project initiation planning and execution

Factor Affecting Project Success or Failure

Australia

Projects are well known to have either positive or negative outcomes upon completion, in other words, projects can either be successes or failures. When it comes to project failures, many assess such projects trying to understand the reason for their failure. Each stage of the project is broken down into its elements then assessed. A study by the Project Management Institute in Scotland identified that out of the over sixty factors recognized to influence the project management process, over 90% have significant impacts. These factors were then grouped by the influence resulting in substantial, large, medium, small and negligible influencers.

Failed Project

• Numerous project managers desire to

complete their projects with successes however, this seldom reality. The project that will be used to illustrate this notion is Myer's online retail site

Disaster Events project. Like any other company in Australia,

• The project is regarded as a disaster as on virtualization and systematic changes in the

December 24, 2013, Myer.com.au, the company's IT sector has drastically changed the

online retail store crashed when it was accessed by economy.

over 7000 consumers at the same time (Kirkpatrick, In the early 2010s, it was clear that

2019). technology was evolving the economy

• With poor communication between the website and (Anesbury, Nenycz-Thiel, Dawes & Kennedy, 2015).

the servers, consumers were unable to make Additionally, the technology needed to

purchases, additionally, with no effective action support publicly used websites was

being taken by the company's IT department the uniform.

CEO ordered the site to remain offline (Kirkpatrick, Coupled with the fact that online retail

2019). stores both within and outside the country • In the analysis of the failure, it was identified that were being called successes, retail giant

the project had a functional structure that would Myer invested tens of millions of dollars to have allowed it to be properly tested before public develop an online retail platform (Anesbury

use. Nenycz-Thiel, Dawes & Kennedy, 2015).

• However, it was detailed that this would have

caused the site to go online after its projected date. With no recovery plan placed on the website, it was clear that the project was poorly planned, it lacked the needed risk management measures for such

projects (Oloruntoba, Sridharan & Davison, 2017). It was during the 2013 boxing day frenzy, that the errors that would have been tested demonstrated themselves. The lack of a recovery plan that would have allowed previous or more compatible versions to be used caused the company to lose millions to David Jones, the company's main competition at the time. David Jones took advantage of the crisis in Myer and registered a 100% increase in online sales (Kirkpatrick, 2019). During a press briefing, the attitude taken up by the Myer management demonstrated the dissatisfaction of the shareholders as the company's stock value drastically dropped.

Fallen Stock Prices

0.75

0.70 0.65 0.60

0.55

0.50

Successful Project

National Road Safety Strategy

In 2011, the Australian government commenced the National Road Safety Strategy, this project involved the research and development of various action plans to increase road safety (Hughes, Anund & Falkmer, 2015) The project involved numerous activities from road modifications to reduce motorcyclist accidents to the enforcement of speed limits on vehicles. Nevertheless, the most critical aspect of the project that will be assessed will be the development of the Safe System assessment framework for road infrastructure (Fitzgerald et al., 2018). Completed in 2016, the results of the project were several reports on the current state the road safety considerations and the data on how they are ineffective (Woolley, Jurewicz, Turner & Stokes, 2018). This was then coupled with the main objective of the project, different elements of the working system redressed to aid in the elimination of death and serious injuries on Australian roads. The approach taken in the project was the sharing of responsibilities to allow for each objective of the project to be achieved (Woolley, Jurewicz, Turner & Stokes, 2018). The report considered almost all possible occurrences between road users and ensured that in the occurrence of driver error the outcome would not be severe.

Though the overall project is yet to be completed, the first objective is to be met in the year 2020; nevertheless, the report played a critical role in ensuring that the project attains its goals Muir, Johnston & Howard, 2018). It acts as the guideline to be followed in the renovation, construction, and modification of roads. The project was a success because the project management relied on factual data collected from the various types of crashes to create various control elements to protect road users (Muir, Johnston & Howard, 2018). The framework considered all the critical aspects of the system as well, identifying the current safety limiting issues and developing solutions for current and future use. This portion of the project is regarded successful as it was able to understand past and current needs and use the data to develop future road safety requirements (Muir, Johnston & Howard, 2018). The data is then compiled and used to develop the regulations, policies, and guidelines for road use, maintenance, and construction

Another aspect of the report that is barely recognized is the safety features that vehicles are mandated to have, the previous requirements were revised in the project and updated to meet current vehicle safety demands. Examples include Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB, Low-speed), this regulation was commissioned specifically for the new models being developed to aid in increasing road safety (Hughes, Falkmer & Anund, 2019). The report demonstrated ethical, cultural and other considerations when it came to road safety in its use and construction. The timeline was properly maintained and its early completion allowed for other projects to begin before schedule thereby moving up the completion date.

References

Anesbury, Z., Nenycz-Thiel, M., Dawes, J., & Kennedy, R. (2015). How do shoppers behave online? An observational study of online grocery shopping. Journal Of Consumer Behaviour, 15(3), 261-270. doi: 10.1002/cb.1566

Farber, J., Myers, T., Trevathan, J., Atkinson, L., & Andersen, T. (2015). Riskr: a web 2.0 platform to monitor and share disaster information. International Journal Of Grid And Utility Computing, 6(2), 98. doi: 10.1504/ijguc.2015.068825

Fitzgerald, M., Curtis, K., Cameron, P., Ford, J., Howard, T., & Crozier, J. et al. (2018). The Australian Trauma Registry. ANZ Journal Of Surgery, 89(4), 286-290. doi: 10.1111/ans.14940

Hughes, B., Anund, A., & Falkmer, T. (2015). System theory and safety models in Swedish, UK, Dutch and Australian road safety strategies. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 74, 271-278. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2014.07.017

Hughes, B., Falkmer, T., & Anund, A. (2019). Road safety policy and practice: The relevance of Australasian road safety strategies in a future context. Journal Of The Australasian College Of Road Safety., 30(1). Retrieved from https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=273351393174380;res=IELHEA

Kirkpatrick, S. (2019). Using disaster recovery knowledge as a roadmap to community resilience, Community Development, 50(2), 123-140. doi: 10.1080/15575330.2019.1574269

Mckeen, J., & Smith, H. (2015). IT strategy: Issues and Practices (3rd ed.). Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.

Muir, C., Johnston, L., & Howard, E. (2018). Evolution of a holistic systems approach to planning and managing road safety: the Victorian case study, 1970-2015. Injury Prevention, 24(Suppl 1), 119-124. doi: 10.1136/injuryprev-2017-042358

Oloruntoba, R., Sridharan, R., & Davison, G. (2017). A proposed framework of key activities and processes in the preparedness and recovery phases of disaster management. Disasters, 42(3), 541-570. doi: 10.1111/disa.12268

Woolley, J., Jurewicz, C., Turner, B., & Stokes, C. (2018). First International Roadside Safety Conference: Safer Roads, Saving Lives, Saving Money Blurbs New Blurbs Main. Retrieved 9 December 2019, from http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/176212.aspx