Last week I stumbled across an interesting article on the web that helps us answer the question as to why IT projects fail. Citing long-standing research performed by the Standish Group, the article provides a list of reasons given during a survey of some 365 different organizations. These are listed in the table below:
| Lack of User Input | 12.8% |
| Incomplete Requirements | 12.3% |
| Changing Requirements | 11.8% |
| Lack of Executive Support | 7.5% |
| Technology Incompetence | 7.0% |
| Lack of Resources | 6.4% |
| Unrealistic Expectations | 5.9% |
| Unclear Objectives | 5.3% |
| Unrealistic Time Frames | 4.3% |
| New Technology | 3.7% |
| Other | 13.9% |
(Source: Standish Group, 1995)
If you’ve been following this blog, then you probably noticed some familiar terms in that list. Let’s highlight a few of the identified reasons:
| Lack of User Input | 12.8% |
| Incomplete Requirements | 12.3% |
| Changing Requirements | 11.8% |
| Lack of Executive Support | 7.5% |
| Technology Incompetence | 7.0% |
| Lack of Resources | 6.4% |
| Unrealistic Expectations | 5.9% |
| Unclear Objectives | 5.3% |
| Unrealistic Time Frames | 4.3% |
| New Technology | 3.7% |
| Other | 13.9% |
Now, what do these reasons have in common? Well, besides being completely avoidable, all are the direct result of poor communication. Combined, they represent 40% of the total cause for project failure!
This research provides hard evidence to underscore a point we’ve been trying to make on this blog recently: that communication is absolutely critical to overall project success (and especially during the early stages). In previous posts on writing functional requirements, we discuss how writing high-quality functional requirements can help reduce risk and foster success. And in another post, we discuss how understanding the goals and culture of an organization can help set clear expectations and objectives.
So you see, the proof is in the pudding: communication is key.
Reference:
STANDISH GROUP Report: Most Programming Projects Are Late
Study by Standish Group on IT Application Development:
February 12, 1998
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