Several factors contribute to project team failure, as explained in chapter six of the text. There are similarities between the nuclear navy and a project management team. There is an engineer officer in charge of the divisional chiefs, divisional officers, engineering department, and the other junior staff. Ensuring this team's success is not an easy task, and there are several issues, which could lead to team failure. Some of those issues include poorly developed goals, poor communication, poor leadership, and dysfunctional behavior. In my opinion, I would rank lack of clear project goals and poor communication as the most important factors.
Project goals need to be clearly stated at the beginning of the project. Clear and achievable goals are S pecific, M easurable, A chievable, R elevant, and T ime-bound (SMART). Setting SMART goals helps clarify ideas, focus the effort, use time and the available resources productively, and increase the chances of goal achievement. However, when the project goals are poorly communicated, constantly changing, or fragmented, they could lead to ambiguity, which causes multiple interpretations. Poor goal development allows the members to create separate and differing elucidations of the objectives. Consequently, disagreements and conflicts increase among the team members, and they fail to concentrate on the project. The team manager can avoid such issues by setting clear, properly communicated, and unambiguous project goals.
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Communication breakdown is a major contributor to project failure. Communication is key because it allows information to flow among the group members. Effective communication starts from the group's coordination with the rest of the members. In some projects, members fail to understand the project’s structure which defines the communication protocol. They are uncertain of the right person to share the information with. Moreover, some members are unwilling to share information in some instances as they believe withholding information is a source of power over the other members. Different professions among the members also lead to poor communication. For example, technical employees like engineers or doctors use technical terms that some team members do not understand. This is a recipe for disaster as communication breakdown means that project objectives cannot be met. The project manager needs to set standards for information sharing. Each team member should have the right to communicate freely and frankly.
Reference
Pinto, J. K. (2016). Project Management: Achieving competitive advantage. Pearson Education Inc. 4th edition. New York, NY:
