Herne Consultants LimitedThe 40 root causes of troubled projects

The 40 root causes of troubled projects

Herne Consultants LtdProject conception

Project conception:

  1. The Project is based on an unsound premise or an unrealistic business case;
  2. Buyer failure to define clear project objectives, anticipated benefits and success criteria;
  3. The Project is based on state-of-the-art and immature technology;
  4. Lack of Buyer board-level ownership/commitment or competence;
  5. The Buyer's funding and/or timescale expectations unrealistically low;
  6. Failure to break a complex project into phases or smaller projects;
Project initiation/mobilisation

Project initiation/mobilisation:

  1. Vendor setting unrealistic expectations on cost, timescale or vendor capability;
  2. Buyer failure to define and document requirements (functional and non-functional);
  3. Failure to achieve an open, robust and equitable buyer-vendor relationship;
  4. Vendor failure to invest enough resources to scope the project prior to contract;
  5. Lack of sufficient involvement of eventual end users;
  6. Vendor underestimation of resources (predominantly person-effort) required;
  7. Vendor failure to define project tasks, deliverables and acceptance processes;
  8. Failure to actively manage risks and maintain robust contingency plans;
  9. Poor project planning, management and execution;
  10. Failure to clearly define roles and responsibilities in the contract/sub-contracts;
  11. Full-scope, fixed-price contracting (requirements, design and development);
System design

System design:

  1. Failure to "freeze" the requirements baseline and apply change control;
  2. Poor choice of technical platform and/or architecture;
  3. Vendor starting a phase prior to completing a previous phase;
  4. Poor choice of design/development method;
  5. Failure to undertake effective project reviews and take decisive action;
  6. Vendor lack/loss of resources;
  7. Poor vendor standards deployment (design, coding, testing, configuration management, etc.);
  8. Poor vendor requirements traceability (requirements - design - code - test);
  9. Buyer retains design authority with right to approve/reject low-level designs;
System development

System development:

  1. Delays cause the project to be overtaken by advances in technology;
  2. Vendor failure to "freeze" the design (and technical platform) and apply change control;
  3. Inadequate vendor training and supervision of junior staff;
  4. Inadequate vendor review of designs/code/documentation;
  5. Poor vendor management of subcontractors;
  6. Lack of a formal "engineering" approach to integration and testing by the vendor;
  7. Insufficient attention paid by vendor to non-functional requirements;
System implementation

System implementation:

  1. Buyer failure to manage the change implicit in the project (people, processes, technology);
  2. Inadequate user/systems training;
  3. Catastrophic failure of the system, with no effective contingency arrangement;
  4. Missing a crucial "go live" date;
System operation, benefit delivery, stewardship and disposal

System operation, benefit delivery, stewardship and disposal:

  1. Buyer failure to measure actual delivered benefit and take corrective action;
  2. Buyer failure to maintain/enhance system post-implementation;
  3. Changes in the competitive or macro-economic environment.

Troubled IT Projects

This table is adapted from "Troubled IT Projects" by John Smith, an IT Consultant with IBM Global Services.
ISBN 0852961049, copyright IEE 2002. Order online or contact IEE Publishing

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©2006 Herne Consultants - Last updated 3rd May 2006