Program/Software Development Life Cycle
- Project failures Consequences, causes and solutions
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
1
Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
Many IT projects fail being either:
• Cancelled or
• Going live with an over budget and an over time in comparison to the original
forecast with in most cases an implemented solution that does not meet the
business user expectations
WHY?
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
2
Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
Some figures:
The Standish Group Research reveals in the Chaos Report 1995 that:
 About 30% of IT projects are cancelled before completion
 About 52% of IT projects are challenged with a cost over of 189% of their
original estimates
 About 16% of IT projects are completed on-time and on-budget
The same Standish Group Research reveals in the Chaos Report 2011 that:
 About 21% of IT projects are cancelled before completion (-9%)
 About 42% of IT projects are challenged (-10%)
 About 37% of IT projects are completed on-time and on-budget (+11%)
 If progress have been shown in 16 years, it remains nonetheless 63 % of
projects either cancelled or over time and over budget.
Source: Standish Group Report http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/docs/chaos-report.pdf
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
This progress is partly thanks to:
- A better project management in general
- More small software developments mainly with the web based applications
not as complex to manage as large programs including several
applications and connectivity complexity.
But as we saw, 63% of projects remain either cancelled or challenged for
completion.
Progress remains to be done.
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
Consequences of failure (1): Money lost or additional costs
1) When the IT project is cancelled,
 Waste of time, money and resources.
In 1995 in USA it was estimated that American companies spent $81 billion per
year for cancelled software projects.
2) When the IT project is challenged:
 Requirements are not fully met, the implemented solution does not meet the
business user expectations
 Milestones not met, planning slips, behind the schedule, go-live date
postponed 1, 2, n times
 Project over initial budget
 Sustainability of the investment: the implemented solution might not be viable
on the medium/long term regarding the competitors/the market evolution
requiring new investments
In 1995 In USA, it was estimated that American companies spent an additional
$59 billion per year to complete their software projects.
Source: Standish Group Report http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/docs/chaos-report.pdf
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
Consequences of failure (2): Defects costs
Another consequence of the project failure is the number of defects increasing
due to specification changes impacting the code and finally the overall quality
of the project.
The later a defect is found, the more expensive the resolution will be.
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
According to the Standish Group Research, the factors that cause projects to be
cancelled are:
1. Incomplete Requirements
13.1%
2. Lack of User Involvement
12.4%
3. Lack of Resources
10.6%
4. Unrealistic Expectations
9.9%
5. Lack of Executive Support
9.3%
6. Changing Requirements & Specifications
8.7%
7. Lack of Planning
8.1%
8. Didn't Need It Any Longer
7.5%
9. Lack of IT Management
6.2%
10. Technology Illiteracy
4.3%
Other 9.9%
9.9%
Source: Standish Group Report http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/docs/chaos-report.pdf
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
According to the Standish Group Research, the factors that cause projects to be
delayed are:
1. Lack of User Input
12.8%
2. Incomplete Requirements & Specifications
12.3%
3. Changing Requirements & Specifications
11.8%
4. Lack of Executive Support
7.5%
5. Technology Incompetence
7.0%
6. Lack of Resources
6.4%
7. Unrealistic Expectations
5.9%
8. Unclear Objectives
5.3%
9. Unrealistic Time Frames
4.3%
10. New Technology
3.7%
Other
23.0%
Source: Standish Group Report http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/docs/chaos-report.pdf
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
To summarize:
The main causes of projects cancelled or delayed are:
 The lack of user input/involvement
 The incomplete or changing requirements and specifications
 The lack of executive support
 The unrealistic expectation
Source: Standish Group Report http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/docs/chaos-report.pdf
According to the OASIG study (1995), the TOP5 causes of failure are:
 The lack of attention to the human and organizational aspects of IT
 The poor project management
 The poor articulation of users requirements
 The inadequate attention to business needs and goals
 The failure to involve users appropriately
Source: IT Cortex www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Cause.htm
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
We can define the TOP5 causes of failure as follows:
 Incomplete requirements / Poor articulation of users requirements
 Lack of user involvement / Failure to involve users appropriately
 Lack of resources / Poor project management
 Lack of attention to the human and organizational aspects of IT / inadequate
attention to business needs and goals
 Unrealistic expectations
Additional consequences for the project are:
 Part of code and test cases/scenario to be reviewed / rewritten because of
inaccurate functional specifications
 Regression and additional defects in the functionalities because of respecifications and code rewriting
 Re-schedule of the planning, milestones slippery, go-live date postponed
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
Two additional causes of project failure to be clearly identified are:
1) The lack of executive support / of a ‘sponsor’ in the project. The role of the
‘sponsor’ is to :
Clarify the business case (reason of the project)
Define the business targets for the internal services, the clients, versus
the competitors at short, medium, long term
Explained to the business users the necessity of the project
A business case and a Project Initiation Document (PID) should be
written in that purpose.
2)
The lack of QA role of the test team during specification phase and before
test preparation. The test team has to be involved early in the SDLC
(Software Development Life Cycle) to provide with static testing by
reviewing the quality of the deliverables to ensure consistency between
them and from the very beginning of the project starting with the PID. If the
test team cannot play this role, his role will be limited to dynamic testing
once the code will be delivered. This code will be based on requirements
that have not been ‘static’ tested increasing the risk to not to meet the
business expectations.
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
11
Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
QA Role of the test team
Specification phase / static testing
Dynamic testing
Project Initiation Document
Test
Strategy
User requirements
Test team has to be involved early in the SDLC
Timeline
January 2013
UAT
SIT
Functional specifications
Technical designs
Test
Planning
UT
If the test team is involved in the SDLC
once the code is delivered, it is too late as
the discrepancies between the
requirements have not been identified
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
Coding
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
According to the Standish Group surveyed IT executive managers, the three majors
reason for a project to succeed are user involvement, executive management
support, and a clear statement of requirements.
Below is the complete list of software project success factor:
1. User Involvement
15.9%
2. Executive Management Support
13.9%
3. Clear Statement of Requirements
13.0%
4. Proper Planning
9.6%
5. Realistic Expectations
8.2%
6. Smaller Project Milestones
7.7%
7. Competent Staff
7.2%
8. Ownership
5.3%
9. Clear Vision & Objectives
2.9%
10. Hard-Working, Focused Staff
2.4%
Other
13.9%
Source: Standish Group Report http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/docs/chaos-report.pdf
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
1) Provide with accurate business user requirements (1):
A key factor is to bring some methodology and best practices into the roll-out of the
project from its initiation to the post go-live stage.
Methodology means: executive management support/strong sponsor leadership,
business users involvement, requirements, planning, QA&Testing are the key
success factors.
a)
‘AS IS’ and ‘TO BE’ situation:
With the business users, a clear understanding of the ‘AS IS’ situation is essential to
defined the ‘TO BE’ situation, then to define the solution to be implemented.
The study of the ‘AS IS’ situation allows to clearly identify what has to be kept,
decommissioned, enhanced and implemented to define the ‘TO BE’ situation
(future solution)
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
1)
Provide with accurate user requirements (2):
b) Business Process Management (BPM - BA role, swim lanes/business processes
and conceptualisation)
It is essential to clearly understand the current Business Process in order to be
able to reconsider the Business Process Management to match the expectations
The role of the business users is crucial to put on paper clear business
requirements with the help of the business analyst. The psychological aspect has
to be considered because the business users will be asked to change their uses
and habits with the new solution to be implemented
 A swim lanes / Business Process Management graph helps to understand the
organisation of the company, the interactions between departments, who is doing
what in which order, in which timeframe
 The requirements must be conceptualised (conceptualisation of the more
important and complex treatments, conceptualisation of data, screens and reports
prototyping…)
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
1) Provide with accurate user requirements (3):
c) Choice of the future solution
 Once the ‘TO BE’ situation is known, the next step is to select a panel of solutions
fitting the expectations
 Solutions must be rated against the business requirements, the Business Process
Management, the ‘TO BE’ situation, the conceptualised treatment and data, the
screens and reports prototyping.
 Representative business users must be involved in the ratting of the solution.
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
1)
Provide with accurate user requirements (4):
d)
To resume:
- PID is done
- ‘AS IS’ and ‘TO BE’ situations are known
- Main treatments and data are conceptualised
- Screens and reports are prototyped
- A panel of possible solutions is proposed. The solutions are rated
The first deliverables are there. The test team must be involved during all these stages to
play a QA role by checking the quality of the deliverables and their consistencies.
The QA&test team has to identify potential discrepancies reviewing the PID, business
requirements, the business process management, screens and reports prototyped,
the conceptualised main treatments and data
Once this major QA milestone is validated:
 The best solutions can be selected
 The QA&test team can start to work on the test strategy and the test planning, to
estimate the resource needs for test (human, test environment, test data…), to
prepare the UAT test scenario and test cases
 The overall project planning is re-assessed
 The functional analysis can start
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
1) Provide with accurate user requirements (5):
e) The V model:
Specification phase / static testing
Dynamic testing
Project Initiation Document
Test
Strategy
User requirements
Test
Planning
UAT
Functional specifications
Coding
Timeline
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
1)
Provide with accurate user requirements (6):
f)
Considering the TOP 5 causes of project failure, the progress is as follows:
TOP 5 causes of project failure
Status
Incomplete requirements / Poor articulation of users
requirements
User requirements identified and matched against PID,
functional specification to be done
Lack of user involvement / Failure to involve users
appropriately
Users are involved in the business requirements and the
decision of the solution.
Their involvement continues with their answers coming up
following questions during functional specifications
Lack of resources / Poor project management
Overall planning, first resource estimations and go-live
date estimated (but to be refined once functional
specifications are accurate)
Lack of attention to the human and organizational
aspects of IT / inadequate attention to business needs
and goals
‘AS IS’ and ‘TO BE’ situations done, swim lanes/business
processes and user requirements done
Unrealistic expectations
Expectations assessed during the PID, business needs
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
2)
Provide with accurate functional specifications, technical specifications, solution
architecture:
a)
The preparation of the functional and technical specification including the solution
architecture raises questions. Discrepancies between the deliverables are identified,
adjustments and update are done on all deliverables where necessary
b)


QA&testing team continues his QA role to:
 Ensure consistency between the deliverables
 Adjust the UAT, SIT and Unit Test cases
 Adjust the test strategy and the test planning
The project enters in an adjustment phase in an iterative mode
The quality of the project increases by ensuring a top bottom consistency between
the deliverables
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
20
Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
The V model:
Specification phase / static testing
Dynamic testing
Project Initiation Document
Test
Strategy
User requirements
Test
Planning
UAT
SIT
Functional specifications
Technical designs
UT
Coding
Timeline
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
21
Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
2)
c)
Provide with accurate functional specifications, technical specifications,
solution architecture:
Considering the TOP 5 causes of project failure, the progress is as follows
TOP 5 causes of project failure
Status
Incomplete requirements / Poor articulation of users requirements
User requirements identified and matched
against PID, functional specification verified and
matched with business requirements
Lack of user involvement / Failure to involve users appropriately
Users are involved in the business requirements
and the decision of the solution.
The user involvement continues during
functional specifications by answering to
question coming up during the functional
specifications
Lack of resources / Poor project management
Overall planning, first resource estimations and
go-live date estimated, refined during the
functional specifications
Lack of attention to the human and organizational aspects of IT /
inadequate attention to business needs and goals
‘AS IS’ and ‘TO BE’ situations done, swim lanes
and user requirements done
Unrealistic expectations
Expectations assessed during the PID, the
business needs and functional specifications
January 2013
Alain Chacun – all rights reserved
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
January 2013
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Project failures - Consequences, causes and solutions
January 2013
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