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The purpose of this research is to determine how project managers attribute information technology (IT) project success and failure.

IT personnel from large Australian organisations completed an adapted version of the Attributional Styles questionnaire, which asked them to attribute causes along a number of attribution dimensions, for IT projects which have either succeeded or failed.

The results indicate that IT support workers attribute failure to external factors, whilst attributing success to themselves. On the other hand, executive management took a more balanced perspective which attribute success to external factors and only partially to themselves, whereas they attribute significant personal responsibility for failure.

More junior professionals and operational IT employees can learn from their senior professionals in attributing success and failure. Post‐implementation reviews and debriefings conducted by senior IT professionals are ways of passing on their experience in relation to project and self‐evaluations.

This paper takes a well established psychology theory and applies it to the management of information systems (IS)/IT projects. IS/IT research has not examined how IT professionals attribute success and failure within projects.

This paper attempts to understand the reasons for knowledge management (KM) project failure.

Five well‐documented cases of KM project failure in the current literature are reviewed. For each case, the authors examine the circumstantial elements of the failure, including the rationale and intended objectives of the KM project, the outcomes of the project and the reasons that led to project failure.

From the review, two observations are made. First, KM failure factors fall into four distinct categories, namely, technology, culture, content, and project management. Second, KM projects can be traced along a three‐stage lifecycle, comprising initiation, implementation, and integration.

The findings are discussed and finally synthesized into a model of KM project failure. The model serves as a starting‐point for future research in KM project implementation.

Practitioners may use the model as a risk identification tool for KM project implementation.

This paper highlights the fact that KM project failure is a reality with which both practitioners and researchers have to reckon. Additionally, it leverages on the experiences of five KM failure cases and develops a model that allows KM failure factors to be pre‐empted.

This paper seeks to apply results from the study of bandit processes to cases of information technology (IT) project failures.

This paper examines three published case studies, and discusses whether managerial actions are in accordance with the predictions of bandit process studies.

Bandits are a class of decision‐making problems that involve choosing one action from a set. In terms of project management, the firm selects from several alternative IT projects, each with its own distribution of risks and rewards. The firm investigates technologies one by one, and keeps only the best‐performing technology. The bandit perspective implies that managers choosing a risky IT project with high potential reward before safer ones are behaving optimally. It is in the firm's interest to resolve the uncertainty about the innovative project first. In case of failure, the firm can later choose safer technology. A high proportion of risky projects adopted leads to a high number of project failures.

The bandit approach supports studies that advocate evaluating decision makers on the optimality of their decision process, rather than specific outcomes.

This paper demonstrates how insights from the bandit problem are relevant to studies of IT project failures. Whilst choosing high‐risk, high‐reward projects may be in a firm's interest, some observed project failures are optimal choices that do not work out.

The continuous failure of construction projects notwithstanding appreciable increase in project management knowledge has necessitated a proactive approach of assessing early warning signs (EWS) of building projects failure. Building projects are expected to show warning signs before experiencing crises, comparable to a patient displaying symptoms of a disease. Thus, this study aims to examine the EWS that predisposed building projects to failure in Nigeria to provide empirical data for enhancing projects delivery.

Primary data were used for the study. Structured questionnaire was administered to consultants and contractors’ personnel within Lagos State, Nigeria. A total of 180 copies of questionnaire were administered and 134 copies (combined response rate of 74.44 per cent) were retrieved. Frequency distribution, percentages, mean item score and Mann–Whitney test were used to analyse the data.

Most construction professionals applied the EWS approach from project planning and early construction phase. The most significant EWS predisposing building projects to failure were “Management inability and incompetence to proactively detect and manage problems at early project stages”, “Actual expenditure is constantly shooting beyond cost estimates” and “Incurred costs already getting higher than the anticipated benefits”. Project/construction management-related symptoms are most significant to predisposing building projects to failure.

The study provided implications for effective project management of building projects through proactive approach which is very paramount to improving the delivery of building projects in Nigeria.

The study provides implications for proactive management of building projects, thereby enhancing the delivery of building projects.

This paper aims to explore the concept of early warning signs (EWSs) in offshore-outsourced software development (OOSD) projects at the team level. It also aims to identify the EWSs of failure in the onshore-offshore project context and understand how they are perceived by responsible managers.

A grounded theory approach is followed by gathering data from 19 failed OOSD projects using project managers from client and vendor sides as the key informants.

This study identified 13 EWSs of failure in five categories of trust and team cohesion, common project execution structures, awareness of shared work context, collaboration between teams and onshore-offshore team coordination capabilities. EWSs were found to comprise two components: early warning issues and early signals of failures.

India-based vendors’ data in the study formed the primary weakness of the work regarding generalizability, even though it brought homogeneity to data. Lack of triangulation of failure data through client or vendor peers proved impossible in this research as failure remains a very sensitive topic. Dual composition of EWSs could be applied to institutionalize an early warning tool in projects.

The paper develops an exploratory model of EWSs of failure and project failure in the OOSD project context. The two-component framework of EWSs allows project managers to eliminate false positives while identifying EWSs. It contributes to the information system failure, risk management and information technology offshoring research streams.

The purpose of this study is to examine the critical failure factors (CFFs) linked to various types of process improvement (PI) projects such as Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Agile. Proposing a mitigation framework accordingly is also an aim of this study.

This research undertakes a systematic literature review of 49 papers that were relevant to the scope of the study and that were published in four prominent databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCO.

Further analysis identifies 39 factors that contribute to the failure of PI projects. Among these factors, significant emphasis is placed on issues such as “resistance to cultural change,” “insufficient support from top management,” “inadequate training and education,” “poor communication” and “lack of resources,” as primary causes of PI project failures. To address and overcome the PI project failures, the authors propose a framework for failure mitigation based on change management models. The authors present future research directions that aim to enhance both the theoretical understanding and practical aspects of PI project failures.

Through this study, researchers and project managers can benefit from well-structured guidelines and invaluable insights that will help them identify and address potential failures, leading to successful implementation and sustainable improvements within organizations.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first study of its kind to examine the CFFs of five PI methodologies and introduces a novel approach derived from change management theory as a solution to minimize the risk associated with PI failure.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent of failure within Ghanaian Government projects using multiple failure criteria.

This study used a sequential data collection approach by employing an in-depth semi-structured interview and questionnaire, respectively. Based on insight from the literature review, interviews were held with participants to solicit their perceptions about the failure of Ghanaian Government projects. A questionnaire was developed based on the results from the interviews in order to determine the relative importance of the various failure criteria used as the evaluation tool.

Six main criteria were identified and used as the assessment framework for Ghanaian Government project failure. The findings indicated that Ghanaian Government projects fail on all the six failure criteria; however, the extent of failure differs from criterion to criterion. The worst failure criterion is meeting the projected timescale. This is followed by cost, requirement, stakeholder satisfaction, national development and contribution to the sector where projects are implemented, respectively.

From this study, government project practitioners and policy makers will be able identify the failure areas (criteria) on which to focus during government project implementation.

Though extant literature has been devoted to the success/failure criteria, attention has not been paid to comparison of the extent of failure within these criteria in government projects. Therefore, this study extends the literature in this regard as well as government project failure literature in general.

While Six Sigma (SS) has been deployed effectively in Indian manufacturing and service sectors as a process improvement methodology, the implementation of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) for robust product and service development has not shown noticeable results. Therefore, this article aims to determine the critical failure factors (CFFs) of DFSS in the Indian context.

The paper presents the results of a pilot survey on the CFFs of DFSS in Indian companies. The survey participants were specialists in DFSS who have been involved in DFSS projects in their past and present companies. Moreover, the pilot study participants were DFSS Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts from the manufacturing and service sectors.

Company-wide applications of DFSS are very limited in India. Most of the DFSS project failures are reported in the Analyse phase of the project. The results indicated that all 18 CFFs used in the survey have a significant impact on project failures. Also, it was determined that all CFFs are positively correlated with each other. Further, a strong correlation was observed between the voice of the customer (VOC) and project selection and prioritisation. In addition, effective training showed a strong correlation with the right selection of tools.

The pilot survey was based on a limited sample size. Moreover, the study is confined to only the Indian context and data were collected through the authors' networks. However, respondents were proficient, certified and involved in DFSS project deployment in the manufacturing and service sectors. Therefore, the study's findings are useful and meaningful to draw robust inferences.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted in the Indian context to identify the reasons for DFSS project failures. The study's findings can aid academicians and practitioners in comprehending and critically examining the CFFs of DFSS before executing a project. Moreover, the research outcome motivates policymakers to create an ecosystem to effectively adopt DFSS for start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to ensure a circular economy and support the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiative.

The failure and abandonment of construction projects have proven to be insurmountable problems incessantly militating against the efficient performance of the construction industry in Nigeria. The complexity, technicality and a host of other project execution issues unique to multi-storey building projects do increase their susceptibility to failure and abandonment. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria. This is with a view to provide inferential empirical data that could enhance successful delivery of multi-storey building projects in Nigeria.

Primary data were used for the study. A structured questionnaire was administered on consultants and contractors’ personnel within Lagos State, Nigeria. A total of 180 copies of the questionnaire were administered ,and 134 copies which represent a combined response rate of 74.4 per cent were retrieved. The data were analysed using frequency distribution and percentages, Mean item score and factor analysis.

The factors most significant to the failure and abandonment of multi-storey building projects are inadequate funding by the client, improper planning at the pre-construction phase, structural failure in multi-storey building during construction, bankruptcy/business failure of the contractor, improper scheduling of the building project activities and failure to engage qualified professionals with technical expertise and experience. The rated factors clustered under human resources capability, planning and structural quality, contractor selection and variation, insecurity and variation, and force majeure and political risk.

The study was limited to multi-storey building projects in Lagos State, Nigeria. Further studies could focus on specific resuscitation strategies for abandoned multi-storey building projects.

The study provided implications for effective project and contract management of multi-storey building projects which is very paramount to improve the delivery of complex, technical- and capital-intensive building projects in Nigeria.

The study provides specific implications for the management of multi-storey building projects, thereby enhancing the delivery of building projects.

Information technology (IT) project management is a crucial issue for organizations today. A 1995 study in the USA found that 31 per cent of software projects will be canceled before completion, and more than half the projects will cost an average of 189 per cent of the original estimates. This article examines the results of a survey questionnaire that was sent to Canada’s 1,450 leading public and private institutions to find the causes of IT project failure. It found that the three most common reasons for project failure are poor project planning, a weak business case, and a lack of top management involvement and support. It then outlines the reasons behind these failures, thus providing the first steps towards minimizing the risk of future failures.