The Working Council for
Chief Information Officers commissioned a
research effort on the Role of the Project Office which was
completed in February 1998. The published report is rich in
information, including a ranked list of the ten most
significant root causes of runaway projects and missed
objectives.
1. Inadequate requirements statements
2. Lack of specific and measurable goals
3. Architecture design flaws and changes
4. Inadequate change control systems
5. Inadequate project status reviews and reporting
6. Inadequate project metrics
7. Lack of open project communications
8. Lack of clear project milestones
9. Overly optimistic estimations of project feasibility
10. Various management difficulties
"Many project offices we found have little influence over
the top two root causes of runaway projects. However,
project offices with sufficient foresight are increasingly
focusing on project conception to help clearly define and
set realistic expectations for projects.
"Although the project office has little control over the
conception of the project, it enforces methodologies in
order to recover poorly conceived projects. These
methodologies are a core function of the project office and
attempt to address the causes of project management failure
such as poor status reporting, inadequate metrics and lack
of communication between project managers."
("The Role of the Project Office", The Corporate
Advisory Board, February 1998, p.6.)