The Top 10 Obstacles to Project Success

I found very interesting information on my linkedin from the “Top 10 Obstacles to Project Success” survey by Lou Gasco.
Here are the results which were gathered from different project managers and project leaders.

Rankings are listed by frequency:
#1: SCOPE CREEP
#2: Challenging Schedule
#3: Resource Challenge
#4: Minimal or Non-Existent Testing
#5: Tardy Delivery of Project Tasks
#6: Delegated Responsibility Unrelated to Authority
#7: Finance Challenge
#8: Invisible Requirements
#9: A Skill Set Challenged Team
#10: The Disappearing Sponsor

I have to admit that it is often situation that my projects suffer from first five issues.

Following conclusions come to my mind after reading survey results:
#1. Focus on defining project scope. The team should spend more time on project initiation and analysis. I also think that project manager must ensure that all project stakeholders have the same vision of the project (goal, main functions and etc.) otherwise scope creep is inevitable.

#2. Please don’t forget testing in your project’s schedule. What is more, testing team should be involved on early stages of the project to make sure that desired quality is reached.