Quick: guess the failure rate, and name the top factors named as the cause of it.
I was trying to find out about failure rates on software projects. There have been lots of stats on big IT initiatives, but not on pure web. Here’s a blog from 2008 that summarizes a web-focused study.
Given this info, which is not surprising based on calls I get from people with failed projects, Dayspring’s success rate is outrageously high.
Here’s the pdf press release regarding the results of the study (commissioned by Agile/RoR group, so obviously results support their methodology).
Tags: agile, project failure
I can understand why internally developed projects fail. Most corporate accounting works with “funny” money. Internal charges for cross department services are often inaccurate or obfuscated. When they bring in an outside consultant where they can attach a real dollar value for services, then people are going to pay attention.
That’s why often when you bring in a management consultant to bring about change, it’s often something someone’s been saying all along. It’s just that once you’ve paid someone for the assessment, people are going to pay attention because they can ascribe a dollars and cents cost to it.