Stop Blaming the Software

Corporate Profiling for IT Project

Success

Copyright © Sarah Runge 2009 sjrunge@itpsb.com www.itpsb.com

“A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame

somebody else”

Author and Naturalist John Burroughs (1837-1921).

Preface

“public relations people seem better than ever at helping to hide massively

screwed-up corporate and governmental programming projects from

stockholders and citizens”

Stephen Manes commenting on changes he’s observed over the past 25 years.

Full Disclosure, Stephen Manes, PCWorld, December 2008.

Contents:

“My approach to the research into this book comes from the perspective of pre-

implementation planning analysis rather than the technical aspects of IT project

implementation. It identifies what needs to be done within the organization pre-

implementation to increase a project’s probability of success.”

1 The Global Landscape of Failed IT Projects 1

“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please

everybody” Bill Cosby

Purpose:

The first chapter sets the scene for failed IT projects and their impact on

organizations and the economy in general.

Contents:

Organizations undertake IT projects for one or a combination of the following

reasons: “Market Changes”, “Competitive Factors”, “Profitability Drivers” and

“Customer Demand”.

My findings from interviews with organizations that have undertaken IT

projects that either failed or were challenged are described.

“Small, medium and large organization alike lamented their “short-falls” that with

hindsight became glaringly obvious. They all concurred that foresight into these

areas could have been achieved if corporate profiling, as I described it to them,

had been undertaken prior to them spending their hard earned money.”

2 The IT Project Crisis that Won’t Go Away 7

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our

humanity”

Albert Einstein

Purpose:

To create awareness of the many causes of failed IT projects and to introduce

the concept of Corporate Profiling as a remedy.

Content:

The futile and mostly wildly incorrect blame that is leveled at those who are

involved “after” investment decisions are made.

“Ask yourself. How can there be so many vendors out there that are so

incompetent in their areas of expertise? And why are there so many

inadequate software packages? The answers are that they are not and

there is not. QED. Although it’s easy to blame the software, in my

studies and interviews with many companies that have suffered IT

project failures, not once was the software itself to blame. And rarely if

ever was the vendor incompetent. They were merely delivering what

their customers, asked for.”

How IT project disasters can be avoided once the leaders of organizations

understand how they themselves in fact contribute to such failures.

“Why do executives abdicate from their critical project decisions and

responsibilities? You will be amazed at how many IT project disasters

have come about simply because of what one or two people insisted was

the correct course of action or who deemed their requirements to be

accurate and comprehensive.”

There is no point appointing the best project team to manage something that has

not been adequately planned or if the organization is unprepared for the change.

“Project Managers then become the project “fire fighters”. Project Managers do

what they have been tasked to do by the organization.”

3 Insight, Foresight and Hindsight 15

“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success”

Henry Ford

Purpose:

To outline how senior executives themselves actually contribute to IT project

failures.

To introduce the concept that insight and foresight can significantly increase an

IT project’s probability of success rather than being left with hard-won

hindsight knowledge on the completion of a project when it is too late.

Content:

The following headers: “Starting with a Vision”, “That Dreaded Feeling” and

“The Big Aha!” and the associated text should strike a cord with most readers.

When the leaders of affected organizations finally realize the poor state of

health of their IT projects, they tend to rationalize and blame their vendors or

the software.

Executive roles in bringing about IT project failures are emphasized.

“In truth, the responsibility for under-delivered and over-budget IT

projects lies predominantly with C-Level and senior executives,

presidents and managers themselves.”

“Top level decision makers who at their projects outset failed to profile

their organizations in order to correctly identify organizational

objectives, business needs, and sources for user and project

requirements …”

“Because the roles of senior executives are strategic and not operational,

they simply do not have the necessary insight into the …”

How insight, foresight and hindsight can increase the probability of an IT

project’s success.

“Organizational insight as well as hindsight from previous projects will provide

the foresight for future implementations to be undertaken by the organization.

Hindsight is only good provided people can learn from it.”

4 Scapegoating 25

“A good scapegoat is nearly as welcome as a solution to the problem” Author unknown

Purpose:

To discusss how and who will be the likely scapegoat candidates, and how

organizations and vendors often set themselves up for IT project failures.

Content:

On the one hand organizations assume that all of their project requirements

have been accurately and extensively collected and documented, and on the

other hand vendors also assume that what their customer has documented fully

describes what is required of the system.

“Frequently both parties find out later rather than sooner that their

project requirements are incomplete or incorrect. In the final analysis,

irrespective of how failed projects are rationalized, heads will roll and

scapegoats will be found.”

Why organizations need scapegoats.

“Someone or some third party (or parties) will be forced to shoulder the

blame for corporate accountability to the organization and its

stakeholders.”

5 Where and How IT Project Problems Begin

35

“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems –- not people; to focus your

energies on answers –- not excuses” William Arthur Ward

Purpose:

To analyze at what point in an IT implementation problems begin, what the

contributing factors are and how these factors compound IT implementation

problems.

Content:

An analysis of the causes for IT project failures indicates that poor pre-

investment and pre-implementation decision making and planning are at the top

of the list.

“To understand the many possible reasons for IT implementations going

askew, we need to review events at the inception of IT projects rather

than analyzing problematic outcomes.”

Decision making and accountability

“If the pre-implementation decision making process is either not

established or lacks structure and rigor, these decisions will be

insubstantial with a lack of accountability for outcomes.”

Requirements and input

“The other major cause of IT implementation problems is incomplete

business requirements and user input.”

Compounding the Problem

This discusses how IT project problems are compounded after organizations

appoint their vendors and commence the implementation process. This often

occurs without sufficient planning or requirements scoping.

“The problem is compounded when vendors and service providers win

the business.”

“Project scope-creep is synonymous with over-budget and over-time

and if unchecked can result in a runaway project. This is usually an

indication of either inadequately sourced business or user requirements,

an IT driven rather than a business driven project or incrementalism.”

6 Factors Contributing to IT Project Failures 47

“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in

trying to solve them” Henry Ford

Purpose:

To identify the factors, decisions and processes within an organization, how

they contribute to IT project failures and what can be done to increase the

probability of an IT project’s success.

Content:

Identify categories, disciplines and causal factors.

“A common contributing factor for IT project failures is often due to

disparate processes between an organization’s functions or departments

and fragmented communications between executives, managers and the

rest of the organization.”

Organizational and Leadership factors that will increase the probability of an IT

project’s success.

“The majority of these causal factors indicate the absence of rigor in an

organization’s pre-implementation decision making processes. These

causal factors also reflect the lack of strategic project decisions being

made by senior executives.”

7 Corporate Profiling 55

“The beginning is the most important part of the work” Plato

Purpose:

To introduce the Corporate Profiling concept and how it benefits organizations,

what its purpose is, what it identifies, what it can achieve and how it can

significantly increase the chance of IT project success.

Content:

The three key principles of Corporate Profiling and why they are critical to the

success of an IT project.

“The three key principles of profiling, visibility, collaboration and

accountability help to ensure that profiling accomplishes the following

outcomes.”

The purpose of Corporate Profiling.

“Profiling will dramatically reduce the risk of an IT failure at the outset

because it establishes a solid foundation of qualified, objective,

comprehensive and accurate organizational information from the

appropriate sources.”

When should organizations undertake Corporate Profiling?

“Corporate profiling is a relatively straightforward yet comprehensive

process and is the first step to be undertaken before an organization even

contemplates investing in an IT system.”

How Corporate Profiling works and its role in helping to identify project

requirements.

“Unbundles an organization to provide visibility of all of its functions,

departments and processes as well as its customers and suppliers that will

impact, effect or need to be involved in the IT implementation.”

8 Unbundling the Organization

65

“While intelligent people can often simplify the complex, a fool is more likely to

complicate the simple” Gerald W. Grumet

;ote: At this point the reader will have gained sufficient knowledge to start

work on creating a corporate profile.

Purpose:

The purpose of this chapter is to begin the top down process of unbundling an

organization into categories, functions, processes, the external value chain and

also unbundling the pre-implementation process into disciplines.

This is the first chapter that contains pivotal questions that will tease out the all

important information that will deliver a complete corporate profile.

Subsequent chapters further build on the corporate profile using this question

and answer approach.

Content:

To begin the unbundling process, firstly the three major components of an

organization must be identified.

“Once an organization’s main components have been identified, it is

easier to identify and understand the connectedness between an

organization, management and IT. By further separating these

components and their influencing factors, the many levels of complexity

are also recognizable as well as the influence and impact that these

components have on one another.”

Following further unbundling of functions and processes, the reader starts to

gain insight and visibility into the interconnected relationships and operations

of an organization.

“With visibility as to where and how departments, functions, processes

and people are interconnected, an organization’s links and relationships

will become apparent.”

The reader can clearly see how corporate profiling delivers insight into and

understanding of an organization for project requirements and information

sources.

“This will allow them to understand precisely how they will be

impacted and what they need to do to adapt to the change. It will also

assist with identifying precisely where their user requirements are to be

obtained from.”

9 Decision Making

87

“Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then

blaming others for inadequate results” Scott Adams

Purpose:

To bring order to the organization’s IT investment decision making process by

enforcing accountability on appropriate parties.

Content:

I start by explaining the flaws and pitfalls of unstructured and under-analyzed

decision making.

“This step profiles the IT investment decision by identifying common

reasons why organizations initiate IT Projects, how these decisions are

made and who and what drives the decision making process.”

I continue by describing how good decision making processes can be

implemented to avoid these pitfalls.

“By appointing a single person to be accountable for the overall

decision, the quality of their input and analysis of the situation is more

likely to be comprehensive and conclusive. This ensures that the final

decision will be sound having been made objectively based on hard

facts.”

Decision making situations and common issues, which readers can easily relate

to, reinforce the important concepts that are discussed and outlined here.

“During the IT Investment decision making process, the Organization, Business

and IT categories can easily become entangled and bogged down in a not-too-

subtle tug-of-war with each hoping to improve their own position. This is a

normal response and identifying each entity’s motivations and individual wants is

critical to maintaining a common perspective during the vital strategic investment

decision process.”

10 IT Risk and Governance

101

“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them” Ronald Reagan

Purpose:

To make the reader aware that IT risk and governance issues must be addressed

prior to making an IT investment decision. Even if an organization has

implemented an IT governance framework, if it is not properly administered

and managed then the IT project will remain at risk of failing.

To create an ongoing robust framework for maintaining a constant vigil over

current and future IT projects.

Content:

To discuss the concept of IT governance and risk, why it is essential when

undertaking IT projects and how if it is correctly managed it will support the IT

implementation.

“IT Risk and governance is a multi-faceted and extensive process or

framework around which organizations link IT and business strategies.

It ensures that due process achieves the desired organizational goals and

objectives and that appropriate success metrics are applied to ensure that

IT projects achieve their stated business objectives.”

Creating awareness of the importance of these measures.

“IT risk and governance measures need to be rigorously applied so that

they are permanently indoctrinated as part of an organization’s culture

thereby making IT risk management a formal day to day function rather

than an ad-hoc occurrence.”

The impact of mismanaged or underutilized IT governance frameworks and risk

mitigation measures are discussed.

“It is surprising to find that many large organizations and government

bodies that claim to have stringent IT Governance frameworks still have

rogue, run-away or failed IT projects. These are just a few examples of

such organizations and references to their rogue projects.”

The book contains many examples and references to case studies that illustrate

the issues and topics discussed.

“Nevertheless, when Sydney Water’s IT implementation went over

budget by more than $80 million their response was to euthanize the

project. Even so, the Vendor did not consider it a failed project but a

“cancelled project” because at the time of cancellation the project was

on track for delivery (totally ignoring the matter of the budget blow-

out).”

11 Strategy and Success Metrics

115

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” Winston Churchill

Purpose:

Just as in the scientific method used for experimentation, it is equally important

for IT project success measures to be established at the outset with clearly

defined methods for interpreting outcomes that support an organizations

strategy.

Content:

This is where the abovementioned purpose is emphasized.

“As much as an organization’s strategy and objectives need to be clearly

understood and articulated, so too do the success metrics that are

applied to the IT implementation.”

Project success metrics need to be decided at a project’s outset and aligned with

a corporation and its business strategies.

“A project’s success cannot be measured without first identifying what

the primary target or objectives are. Before executing an IT investment

decision an organization needs to decide on the metrics that the success

of the IT project will be measured against.”

Before commencing a project, organizations needs to decide and agree what (if

any) project over-runs are justifiable in terms of budget and time, and to

appoint an appropriate person as the “Project Euthanizer” who will be

authorized to direct parties to execute that decision if and when the time comes.

“Different people will also have differing views of what is an acceptable

project over run. Therefore, organizations need to decide on these

parameters at the outset and be prepared to take action for specific

legitimate reasons to renegotiate the parameters.”

12 Communications and Gathering Requirements

129

“Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees,

motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can't

miss” Lee Iacocca

Purpose:

Communicating and gathering accurate requirements from the correct sources

may appear to be an obvious and straightforward process. However, this aspect

of an IT project is probably the highest single contributing factor to IT project

failures. The purpose of this chapter therefore is to provide the reader with a

comprehensive formal approach to ensuring that rigor and accuracy is enforced

when gathering requirements and communicating project information.

Content:

This is where the abovementioned purpose is described.

“A common misconception about IT project failures is that they are

primarily due to IT mismanagement, poor hardware and software

selection or poor project management skills. This is seldom the case.

With very few exceptions, the major cause of IT project failures is

attributable to a lack of effective communications between senior

executives, IT and the rest of the organization.”

The parties to be involved in project communications need to be carefully

identified and their responsibilities made clear at the outset.

“To ensure that the organization is well prepared for its proposed IT

implementation, it must ensure that effective, open, honest and multi-

directional communications takes place between the critical components

that have causal interconnected relationships with the respective

parties.”

This section of the chapter brings the reader’s attention to situations that can

arise if communication channels, project information and requirement sources

are not correctly identified at the outset.

“It then becomes highly probable that critical project information will

be hidden because key informal or indirect sources of information that

can contribute a wealth of input to the project are not identified.”

This illustrates the importance of peer-level communications to ensure that

support for the IT investment decision and the project itself is secured and

maintained.

“A lack of sideways (peer-level) communications and collaboration

between these parties will cause support for the project to wane. Where

people feel isolated or are excluded from the project’s decisions, they

will turn their attention elsewhere and their support will be lost.”

Through the organizations corporate profile, pertinent parties are identified who

will become the primary communication sources and to accurately identify who

needs to receive what information.

“Having profiled the organizations top level decision makers and

primary sources for project communications, the second task is to

identify the recipients of these communications.”

The section deals with external parties that may impact or be affected by the

project. They are often inadvertently excluded from project communications

and requirements sourcing and the final production system is therefore at risk of

not satisfying their needs and business requirements.

“These external parties need to be profiled for user and project

requirements and to also be included in project communications since

they could impact the outcome of a project in terms of requirements or

support.”

Excluding employees based on inferior or subordinate positions can cost the

project dearly.

“This is the reason why an organization must establish clear, honest and

open communications with its employees encouraging their input and

feedback. Users at the grassroots level of an organization are often

closer to its customers than is assumed.”

Formal communication channels are vital to ensure that communications,

actions and decisions are recorded and are carried out as intended.

“The departments, functions, executives and users that will be impacted

by the change need to be identified for specific communications in order

to obtain their input. Project communications at this level needs to be

top-down and bottom-up with an effective formal mechanism in place to

give, receive and manage feedback and also to solicit input.”

13 Gaining Support for the Project

153

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way"

Thomas Paine

Purpose:

To highlight the importance and the impact of securing and sustaining

executive, stakeholder and user support for the IT investment decision and for

the project. The critical role of managements factors and how they influence

user support and adoption of the final production system.

Content:

The importance of gaining organization-wide support for the investment

decision and the project.

“The decision to invest in a new IT system must have full executive,

management and stakeholder support as well as the support of the entire

organization and users that will be affected.”

When management and project decisions are made in isolation they will often

not be fully supported by the parties that will be impacted.

“As correct as it may be for senior management to make IT investment

decisions, they still need to ensure that they have the full support of

their management teams and staff. Therefore, before making the final

investment decision, all appropriate managers need to be identified to

ensure that they do in fact support the project.”

The critical role that user involvement plays in supporting the project is

emphasized.

“Soliciting and including user input to formulate system requirements at

the project’s inception will therefore ensure that a user-friendly and

fully functional system that satisfies their requirements is delivered. It

will also ensure that “user ownership” is established early on in the

project”

Highlights once again the point that full executive and management support

must be secured and that the relevant parties need to be involved in the decision

making process. If users perceive that management does not support the project

then their support will also be lost.

“If users “perceive” that management’s attitude and support for the

system is weak, or if management fails to secure their involvement at

the outset, end user support for the system will diminish as will their

desire to utilize and fully adopt the system.”

14 Managing Change

165

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress” Charles Kettering

Purpose:

Idenfiying and overcoming various types of organizational resistance that can

occur with IT change and how to manage and minimize resistance. To

introduce basic change frameworks and processes.

Content:

Executives don’t always factor in the significant role that resistance to change

can have on their projects and organizations because their decision process

excludes critical parties and people.

“They reason that there should be no resistance to its execution because

the benefits that the new IT system will deliver to the organization, its

employees and users far outweigh any temporary discomfort that may

be experienced during the transition.”

There are good and bad approaches to managing resistance to change, each of

which is explained.

“If resistance to change persists, an organization can “command” the

change. However, it is better to firstly secure support from the majority

of the organization or to ensure that some of the change resisters have

been converted into change supporters.”

Identifying the informal power plays that can occur within an organization and

the roles that they have in identifying resistance and support for change.

“Even though these supportive individuals are reliant on those self-

appointed parties in order to function, they do not enjoy or benefit from

the social transaction. They will therefore welcome the opportunity to

be released from such dependencies. In fact they are likely to relish the

demise of these self-appointed power holders.”

The reader will recognize the list of symptoms such as the example below.

“Dead Wood – these are people who have been with an organization for

many years and perform their tasks extremely well. They are reluctant to

share their hard-won knowledge fearing a loss of power, control and

security when their power-base of knowledge becomes obsolete.”

Managing change and the science of Change Management require specific

skills. This function must be managed by a vigilant expert or team of experts.

“Being proficient and diligent at administering change frameworks and

processes requires a high level of expertise and hands-on experience that

not all organizations possess, (let alone managers having sufficient time

to ensure that the change process is properly adhered to and

monitored).”

Popular change models and processes and how they can be adapted to suit

various situations are discussed.

“Lewin’s “Unfreezing, Moving, Refreezing” model starts off by

unfreezing the organization for the changes ahead. This is done by

unfreezing the current situation or status quo and identifying change

resistance components. This is based upon the notion that the two

opposing force fields, (a) resistance and (b) support for change, need to

be identified and addressed.”

15 Solution and Vendor Selection Framework

183

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored"

Aldous Huxley

Purpose:

To understand that vendor and solution selection is another critical decision

process requiring management’s full attention. Considering that vendors and

their solutions will reamain part of the organization into the future,

organizations need to be rigorous about their needs being based on the

organizations full requirements rather than what a few people decide is needed.

Content:

Vendor selection can be complicated by over-zealous sales people and the high

stakes involved. The reader’s attention is drawn to objective business-oriented

factors to be considered in ther selection process.

“A vendor must always be selected based on their core business being in

the system, service or technology that they are proposing.”

There are many common strategies for vendor selection and some of the

potential pitfalls are highlighted.

“Mandating a single source supplier to minimize the number of vendor

relationships an organization needs to manage is a common practice but

it can also be a costly mistake.”

A real world example of the unfortunate consequences of an incorrect vendor

selection is analyzed. Throughout the book the reader is presented with

examples and case studies that they can easily relate to.

“During my interview with a large telecommunications organization it

became apparent that incorrect vendor selection, lack of

communications and inaccurate requirements were prevalent in one of

their IT projects”

Necessary and much needed vendor supplied system training can be

inadvertently omitted from the full cost of a solution. The long term benefits of

wise investments in vendor training is highlighted.

“Although training may appear to be excessively expensive, training

users to operate and use the system proficiently will pay dividends when

it comes to user adoption.”

All too often a vendor’s superior knowledge in their IT product category causes

organizations to delegate responsibilities and decisions to them. These decision

must remain in-house otherwise the vendor will have control of the project.

“The following caveats need to be established and rigorously adhered to

in order to ensure that an organization manages its project and vendors

and not the other way around.”

The reader may not be aware of the benefits of appointing a VMO to assist in

vendor selection and management.

“Alternatively if the budget allows, one may appoint a VMO (Vendor

Management Organization) to manage and control vendors and to assist

with the IT investment decision. Considering that VMO’s interact with

IT vendors regularly and have a strong current knowledge of vendors

and their solutions, they are often better placed to negotiate pricing,

quality, vendor commitment, expertise and to select a solution that’s

aligned with business initiatives.”

The reader needs to be aware of the changing vendor landscape which (through

acquisitions) may cause vendors’ capabilities to alter dramatically in a very

short time-frame.

“Since many vendors have diversified their product and service

offerings by bundling consulting services with hardware and software,

(for example HP’s merger with EDS), a more thorough knowledge of

technology to address an organization’s requirements is required when

making an IT investment.”

16 Training and Development

197

“Folklore and rumor are inadequate means of spreading information about

how to use a computer system” John Gustafson

Purpose:

The critical role of adequate system and process training and development and

how it impacts on successful user adoption of the sytem.

Content:

The importance of training gap analysis, adequate training investment and

follow-up confirmation of training outcomes is emphasised.

“In order to increase the probability of an IT implementation

succeeding, these three critical training issues must be fully addressed:”

An unfortunate and all too common result of inadequate training is poor user

adoption of a perfectly good system.

“These are critical factors that can result in a lack of user adoption

thereby creating a technology mismatch whereby the new system is

viewed as a ‘white elephant’.”

The reader will relate to examples given that underscore the issues that are

explained.

“As an example the telecommunications organization mentioned earlier,

implemented a sales system but omitted to provide their staff with cross

selling and up-selling sales skills resulting in them not achieving the

results that they expected from the system.”

17 Succeeding at Corporate Profiling

205

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't

get you anywhere” Lee Iacocca

Purpose:

The framework and processes are summarized and clarified.

Content:

The diagram below and the contents of this chapter should be referred to prior

to initiating a project which is the moment that contracts are signed and

commitments made.

“This final chapter summarized the profiling concepts that have been

covered to create a conceptual framework for an organization’s current

and future IT projects”

The following is the essence of corporate profiling.

“The three key principles of corporate profiling, Visibility,

Collaboration and Accountability underpin the three integral elements

of the Pre-investment IT Project Framework namely Dissect

(unbundling), Analyze (Announce, Ask and Answer), Decide

(Document and Do).

Hopefully the reader will see the “common sense” approach in the many

examples that I use to illustrate the points that I make.

“For example, deciding on which vendors will be requested to submit

proposals is more likely to be correct where those accountable for

gathering the requirements at the outset are made accountable for this

task”

18 ;otable IT Project Failures

213

“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead,

failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day” Jim Rohn

Purpose:

Two well documented project failures that the reader is likely to relate to.

Content:

Microsoft Windows® Vista is a highly controversial example of a failed project

“Microsoft’s dominance with Windows Vista and its successor versions

of Windows is unlikely to falter. Any other project that did not have

such support or so much at stake would almost certainly have been

euthanized because of (a) the massive budget blow-out, (b) repeated

missed deadlines and most importantly (c) not meeting customer

expectations.”

Palm Inc. over-committed and did not deliver on promises made. In fact they

actually have finally surprised the pundits with their recent announcement of

their Web/OS and the Palm Pre. The big question is whether Palm will survive

and speculation of a takeover is rife in the industry.

“The project that was conceived to deliver Cobalt was intended to

maintain PalmOne’s market leadership position through the support of

this community. This external value chain of software developers was

vital to their success and had they profiled and disciplined their

organization to not only heed but support this value chain their fortunes

may not have waned as they have.”

19 Epilogue

223

“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who

try to do nothing and succeed” Lloyd Jones

Purpose:

A discussion on the status quo and why the changes that I recommend are

needed in order to minimize the incidence of IT project failures.

Content:

The consequence of not applying Corporate profiling.

“Even with proven project management methodologies in use, it’s sad to

see that there is no end in sight to failed corporate IT projects and the

extraordinary waste of time, money and resources mostly with

disastrous outcomes. The careers of good people fall by the wayside and

the reputations of sound companies are tarnished not to mention the

losses to shareholders”

Reminding the reader of the root causes of IT Project failures.

“The key issue that is at the heart of IT project failures is simply a lack

of accountability by chief or senior executives for their IT investment

and pre-implementation planning process decisions.”

Thinking outside the scope of the book to impress on the reader the broad scope

of similar issues in other types of projects.

“Consider the Airbus 380 that experienced major holdups because

wiring looms did not fit correctly. It then becomes immediately clear

that project failures are not the exclusive domain of IT and that projects

of any description can suffer from the same fate for the same common

reasons when corporate profiling is not undertaken”

Index 229