Barriers to Success of Project Management

Abstract

As the business environment is rapidly changing with globalization and complexity of information flows, the uncertainty is also very increased for project environment. Although many studies have been conducted to find out the critical factors for project success, there still exist different views to define project success. Furthermore, implementing success formula for one project does not necessarily guarantee a success for another project since there are other elements that impede the success of project. In this regards, it is imperative to examine what are the barriers to project success. This study aims to examine the barriers that impede the success of project. Past literature was thoroughly reviewed to collect and develop a preliminary list of elements that affected project performance negatively. Experts were interviewed to refine the list and the final list of the measurement items were developed. A survey questionnaire was developed with the final list of measurement items, and a survey was conducted on the practitioners with project experience. After the survey, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the final list to extract the component dimensions which in turn formed the group of project barriers. The exploratory factor analysis provided ten factors, which are difficulty of process management, failure of project feasibility analysis, cost overruns and lack of cost benefits, unclarity project plan, strategic consistency error, stakeholder conflict, inaccuracy of requirement definition, disturbance of communication, technical environment change, negative attitude of top management.