Why IT Projects Fail?

Project Initiation & Planning Issues

• Unclear or unconvincing business case
• Insufficient or non-existent approval process
• Poor definition of project scope and objectives
• Insufficient time or money given to project
• Lack of business ownership and accountability
• Insufficient and/or over-optimistic planning
• Poor estimating
• Long or unrealistic timescales; forcing project end dates despite best estimates
• Lack of thoroughness and diligence in the project startup phases

Technical & Requirements Issues

• Lack of user involvement (resulting in expectation issues)
• Product owner unclear or consistently not available
• Scope creep; lack of adequate change control
• Poor or no requirements definition; incomplete or changing requirements
• Wrong or inappropriate technology choices
• Unfamiliar or changing technologies; lack of required technical skills
• Integration problems during implementation
• Poor or insufficient testing before go-live
• Lack of QA for key deliverables
• Long and unpredictable bug fixing phase at end of project

Stakeholder Management & Team Issues

• Insufficient attention to stakeholders and their needs; failure to manage expectations
• Lack of senior management/executive support; project sponsors not 100% committed to the objectives; lack understanding of the project and not actively involved
• Inadequate visibility of project status
• Denial adopted in preference to hard truths
• People not dedicated to project; trying to balance too many different priorities
• Project team members lack experience and do not have the required skills
• Team lacks authority or decision making ability
• Poor collaboration, communication and teamwork

Project Management Issues

• No project management best practices
• Weak ongoing management; inadequately trained or inexperienced project managers
• Inadequate tracking and reporting; not reviewing progress regularly or diligently enough
• Ineffective time and cost management
• Lack of leadership and/or communication skills

10 ways to trim your IT budget (10 способов уменьшить ИТ бюджет)

1. Put off unnecessary upgrades  (работает не трогай, пока не понадобятся новые фичи)
   
2. Don’t buy top of the line (не надо покупать самое распоследнее)
3. Consolidate servers (использовать железо по максимуму. виртуализация)
   
4. Virtualize applications (иногда и виртуализация приложений экономит деньги. установка, обслуживание ПО)
   
5. Use thin clients (спорный пункт, тут надо считать в зависимости от ситуации)
   
6. Consider selective deployment of open source software (внедряйте только осторожно, и только там где действительно просчитано и нужно)
   
7. Have fewer, smarter meetings (время надо использовать более продуктивно)
   
8. Look at new training options (обучать сотрудников выгодно)
   
9. Replace dedicated WAN links with site-to-site VPN (ингода лучше VPN, чем выделенки)
   
10. Outsource some services  (отдайте на аутсорсинг то что не выгодно делать самим)