Who or What Is To Blame for Late Projects?

The problem with late projects has reached epic proportions. To help get a handle on the problem, various organizations conduct surveys from time to time to try to quantify such things as the average percentage by which projects overrun their schedules and the percentage of projects that are obsolete by the time they are delivered. I tend to agree that, as a whole, there is a serious problem with late projects, but I am wary of taking statistics at face value. There are several reasons for this:

• The method by which the statistics were obtained are seldom revealed and may be suspect
• Surveys can be biased simply by the way the questions are posed
• Statistics can be manipulated by the person doing the analysis of the data
• A national statistic probably doesn't tell you much about your own organization

This last point is particularly pertinent to the point of this blog. Rather than stand alone statistics, I would like to hear qualitative explanations for why projects overrun their schedules. In other words, I would like to have some narrative to go with the numbers ... something that tells me in words what people are experiencing and why. Also, if you've experienced a certain problem and found a way to deal with it, that would be helpful to know as well.

This is a tall order, so to narrow the scope to get the conversation underway, I suggest starting with the following simple question and seeing where this random walk will take us. Here is the question:

From your experience with late projects, who or what is to blame for these project overrunning their schedules?

There is no deadline for answering the question nor a limit to the number of explanations you may offer, but I believe it would be instructive to see if patterns emerge. Also, if and when you post a response, tell us something about yourself ... as a minimum, whether you are a project manager or individual contributor and also the kinds of projects you work on.

From time to time I will compile the data and share the results. Also in a subsequent blog I will share some "generic" explanations that managers and individual contributors often give for why projects overrun their schedules. Hopefully we can learn from each other.

And now, it's your turn!