More Software Project Failure / Challenge Information From CAI

Bob Lawhorn of CAI, one of my favorite speakers, had a list of recent software project failure information. 

• Poorly defined applications (miscommunication between business and IT) contribute to a 66% project failure rate, costing U.S. businesses at least $30 billion every year (Forrester Research)
• 60% – 80% of project failures can be attributed directly to poor requirements gathering, analysis, and management (Meta Group)
• 50% are rolled back out of production (Gartner)
• 40% of problems are found by end users (Gartner)
• 25% – 40% of all spending on projects is wasted as a result of re-work (Carnegie Mellon)
• Up to 80% of budgets are consumed fixing self-inflicted problems (Dynamic Markets Limited 2007 Study)

Bob also listed reasons why projects fail including:

Requirements Issues: Unrealistic project goals, uncontrolled scope creep with no allowance for such in the plan.

Estimating Issues:Inappropriate schedule, no process to re-estimate when the project changes, no reasonableness chekcks.

Quality issues: Trying to test in quality rather than a process that implements quality throughout

Poor Team Productivity: High rework (doing the same thing multiple times due to issues with the initial work)

Project Management Issues: (Lack of planning, earned value, impact of changes and issues… No estimates so  no earned value)

Cultural Issues: Hiding the bad news

Bob also touched on how their automated project office product can help with many of these issues and can integrate with Galorath’s SEER-SEM for estimation.

Related posts:

1. The Cost of a New Project Manager’s Failure
2. Software Project Failure Costs Billions.. Better Estimation & Planning Can Help
3. Poor Estimation: Major Root Cause of Project Failure
4. IT Project Failure Warning Signs
5. Software Estimation and Project Management – A Tale of Two Mirrors

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