Has a Project failed if the benefits are not realised?

Gordon, I think I understand a distinction you're making. A project could be considered as a failure if it does not meet the goals set for it (financial, strategic, etc). However, that doesn't necessarily mean there's a failure in project / program / portfolio management. Although a PM or PMO could certainly cause a project to fail, there are factors outside the scope of project management that can keep a project from achieving its goals.

This would be a very important distinction to make in any review. It's easy and tempting to blame the PMO for project problems, but an organization needs to be very honest if they want to identify root causes and improve over time.

Projects can be considered successes or failures based on the perspective of the observer.

If you are the executive who had an ulterior motive for some project, like develop skills, entry to market, or keep good staff around while we find a better project, it might be considered a success despite the stated business objectives. To come out even €96 ahead is pretty good if there was another strategic value

If you are on the team and the project fails to hit the targets, it can certainly feel like a failure, and the team can also feel like they were set up to fail from the beginning due to unrealistic expectations. This is very demotivating and a way to lose good people.

Unless the team just dropped the ball, this is an important time as a leader to recognize the team for the good work they did when put in an unfortunate situation. If you can get through a bad situation together as a team and still enjoy each other's company, then it was a success on a different level.

The Project is considered as failure if it does not produce what Customer Expectations and there is no working software. Customers give the projects as they want to see ROI and provide services to their clients if that is not achieved then the Project is considered to be failure.