• clearly and concisely define the desired outcome or result of the project
  
  
• define roles and responsibilities of individuals
  
  
• determine budgetary, time, resource or other constraints
  
  
• break down the project into phases
  
  
• identify dependencies and critical paths
  
  
• implement a communication structure
  
  
• define a progress reporting and problem escalation procedure

If it's so simple, how come there are so many high profile project failures, running over budget, behind schedule and failing to deliver the goods?

It may be the high profile, big projects that hit the headlines, but these simply underline the reality that there are very many more, smaller, projects out there with exactly the same problems.