Project Failure Research Articles

Developing a Proposed System to Organize the Investment Opportunities in Iraq

...... The Iraqi government seeks to overcome the financial crisis by investing and privatizing some projects to achieve sustainable growth. Most of the investment projects in Iraq suffer from many constraints that greatly impact the success of these projects. A survey of the opinions of a group of experts was conducted to identify the most important constraints facing the investment process in Iraq. Then the experts' answers were arranged in a closed questionnaire and distributed to the research sample for which the statistical analysis was conducted. Through it, the most important (17) factors that had the greatest impact on the failure of investment projects in Iraq were reached. One of the main constraints was the slow and routine administrative procedures. Therefore, the main objective of the research is to identify the most important constraints facing the investment process in Iraq and to develop a proposed system to organize the procedures for applying for investment opportunities, given the importance of long-term investment, the importance of the referral stage, and the selection of the competent investor who meets the criteria required for the success of the investment project. The researcher concluded that many factors impact the failure of investment projects, which must be addressed for the success of these projects, as management systems and computer technology programs greatly organize investment procedures, save time and reduce routine and slow procedures.

Strategies for Minimising Failure of Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Projects in North Central Nigeria

The global adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) concept has been driven by the growing demand for public infrastructure. However, many PPP projects have faced challenges and yielded unfavourable outcomes such as failures, delays, and concession revocations. This research paper aims to investigate the key factors influencing private investments in PPP markets in developing countries like Nigeria. The study employed an empirical questionnaire survey, collecting data from PPP experts involved in six PPP construction projects in northern Nigeria. Based on previous research, a set of 19 success factors and 21 failure factors were identified and used as the basis for quantitative data obtained. The data were analysed using the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) methodology. The findings of the study revealed that three critical failure factors (CFFs) played a role in the varying degrees of failure in the studied PPP projects. These factors include public sector corruption, lack of competition and transparency in procurement processes, and political interference during project implementation. On the other hand, six critical success factors (CSFs) contributed to the success of the PPP projects to different extents. These factors encompassed the availability of suitable financial markets, a favourable investment environment, appropriate risk allocation, competition in the procurement process, a comprehensive and realistic assessment of costs and benefits, and trust among stakeholders. The results of this study can serve as a valuable reference for PPP stakeholders seeking to minimize failure in the implementation of PPP infrastructure projects.

Cooperation between large companies and start-ups: An overview of the current state of research

Collaboration between large companies and start-ups presents unique characteristics that distinguish them from other forms of partnership and can effectively drive innovation for both entities. To enhance the understanding of this phenomenon, this study systematically examines the relevant literature on the subject. By analyzing and synthesizing 103 articles from peer-reviewed journals, a comprehensive framework is developed, elucidating the pertinent antecedents, mediators, and outcomes of such collaborations. Furthermore, fundamental gaps in research content are identified, including 1) the influence of individual and organizational factors on partnership dynamics and performance, 2) the effectiveness of such collaborations in different types of innovation pursuits, and 3) the negative consequences for partners in the event of collaborative project failure. Based on these defined concepts and identified gaps, an agenda for future research is proposed in terms of theoretical, content-related, and methodological directions.

Assessment of the Blockchain Technology Adoption for the Management of the Electronic Health Record Systems

Blockchain has applications in a broad range of settings, including healthcare (e.g., patient data management, health supply chain management, financial and insurance claims, and preventing counterfeit medications). There are, however, challenges associated with implementing such solutions, for example project failure rate, and the need for various parties to function together. Currently, there is a lack of quantitative and comprehensive models in the literature that researchers and practitioners can use to assess healthcare organizations’ readiness for blockchain adoption, particularly from multiple perspectives and using expert judgements. Thus, the objective of this article is to develop a scoring model to evaluate healthcare organization's readiness to adopt blockchain in the context of electronic health records system management. Specifically, in this article, a literature review and expert feedback were used to identify the most important factors influencing blockchain adoption. The outcomes of the article present an identification and prioritization of the blockchain adoption impacting factors. The article identified 17 factors. These factors are grouped into five perspective: financial, social, technical, organizational, and regulations and legal. The results of the article highlight that regulation compliance, regulation uncertainty, budget availability, management support, security and privacy, and financial risk and uncertainty play an important role in the organization's readiness for blockchain adoption. The readiness scoring model then developed and evaluated through two real-world case studies at two healthcare organizations. Two case studies were conducted to demonstrate the practicality of the research model, identify areas of deficiencies, and propose corrective actions in the healthcare organization's capabilities. The goal is to prevent any possible issues, before the project starts, in order to increase chances of a successful blockchain adoption.

FNReq-Net: A hybrid computational framework for functional and non-functional requirements classification

Requirements classification is a key component of software development life cycle. It enhances our understanding about project requirements, which in turn enables us to effectively identify and mitigate risks that could lead to project failure. Existing requirements classification predictors do not utilize feature selection methods competence in their predictive pipelines and lack in performance. To empower the process of automatic requirements classification, contributions of this paper are manifold. Firstly, it explores the potential of 7 filter-based feature selection techniques and 11 traditional machine learning classifiers. Secondly, for the first time it investigates combined potential of traditional feature selection and 9 diverse types of deep learning predictors. Thirdly, it presents a hybrid computational predictor namely FNReq-Net that reaps combine benefits of traditional feature selection and a novel deep learning predictor based on attention mechanism. Over two public benchmark datasets, large-scale experimental results reveal feature selection not only improves predictive performance of traditional machine learning predictors, but it also improves performance of deep learning predictors. The proposed FNReq-Net predictor outperforms state-of-the-art functional and non-functional requirements classification predictors by 4% and 1% in terms of F1-score over Promise and Promise-exp datasets, respectively.

Assessment of Business Process Maturity Model in Culinary SMEs as a Pre-Stage of Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation

The SMEs sector is predicted to have a surplus of ERP implementation projects in 2024, with 60% of the total implementation projects. However, the ERP implementation growth cannot be separated from the threat of project failure (35%) and project delays (55%). This study measured the maturity of business processes as a pre-implementation stage to reduce the risk of ERP implementation failure. The object studied was three culinary SMEs in Yogyakarta. This paper used McCormack’s theory of business process management maturity model, combined with the ICT maturity model developed by Pham. The assessment showed that the three SMEs were at the lowest level of business process maturity, the ad hoc level. Meanwhile, the ICT maturity varies from inactive to substantial. However, SME A had the eligibility to implement an ERP system but first needed to perform the business process re-engineering. The recommendations were designed for SME A to enhance its business process flow by proposing a business process based on the best practice process used by ERP system providers.

Enhancing the Responsiveness of Bids in Public Procurement: The Case of Sri Lanka

Bid Responsiveness in the public procurement process (PPP) is a crucial aspect of public construction projects. A responsive bid materially complies with the form or content requirements of the bidding documents; the responsiveness of a bid is determined during the bid evaluation period. Accepting low-responsive bids can lead to project failures and unexpected adverse consequences. The Public Procurement Systems (PPS) in developed countries frequently used systematic mechanisms to enhance the quality of the PPP which includes enhancing the responsiveness of bids. This study revealed six dominant factors impacting responsiveness and five systematic mechanisms more prominently discussed in the PPS in developed countries to enhance the quality of the PPP. The population of this study consists of procurement specialists in Sri Lankan public construction procurement at the pre-contract stage and among those who have more than 20 years of experience in PPP were considered as the sampling frame. The fuzzy-set theory was used to determine the ranking order of these systematic mechanisms based on their influence to enhance responsiveness by overcoming the impact of dominant factors. Suggestions were made for Sri Lankan PPS to implement these systematic mechanisms.

Energy Storage and Release of Class I and Class II Rocks

As underground excavations become deeper, violent rock failures associated with the sudden release of elastic energy become more prevalent, threatening the safety of workers and construction equipment. It is important to figure out the energy-related failure mechanisms of rocks. However, the energy evolution across the complete deformation of different types of rocks and the effect of high confinement on energy storage and release are not well understood in the literature. In this study, a series of cyclic triaxial compression tests were conducted for Class I and Class II rocks to investigate the confinement-dependent characteristics of energy evolution. The results showed that three types of energy evolution were identified as the rock behavior changed from brittle to ductile. The energy storage limit was linearly enhanced by confinement. The nonlinear increase in dissipated energy at peak stress with increasing confinement was suggested to indicate the start of the brittle–ductile transition. The post-peak fracturing process was characterized using the ratio of the local withdrawn elastic energy and fracture energy, and a novel energy-based index was proposed to quantify the failure intensity of the rock. This paper presents a complete investigation of the energy conversion characteristics of the rock, which may shed light on the failure mechanisms of violent rock failures in underground projects.

Fault-Prone Software Requirements Specification Detection Using Ensemble Learning for Edge/Cloud Applications

Ambiguous software requirements are a significant contributor to software project failure. Ambiguity in software requirements is characterized by the presence of multiple possible interpretations. As requirements documents often rely on natural language, ambiguity is a frequent challenge in industrial software construction, with the potential to result in software that fails to meet customer needs and generates issues for developers. Ambiguities arise from grammatical errors, inappropriate language use, multiple meanings, or a lack of detail. Previous studies have suggested the use of supervised machine learning for ambiguity detection, but limitations in addressing all ambiguity types and a lack of accuracy remain. In this paper, we introduce the fault-prone software requirements specification detection model (FPDM), which involves the ambiguity classification model (ACM). The ACM model identifies and selects the optimal algorithm to classify ambiguity in software requirements by employing the deep learning technique, while the FPDM model utilizes Boosting ensemble learning algorithms to detect fault-prone software requirements specifications. The ACM model achieved an accuracy of 0.9907, while the FPDM model achieved an accuracy of 0.9750. To validate the results, a case study was conducted to detect fault-prone software requirements specifications for 30 edge/cloud applications, as edge/cloud-based applications are becoming crucial and significant in the current digital world.

A new perspective of BDA and information quality from final users of information: A multiple study approach

Although organizational factors related to big data analytics (BDA) and its performance have been studied extensively, the number of failed BDA projects continues to rise. The quality of BDA information is a commonly cited factor in explanations for such failures and could prove key to improving project performance. Using the resource-based view (RBV) lens, data analytics literature, business strategy control, and an empirical setup of two studies based on marketing and information technology managerial data, we draw on the dimensions of the balanced scorecard (BSC) as an integrating framework of BDA organizational factors. Specifically, we tested a model –from two different perspectives– that would explain information quality through analytical talent and organizations' data plan alignment. Results showed that both managers have a different understanding of what information quality is. The characteristics that make marketing a better informer of information quality are identified. In addition, hybrid (embedded) type analyst placements are seen to achieve better performance. Moreover, we add greater theoretical rigour by incorporating the moderating effect of the use of big data analytics in companies. Finally, the BSC provided a greater causal understanding of the resources and capabilities within a data strategy.

REWARDING AND SUCCESS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

The purpose of the research is to determine the causes of failure of information systems development projects. We came to the hypothesis that rewarding can improve the success of information systems development projects. For this reason, it is suggested that employment contracts be tied to business results. Extrinsic and intrinsic rewards are a good motivator that affects the improvement of employee performance, i.e. increases productivity, business results and job satisfaction and contributes to increasing the success of information systems development projects. Designers and managers of information systems development projects who participated in the research, gave their views on the impact of rewards on the success of the information systems development project in response to survey questions. The attitudes were evaluated on a five-point Likert scales. We obtained additional data based on conversations with managers and designers who deal with the development of information systems. Through the research design, we determined an independent variable related to the employment contract based on business results, which is the basis for the application of various forms of remuneration, and a dependent variable related to the success of the information systems development project. The main findings of the research are related to the definition of the contract between the owner on the one hand and managers and designers on the other hand, which solves the problems of opportunistic behavior of managers and designers of information systems development project. In addition, the factors of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards that are most often used to motivate managers and designers of information systems development are defined. The practical implications of the research refer to the benefits that the company owner, managers and designers of the information systems development will have. They will receive the best model of employment contract for employees working on the development of an information systems project. In addition, they will receive information about the views of designers and project managers related to reward factors that improve the success of the information systems development project. The originality of the research refers to the creation of a model that links the work contract based on business results with reward factors that help to increase the success of the information systems development project.

Exploring Stakeholder Engagement Process as the Success Factor for Infrastructure Projects

Today, the world is experiencing a major cycle of investment in infrastructure, which is essential for the development and prosperity of countries and societies. Management failures in infrastructure projects are widely known, and some of them involve the weak engagement of project stakeholders. The importance of stakeholder involvement as a key factor in the success of infrastructure projects is widely recognized. However, the literature provides few answers to the question of how this process manifests itself in projects. Some scholars have concluded that it is a complex and under-researched management process. The research questions aim to find out how practitioners perceive stakeholder engagement, who conducts activities and processes related to stakeholder engagement and in what ways, what organizational aspects influence the process, and how success is achieved in infrastructure projects. Initially, eight experienced experts involved in a whole range of (complex) infrastructure projects were interviewed, and later, four additional interviews were conducted for verification purposes. During the interviews, all aspects of stakeholder engagement were discussed in detail and a thematic analysis was conducted. Based on the analysis, success and failure factors related to the stakeholder engagement process were defined. As a result, a framework model for stakeholder engagement and infrastructure project success is presented based on three levels of management and three levels of project success.

Investigating Risks to the Implementation of the Great Equatorial Landbridge (GELB) Highway Project across Africa

Transboundary Trade Corridors (TTC) are becoming increasingly important for achieving national, regional, and global development objectives. However, the cross-boundary nature of these projects involves dealing with diverse contexts that span across different countries and involve multiple stakeholders with varying interests. These circumstances exacerbate the risks and uncertainties that arise during their implementation, intensifying the challenges involved in making decisions about how to proceed with their execution. Insufficient evaluations of development projects have been identified as a contributing factor to unforeseen risks, which in turn can result in the underperformance and failure of transportation infrastructure projects. This ultimately acts as an impediment to achieving sustainable development goals. Further, rapid deployment of post risk-event corrective measures can exacerbate, for instance, macro-economic crisis and civil unrest. The Great Equatorial Land Bridge is a TTC planned to traverse five countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, South-Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Despite the anticipated advantages for globalization, political cooperation, and regional integration, the risks that must be addressed to successfully implement this project are still uncertain. We, therefore, use a Multicriteria Decision-Making (MCDM) framework to investigate risks to its successful implementation. The analysis results highlight that effectively managing economic, political, and geographic risks is crucial for the successful implementation of the project. Policy-makers, contractors and multiple stakeholders will benefit from this study’s depiction of the risks and their relative importance. Results can also inform actions toward sustainable development of the project.

Factors Leading the Failure of ICT Project Management in the Public Sectors in Tanzania

The research study focuses on investigating the factors leading the failure of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project management in the public sectors of Tanzania. The study utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The research includes a comprehensive literature review to identify factors associated with previous ICT project failures. Interviews and surveys are conducted with key stakeholders involved in ICT project management in Tanzania's public sectors. The findings highlight various factors contributing to the failure of ICT project management, including inadequate project planning and initiation, insufficient budget allocation, lack of skilled personnel, ineffective communication, and poor stakeholder engagement. Additionally, poor risk management strategies, organizational culture, political interference, and limited commitment from top management are identified as significant barriers to successful ICT project implementation. The implications of these findings emphasize the need for effective measures to address these challenges. Recommendations include improved project planning and initiation processes, increased budget allocation, enhanced human resource capabilities, and the establishment of effective communication channels. Creating a supportive organizational culture, minimizing political interference, and securing strong commitment from top management are also crucial to successful ICT project implementation in the public sectors of Tanzania. This research contributes valuable empirical evidence on the factors leading to ICT project management failure in Tanzania's public sectors. The findings can serve as a foundation for developing strategies and policies to promote successful ICT project implementation in similar contexts. Ultimately, addressing these challenges can lead to improved public service delivery and socio-economic development in the country.

Stairway to heaven or highway to hell: A model for assessing cognitive automation use cases

Cognitive automation (CA) moves beyond rule-based business process automation to target cognitive knowledge and service work. This allows the automation of tasks and processes, for which automation seemed unimaginable a decade ago. To organizations, these CA use cases offer vast opportunities to gain a significant competitive advantage. However, CA imposes novel challenges on organizations’ decisions regarding the automation potential of use cases, resulting in low adoption and high project failure rates. To counteract this, we draw on an action research study with a leading European manufacturing company to develop and test a model for assessing use cases’ amenability to CA. The proposed model comprises four dimensions: cognition, data, relationship, and transparency requirements. The model proposes that a use case is less (more) amenable to CA if these requirements are high (low). To account for the model’s industry-agnostic generalizability, we draw on an internal evaluation within the action research company and three additional external evaluations undertaken by independent project teams in three distinct industries. From a practice perspective, the model will help organizations make more informed decisions in selecting use cases for CA and planning their respective initiatives. From a research perspective, the identified determinants affecting use cases’ amenability to CA will enhance our understanding of CA in particular and artificial intelligence as the driving force behind CA in general.

The 'new era in medicine': John Ryle and the promotion of social medicine.

John A. Ryle was Britain's first professor of Social Medicine. In the 1930s and 1940s, at the peak of his influence, he was a vigorous proponent of social medicine, then a relatively new, if contested, field. This article examines Ryle's views and activities under three broad headings: What was social medicine? What were Ryle's politics? Why prioritise medical education? We conclude with the apparent failure of the social medicine project, at least as envisioned by Ryle.

Oversimplification of Systems Engineering Goals, Processes, and Criteria in NASA Space Life Support

AbstractThis paper investigates the oversimplification of the inherently complex systems engineering process in space life support. The standard systems engineering process steps are described. The International Space Station (ISS) life support system is explained with its goals and performance criteria. Although it is not usually emphasized, the essential function of developing a hierarchy of systems and subsystems is to simplify the design process. The System Complexity Metric (SCM) shows how this divide‐and‐conquer approach also reduces the system complexity. The complete systems engineering process has many detailed steps. It is often simplified because of the effort required and the human limitations on working memory and decision span. Systems analysis demands slow, logical, and focused thinking but is often bypassed in favor of quick, intuitive, subconscious “gut feel.” A study of 100 system designs found examples of 12 specific mental mistakes, such as ignoring stakeholder needs, and these mistakes are essentially oversimplifications of the systems engineering process. An analysis of space life support goals, options, criteria, and processes found 11 examples of oversimplifications in systems engineering, such as neglecting safety and cost. All these 11 oversimplifications could be traced to one or more of the 12 previously identified mental mistakes or other well‐known ones, such as ignoring sunk costs. Oversimplification of the systems engineering process is rarely noticed but is a common and harmful problem. A study of failures in 50 different space systems found that problems in systems engineering caused failures and often led to errors in design, development, and test that further contributed to failure. It seems that more diligent systems engineering could prevent many project problems and failures, but projects seem to be more guided by “gut feel” based on tradition, authority, and consensus than on the logical, rational systems engineering approach.

Understanding requirements dependency in requirements prioritization: a systematic literature review

Requirement prioritization (RP) is a crucial task in managing requirements as it determines the order of implementation and, thus, the delivery of a software system. Improper RP may cause software project failures due to over budget and schedule as well as a low-quality product. Several factors influence RP. One of which is requirements dependency. Handling inappropriate handling of requirements dependencies can lead to software development failures. If a requirement that serves as a prerequisite for other requirements is given low priority, it affects the overall project completion time. Despite its importance, little is known about requirements dependency in RP, particularly its impacts, types, and techniques. This study, therefore, aims to understand the phenomenon by analyzing the existing literature. It addresses three objectives, namely, to investigate the impacts of requirements dependency on RP, to identify different types of requirements dependency, and to discover the techniques used for requirements dependency problems in RP. To fulfill the objectives, this study adopts the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method. Applying the SLR protocol, this study selected forty primary articles, which comprise 58% journal papers, 32% conference proceedings, and 10% book sections. The results of data synthesis indicate that requirements dependency has significant impacts on RP, and there are a number of requirements dependency types as well as techniques for addressing requirements dependency problems in RP. This research discovered various techniques employed, including the use of Graphs for RD visualization, Machine Learning for handling large-scale RP, decision making for multi-criteria handling, and optimization techniques utilizing evolutionary algorithms. The study also reveals that the existing techniques have encountered serious limitations in terms of scalability, time consumption, interdependencies of requirements, and limited types of requirement dependencies.

Understanding Interface Criticality in Large Infrastructure Projects

AbstractUnderstanding and effectively managing interfaces has been recognised as key to mitigating the risk of project failure since the 1960's and is becoming more prominent in infrastructure as projects become more complex. This paper reviews how interfaces in infrastructure projects are traditionally identified, defined, owned, assessed, and managed. It provides recommendations on how to better align this traditional viewpoint with a whole‐of‐system approach to Interface Management through an assessment of interface criticality and shows the application of these through a case study on the redesign of two rail‐enabled ferry terminals.

The Role of Client-Contractor Relationship in Solving Financing Failure in Construction Project

The construction industry supply chain emphasizes the importance of the client and contractor relationship. This research examines the process of evaluating the Contractor's capability in selecting a contractor. This study also reviews how the project owner solves the problem during work. This research uses a qualitative and case study approach. The study is based on library research, the Delphi method, and content analysis. The results of the study show: (a) in building a relationship, PT XYZ and the Contractor has declared about its business legal documents to the ABC institution; (b) However, in building a relationship, PT XYZ was not transparent about its financial capabilities and business ownership structure; (c) PT XYZ's failure to finance the project has disrupted the relationship of the two parties; (d) PT XYZ (Contractor) has declared about its financial failure; (d) the ABC institution overcomes it with a relationship beyond contract model, which is first to bail out the Contractor's finances so that PT XYZ can still carry out the construction service contract to completion. The ABC institution decided to bail out PT.XYZ is primarily based on the values practiced by the ABC institution, known as LIGHT, which means Love, Integrity, Growth, Humanity, and Trust.