This document discusses the high failure rates of IT projects, citing several studies that found between 40-80% of projects fail to meet objectives. The main reasons for failure are people-based factors like poor communication between parties, lack of focus among team members, and lack of engagement from business stakeholders. To improve success rates, the document recommends strengthening the relationship between technology and business teams through governance, planning, communication, and focusing on people skills.

1. The picture is indeed meant to startle — he doesn’t like the
facts. That is, failure rates on IT projects are unacceptably
high, and the reason is primarily people-based.
Here are some facts:
· According to an IBM study, only 40% of projects meet
schedule, budget and quality goals. Further, they found that the
biggest barriers to success are people factors.
· Geneca, a software development company, noted from its
studies that ‘fuzzy business objectives, out-of-sync stakeholders
and excessive rework mean that 75% of project participants lack
confidence that their projects will succeed.’
· As I’ve written before, McKinsey recently found that ‘while
an increasing number of non-IT executives give IT a score of
61% for basic services like email and laptop support, only 26%
rank IT high in the most vital area of proactively engaging with
business leaders on new ideas or systems enhancements.’
· The Portland Business Journal found similarly depressing
statistics: “Most analyses conclude that between 65 and 80% of
IT projects fail to meet their objectives, and also run
significantly late or cost far more than planned.”
· One Canadian study actually stated: “Bad communications
between parties are the cause of IT project failures in 57% of
cases they studied.”
· KPMG New Zealand found ‘…and incredible 70% of
organizations have suffered at least one project failure in the
prior 12 months and 50% of respondents indicated that their
project failed to consistently achieve what they set out to
achieve.’
Can you imagine hearing numbers like this for finance, HR,
marketing or operations projects? Despite the potential impact
of IT projects on business competitiveness, their expense, their
‘opportunity’ cost and the sheer labor and time spent planning,
these figures have not improved in well over a decade. Why is
that?

2. Some thoughts on where success lies:
First, team attributes. Any large project involves many people.
Success or failure is generally based on the skills and
effectiveness of the people involved, their ability to focus on
the project, team dynamics and openness to change. Failure to
engage stakeholders is a classic mistake.
Second, team member focus. IT projects often fail due to a lack
of focus among team members. Sometimes nobody on the team
is exclusively focused on the project and everybody retains
some level of responsibility for other projects, tasks, or jobs.
More frequently, IT resources are dedicated to the project, but
the business users and sponsors try to fit project tasks around
everyday jobs. Under these circumstances, IT projects always
go off track, normally very quickly, and normally necessitating
massive rework, leading to budget and time overruns.
Third, dynamics between business and IT. Active support,
engagement and involvement of business users and executive
sponsors is critical. Only they know exactly what the
requirements are, can tell whether the system is meeting those
requirements, and can make key decisions. And only they can
encourage adoption once the system is deployed. Failure to
establish a sponsor in the business is attached to most
technology implementation failures. (In fact, when change
management was deemed effective, projects had a significantly
better chance of meeting their objectives.)
Fortunately, all is not lost. Here are five steps to improving
the ‘people-based’ factors affecting IT delivery:
1. Solidify the technology/business relationship via governance
2. Integrate technology intro strategic planning
3. Set and share a simple, multi-year roadmap for overall
business strategy
4. Establish an open planning process
5. Teach and promote communication and relationship skills
I believe if you view IT projects as not just ‘a technology
problem’ and consider the people factors, your organization will
increase its implementation success, create better relationships

3. and maximize its ROI.