Project Failure RYAN BIBBY – PROJECT 5 ASSIGNMENT 2 TASK 1.4

What is Project Failure? Projects can be deemed a failure if: ◦They do not meet the stakeholders requirements ◦They run over the deadline ◦They run over budget Project failure has many impacts on a business: ◦Financial ◦Reputation ◦Job losses

Reasons for Failure

Incorrect Complexity Estimation - NHS NHS Care Records Service – October 2008 Largest civil IT project Original estimation - $4.6bn, grew to $24bn during the project 4 years behind schedule Technical faults caused major delays in hospitals Project was eventually abandoned in September 2010 Common Causes: ◦Lack of Information ◦Poor Project Management ◦Lack of Stakeholder Involvement

Failure to Engage Stakeholders - Qantas Jetsmart Engineering Parts Management February $40M The designed system was too difficult to use by the end users – the engineers Engineers weren’t consulted with management making decisions Staff refused to use the system & industrial action followed Lasted 2 years before a new system was introduced Common Causes: ◦Over Controlling Management ◦Lack of Focus ◦Lack of Training ◦Communication Frequency

Changing Requirements – Rate Collection Agency Local Property Tax Collection System Jun $260bn in payments was uncollected Basic functions missing: ◦Late Payment Notices ◦Collection Proceedings ◦Audit Functions Common Causes: ◦Lack of change control ◦Poor contract ◦Business change ◦Changing technology ◦Missing information

Poor Quality Implementation - HMRC Data handling software July 2008 | $5,600M Errors Including: ◦Miscalculations, Duplicate Data, Lost Data when Navigating Over payment of billions of dollars worth of tax credits Government tried to reclaim money forcing many people into debt Over £2.8bn was eventually written off Common Causes: ◦Poor project team ◦Poor quality management ◦Lack of real life testing

Poorly Planned Transition - Heathrow Heathrow Terminal 5 April 2008 | $32M 28,000 lost bags and hundreds of flights cancelled Backlog of thousands of passengers Up to 1 week baggage reclaim Common Causes: ◦Poor Training ◦Poor Morale ◦Lack of Testing

Information Sources failurehttp:// failure 10_Major_Course_of_Project_Failure.pdf – Bright Future Moodle Case Studies: