Conclusion
This article may help you to develop a checklist of items that need to be addressed, from which you could forecast unforeseen and unanticipated events impacting your project. We've addressed the main points of avoiding project failure: pessimistic or overoptimistic people, integration issues, and inadequate project managementbut the reasons for failures and the resulting impacts can be complex (see the following table).
Company/Government |
Failure Type |
Result |
Hershey Foods |
ERP system implementation failure, leading to massive distribution problem |
Loss of 27% market capitalization |
FoxMeyer Drug |
ERP system implementation failure |
Company collapsed |
IRS project on taxpayer compliance |
Over a decade to complete |
Cost the country $50 billion per year |
Oregon DMV |
Eight years to complete |
Public outcry killing the project |
State of Florida welfare system |
Computer errors |
$260 million in overpayments and $58 million in underpayments |
NOTE
Source: CPM Solutions article "When Projects Fail."