Most of the truly epic failures come back to communication. Upper management does not have an adequate understanding of how IT works. IT management cannot or will not make them understand. Business processes are not documented or followed. Development managers do not require valid estimates and track tasks that are of estimate. Developers thing they are artists, not the engineers and technicians they are supposed to be.
They all bear the burden of the failure.
I've work on project large and small, from mainframe to PC and the successful ones always were well planned, well executed, and everybody knew how things worked and what the status was. And when that last minute 'must have' requirement got forced in the project manager presented upper management with the risk and cost and insisted on a formal signoff to include it. Everyone is responsible for their own stupidity.
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