception.
5. Effective planning and leadership of the project.
6. Prompt and comparable reassignment of project personnel.
7. Acknowledgment of the efforts of the project team.
8. Participation of the project team in the cancellation decision-making process.
As might be expected, the output and commitment of team members immediately before a project is cancelled, and for one or two months after the announcement, will be drastically reduced. This loss in productivity and commitment will be exacerbated if the project team perceives the cancellation negatively.
Worse, the individual’s commitment to the organisation may depend upon his or her perception of the cancellation. Employees who view a cancellation in a more positive light will have higher levels of commitment than those who view it more negatively.
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How a project is viewed within the organisation is also very important. Because corporate resources can be very limited, projects that are perceived to be draining scarce resources tend to undercut morale.
Other project teams envy the resources “squandered” on unproductive or failing projects. This, in turn, leads employees to question the wisdom of senior management, and reduces their productivity and level of commitment to the organisation.