During the 3 weeks collaborative discussion, we all brought some clarification regarding the main causes of a project failure. This remains subjective as we all have different backgrounds and experiences. However, we can clearly see there are some common causes that are repetitively mentioned such as:

• The people
• Lack of structure (management)
• Difficulty of the project
• Lack of communication
• Methodology

Lehtinen et al (2014) attributed project failures to 4 main causes such as people, tasks, environment, and methods. Any project that failed can be categorised as one of those major causes.

As we progressed through the discussion, I realised that it can be difficult to determine the real cause of a project failure. Nevertheless, there are so many life-case past scenarios that we all can learn from to avoid the same mistakes. For example, there is the space shuttle Challenger that exploded 73 seconds after the launch. Nasa investigated and concluded the engineers were aware of a potential risk that was never reported to the managers who could delay the launch and save the life of the astronauts on board.

There is no doubt that all the actors and the technology part of a project are interrelated and depend on each other. According to McLeod and MacDonell (2011), the development and deployment of software systems is a multidimensional process where people and technology are interconnected.

References:

Lehtinen, A., Mäntylä, V., Vanhanen, J., Itkonen, J. & Lassenius, C. (2014) Perceived causes of software project failures – An analysis of their relationships. Information and Software Technology 56(6): 623–643