Projects Fail Primarily Due to a Lack of Expertise and Skills of Those Involved

Winters (2003) and several others (e.g., Antony & Gupta 2018; MacNeil 2024; Simplilearn 2024) list the top reasons for project failure (see Exhibit). The same or similar reasons are mentioned again and again, resulting in a consistent, stable picture over time. All the ten causes of project failure listed by Winters (2003) are related to a lack of competencies and skills among project participants—either directly (e.g., “inadequately trained and/or inexperienced project managers” and “poor leadership”) or indirectly (e.g., “cultural and ethical misalignment” and “misalignment between the project team and the business or other organization it serves”), which can be solved or at least mitigated by better competencies.

Alexandrova & Ivanova-Stankova (2013) have also identified the competencies of the project manager and project team members as very important factors for the success of projects.

References

Alexandrova M, Ivanova-Stankova L (2013) Critical success factors of project management: Empirical evidence from projects supported by EU programmes. Conference paper, 9th International ASECU Conference on “Systemic Economic Crisis: Current Issues and Perspectives,” May 30–31, Faculty of Economics, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, North Macedonia.

Antony J, Gupta S (2018) Top ten reasons for process improvement project failures. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma 10(1):367–374.

MacNeil C (2024) Why projects fail: 7 reasons (and their solutions). Accessed January 27, 2025, https://asana.com/resources/why-projects-fail.

Simplilearn (2024) 10 major causes of project failure. Accessed January 27, 2025, https://www.simplilearn.com/causes-of-project-failure-article.

Winters F (2003) The Top Ten Reasons Projects Fail (Part 7). Accessed January 27, 2025, https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/187449/the-top-ten-reasons-projects-fail–part-7-#_=_.