Why IT Projects Fail
The role of education
One frightening example of why IT projects fail is clear from an anecdote Cahill tells about a project manager he knew who deliberately changed metrics to mislead sponsors about the progress of a project. “He changed how many lines of code were being developed over time. He wanted to show it was increasing so that there was progress,” he recalls. “Unfortunately, he didn’t give enough merit to his sponsors because if he had instead said ‘lines of code over the last couple of weeks have gone backwards but we’ve made the product more stable, it performs faster’ that would have been progress. We come back to benefits realisation and knowing what it is we’re expected to achieve.”
Poor stakeholder education leads to this kind of behaviour, and proper communication with executive management and stakeholders would put benefits realisation at the forefront of the project’s progress. “A good place to start would be formal project education,” Cahill suggests. “They don’t have to understand the technical aspects, but they need to know that it’s not just about delivering software. I would rather not sell someone a product if they don’t take care of the change management part because then failure is often blamed on the product.”
Education is also required when IT people meet business people to ensure that the business benefits and project execution are closely aligned, says Roberts. “Who you want to take the lead is someone with a strong understanding of business requirements and the understanding of what’s possible from a technology perspective in doing it. Good project managers in the IT industry are a rare breed because it’s a complex job.”
He further notes that the PMO should take on a knowledge management role by conducting a formal post-implementation review, documenting lessons learnt and creating a repeatable methodology: “There’s a clear advantage to being able to leverage and learn from PMOs.”
Sharing experiences and learning from others’ mistakes is the backbone of collaborative learning, which Cattaneo endorses. “Each subject I deliver is based on my motto ‘Making it better together’,” he says. While his classes follow the syllabus, he believes “real value comes from running live sessions with the students, talking though case studies, and experiencing first-hand pain and pleasure as felt by the students working in their own project management space”.
Another way project managers can arm themselves against failure is through “using a set of policies, processes, procedures, work instructions, job descriptions, checklists, templates and toolsets that are based on world proven practices, rather than reinventing the wheel,” says Cattaneo—the rest is skills, knowledge and attitude, which they can get through formal education and training or on-the-job experience. And while formal education can underline the importance of communication, it’s certainly a skill a project manager needs to develop for his or herself, he adds.
The project must die
It’s unfortunate that The Standish Group sees cancelled projects as ‘failed’ because sometimes killing the project is the best decision a project manager can make. “It’s a question of value,” says Cahill. “It takes courage to kill a project and it also takes an understanding to say ‘it’s dead’. You can do that each day by asking: is this still delivering the value we want it to?”
Killing a project can be highly emotional, and sometimes political if the sponsor has decided to throw good money after bad, he remarks, but if a project manager is serious about delivering value to an organisation, it may be the only viable move: “Project managers need to take the ego out of it because you’re better off killing a bad project and succeeding at a good one.”
The best way to prevent this scenario, in addition to identifying the business benefits upfront, is good governance. “If you’re not going to have this level of governance then you attach risks to the project. Measure it in dollars: here’s a risk, what is it going to cost to fix that risk if it becomes an issue?” he says. “Then you need to identify the point at which to stop and assess risk and manage it before the project can continue.”
Despite the gloom around the apparently low success rate of IT projects, Cahill says things are looking up. “IT project failure will decrease,” he states. “While I’m not seeing much picked up in benefits realisation, I am seeing a maturing around the understanding of risks in IT projects and that will help.”
Top 5 reasons why IT projects fail
- Undisciplined project management practices
- Poorly functioning governance
- Too little executive support/sponsorship
- Inexperienced project management skills/experience
- Business needs/value missing
Source: Gartner (www.gartner.com)
