By Sallie Satterthwaite, Fred Thorne and Elizabeth Weber Why do projects fail? The key finding from studies of successful and unsuccessful projects is that no single factor is the overriding cause of project failure. Rather, a number of factors contribute to failure, and some of them interact with each other.

The following list describes the most important reasons for failure, in no particular order:

• Poor communication. Early, frequent, and structured interaction between the client and the delivery team is key. An unanticipated crisis elevates stress within the project and compromises the trust between the client and the delivery team. Therefore, early detection of problems is crucial. Even failure is forgivable if it can be effectively dealt with.

• Project management is not something you learn as you go. . . . Project managers need training coupled with hands-on experience.

  Lack of user/customer involvement. Without user involvement, people in the business may not feel committed to the project and may even be hostile to it. Senior management and users need to be involved from the start and continually engaged throughout development.

• Ineffective project manager. Project management is not something you learn as you go. Training, mentoring, and possibly outside expertise can help, but tools and training alone won't ensure the right behavior. Project managers need training coupled with hands-on experience. They need tangible, continual feedback until they have enough experience to manage on their own. Experienced project managers are more likely to establish realistic project-performance baselines, identify and prioritize issues, negotiate corrective actions, and sensibly navigate corporate political and cultural situations. They are also more likely to use proven project management methodologies instead of informal approaches.

• Undisciplined project definition or baseline. Every project needs an established baseline and clear deliverables to control the scope of work. Create a project baseline, then improve and revise it as more information becomes available.

• Uncontrolled scope. Scope creep is the insidious growth in the scale of a solution during the life of a project. It is not realistic to expect no changes while a solution is being developed, because businesses change. Uncontrolled changes, however, play havoc with a project and have caused many failures. Project managers need to have strong controls in place and be held accountable to manage and elevate scope issues.

• Insufficiently managed requirements. Scope control and requirements management go hand in hand. Internal or external factors may cause requirements to change over time, but requirements will also be subject to inappropriate pressure to expand over time (scope creep). Empower project managers to negotiate frequently regarding requirements. Evaluate and prioritize changes in requirements carefully, with review by both technical experts and business management.

• Project too big or complex. The larger or more complex a project is, the greater is the likelihood that its size or complexity will overwhelm the abilities of the people leading it. Smaller projects are simpler, faster to implement, and easier to manage, so break down large projects into smaller chunks. Communication with users and team members is easier if you use smaller, more focused teams, each dealing with a limited subset of requirements. 

Finally, the best way to avoid all of these failure factors is to have committed executive sponsors. A project that has senior-level sponsorship is more likely to be aligned with the strategy and goals of the business. It is also more likely to have an experienced and disciplined governance team that will be actively involved in validating the project’s objectives against those goals. That kind of involvement requires good communication within the project team and is a good way to manage requirements and avoid scope creep.

Why do projects fail? They fail because we let them fail. Any of the above factors can cause a project to fail, so project managers need to be disciplined in identifying risks and watching out for the red flags.

Sallie Satterthwaite is a technical writer for CSC Catalyst, CSC's global methodology. Fred Thorne is chief architect for CSC Catalyst. Elizabeth Weber is the director of the CSC Catalyst Program.