Project failures are a reality that most project managers face several times in their careers, but even more significant than the failure itself, is what these individuals learn after experiencing it. Studies do exist within the entrepreneurship literature which analyze failure of entrepreneurial projects. But these are not particularly focused on projects executed within organizations and the experiences of entrepreneurs would be different to those of project managers within firms, after a failure occurs. The authors have made a research from a sample of 6 project managers over such project failures. Using Kolb's experiential Theory to understand the learning that occurs after project failures helped the authors to create a model which the project managers can use in their process of learning after failures. This study also elaborates about the project management literature in association with project failures and also the various aspects of learning that can be achieved in an organization.

Many organizations are struggling to improve customer-focused quality in today's highly competitive domestic and global markets. At the same time, these organizations have failed to implement the Six Sigma methodology into their daily control and strategic planning processes. Six Sigma deployment failures have been categorized as coming from many sources, both management related and person related. Some of the key management related Six Sigma project failures have been identified and discussed in this research work. For continuous improvement to truly take root, organizations must realize that just successfully applying quality tools on any process will not necessarily provide dramatic results, unless the concepts of policy management and deployment are institutionalized. A model called "Six Sigma Policy Deployment" was developed and has been proposed which may help mitigate Six Sigma project failures that are presently attributed to management and organizational issues. By integrating Policy Deployment, the Six Sigma DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) problem solving approach, and the classic PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) Cycle, the potential for breakthrough improvements in any organization can be enhanced. The model was contrasted against a list of 30 sources of failure in typical Six Sigma projects in order to validate its applicability to mitigate these failures. Furthermore these failures were matched with the work of recent quality theorists in order to validate their occurrence and relevance. A case study section is presented to illustrate FPL's Quality Improvement Program and the Six Sigma Lifecycle, which are bases for the new model. This section also highlights how the use of the proposed Six Sigma Policy Deployment model could help to mitigate potential Six Sigma project failures.

Submitted by Marcia Silva (marcia@latec.uff.br) on 2015-10-28T14:31:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Cyro Rodrigues Barretto.pdf: 5057628 bytes, checksum: 9cd414387fb221841d38efd245edcf97 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-10-28T14:31:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Cyro Rodrigues Barretto.pdf: 5057628 bytes, checksum: 9cd414387fb221841d38efd245edcf97 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-18 / Esta dissertação constitui o resultado de um estudo sobre fatores críticos de insucesso no gerenciamento e implantação de projetos em uma empresa integrada de energia no Brasil. O estudo procurou trazer uma contribuição adicional aos estudos que vem sendo realizados sobre o tema, buscando mapear e analisar os fatores críticos de insucesso (FCI), que podem ser identificados antes da fase inicial de implantação de projetos, na perspectiva do ambiente interno tanto das equipes executoras, quanto dos patrocinadores e clientes/usuários de projetos neste segmento organizacional. A pesquisa foi realizada por meio de uma revisão da literatura mais recente, buscando artigos científicos mais relevantes, com foco no estado da arte relacionado à temática escolhida. Foram identificados oito grupos temáticos mais frequentes entre os autores estudados. A revisão da literatura apontou a existência de condições desfavoráveis que estando presentes no ambiente do projeto, podem trazer impactos na realização de diversos requisitos relacionados ao escopo, como prazo, custo, qualidade, aspectos de meio ambiente, segurança, saúde ocupacional e responsabilidade social, entre outros. Foram identificados oito grupos temáticos de FCI mais frequentes entre os autores pesquisados. A partir deste agrupamento, foi construído um questionário estruturado, que foi validado com especialistas com grande experiência no gerenciamento de projetos. O questionário validado foi utilizado em um survey entre profissionais de gerenciamento de projetos de duas Comunidades de Práticas da empresa estudada, oriundos de diferentes circunstâncias históricas, bem como distintas realidades profissionais, culturais, socioeconômicas, políticas e ambientais. Foram obtidos 397 questionários válidos, sendo que os resultados do survey foram submetidos à estatística descritiva, que identificou um conjunto de 10 FCI encontrados com maior frequência pelos especialistas que participaram do survey. Os resultados encontrados mostraram-se importantes para a construção de conhecimento não somente para a comunidade acadêmica, como também para os profissionais de gerenciamento de projeto. Percebeu-se que quanto mais precocemente os FCI forem identificados, maiores poderão ser as chances de serem tratados, seja por meio da eliminação ou mitigação dos seus impactos, com vistas a se obter uma taxa de sucesso que possa atender aos requisitos mais prioritários definidos pelos atores envolvidos. / This dissertation is the result of a study on critical factors of failure in the management and implementation of projects in an integrated energy company in Brazil. The study sought to bring an additional contribution to the studies that have been conducted on the subject, seeking to map and analyze the critical factors of failure (CFF), which can be identified before the initial phase of project implementation from the perspective of both the internal context executing teams, the sponsors and clients / projects of users in this organizational segment. The survey was conducted through a review of the latest literature, searching for the most relevant scientific articles, focusing on the state of the art related to the chosen theme. Eight most frequent thematic groups among the study authors were identified. The literature review showed the existence of unfavorable conditions that are present in the project environment, that can pose impacts in making various requirements related to the scope, such as time, cost, quality, environmental aspects, safety, occupational health and social responsibility, among others. Eight thematic groups CFF frequently among the surveyed authors were identified. From this group, a structured questionnaire was built, which was validated by experts with extensive experience in project management. The validated questionnaire was used in a survey among project management professionals from two communities of practice within the studied company, from different historical circumstances and different professional, cultural, socialeconomic, political and environmental realities. 397 valid questionnaires were obtained, and the survey results were submitted to descriptive statistics, which identified a set of 10 CFF found more often by the experts who participated in the survey. The results proved to be important for the construction of knowledge not only for the academic community, but also for project management professionals. It was noticed that the earlier the CFF are identified, the greater will be the chances of being treated, either by eliminating or mitigating their impacts, in order to obtain a success rate able to meet the highest priority needs defined by the actors involved