Question

In some cases high quality software products are delivered but are not used. As a
result, the information systems project is considered a failure. Under what
conditions can this occur? Develop arguments to support this claim.

Answer 1

Here are some common reasons of project failure:

1. Lack of Interest from Management
2. Cost-cutting Approaches
3. Lack of Proper Planning
4. Selection of Technologies
5. Failure to Manage Scope Creep
6. Overly-optimistic Project Schedule
7. Overstaffing of Projects
8. Poor Communication
9. Data Migration by Unskilled Resources
10. Little Testing or Skipping the Testing PhasPhase

Lack of Interest from Management

At times, the management is under the wrong impression that they cannot understand the IT things and leave the IT projects to the technical team completely. This thinking results in a lack of interest from management; as a consequence, the technical team gets more freedom in taking their decisions.

Cost-cutting Approaches

All businesses want to save money, when it comes to expenditure. It feels great, but can cost you bigger if you apply cost cutting approach to your IT projects. Allocating insufficient and small budgets for your projects will result in procurement of comparatively less skilled resources.

Lack of Proper Planning

Techies are fast paced people – may be that is why they tend to jump in and get things started right away. There can be multiple explanations for this attitude; however, the result of the behaviour is same – absence or lack of proper planning for the projects.

Selection of Technologies

Wise selection of technologies prevents technical failure of the project. No project manager can save your project, if the chosen tools and technologies for the IT project are wrong. It is easy to be swayed by the latest, exciting technologies. Some project managers choose a programming language and environment because of personal preferences; others choose what is trendy and emerging.

Failure to Manage Scope Creep

What happens if you are presented with new ideas while developing a product? The answer is simple, you lose focus. Yes, it is good to keep on improving but you need to put a ‘stop’ at someplace to release the deliverables.

Overly-optimistic Project Schedule

All of us have been a victim of situation where some boss or lead makes a commitment with the client and imposes a deadline for the project. There can be numerous reasons behind doing so. For example, the boss thinks that the project should be completed by a certain date or the client wants to enjoy his holidays and wants the project completed before that.

Overstaffing of Projects

Another reality of an overzealous schedule often results in overstaffing of the project. Overstaffing the project paves the ways for more means of miscommunication. This will not only increase the project cost, it might add to the trouble as the integration of different sections of code and integration testing is also required before delivering the release. I can recall an old proverb which explains the scenario well i.e. too many cooks spoil the broth.

Poor Communication

Poor communication is yet another common reason of IT project failure. This problem can also be linked to the lack of project management. Effective and efficient communication with stakeholders, management and the project team is vital for success of a project. It is the responsibility of the project manager to communicate the updated approved requirements and decisions to the team members.

Data Migration by Unskilled Resources

Data migration does not occur in all projects, but this key point is generally overlooked so we included it in the reasons of why IT projects fail. The common flaw in data migration is too few or less skilled resources are assigned to this task. By the end of the project it becomes evident that the data migration was a complex task which needed more attention

Little Testing or Skipping the Testing Phase

Some team leads for the IT projects are under the wrong impression that development tasks are major for the success of projects. This is not true. Each phase of software development life cycle, SDLC, is equally important. Your software product can utterly fail if you skip the testing phase or keep it for the end.

Project Failure: some Famous Failures and 5 Ways to Spot Them Before They Happen

Sony Betamax

Sony launched its cassette recording device known as Betamax in the mid 1970s. It lost the battle for market share to JVC’s VHS technology, but Sony didn’t stop making Betamax tapes until 2016, long after it was relevant to most of us, who didn’t even realize it was still in production.

Lessons Learned:

The story of Betamax has become nearly synonymous with failed marketing because while it was innovative and hit the market before its competition did, other products proved to be cheaper and better.

The lesson learned here is that project management doesn’t end when a project is launched or a campaign has run its course. Successful projects are followed up on, analyzed, and evaluated so they can maintain their velocity and continue to benefit the company’s bottom line.

Apple Lisa

Lisa, the first desktop with a mouse, cost $10,000 (almost $24,000 today) and had just 1 MB of RAM. Consumers weren’t as interested as Apple anticipated, and it was a case of over promising and under delivering, as the 1983 ads—featuring Kevin Costner—depicted the Lisa as much more than it really was.

Lessons Learned:

Transparency matters. It may feel like a buzzword you hear all the time, but there’s no better way to describe the lesson learned here other than to say that Apple was not transparent enough about the Lisa.

We no longer live in an age where you can falsify the capabilities of a product, because social media makes it easier for the truth to come out and word of mouth will eventually catch up to—and destroy—projects that lack transparency.