Problems with IT Projects

I've been thinking a lot lately about how few IT projects, within the organisations I have been part of, have been successful. They either end up going over time, over cost or not delivering the functionality that the users require. And yet, we continue to deliver IT projects the same way.

So I'm going to do a series of posts over the next few months about the issues as I see them and some suggestions. What I am thinking of doing is using this as a development mechanism for an ebook on the subject, but we'll see what comes from the posts first.

No one is to blame

Most importantly, this series will talk about the failings in IT and the business. This paradigm is not broken because of IT or because of the business, it is a mixture of practices that cause the problems. This is not about allocating blame, it is about trying to find a better way to deliver IT projects.

Some of the things I say here may put some noses out of joint and make people defensive. For this reason, each post will always try to present both sides of the issue. And if all else fails, people reading this should try to remember that whilst I am an information manager, my partner (and a few of our really good friends) is a systems engineer. So I'm not all about bashing the IT people, or else my home life won't be much fun :-)