Project Failure as a Scapegoat for Organizational Failure (Part 1)

Majeed is a business transformation manager with over 25 result-driven years of international business improvement experience. He has been an active volunteer within PMI communities since 2005, and his main passion and focus is on ethics and authentic leadership in project management.

  Benefits Realization   Estimating   Governance   Lessons Learned   Organizational Project Management   Portfolio Management   Strategy  

"What happened, Professor?"
"I've lost my keys", the befuddled man laments.
"Well, where is your car?"
“Over there,” the Professor responds, pointing to a dark corner. His colleague is immediately confused.
"If you lost your keys, why aren't you looking by your car?" he asks.
The Professor responds, "Because the light is over here!"

Organizations often talk of project management failure and put us in a vicious cycle of cause/effect analysis loops. We look for the cause of project management failure where the light is, not in the dark spot where the true issue is.

After several years of observations and learning, it amazes me how many companies succumb to the same pitfalls while being fully aware of the potential risks of failure. This scenario repeats itself day after day, leader after leader and project after project, like the term lessons learnt is a myth. We often see numbers and analysis on project failure:

• One in six IT projects has an average cost overrun of 200% and a schedule overrun of 70%.
• Nearly 45% admit they’re unclear on the business objectives of their IT projects.
• Only 34% of respondents say IT projects almost always deliver value to the business. 21% say they sometimes deliver value, and 41% say results are mixed.
• 78% said their project requirements are …

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