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As pointed out by the United Nations (UN), the kernel of the project concept lies in its application to other than routine activities of an organisation or government agency, for purposes of special emphasis and action. Projects are thus appropriate ways to especially organise highly innovative, experimental/risky endeavours or those with high prio...
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... best way to understand the causes of project failure, as Kharbanda and Pinto [7] put across, is to study prior projects that have failed. As such, based on a catalogue of catastrophe of projects and discussions with over 300 people who have been involved in both successful and failed projects, the generic causes of project failure have been divided into eight (8) primary categories as presented in Figure 3.0 below [104]. ...
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Citations
... This renders quality as a pivotal entry variable in planning ID projects to single out the emergent quality-at-entry (QAE) variable 3 to put it into perspective. Such utility of QAE perhaps explains why Boakye [19] Further, scattered, and limited evidence in academia (e.g., [20]; [21]; [22]) evinces QAE as a possible resource for boosting effectiveness and overall successful outcomes of development projects. Such evidence also presents further opportunities for studies aimed at generating an all-encompassing understanding of the variable to facilitate its utility and exploitation to advance the theory and practice of PM. ...
As instruments of change, projects, when implemented thoughtfully and functionally, have the capacity to improve lives and be economically transformative to serve the greater good and contribute to creating a future we all can believe in. The pressure on the academic community, and in particular project management domain, to achieve and demonstrate more impact, bridge theory and practice, and solve practical problems relating to project ineffectuality and failure, especially those in development contexts, is thus mounting. Foresight is more valuable than hindsight. Thus, the potential to rethink feasible paradigms critical to futureproofing projects to boost their impact to advance transformative and sustainable development is retrospectively alluring from a practitioner’s perspective. Real options to influence the final project outcome are said to be at the highest at the front-end. Hence, considering the significant mix of unruly VUCA in today’s environment and to contribute to the discussion on projects and society, this paper moots and makes a clarion call for a rethink of project planning to adopt the heretofore overlooked Quality-at-Entry (QAE) variable to design battle-ready projects for implementation. The paper proposes ways in which a compendium of research needful to advance a comprehensive understanding and exploitation of QAE could be achieved.
... For example, Youker (1999) asserted that "poor feedback and control mechanisms for early detection of problems" is one recurring problem in managing (international) projects in development contexts following a glean of ex-post facto project evaluation reports of the World Bank Group. And more recently, a research study of over 50 development assistance project operations of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group sampled from Ghana and Mali, highlighted poor project management control mechanisms as one prominent reason, which underlie ineffectuality and eventual failure of (international) project operations in development contexts (see Boakye 2015). These findings perhaps explain why Strachan (1978) long propounded that the recurring problems in the administration of development assistance projects could be traced back to the rational paradigm guiding the evolution of the aid control system. ...
Significant as they are to activating development and addressing some of the most difficult and entrenched problems in developing economies, development assistance projects operate under challenging and rather erratic conditions. Consequently, majority of the challenges and problems that confront them are difficult to anticipate and solve a priori and must be engaged dynamically as and when they arise. Today, with a momentous blend of volatilities, uncertainties, complexities and ambiguities characterizing the environment of developing economies to hasten profound managerial challenges, functional management control, which is critical to identifying and addressing problems and deviations to enable improved performance outcomes, has eluded development assistance projects. This has modeled poor management control into one of its greatest threats to implementation. Grounded in experience from development practice, this position paper moots that poor management control aid double whammies of today’s development assistance projects. Further, it reflects why bureaucracies, understaffing, weak supervision and cultural insensitivity in the conduct of such projects are responsible for this threat and discusses how it could be contained for improved performance outcomes. It concludes with highlights on implications for research and practice.
Factors responsible for the failure of most development projects are multifaceted. This study focused on unearthing the causes and effects of public project failure from the perspective of project stakeholders. Sixty stakeholders working on different public projects in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana completed a questionnaire. This study found that major causes of project failure were related to corruption, payment delays, procurement processes, planning, monitoring, bureaucracy, communication, and supervision. The perceived effects of project failure included revenue loss, discouraged investment, and unemployment. Project failure increased the initial cost of projects, impacted economic growth, led to the provision of substandard infrastructure and service relocation. Other effects of project failure were loss of capacity for public projects and emotional stress experienced by project stakeholders. The government of Ghana should adopt strategies to overcome corruption, bureaucracy, and unnecessary political influence. Finally, the government should cooperate with relevant sta-keholders to implement measures geared towards improving the current system for procurement , supervision, monitoring, planning, and management practices.
This study aims to identify and evaluate the perception of major stakeholders on factors causing International Development Project (IDP) failure in the context of Afghanistan. The study adopts a quantitative cross-sectional survey research design. Thirty significant IDP failure factors included in the questionnaire were identified and shortlisted through literature reviews and validated by experts and IDP management practitioners. The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire to investigate the most significant IDP failure factors, and various statistical tools were employed to evaluate the perception of the survey respondents. RII was used to examine the relative importance index of each failure factor. The failure factors were then grouped into five categories: Financial constraints, Ineffective recruitment, External forces, Project leadership, and Project management practices using EFA. The findings of the study will help the international development community and their IDP implementing partners, INGs and project management practitioners manage IDPs proactively and mitigate the risks of project failure. It will also contribute to the IDP management body of knowledge. The research is the first of its kind to examine the possible factors causing IDP failure in Afghanistan.
