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The Reason Why Projects Fail: Poor Communication

Communication

When dealing with projects, one common thread often leads to failure: poor communication. Projects, no matter how well-planned or meticulously executed, can face unforeseen challenges and setbacks. We will explore the critical role that communication plays in project success and the profound impact it has on preventing the all-too-familiar narrative of project failure.

The Foundation of Successful Projects: Communication

At the heart of every successful project lies effective communication. It serves as the cornerstone that binds together diverse teams, aligns goals, and ensures everyone is on the same page. When communication falters, the project structure weakens, paving the way for misunderstandings, misalignment, and, ultimately, failure

Clear Objectives and Expectations

Poor communication often manifests as ambiguity in project objectives and expectations. When team members are unsure of their roles, responsibilities, or the overall project vision, it creates a breeding ground for confusion and errors. Clear communication sets the stage for a shared understanding, reducing the risk of misunderstandings that can lead to project derailment.

Team Collaboration and Cohesion

A successful project is a collaborative effort, and collaboration relies on effective communication channels. When team members are siloed, information silos form, impeding the flow of critical updates, feedback, and insights. This lack of cohesion can result in redundant efforts, missed deadlines, and compromised project quality.

Timely Issue Resolution

No project is without its challenges, but effective communication ensures that issues are identified and addressed promptly. When communication channels break down, problems fester in the shadows, growing into significant roadblocks. Timely issue resolution requires transparent communication that encourages team members to voice concerns without fear of reprisal.

Adaptability and Change Management

Projects are dynamic, and adaptability is key to navigating unforeseen changes. Poor communication inhibits the dissemination of information related to changes in project scope, timelines, or resources. This lack of transparency hinders the team’s ability to adapt and can lead to resistance, confusion, and a lack of buy-in from stakeholders.

Client and Stakeholder Expectations

Projects do not exist in a vacuum; they are often initiated to fulfill the needs and expectations of clients and stakeholders. Clear, consistent communication is essential to managing these expectations. Failure to keep stakeholders informed can lead to disillusionment, strained relationships, and, ultimately, project failure.

Conclusion

In project management, communication is the glue that holds everything together. Recognizing the pivotal role of communication in project success is crucial for avoiding the pitfalls of poor collaboration, misunderstood objectives, and delayed issue resolution.

To mitigate the risks associated with poor communication, project managers must prioritize transparent and consistent communication throughout the project lifecycle. By doing so, they can weave a narrative of success, where each thread contributes to the strength and resilience of the overall project fabric.

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Changelog

Dec 14, 2024

  • New – Warning Center
  • Improved –  Portfolios – Added ability to create a portfolio of Programs
  • Improved – All Projects list now includes programs
  • Improved – Trigger settings page is better organized
  • New – Project rating triggers
  • Improved – Outlook Integration now has the ability to sync your Out of Office Availability
  • Improved – My Availability can be set in hours as well as days
  • Fix – Various bug fixes and UI tune-ups

Nov 18, 2024

  • New – Task Templates
  • Improved –  Search can find checklist items in tasks
  • Improved – Budget. Cell-assignment has, for each resource, an added total and total to date field.
  • Improved – Adding user to project  has a new interface where multiple team member can be added by selecting form a list
  • New – Timesheet report export has an added option to export all months on record.
  • Improved – Outlook Integration now has the ability to sync your Out of Office Availability
  • Improved – My Availability can be set in hours as well as days
  • Fix – Various bug fixes and UI tune-ups

Oct 16, 2024

  • New – Outlook 2-way Integration
  • Improved –  Forecast calculation
  • Improved – Allocation. When effort-driven is enabled, Task s in allocation now show start/end dates
  • Improved – Timesheet functionalities
  • Fix – Various bug fixes

Aug 29, 2024

  • New – Users Calendar. Unified view of all user’s calendar
  • New – Vacation calendar. Visualize your resources’ vacations in a searchable centralized calendar
  • New – Allocation Gantt. A new view that represent resources’ allocation in a Gannt chart
  • New – My Availability. Each user can set their own working time and days off. The availability is fully automated with the schedule, forecast and allocation
  • New – Effort based schedule. You can now assign effort to tasks in the schedule and report them in the Timesheet. Timesheet entries are automatically calculated and pre-populated.
  • New – Task based Timesheet. You can now report time against assigned schedule’s tasks. This functionality is tied to Effort based schedule.
  • New   Each project has a dedicated general chat
  • New –  Timesheet custom entries. Add non-billable hours to the timesheet and visualize reports. For example you can track a resource’s vacation days.
  • New   Added new interactive resources’ effort reports with time/cost views
  • New – Multi-Language support
  • Improved –  Timesheet reports now include “To Date” tally
  • Improved – In the resource view, actuals and forecast are now displayed side-by-side
  • Improved – Vendors logos are now automatically added to the vendor component.
  • Improved – New schedule, forecast and actuals triggers have been added to improve the warning engine
  • Improved – Search functionality now includes RAID items
  • Improved – Gantt charts have a new rounded look and have the resource(s) assigned visible in the bar
  • Improved – Raid. You can now hide all RAID items, while in list view, that are closed with the click of a button.
  • Change – Allocation calculation are no longer tied to the project end, and instead rely on the allocation calendar
  • UI tune-up– All dashboards have bigger graphic counters and a new coloring scheme to clearly separate the budget data from the rest.
  • Fix – Various bug fixes

Jun 7, 2024

  • New – Change Request impacting the schedule are now automatically updating the “Approved end date” of the project and are clearly flagged. 
  • New – Project duration (in days) is now displayed in the overview page and in the status report. 
  • Improved – Schedule and RAID filters have been improved
  • New – Baseline capability has been added to the schedule
  • New – Schedule history is now available. The schedule automatically save itself and provides multipole restore points
  • Improved – New triggers have been added to the warning engine to better support more use cases
  • New – Search is now available across the entire site  and covers multiple items
  • Improved: project search now includes RAID items
  • New: In the Simplified view, we have added the Tasks Kanban view. The Kanban view is now the default one

Apr 20, 2024

  • New – Document search is indexed and fully integrated with external drives (OD. GD. etc).
  • Improved – Schedule and RAID filters have been improved 
  • Improved – Milestones in gantt chart are placed in different level when colliding
  • Improved – CSV exports data improvement
  • Improved – Dashboards columns are also customizable “per user” and can be set directly in the dashboard.
  • Fix – Fixed bugs in schedule and RAID where resources couldn’t be copied via context menu

Mar 16, 2024

  • New – OneDrive Integration (2-way) 
  • New – Google Drive Integration (2-way)
  • New – Schedule Kanban view
  • New – Tracking and Operational initiatives have been simplified and add the ability to migrate to a full project
  • Improved – Document templates can now be organized into folders

Jan 29, 2024

  • Improved – Site Settings’ UI has a new look with explanation and guide
  • New – Portfolio status can now be exported unified 
  • New – Jira Integration (2-way)
  • New– MS Project Integration (2-way)
  • New– Simplified view – Record is committed automatically

Dec 22, 2023

  • New – Introduced a FREE plan
  • New – Introduced a new trigger-based Warning engine
  • New – Added charts for budget’s status
  • New– Added Portfolio Manager role
  • New– Added Portfolio view in My Dash for assigned Portfolio Managers
  • New – Project type can be hidden if not in use
  • Improved – Status reports now export in PDF landscape for better readability

Nov 25, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – RAID Cards in Kanban mode have an updated look
  • New – Added 5 custom budget fields. You can track your own custom financial targets and display them in the various dashboards and status reports
  • New – Budget templates can now be created by importing directly from MS Excel
  • New– When, in a project, components are hidden, all related options are also hidden
  • New– Added a Resource view for Portfolios

Nov 5, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – Introduced Operational and Task Tracking as type of initiatives
  • New – Project type tags are now colored differently for a better experience
  • New – Project types are now tracked in the Dashboards
  • New– Added ability to show/hide all details’ components separately in the Overview page 
  • New – Added a “Note” field in vendor expenses.

Oct 5, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – Introduced Financials lock
  • New – Dashboards: added alert icons for values over the baseline 

Sep 6, 2023

  • Fix – Fixed FY calculation in PM Dashboard
  • New – Introduced a new Trial start Welcome guided setup
  • New – Table’s headers have a new and improved look
  • New – Added option to include/exclude any given project in the overall Budget and/or Financials calculations
  • New – Added option to enable/disable the budget fiscal on a per project basis

Aug 25, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • Update – We updated all internal libraries to the latest version 
  • New – Introduced a Simplified project type to be used for task tracking type activities
  • New – Increased the number of components that can be turned off separately
  • New – Tasks can now be added directly from the dashboards
  • New – The Trial plan has been simplified by turning off, by default, all advanced components. All features can be turn back on in the Site settings
  • New – Individual users can now customize their dashboards by show/hide columns of data. Go to “My Account” to customize it.

Aug 10, 2023

  • Fix – Bugs and UI tune-ups
  • New – Grouping of resources in MyTeams
  • New – Pre-built budget “Estimates vs Actuals”
  • New – Status report now has a new widget: Summary bar
  • New – More components can be turned off separately
  • New – New tasks can be added directly from the dashboard

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