Assignment:
Your project for the course is to review business publications including the Wall Street Journal, major newspapers and business publications to find three in depth articles that describe an example of a "failing" or "failed" project. For each project, research two or three additional articles that describe the project at an earlier date or later date so you can track the emergence and resolution of the factors which caused the failure. Create a research paper to answer the questions "Why do Projects Fail?". Your choice of failures can be from an industry or functional area or interest to you or they can just be highly publicized projects (like Boston's Big Dig or the Challenger Space Shuttle).
Your paper should follow the following outline:
1. Introduction summarizing what you learned from your research
2. Failure 1
1. Brief description of project and primary reasons for failure
2. Reasons cited for project failure
3. Discussion of what could have been done to avoid the failure
3. Failure 2
1. Brief description of project and primary reasons for failure
2. Reasons cited for project failure
3. Discussion of what could have been done to avoid the failure
4. Failure 3
1. Brief description of project and primary reasons for failure
2. Reasons cited for project failure
3. Discussion of what could have been done to avoid the failure
You will be graded on the following criteria:
30% - Completeness of research. Were the articles of sufficient detail and discussed topics related to the project management?
20% - Analysis of the causes of failure.
20% - Spelling, grammar and organization of the paper.
30% - Quality of discussion of what could have been done to avoid the failure. This section must include specific examples of project management topics and project managment skills discussed in this course.
Your final paper is due at the end of this week, and your final presentation is due at the end of Week 8.