Have you ever had an unsuccessful project and what did you learn?

Yes definitely, an unsuccessful project can take many different forms. For example, late delivery having a knock on impact, time spent versus outcome not in line or time spent and a project ultimately being opted against being implemented. From all of the scenarios I have learnt the importance of taking additional time at the beginning of a project to define exactly what the scope would look like and the time involved to take this to completion. It is extremely easy to underestimate the time that will be required. We also must be clear on the desired outcome and what a successful project would look like. When we take the time to consider the full picture and plan appropriately the likelihood of a successful project increases significantly.

Projects tend to deliver what they need to but not always everything they set out to achieve. Projects always have lessons learnt sessions to go through what could have been done better so other projects can learn and take on board for their respective projects. For example this could cover scoping the project, resourcing, better cost tracking, efficiency of re-planning and how changes were dealt along the way, governance etc.