Why IT projects fail

The all about agile blog has compiled a list of why IT projects fail:

Project Initiation & Planning Issues

• Unclear or unconvincing business case
• Insufficient or non-existent approval process
• Poor definition of project scope and objectives
• Insufficient time or money given to project
• Lack of business ownership and accountability
• Insufficient and/or over-optimistic planning
• Poor estimating
• Long or unrealistic timescales; forcing project end dates despite best estimates
• Lack of thoroughness and diligence in the project startup phases

Technical & Requirements Issues

• Lack of user involvement (resulting in expectation issues)
• Product owner unclear or consistently not available
• Scope creep; lack of adequate change control
• Poor or no requirements definition; incomplete or changing requirements
• Wrong or inappropriate technology choices
• Unfamiliar or changing technologies; lack of required technical skills
• Integration problems during implementation
• Poor or insufficient testing before go-live
• Lack of QA for key deliverables
• Long and unpredictable bug fixing phase at end of project

Stakeholder Management & Team Issues

• Insufficient attention to stakeholders and their needs; failure to manage expectations
• Lack of senior management/executive support; project sponsors not 100% committed to the objectives; lack understanding of the project and not actively involved
• Inadequate visibility of project status
• Denial adopted in preference to hard truths
• People not dedicated to project; trying to balance too many different priorities
• Project team members lack experience and do not have the required skills
• Team lacks authority or decision making ability
• Poor collaboration, communication and teamwork

Project Management Issues

• No project management best practices
• Weak ongoing management; inadequately trained or inexperienced project managers
• Inadequate tracking and reporting; not reviewing progress regularly or diligently enough
• Ineffective time and cost management
• Lack of leadership and/or communication skills

Note that these points are all about management, rather than technology.

Projects fail when expectations are not aligned with results; in a sense, that's the definition of failure. Given the complexity of IT projects, with many moving parts distributed among a diverse group of stakeholders, it's not surprising that expectation mismatches occur all the time.

Differences in expectations, goals, and priorities are substantial contributers to non-technical complexity, which is the underlying cause of most IT failures.