How to Spot a Failing Project

One more study, the same old facts:

"As of 2006, the absolute failure rate is down to 19 percent," Johnson says. "The success rate is up to 35 percent." The remaining 46 percent are what the Standish Group calls "challenged": projects that didn't meet the criteria for total success but delivered a useful product.

Here's something good (for people like me who work on small projects):

What is perhaps more troubling is that the bigger the project, the worse the problems. "Seventy-three percent of projects with labor cost of less than $750,000 succeed," Jim Johnson says. "But only 3 percent of projects a with labor cost of over $10 million succeed. I would venture to say the 3 percent that succeed succeeded because they overestimated their budget, not because they were managed properly."

And here's something troubling for people who believe agility is the answer for all problems:

(Perhaps significantly, agile project management is notoriously least effective on very large projects.)

Makes sense. From now on I'll target on small projects where agility can work :)

Finally, the hints:

• Lots of overtime
• Diversion of resources
• Ratios trouble
• Milestones aren't met