Before Blaming a Vendor for Sourcing Project Failure, Look in the Mirror
10 April 2016 – South Africa – A new resource has been added to the PM World library related to Project Failures. The resource is titled “Project failure, look in the mirror”.
On 8th March 2016, Tim Norton wrote an article for Northshore Americas on various shortfalls and the blaming of suppliers/vendors for the failures of projects. Where some of the failures are due to the client and how they should review themselves before blaming others.
“It’s easy to blame the contract or the vendor for the ills of project failure. When things go sideways, the client may be tempted to think the vendor failed or they may have chosen the wrong provider altogether just to reap some cost savings. ‘You get what you pay for’ after all, right? The phrase certainly suggests you were dissatisfied in some way with the project result.”
“There certainly are cases in which the vendor is fully to blame. It may be due to staffing challenges, misunderstanding requirements, or underestimating the effort needed to make it work. We’ve all seen an example of the supplier falling asleep at the wheel. In many other cases, however, the client must look in the mirror. Because a common underlying problem in project failure isn’t characterized by ‘you get what you pay for.’ It is rooted in the following phrase: ‘You get what you asked for.’”
To access this new resource, go to https://pmworldlibrary.net/major-projects-programmes/, click on “Failed Projects”, scroll down click on “Project Failure, look in the mirror”. Must be a registered member to access.
Posted by Gary Mitchell
