What You Can Learn From a Failed IT Project

Disappointed, but not defeated. That's the attitude every IT leader should strive for when a once-promising IT project turns out to be a total and absolute failure.

The most important lesson is recognizing that failure plays a critical role in growth and improvement, says Christina Gilquist, a vice president in 3M's IT unit and leader of the firm's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Center of Excellence. "As IT leaders, it's important we encourage our teams to view failure as a learning opportunity rather than a defeat," she observes in an email interview. "It's what we do about the failure that matters."

Communicate and Align

Most often, IT projects fail due to internal communication failures. "IT teams can't execute successfully without excellent communication and coordination with stakeholders," says Nick Leonard, senior vice president of product with supply chain automation firm SVT Robotics, via email. He notes that stakeholders usually stay hands off, although their engagement is critical to the project's success. "Establishing strong, consistent communication between IT teams and stakeholders will go a long way in preventing failed projects."

Manjula Mahajan, vice president and IT leader for Model N, a global revenue and compliance software provider, says the biggest lesson she's learned about projects is how important it is to be fully aligned with business strategy and priorities. "Too often, IT gets caught up in implementing the latest technologies without stepping back to make sure we understand exactly what problems the business is trying to solve," Mahajan says in an email interview. "A project failure is a wake-up call that we weren't listening closely enough to our business partners."

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Understanding why a project has failed can provide useful insights into organizational weaknesses, Gilquist says. "IT leaders can use those insights to refine project management practices, develop talent, and realign resources to prevent similar failures in the future."

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