FAILURE ANALYSIS

To learn from every failure is the way to success. Every well experienced person is the one who learns maximum out of the failure by analyzing the cause of failure and exploring suitable remedy for each cause. Sir Thomas Alva Edison explored 1000 of procedures through which light bulb could not glow. Learning out of each way he found his way to glow the bulb. Thus learning from each failure and not repeating the same mistakes/blunders one can achieve the success.    

How to analyze the failure? One has to perform quick immediate postmortem on a project that has failed so as to prevent future failure as well as to get guideline for future testing and quality control.

Some of the areas to cover are:

1.       Scope:

The goals must be set on the basis of available infrastructure and all surrounding parameters influencing the project. Higher target or over ambitions may describe the feeling of failure. In other words, higher expectations than what is been deserved cannot be called failure.  

2.       Money:

Sufficient funding and that to when required is necessary for a project to be successful.

3.       The team of project:

The team members who have shared the experience of failure of the previous project should be given chance to try again because they also have learnt from the failure. If the project is launched for the first time just select the persons having experience of analyzing the failure in a positive manner.

4.       Vendors/suppliers:

The raw material should be of the desired quality. Raw material should be supplied in right quantity and at the right time. Supplier should be able to identify the problem and be able to troubleshoot them.  

5.       Structure:

The structure of the project should be simple and easily understood by the persons who have to execute it. Over complicated and messy project will fail due to its own complexity. The goals should not be intangible and imponderable.

6.       Timing:

There must be a right time to launch a new project. A team of fresher/trainees members cannot handle all to gather a new project. OR A rain water harvesting plant may not run in a desert or in summer. The environment surrounding the project, the people affected by or can affect the project, system; business conditions should be properly evaluated.   

7.       Information/data:

The reliability of the data used during the planning and goal setting of a project must be checked. Precise, recent, valid and timely data are useful for a project to be successful. If the data is collected especially for setting a goal for a project may be biased and the goals set on the basis of such data may be exaggerated.  

8.       Salvaging:

The previous failed project may be assessed for the extent of failure. Whether the project is a total failure and should be started from the beginning or can be started from a point where the situation went out of control should be analyzed.  

9.       Graphics:

Graphs and charts can be used to identify problems easily. Graphs and charts help to analyze the failure easily and promptly.

10.   Comparisons:

Comparison with a successful project of a similar kind may help to identify and rectify the problems causing failure.

11.   Motivation:

The project under consideration should have new idea or plan i.e. it should be profitable or of some benefit to the the people affected by or can affect the project. In other words there must be some motivational value of the project so that the people affected by or can affect the project will endeavor for its success. Nobody is willing to work on a futile project.   

12.   Use failure to be successful:

Planning a failure may be beneficial for further planning of a successful project at a low cost. When we are aware of causes of failure we are sure to take remedial actions against those causes. This in turn results in a full proof planning of a successful project.