Reasons Why Project Management Teams Miss Project Deadlines?

Key reasons behind the failure of projects to (ever) meet their projected deadlines. This quote absolutely nails the angst and the sad truth that every PM must face at some point on every project:

“The concept of being able to deliver everything on time on any given project is fairly fictional.”

And the below mentioned four key factors behind missed project deadlines are on point. If you’ve ever been in the trenches of project management, you’ve seen these rears their ugly heads again and again:

1. Presented with reasonable deadlines
2. The project needs more resources
3. The project needs different resources
4. The current resources are overloaded

These may seem like “no duh” reasons why projects fail, but I would respond by saying, “If these are such no-brainers, then why do they persist? Why don’t we preempt these problems before they become problems? Why haven’t we figured out how to purge them from the project management process?” As per my own experience in project management:

1. Management fails to communicate expectations.
2. Teams fail to communicate their needs to management.
3.  The list of requirements keeps changing/growing.

Of course, these three points could really be boiled down to one simple phrase: “poor communication.” And this may be a clue to solving these gremlins of the project management process. Improved communication of project requirements, resource constraints, resource needs, resource velocity, and management expectations could very well be the key to wiping out missed deadlines for good. This same problem arises for IT in PSA project management.

Well, that’s enough griping for today. But just because we’re done griping, it doesn’t mean you must be. what do you think causes projects to miss their deadlines? Share in the comments below!