Project failure tends to be embedded in a project from the start. There is a spectrum of failures from complete collapse to a range of lesser failures associated with behind schedule and over budget. The reasons are all too well known. Yet the lessons from project failures are not being learned and the behaviours that give rise to failures continue to persist. Project failures will continue to occur until the reasons and behaviours are explicitly understood, acknowledged and addressed. The reasons for project failure across project phases include: Requirements • Poor initial requirement definition • Poor requirements validation • Poor management of requirements • Requirements not linked to business benefits Solution Design • Solution design not validated • Solution design not linked to business needs • Solution design too complex • Solution design does not capture necessary complexity • Solution design based on unproven technology • Solution not implementable • Underlying business processes not defined adequately Estimation • Errors due to limitations in estimating procedures • Failure to understand and account for technical risks • Deliberate underestimation/misrepresentation of costs • Poor inflation estimates • Top down pressure to reduce estimates • Lack of valid independent cost estimates Project Management • Lack of program management expertise • Mismanagement/human error • Over optimism • Schedule concurrency • Program stretch outs to keep production lines open • Lack of communication • Poor management of change and scope creep Development and Implementation • Lack of competition when selecting suppliers, poor supplier selection process • Poor supplier engagement • Poor contract design • Inconsistent contract management/administration procedures, too much or too little oversight • Waste • Excess profits by supplier, supplier overstaffed • Supplier indirect costs unreasonable • Inadequate resource allocation and prioritisation • Organisation cannot handle change Finance and Budgeting • Business case incomplete • Funding instabilities caused by trying to fund too many projects • Funding instabilities caused by management decisions • Inefficient production rates due to stretching out programmes • Failure to fund for contingency • Failure to fund projects at realistic cost