12 early warning signs of IT failure

From ZDNet

High rates of IT project failure persist because most organizations don’t understand the real reasons why their projects fail.

Sensitivity toward early warning signs [EWSs] can increase project success rates by giving advance notice of potential points of failure. For example, the team can shore up weak executive sponsorship if it identifies the problem sufficiently early. The paper groups causes of failure into two categories: people-related risks and process-related risks.

Here are the top people-related risks:

• Lack of top management support


• Weak project manager


• No stakeholder involvement and/or participation


• Weak commitment of project team


• Team members lack requisite knowledge and/or skills


• Subject matter experts are over-scheduled

And the most important process-related risks:

• Lack of documented requirements and/or success criteria


• No change control process (change management)


• Ineffective schedule planning and/or management


• Communication breakdown among stakeholders


• Resources assigned to a higher priority project


• No business case for the project

You can read the entire report at the ISM Journal site (pdf). I highly recommend it. Some of the signs apply to any project, not just IT projects, and they also apply to any sized project. Even if the boss stuck his head around the door and delivered the specification verbally in 50 words, does not mean that your project is not important, or that it cannot fail.