Your large IT Project will most likely fail

Most large IT projects end up in failure. Researchers have found out that such failures are anywhere between 70% and 90% [McKinsey & IEEE]. These are astonishing figures and make you wonder why even undertake a large project when it has only 1 in 10 chance to succeed? The truth of the matter is, if possible, chunk up your large project into smaller ones with lowered but smarter and tougher expectations. Chances are higher that you will succeed. Accumulate enough small project wins before you tackle the Big One.

And that’s what I want to talk about; Big, Large, Behemoth kind of projects. An ERP replacement. Rewriting a decades-old “bread and butter” green terminal application. Replacing the Enterprise Integration Layer. Adopting a cutting-edge ETRM system. You get the idea.

I have been part of large failures and witnessed many others from the sidelines (biting nails rather than eating yummy popcorn). With nearly 30 years of experience and countless IT battle scars, I believe that I have earned my stripes to be able to begin talking about the potential pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Large IT projects do not always fail due to large reasons. On the contrary, sometimes the most obvious and smallest of the mistakes take down huge projects. I have gone down memory lane and selected the top 6 reasons that I believe contribute to most large IT failures.

1. Not knowing or planning the end game – Not defining what success looks like and how to get there has to be on the top of the list. Poor planning and poor timelining follow because of not defining success. Quite often, I have seen companies tackle a large and complicated project by going after the low-hanging fruit without considering a roadmap or defining the end state. I have heard, “we will go with the flow” and “we will fix the most complicated first”. ?
2. Not gaining proper Executive support – All IT projects are business projects. Not having a strong sponsor who is focused, active and visible will almost always doom the project. These executives are crucial to building coalitions, defining success, and most importantly, driving change.
3. Not having the appropriate talent – Program and project managers were inexperienced. Solutions were chosen based on the available talent in the organization rather than focusing on solving the business problem. And this goes all the way to the top; sometimes CIOs and CTOs bite more than what they can chew. They fail to see the forest (big picture) and instead focus on the trees.
4. Not realizing the anti-technology / anti-change culture – We all love technology and are eagerly waiting for the next best thing, right? Not always. Some companies have an anti-change culture so deeply ingrained that it is virtually impossible to develop large-scale solutions and manage the expectations and re-train of the workforce.
5. Not defining or enforcing accountability – Properly defining RACI is the only way to manage a large amount of change. And the most crucial part here is accountability outside of IT. As said, all IT projects are business projects and without making them responsible for certain outcomes, virtually guarantee the path to doom.
6. Not solving the real problem – My favorite one. Sometimes companies create more problems than solve them by going after the wrong priorities. The “why” was never defined and quite possibly someone higher up in the food chain was dazzled by a sparkling new technology, “we need that!”.

So, there you have it. Top 7 reasons why large IT projects fail. But I will tell you that "death by thousand cuts"(lack of proper communication, scope creep, poor resource planning, lack of user testing, not addressing feedback, etc.) can also make a huge impact. In the end, notice how I have not tried to tell you how to address these mistakes. They are so commonsensical that merely knowing them is winning half the [IT] war!