Project failure tends to be embedded in a project from the start. There is a spectrum of failures from complete collapse to a range of lesser failures associated with behind schedule and over budget. The reasons are all too well known. Yet the lessons from project failures are not being learned and the behaviours that give rise to failures continue to persist. Project failures will continue to occur until the reasons and behaviours are explicitly understood, acknowledged and addressed. The reasons for project failure across project phases include: Requirements • Poor initial requirement definition • Poor requirements validation • Poor management of requirements • Requirements not linked to business benefits Solution Design • Solution design not validated • Solution design not linked to business needs • Solution design too complex • Solution design does not capture necessary complexity • Solution design based on unproven technology • Solution not implementable • Underlying business processes not defined adequately Estimation • Errors due to limitations in estimating procedures • Failure to understand and account for technical risks • Deliberate underestimation/misrepresentation of costs • Poor inflation estimates • Top down pressure to reduce estimates • Lack of valid independent cost estimates Project Management • Lack of program management expertise • Mismanagement/human error • Over optimism • Schedule concurrency • Program stretch outs to keep production lines open • Lack of communication • Poor management of change and scope creep Development and Implementation • Lack of competition when selecting suppliers, poor supplier selection process • Poor supplier engagement • Poor contract design • Inconsistent contract management/administration procedures, too much or too little oversight • Waste • Excess profits by supplier, supplier overstaffed • Supplier indirect costs unreasonable • Inadequate resource allocation and prioritisation • Organisation cannot handle change Finance and Budgeting • Business case incomplete • Funding instabilities caused by trying to fund too many projects • Funding instabilities caused by management decisions • Inefficient production rates due to stretching out programmes • Failure to fund for contingency • Failure to fund projects at realistic cost

1. Requirements
Solution
Design
Poor initial requirement definition
Poor requirements validation
Poor management of requirements
Requirements not linked to business benefits
Estimation
Gall's Law
A complex system that works is invariably found to
have evolved from a simple system that worked. A
complex system designed from scratch never works
and cannot be patched up to make it work. You
have to start over with a working simple system.
Spectrum Of Project Failures and Successes
Complete Project
Failure: Cancelled,
Unused, Rejected
Reduced
Functionality
Requiring
Workarounds
Project Late
and/or Over
Budget
Complete Project
Success:
On-time, On-
budget and
Delivering
Specified Benefits
More Expensive
to Operate and
Support Than
Planned
Specified Business
Benefits and
Savings Not
Delivered
Solution Largely
Unused And/Or
Unusable
Significant Rework
or Replacement
Required
Functionality
Delivered Does
not Meet Business
Requirements Performance
and/or
Operational
Problems
Not What Is
Wanted Or What
Was Required/
Envisaged
Solution design not validated
Solution design not linked to business needs
Solution design too complex
Solution design does not capture necessary complexity
Solution design based on unproven technology
Solution not implementable
Underlying business processes not defined adequately
Errors due to limitations in estimating procedures
Failure to understand and account for technical risks
Deliberate underestimation/misrepresentation of costs
Poor inflation estimates
Top down pressure to reduce estimates
Lack of valid independent cost estimates
Lack of program management expertise
Mismanagement/human error
Over optimism
Schedule concurrency
Program stretch outs to keep production lines open
Lack of communication
Poor management of change and scope creep
Development
and
Implementation
Lack of competition when selecting suppliers, poor supplier selection
process
Poor supplier engagement
Poor contract design
Inconsistent contract management/administration procedures, too
much or too little oversight
Waste
Excess profits by supplier, supplier overstaffed
Supplier indirect costs unreasonable
Inadequate resource allocation and prioritisation
Organisation cannot handle change
Project
Management
Financeand
Budgeting
Business case incomplete
Funding instabilities caused by trying to fund too many projects
Funding instabilities caused by management decisions
Inefficient production rates due to stretching out programs
Failure to fund for contingency
Failure to fund projects at realistic cost``
Project Death March
Where the project team feels the project is destined to fail because of
factor such as unrealistic deadlines and design/architectural
problems but is being continued for reasons such as to
justify the project sponsor whose idea the project was and who
championed it over its development and implementation lifecycle.
Brook’s Law
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it
later.
Strategic Misrepresentation
Deliberate, systematic distortion or misstatement of
facts such as costs, time, complexity or risk in order to
get a project initiated.
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Sunk Cost Fallacy
Irrational loss aversion approach that puts a
value on already incurred costs justifying
increased investment based on the prior
cumulative investment. "Throwing good money
after bad". "In for a penny, in for a pound".
Groupthink
The desire for group conformity that causes
irrational or dysfunctional decision-making
where group members seek to minimise conflict
and force a consensus without critical
evaluation of alternatives by actively
suppressing dissenting views and by isolating
the group from external influences.
Ashby’s Low
“Only variety can destroy variety” - complexity is needed
to process complexity: complex inputs require complex
processing. Simple problems have simple solutions.
Complex problems have (and need to have) complex
solutions.
Kruger-Dunning Effect
Unskilled individuals with the illusion of
superiority, rating their ability much higher than is
true caused by an inability of to recognise their
incompetence and ineptness.
Focalism
Tendency to become inwardly focussed, loss of
external situational awareness and becoming
over reliant on initial information and discounting
subsequent information.
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b
b
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b
Project Failure Reasons And Causes
Ringelmann Effect
The tendency for individual members of a group to
become increasingly less productive as the size of the
group increases.
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b
Where Are You On The Project Success Dial And Why?