Just One More Time, "Why Do Systems & Software Projects Fail?"

At our July and August CIO Breakfasts, information technology consultant Warren S. Reid revealed common factors that lead to project failure.

As WSR Consulting Group's managing director, Warren can view projects from a different perspective than many CIOs. He has been an expert witness, computer crisis consultant and large-scale project turnaround specialist for failing IT projects in both commercial and government realms in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

With this diverse background, Warren has seen failed projects in many circumstances. But he stated that across the board, projects that have failed or projects that are at high risk of failure have several common factors:

• Virtually all system failures stem from the same handful of root causes and lack of "abilities," including feasibility, capability, usability and reliability.
• Typically, all parties in a large-scale systems or software project failure or dispute share some of the blame.
• Most problems (and their causes) can be avoided, mitigated or managed if the parties follow a few simple rules.
• Establishing proper project policies, procedures, resources, monitoring metrics, tools and project team communications can either 1) make the project successful in the first place or 2) be used to turn around a runaway project.

Warren's Riskipedia 2.0 software development and implementation risk model looks at projects from a different level by exploring the internal conflicts and goal divergence that cripple large software projects.

Attendees at the breakfasts benefitted from Warren's masterful presentations and insights. The CIO Breakfast Club networking event is held monthly. For more information and topics of upcoming breakfasts, contact CPS at www.cpsinc.com, or call Al Strong at 888-277-4562 ext. 306 or Bonnie Maechler at 888-277-4562 ext. 310 (bonnie@cpsinc.com).