The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) Limited – Middlesex, UK
Project type: Customer Relations Management system
Project name: Sky CRM Project
Date: Jan 2010 court case concluded Cost: £265M
Synopsis:
2010 marked the end of another chapter in what is reputed to be IT's longest and most expensive court battle: the battle between BSkyB (a digital televi...
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Causes of failure
Shifting the status quo
In Project Management circles there is an increasing awareness that some projects aren't just about producing deliverables, they are about delivering "change". Project's in today's business world are often changing the way business is done and the failure to recognize how hard it can be to change work habits, or organizational structures, is one of the contributing factors seen in a number of the projects in the "Catalogue of Catastrophe".
Many of the better Project Management courses in the m...
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Bait and switch
Lesson Learned: Take control over the key players vendors assign to your contracts
Category: Contract Management
The following post is a “Lesson Learned” that comes from the analysis of the failed projects documented in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” or from the experiences the editorial team have had working with clients around the world. The post is published here to spark discussion and help organizations think about what it takes to improve project success rates.
In today’s compet...
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State of California
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
State of California - California, USA
Project type : Payroll and benefits system
Project name : 21st Century Project (MyCalPAYS)
Date : Feb 2013 Cost :$254M
Synopsis :
As with many large organizations, the state of California has over the years built up a complex interconnected set of IT systems to support their daily operations. Managing multiple syst...
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The Bean Counter’s Blind Spot
Lesson learned: Be careful what you measure and how you measure it.
Category: Project objectives / Decision making.
The following post is a “Lesson Learned” that comes from the analysis of the failed projects documented in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” or from the experiences the editorial team have had working with clients around the world. The post is published here to spark discussion and help individuals and organizations think about what it takes to improve project success rates.
I can...
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And now – A Message TO our Sponsors
The Sponsorship role is perhaps the most important in a project. The Sponsor owns the project and has a direct responsibility for ensuring that the desired business outcomes are achieved. In discussing project failures with people, one of the common complaints I hear is that the Sponsorship role is either non-existent or weak in their organizations. Ownership of projects is often unclear and no one really champions the project within the organization. Project Managers are left holding the baby a...
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Cheese and Onion – Frameworks for Analyzing Project Failure
When it comes to improving success rates, the commercial aviation sector has been one of the most successful. In 1930 taking a commercial flight was risky business. When you board a flight today, the chances of an accident taking your life is about 1 in 30 million. Through rigorous accident investigations and a willingness to challenge every facet of the problem, the industry has continually improved its safety record.
Sadly, success rates for the projects in today's businesses are far worse ...
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The Millennium Experience
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
Millennium Experience and the Millennium Dome - UK
Project type : Public exhibition
Date : 2000 (filed under recent classics)
Cost : £789M (initial investment) - £189 (recouped from ticket sales)
Synopsis :
The Millennium Dome in London, UK was a purpose built structure created to house a year long "Millennium Experience" exhibition that was to celebrate...
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Befuddle, Bewilder and Baffle
In the Project Management world, it’s a refrain that is repeated in almost every training program offered around the world; communicate, communicate, communicate. Despite the fact that students of Project Management are told that as much as 80% of a Project Manager’s time is spent communicating, in most Project Management training courses, as little as 5% of the time is dedicated to the topic of communications. Even then, most courses simply expose students to some basics ideas (such as the send...
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Push and Pull
Although I’m not a great fan of taking concepts from the manufacturing sector and bending them so they can be applied to the IT sector, the idea of “push” versus “pull” processes is one that is worth considering. The concept of push versus pull comes from the field of lean manufacturing and is used to identify who in a chain of manufacturing processes is requesting work to be done. In the factory environment work is broken down into discrete processes which are linked together in a chain. Raw ma...
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