98.8%! Is project failure acceptable & inevitable? Paul Summers

The Standish Group 98.8% project failure – April 2014 when measured against six criteria as follows: Cost Time Value Scope Customer satisfaction Strategic objectives

The Standish Group success criteria Failure when the project is cancelled before completion, Success is delivery on time, in budget and with all features, Challenged is anything in between these two outcomes,

Top five reasons for failure Lack of user input; Incomplete requirements and specifications; Changing requirements and specifications; Lack of executive support; Technology incompetence

Flyvbjerg Underestimated costs and overestimated benefits Use of deception and lying Grouped as forecasting errors The common denominator?

Not the project manager’s fault!

Nelson’s retrospectives Poor estimating or scheduling; Ineffective stakeholder management; Insufficient risk management Insufficient planning; Short changed quality assurance;

The big issue? No one considers WHY? Why is planning poor? What are the conditions which are causing ineffective engagement with stakeholders? Why does the system promote forecasting errors?

Project manager’s lens The reasons for failure are being viewed through the lens of an inappropriate albeit widespread definition of projects; an output delivered against targets of cost and time. The project manager’s perspective. “A project is a temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed Business case.” (Office of Government Commerce, 2009) “A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to produce a unique product, service or result.” Project Management Institute (PMI,2008)

Project boundary

Change the lens If the lens is altered to delivering beneficial change then the lists of reasons become symptoms of a limiting worldview caused by pursuing these targets. “The Standish Group believes that organizations should forget the triple constraints and focus on the value of their project portfolio, not individual projects.” The business manager’s perspective

Business lens Projects are defined as a temporary endeavour comprising activities with resource constraints with the purpose of realising benefits. Projects are investments and should be managed as such. Projects are not just outputs, we must consider the totality of the project

Conclusion Too much of project failure and success is viewed from the perspective of the project manager Projects need a systemic view to include the achievement of benefits Project definitions need to broaden to include benefits

References Flyvbjerg, B. (2013). Quality control and due diligence in project management: Getting decisions right by taking the outside view. International Journal of Project Management, 31(5), doi: /j.ijproman Flyvbjerg, B. (2014). What You Should Know About Megaprojects and Why: An Overview. Project Management Journal, 45(2), doi: /pmj Flyvbjerg, B., Bruzelius, N., & Rothengatter, W. (2003). Megaprojects and risk An anatomy of ambition (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Flyvbjerg, B., & Budzier, A. (2011). Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think. Harvard Business Review, Flyvbjerg, B., Garbuio, M., & Lovallo, D. (2009). Delusion and Deception in Large Infrastructure Projects: Two Models for Explaining and Preventing Executive Disaster. California Mangement Review, 51(2), doi: /CMR423 Nelson, R. R. (2005). Project retrospectives: evaluating project success, failure, and everything in between. MIS Quarterly Executive, 4(3 September), Nelson, R. R. (2007). IT Project Management: Infamous Failures, Classic Mistakes, and Best Practctices. MIS Quarterly Executive, 6(2 June).

The Standish Group. (1995). The CHAOS report. The Standish Group. (1996). Unfinished Voyages A Follow-Up to The CHAOS Report. The Standish Group. (1999). CHAOS The Standish Group. (2009). CHAOS Summary Retrieved 14 June, 2011, from The Standish Group. (2013). The CHAOS manifesto The Standish Group. (2014a, 1 April 2014). Definition of Project Success. Retrieved from The Standish Group. (2014b). SURF. Retrieved 6 May, 2014, from