Project failures in technology industry are not uncommon. According to PMI (Project Management Institute) research in 2017, 14% of IT projects failed, 31st did not meet their goals, 43 percent exceeded their initial budgets and 49% were late.

There can be multiple reasons behind project failures e.g. lack of sponsor/leadership support, changing requirements, un-managed risks, lack of budget and resources etc.

The objective of this article is not about how to avoid project failures, it is about how to handle failure personally and professionally.

Handling Project Failure Personally:

While none of us want to be part of a failed project and want to do everything possible to make it a success, failures will still happen. Sometimes, it is our turn to become part of the failure statistic. Here are few things to keep in mind when dealing with project failures at a personal level:

Accept the Failure: If you are a new TPM or have never encountered a project failure before, this can be exceptionally hard. My first project failure came 8 years into my career and it was difficult to get over with. Denying the failure will not allow you to move into the next stages of analyzing the causes, learning from your and other’s mistakes and making amends for the future. Acceptance of failure is a humbling experience and makes us realize that we are not invincible.

No Self Blaming: Projects do not fail due to one person. There is a wide range of people involved including individual contributors, leads, managers etc. So, if a project has failed, it is the failure of that entire group/team of people. Managers and senior leadership are more to blame than Individual contributors. It is their job to sense in advance (based on their extensive experience) if a project is going towards failure. They need to make the necessary changes to bring things back on track. It is also management’s job to shuffle resources including TPMs and reassign them as appropriate. So, in the bigger scheme of things, for a TPM to entirely blame himself/herself for a project failure is not fair. This is especially important around performance review time. If you were on a failed project, know that it will have a negative appearance in your performance appraisal. Seeing it in writing is a difficult pill to swallow. Do not blame yourself for project failure entirely!

It’s the Environment: Most projects fail due to the environment/organizational culture, whether it is people working in silos, resistance to change, lack of executive sponsorship, political infighting etc. Understanding what environmental factors played into the failure and how much control you had on them is important. If you do not see things changing soon, you may want to move to a different department or change the company.

Learning and Growth Opportunity: With every failure comes a great learning opportunity. When a project is heading for failure, management may employ the whole range of tools and tactics at their disposal. You may see and learn things that you may have never seen before. You will also see different sides of people’s personalities. All of this together present a great leaning opportunity far exceeding what you may get from executing a successful project.

Protect Mental and Physical Health: Most of the projects go through a very taxing time before they fail. Long working hours, intra and inter team wrangling, management on your head all the time, every action/decision being put under a microscope etc. All this result in high physical and mental stress. It is critical to know that your professional career is a marathon and not a sprint. You need to safeguard your physical and mental health for your remaining professional career, your family and yourself. Irrespective of how much kool aid your management/leadership gives you on how critical this project is, at the end of the day, you are in a business where you are putting in efforts and company is compensating you for it. Make sure a fairness is maintained in this relationship. If you feel that your physical and mental health is going towards an irreparable loss, then cut the cord and move on. Remember, its all business, company will keep you until it feels you add value to its bottom line, similarly you stick with the company until you feel you have a fair deal.

Handling Project Failure Professionally:

Build a Strong Narrative: In an ideal world, in case of a project failure, all involved will sit together, think rationally, analyze the failure causes and learnings objectively and without any bias. Unfortunately, in the real world it may not play like that. Behind the closed doors, management is looking for reasons and people who caused the failure. Know that all ‘factions’ will have a narrative out there on how they did everything right and why ‘others’ are to blame. The problem is if you do not have a narrative of your own, then you will become part of someone else’s narrative which you may not like. You need to have a strong narrative at the individual and team level. Your narrative may include:

  • Risks to the project from the onset.
  • Any new techniques/tools never tried before
  • Changing Requirements, Unrealistic Deadlines, Shortage of resources, lack of executive sponsorship and anything else that may have even slightly impacted the project.

Market your Narrative Aggressively:  Once you have a bullet proof narrative in place, you need to market it aggressively. This is the time put all your network in action. Everyone within the team, department, organization etc. need to know your side of the story.

Managing Up: While dealing with problem projects make sure your manager and skip level kept in the loop. This will have the twin benefit of getting help early as well as being on the same page. Do not let your manager get off the hook. Many times, managers leave you in the lurch because they have made up their mind to make you the scapegoat for the failure. If you feel unsupported by your management/leadership and have to continuously justify actions, then it’s not a good omen. If your own manager and skip level manager are not standing behind you then you are in a very vulnerable position.

 Spokesperson of Learning: Many technology companies promote innovation. They know that innovation comes at a cost. The cost of continuous innovation is frequent failure. They want you to try new things and fail fast. What these companies do not want is that different teams do the same mistakes. They also want the learnings and what could have been done differently to be shared extensively within the company. Every failure is your opportunity to distill out learnings and become a spokesperson of these learnings around the company. You will get opportunity to speak in multiple forums like All hand’s meetings etc. This is a great opportunity for high visibility and networking across the organization. Use it to the fullest!

 Enhance and Protect your Brand: Your brand and your reputation go way beyond a project. Real character comes out in times of adversity. Being firm on your principles, honesty, integrity in dealing with the team, partners and going above and beyond the call of duty will be noticed by your management. They may acknowledge that project has failed despite your heroic efforts. If your skills, efforts and attitude stand out, you may be considered for a bigger project/role moving forward! All of this is possible only when you work tirelessly to protect and enhance your brand in all situations.

Failures are part of life for TPMs. Since TPM is a leadership role, the burden of handling a failure is heavier on your shoulders. Take the failure in your stride by focusing on learning, filling gaps in your skills, techniques and management style. You may want to document about your experiences. Most of TPM interviews ask for any failed projects that you may have handled. Your documented experience will come in very handy to refresh your memory!