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." 

Preventative Actions 

A failed project can help IT leaders identify opportunities for improvement. "As IT leaders, it's critical to create an environment that not only enables time for reflection and feedback but supports the team in driving the necessary change for the future," Gilquist says. "IT leaders need to help remove barriers and drive the change required to set their teams up for future success," she states, noting that developing action plans and ensuring clear accountability are essential to prevent the same mistakes from reoccurring. 

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As soon as a project has been duly recognized as a solid-gold flop, Leonard recommends joining with the entire team to conduct a full postmortem. Once the analysis has been completed, the leader and the team should start deploying processes and strategies designed to avoid repeating the same mistakes. "Consistent monitoring and regular quality checks are also needed to make sure the process changes are being executed and the key metrics are improving." 

Before taking another shot at the project, it's important to ensure that IT is "joined at the hip with the business teams and understands their objectives inside and out," Mahajan says. She also stresses the importance of having a solid change management plan. "No matter how great the new tool or system is, we need buy-in." 

Mahajan is a strong believer in adjusting project management styles. "With our younger employees, we've had good success breaking projects into smaller, frequent milestones to match their work preferences -- it keeps them engaged," she notes. "And we always have to be willing to bring in fresh perspectives from across the organization and not just operate in an IT silo." 

Lessons Learned 

A large part of our job in IT is delivering business value through creative and innovative uses of technology, Gilquist says. "As we introduce new technologies and explore the boundaries of their capabilities, we inevitably will run into roadblocks and setbacks," she adds. "Innovation comes with some inherent risk, but it's important that we continue to challenge status quo and find new and better ways of delivering value." 

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Mahajan admits that she's no stranger to failure and wants to see her IT organization driving success. "But I also know that if we aren't pushing boundaries with new technologies, we're going to get passed by." She recommends viewing a failure as an opportunity to learn and optimize processes for the next approach. "I remind my teams that no major innovation happens without some setbacks along the way," Mahajan says. "As long as we study where things went off-track and incorporate those lessons, failure can ultimately make us stronger." 

IT projects fail for many different reasons. "Recognizing failures and setbacks early in a project allows the team to make the necessary adjustments," Gilquist advises. "As IT leaders, it's important we help create a continuous improvement culture that allows the organization to reflect, adapt, and learn from our mistakes."