Real life stories of failures in projects and reasons?

Lessons Learned Risk Management

Maria Fawakhiri Solna, Alberta, Sweden

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone knows some sources I could use to read about real life projects, which had some issues/fails, and if possible where those fails/issues are discussed and the lessons learned/approach to how they could have been avoided is discussed? Thanks!

Posted: May 8, 2025 10:43 AM

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Rami Kaibni

Community Champion

Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

Maria, Harvard Business Review (https://hbr.org) have some business project failures and leadership mistakes, often with breakdowns of what went wrong.

Posted: May 8, 2025 12:31 PM

Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada

Maria -

Would suggest reading Dr. Bent Flyvbjerg's book How Big Things Get Done as it does cover a number of megaproject failures.

Kiron

Posted: May 8, 2025 5:29 PM

Sandeep Damodaran Production Engineer| Metito Overseas Limited Dubai, DU, United Arab Emirates

Hi Maria,
I’d also recommend “Black Box Thinking” by Matthew Syed—it explores how industries like aviation and healthcare turn failures into learning loops.

From my own experience, one project involving a new racking system faced delays due to unexpected EHS permitting issues. We underestimated the local authority approval timelines. The lesson: never skip a thorough stakeholder and regulatory analysis in the initiation phase.
Since then, I’ve used tools like SIPOC early on to map out key dependencies.
Looking forward to hearing more real-world stories from others.

Posted: May 8, 2025 11:39 PM

Pavan Maddi

Community Champion

Buona Vista, Singapore

Each offers key lessons in planning, communication, and risk. Denver Airport’s baggage system (poor planning), NASA’s Mars Orbiter (unit mismatch), FBI’s Virtual Case File (scope creep), and Berlin Airport (delays, poor governance).

Posted: May 9, 2025 6:21 AM

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Real life stories of failures in projects and reasons?

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