Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [21]
Brooks (1995), the project manager for the IBM OS/360, provides five major causes for lateness in information technology projects: (1) techniques of estimating are poorly developed (estimates are usually optimistic); (2) estimating techniques confuse effort with progress (the assumption is that men and months are interchangeable); (3) submission to the customer’s desired (but unrealistic) due date; (4) schedule progress is poorly monitored; and (5) when schedule slippage occurs, the response is to add manpower.
Based on his project management experience, Hughes (1986) blames the majority of project failures on not following basic management principles such as an improper focus on the project management system instead of the project goals; fixation on maintaining first-time estimates; too detailed or too broad activity structure; lack of training in project management techniques; too many people assigned to the project (Parkinson’s Law); lack of communication of goals; and rewarding the wrong actions. Black (1996) surveyed professional engineers to determine the causes of project failures. His top 12 causes of project failures are:
1. Lack of planning
2. The project manager
3. Project changes (scope creep, poor planning, etc.)
4. Poor scheduling
5. Skills of team members
6. Management support
7. Funding
8. Cost containment
9. Resources
10. Information management
11. Incentives (lack of rewards and penalties)
12. Lack of continuing risk analysis
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a series of articles by Pinto and Slevin (1987), Pinto and Prescott (1988), Pinto and Slevin (1989), and Pinto and Mantel (1990) examined the presence of critical success factors in project implementations; differences across the stages of the project life cycle; differences between construction and R&D projects; and project failures, respectively. The critical success factors are project mission definition, top management support, client consultation, personnel, technical tasks, client acceptance, monitoring and feedback, communication, and troubleshooting. Of the projects (Pinto and Mantel, 1990) accessed as failures in the strategic stages, the relevant criterion for failure was that related to external effectiveness: perceived value of the project and client satisfaction. In the tactical stages, the relevant criteria for failure were those related to trouble shooting, lack of adequate personnel, ineffective scheduling, lack of client acceptance, and inadequate technical support. One hypothesis (H3), “the perceived causes of project failure will vary depending upon the type of project assessed: construction or R&D” (1990, 271), proved to be true. In construction projects, the causes of failure were lack of technical expertise, support, and lack of adequate trouble shooting mechanisms. In R&D projects, a wide variety of causes of failure was identified with the cause depending on the definition of failure; inadequate troubleshooting impacts all definitions; implementation process: inefficient scheduling; client satisfaction: personnel and monitoring and feedback; and quality: lack of clear statement of project goals.
Brown (2001) reports that three-quarters of all projects are completed late and over budget according to a survey of 1800 executives, practitioners, and consultants. Pitagorsky (2001) puts the failure rate at 40 to 60 percent. According to James, 40 percent of all large IT projects end in “utter failure” while another 33 percent are “challenged, meaning that they were completed late, over budget or with fewer features and functions than originally specified” (2000, p. 40). Based on their 20 years of project management experience, Matta and Ashkenas (2003) provide two major causes of complex project failure—critical tasks (called white-space risk) are left off the project plan and the different activities won’t come together in the end to produce the final project.