Discussing the reasons of project failures - Essay Example

These two risks evolve due to the lack of attention managers give to the end results of long-term projects as they concentrate on the recommendations of the project. The solution presented by the author to these problems is to design small teams with the task of achieving short tem results meaning implementing small projects in the overall big project that yield quick results. These teams or small projects can also be called as 'rapid-results initiatives'. The unit of analysis used in this article is the evaluation of the success or failure of a project following these rapid results initiatives.

The ultimate objective of the article is to increase awareness among the managers towards the reasons as to why projects fail and how to save them after all the expense and budget that has been allocated to the projects. The author's motivation comes from the different real life examples they have quoted in the article that prove the success of these rapid result initiatives in different projects for different organizations. The role of manager here is very important as he or she has to make sure that the recommendations are followed without neglecting the end result. . The article includes examples of organizations such as World Bank trying to improve the productivity of 120,000 small-scale farmers of Nicaragua by 16% and how they implemented the rapid results initiatives to get quick results.

Another example of Avery Dennison is discussed, how this organization achieved its objective by using rapid results initiatives. The rapid result initiative approach basically works to give the responsibility of removing the two mentioned risks to the teams that have been formulated, this helps as the teams working figure out on the spot that what is wrong and how to correct it. Another advantage of this approach is that the vertical and horizontal streams are integrated to make the on going work more correctable and revisable resulting in better and effective results.

Last but not the least, a rapid result initiative approach makes the upper level managers rethink of their role in the organization. This happens when during the implementation of this approach the front line managers are given some new responsibilities while the senior leaders get more time to define their role more appropriately and start all over again.The article gives solid proof of the fact that how successful is the rapid result initiative for successfully completing long-term projects.

From the article a person can learn the basic problems that arise in any long-term project and how their end results de-motivate the project team members. The result to these problems and their basic implementation and recommendations are also discussed. The recommendations provided in the article are truly applicable as they are not just recommendation but they have been tried out successfully by