Counterproductive
And finally, let's look at the challenged projects, which encompassed 49% of all projects in the 2000 study. These were projects deemed "deficient" in one or more of the three dimensions. Based on the previous discussion about "successful" projects, as a first approximation, I'd just add these projects to the successful category. Who knows, maybe they met the highest priority benefit from the customer's perspective.
As the famous saying goes, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." The other thing that makes me skeptical of the Chaos report is their recipe for success that includes ten items. Buried in item ten (other criteria), which includes the use of milestones and proper planning, is competent staff.
Wow! I'd like to know how executive support, user involvement, and experienced project management (the first three items) are going to be successful without competent staff. I guess with these three things in place we can deliver successfully with incompetent staff, but don't sign me up for that project.
It is important to understand where we need to improve our management, tools, process, and skills. But it is counterproductive to use scare tactics to influence people to invest vast dollars into fixing what isn't broken.
Footnote
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Adopting
the Right Targets