A study in project failure

Despite such failures, huge sums continue to be invested in information systems projects and written off. For example the cost of project failure across the European Union was €142 billion in 2004.
One notable causal factor in these abandonment’s was the lack of due diligence at the requirements phase, an important factor here was the level of skill in design and poor management judgement in selecting software engineers with the right skill sets. Equally the authors found some evidence in poor tool set selection in that end users found it difficult to sign-off design work – in that they could not relate process and data model output with their reality and practical knowledge of the business processes.
Key reasons why projects get cancelled

* Business reasons for project failure
* Business strategy superseded;
* Business processes change (poor alignment);
* Poor requirements management;
* Business benefits not clearly communicated or overstated;
(Link: A study in project failure)