MAIN REASONS FOR UNSUCCESSFUL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS

Kerli Metsla

FAILURE OF SOFTWARE PROJECTS Highest probability of being cancelled or

delayed among all business activities

Even if in budget and on time:

low reliability + execcisve errors

Capers Jones & Associates 2006

CRITERIAS OF BEING A FAILURE

Cancellation x Budget + 30%

Schedule +30%

Missing the planned benefits

Whittaker, B. (1999). What went wrong? Unsuccessful information technology projects

MAIN REASONS Survey in Canada

A. Poor project planning

B. Weak business case & missing components

C. Lack of management involvement &

lack of management support

Whittaker, B. (1999). What went wrong? Unsuccessful information technology projects.

A: POOR PROJECT PLANNING

Most common

RISK MANAGMENT IN SCHEDULING!

I am not done yet! What do I do now?

B: WEAK BUSINESS CASE

1. Missing several immportant compontents

2. Key users do not understand : Complexity of the deliverables „That´s a piece of cake“ Funding done without enough research to the

importance of the software to the business„Do we really need this? Who is going to use it? How much time do we have?“

C: LACK OF MANAGEMENT INVOLVEMENTAND SUPPORTDoom from the start!

Leads to:

„ This new thing is complicated. I´ll stick to the GOOD OLD one.“

„I don´t understand it, let´s change it. Most of it. OK, all of it. „

OFTEN CONTRIBUTE TO FAILURES

Delivering an untested (BETA) versions of theproject – full of bugs

Vendors to not deliver on time or at all

Poor estimates and definition of requirements in project specifications

The bigger the company the bigger the bugdet overruns (lack of skills or expertise of the project manager and monitoring of progress)

Whittaker, B. (1999). What went wrong? Unsuccessful information technology projects.

DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

Plan not accurate enough

Wrong status reporting

Poor quality and reliability

Rejection of accurate and conservative plan

Schedule pressure Major new

requirements mid development

Jones, C (2006). Social and Technical Reasons for Software Project Failures.

EXECUTIVES DEVELOPERS

THE FIVE ROOT CAUSES 1. Inaccurate scheduling Needed before final version No historical data Changes and addiotions Modern estimating tools do not apply well on major

projects Executives pressure in changing original schedules

2. Too optimistic status reporting Managers not trained enough – too optimistic Expected bugs vs actual bugs

Jones, C (2006). Social and Technical Reasons for Software Project Failures

THE FIVE ROOT CAUSES 3. Unrealistic schedule pressure External business deadlines sets the terms Need to defend original estimates

4. Changes mid project Businesses are dynamic

May lead to bankruptcy (UK second largest: Auto windscreens 2006); Integrated National Crime Information System (INCIS) project in New Zealand.

Jones, C (2006). Social and Technical Reasons for Software Project FailuresFlyvbjerg, B., Budzier, A.Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think

THE FIVE ROOT CAUSES

5. Inadequate quality control Fixing bugs : most expensive part + delaying

the project.

„A distressing number of project managers are not aware that more than 50 years of empirical studies have proven that projects with effective quality control cost less and have shorter schedules.“ (Jones, 2006)

Jones, C (2006). Social and Technical Reasons for Software Project Failures

CONCLUSION

HOW TO AVOID MY PROJECT FROM FAILING?

1. Plan the project with management well informed2. Risk management! 3. Accurate information (research for scheduling)4. Teamwork = managers + developers (reporting)5. No large changes mid project6. Correct status reporting – no „basicly done“7. Quality control – do not skip or do poorly!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

SOURCES: Flyvbjerg, B., Budzier, A.Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than

You Think.http://hbr.org/2011/09/why-your-it-project-may-be-riskier-than-you-think/ar  Jones, C (2006). Social and Technical Reasons for Software

Project Failures. – CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, 19(6), 4-9.

  Whittaker, B. (1999). What went wrong? Unsuccessful

information technology projects. – Information Management & Computer Security, 7(1), 23-29.