IT's biggest project failures -- and what we can learn from them

When you look at the reasons for project failure, "it's like a top 10 list that just repeats itself over and over again," says Holland, who is also a senior business architect and consultant with HP Services. Feature creep? Insufficient training? Overlooking essential stakeholders? They're all on the list -- time and time again.

A popular management concept these days is "failing forward" -- the idea that it's OK to fail so long as you learn from your failures. In the spirit of that motto and of the Ig Nobel awards, Computerworld presents 11 IT projects that may have "failed" -- in some cases, failed spectacularly -- but from which the people involved were able to draw useful lessons.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Project+Management&articleId=9116470&taxonomyId=73

Conglomerate Posture During Economic Downturn

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/854855/WPP-orders-hiring-freeze-amid-client-spending-cuts/

WPP orders hiring freeze amid client spending cuts

by John Tylee, Campaign 17-Oct-08, 14:40

LONDON - WPP has reacted to the deepening financial crisis by ordering a freeze on all hirings until further notice.

In an e-mail to senior staff and seen by Campaign, the group, whose agency empire includes JWT, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam and Grey, cites clients' decisions to hold back on marketing spend as the reason for its action.

A Subject We Cannot Ignore

Rape Victim's words Jolt Congo - NY Times October 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/world/africa/18congo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

This is a difficult story to read. I realize the difficulty lies in me (us), for the way we all have left this level of inhumanity up to others to take care of.

I went to see the movie "W" today. True to his words, Oliver Stone has not created a film that's driven by cheap shots.

I came away with an interesting feeling.

The movie was not about "W", but more about us. How we work to develop our democracy and how we often times, just let things happen. "Things" that affect the very fabric of our humanity.

We live in a time of "Talk Radio Show Consciousness" and that continues to divide us.

Interesting to me, that radio has always been a tremendous influencer of culture and beliefs. In fact, like the telegraph, radio was an early technology signal for safety when people are in trouble.

Sal

Multimillion-Dollar Men

October 7, 2008 NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/07/business/20080929-payout-graphic.html

In the five years from 2003 to 2007, these Wall Street executives collectively took home more than $1 billion in pay

Once again, I am reminded of what the author Tom Wolf said last week:

"Wall Street is like Broadway. They are both anachronisms. Nothing new happens there".

Sal

Whers's the Money?

The author, Tom Wolf said in an interview this week:

"Wall street is like Broadway, it's an anachronism. Nothing new happens there".

He went on to say, that more influence on the money comes from Greenwich Connecticut, implying home of the hedge fund world, I believe.

It's an interesting observation. I know he is right about Broadway. Think about the extraordinarily committed and gifted people working in that community. Skilled performers, producers, stage hands, designers, musicians, maintenance and security experts.

All that incredible human passion and commitment to create unusually expensive and often empty spectacles in a world where theater is today, so profoundly needed.

The theater historically, has always been a place for the society to talk to itself about itself.

What are we saying to one another today?

And, could there be a relationship between what we are not able to share openly, that puts us into a bankrupt sense of value at all levels. Affecting our health fiscally, mentally and ethically?

Sal

Internal Communications - The Continuing Myth

Today, I answered a Linked In question about internal communications.

Here's what I said:

To provoke some response to your statement and hear from others, I will suggest a different point of view. And, it's one I believe in.

We should forget "internal" vs. "external" communications in organizations. The world does not work that way anymore. The boundaries are gone.

Content that bores people is the real danger. Content that excludes people because of traditional internal competition depletes ROI and destroys innovation.

People working in the food industry to develop new products forget their "secrets" once at home, where they face contemporary issues like child diabetes. They are customers as well as workers in a world where information sharing and learning are routine ventures on the Internet and within their social networks. Formal and Informal Networks.

Living and working in a networked society and economy has made the internal vs. external separatism archaic.

Wherever organizations still live to provide paternalistic communication structures, you will find an underachieving culture. Sometimes, that shows up in dollars and more often in not supporting human potential.

This is not to say that internal work and information sharing should not be organized. However, understanding what kind of organizational structure is dependent upon the kind of WEB 2.0 world we live in. And, the way these formal and informal networks can provide value.

People are far less tolerant of their E bay world not functioning than they are of the corporate communications methodologies that limit creativity and inclusion.

Understanding that phenomenon is a transformation worth investing in for companies.

Best of luck with your exploration.

Sal Rasa
im21 (innovation/measurement 21st. century)