Chief Collaboration Officer

“Failure is not an option” has always rubbed me the wrong way.  Making this declaration is akin to saying “We may not know what we're doing, but we hope to succeed anyway, because we really want to!”  It's a strong indicator of "Management by Wishing it Were So" thinking.  

Consider the definition of the word option: “…something that may be or is chosen; choice.” Choice? Who would choose failure? Nobody would.

Instead, let’s substitute the word “possibility,” as in, “Failure is not a possibility.” Sounds naive, maybe even arrogant.  Failure is always a possibility.  And mitigating that risk is the purpose of planning; knowing what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what your capabilities and limitations are.  Uttering meaningless platitudes does nothing to mitigate risk or assure quality.  In fact it may often have the opposite effect, as project teams sacrifice quality, functionality, testing, and anything else they can in their scramble to satisfy the artificial constraints of unreasonable deadlines.

The objective of Project Portfolio Excellence is to understand your capabilities and limitations before launching a project so you can maximize your probability for success and minimize the possibility of failure.