Why projects specially IT projects fail ?
Re: Why projects fail
poor governance
sub par project mgmt
unrealistic timelines
not resourced properly- number of resources
quality of I/T folks and their understanding of business needs or understanding of business
too much focus on customization to align with poorly designed existing processes rather than process improvements first
bad fit between organization and the service provider
bad fitr between organization needs and applications being implemented
and many more
take your pick
Re: Why projects fail
At the end failing projects give you few lessons on how not to fail next time. People still fail next time though :-p
Re: Why projects fail
lack of responsibility and lack of persistency....in IT projects u have to be really focused.
but they forget that you cant always use the "UNDO" option.
Re: Why projects fail
Agree with X2's list above...
On the top of my head, based on my own experience with 2 ERP implementations, 1 Govt Portal implementation and numerous small scale e-Business projects, here's what I can say:
on the strategy front:
inadequate balance among top-down and bottom-up rationality for the project ;
lack of executive support ;
poor change management ;
on the project front:
lack of formalism ;
insufficient time spent in the requirements phase of the project ;
missing link between technology architect and business analyst ;
on the technology front:
immature buy-in into technology hype ;
trying too hard to map technology to processes when the other may be much simpler (vanilla implementations work too).
treating software development as a commoditized skillset ;
lack of user involvement ;
scope creep.
Re: Why projects fail
software development as commoditized skillset, dont get me started on that man. huge huge huge issue.
on a day to day stuff, aside from all the strategic decisions, project mgmt, right app choies etc, teh biggest issue i see are business analysts who for lack of a better word are barely more intelligent than laughing hyenas and just seem to attend meetings between functional smes/product managers etc to and techies who freeze at the first sight of something unexpected, and then waste a week and bringing it up at regular meetings rather than telling ppl the issue when its encountered and using some brain cells to suggest some workarounds.
in my company the entire project leadership..going up to executive mgmt had an all hands meeting with the consultants and their mgmt to discuss project issues..and the biggest issue..just that, dont frikkin sit on your arse when you see an issue and wait until next scheduled update to tell people about it, raise a flag right then and then come with some recommendations.