Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” - a list of failed or troubled projects from around the word.
British Government - Prime Minister's Office
Project : The Community Charge (the Poll Tax)
Project type: Changes to the taxation system
Date : Mar 1990
Cost : Unknown
Synopsis :
With politics likely to be a big part of the 2020 story, I thought I'd touch on how projects are sometimes the demise of politicians (even the highest and mightiest). As a case in poi...
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Causes of failure
Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
Organization: Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG - Germany
Project name : eLWIS (apparently pronounced “Elvis” in German)
Project type : Merchandise management system - Grocery stores
Date : Aug 2018
Cost : €500m
Synopsis :
When it comes to selling the basic commodities of life you have to be lean and efficient. The grocery industry runs on thin margins and reli...
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Customs and Border Protection
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
Department of Homeland Security – USA
Project type : Staff recruitment
Date : Apr 2019
Cost : $23M to hire 22 new staff
Synopsis :
In 2016, as part of the USA's renewed focus on border security, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was charged with increasing the number of border agents who secure the nation's points of entry. The goal was to ...
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Texas Child Support Enforcement System 2.0
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
State of Texas – USA
Project name: T2 - Texas Child Support Enforcement System 2.0
Project type: Government policy implementation using IT
Date: Apr 2019
Cost $367.5 million
Synopsis:
At times failed projects do throw up some great quotes. Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of the Texas state senate has contributed to that legacy with this week’s quip about t...
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Boeing 737-MAX
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
Organization : Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Project name : 737-MAX
Project type : Commercial aircraft design
Date : Apr 2019
Cost : 346 lives lost
Synopsis :
Designing and building today's commercial aircraft must be among the most complex projects in the modern age. The two leading players in the industry are America's Boeing Commercial Airplanes a...
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Fyre Festival
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
Project name : Fyre Festival
Project type : Music festival
Date : Apr 2017
Cost : Undeclared
Synopsis :
The execution of a large-scale music festival can be a complex Project Management challenge. The bigger the event, and the higher the expectations, the more challenging it becomes. Throw in a remote location, a lack of event planning experience, l...
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Spotting a leader
Synopsis - Effective 'leaders' know what quality is and feel a sense of responsibility for achieving quality. If a person waffles, waivers or avoids discussing quality, chances are they will not make an effective leader.
It's pretty clear that project success rates are higher where projects have effective leadership and lower where there was either no leader, or where those in the leadership roles didn't discharge their duties effectively. Effective leaders align people, focus people a...
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First time home buyers loan program
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
BC Provincial Government – Canada
Project name : British Columbia Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program
Project type : Government backed loan program to help first time buyers enter the real estate market
Date : Cancelled Dec 2018
Cost : Unknown
Synopsis :
Between 2002 and 2017 residential property prices in the city of Vancouver, Canada w...
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A380 – Take two
The following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.
Airbus SAS – France
Project name : A380
Project type : Commercial aircraft development
Date : Feb 2019
Cost : Undeclared, but certainly in the billions of dollars in lost opportunity and other costs.
Synopsis :
An old Danish proverb (sometimes incorrectly attributed to Yogi Berra) quips that "It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the fu...
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Agile’s Achilles heel
From its birth in the software development community, the idea of ‘agility’ has risen in prominence to the point where organizations of all shapes and forms are now leveraging agile principles (or at least trying to). Since being conceptually formalized in the 2001 ‘agile manifesto’ the ideas have matured to the point where agile practices have worked their way into the mainstream of the Project Management Institute’s PMBoK® Guide.
As I’ve written about a number of times, agile concepts are ...
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