Why IT projects still fail

In the age of agile development, devops and related management techniques, is IT project failure even a thing anymore? The answer, sadly, is yes.

In the past, IT failures often meant high-priced flops, with large-scale software implementations going on way too long and way over budget. Those failures can and still do happen. Case in point: IBM’s never-completed $110 million upgrade to the State of Pennsylvania’s unemployment compensation system.

But IT failure today is frequently different than in it was in the past, as agile, devops, continuous delivery and the fail-fast movement have changed the nature of how IT handles projects. These iterative management methodologies and philosophies are meant to minimize the chances of projects going spectacularly awry, but the fact of the matter is that IT projects still fail, just in new and sometimes more insidious ways.

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