Project delivery problems: Why can’t we make them go away?

This application paper is based on a collection of 1200 responses regarding the critical project problems facing team members in the delivery of business and technology projects. Industry examples and applications from several Fortune 100 companies are discussed along with the authors' project experience reflecting various efforts to overcome perpetual project problems. Business economies must keep up with technology and technology development if they have hopes of sustaining themselves. The need for "the next new thing" coupled with high speed demand to deliver with strained resources is a perpetual challenge. Developing enterprises build new facilities, add new staff and ride the wave of market demand. And, in almost all instances these efforts must navigate and overcome project delivery problems. As the project or product manager, it all comes down to you and how well that is achieved. This paper explores the most prevalent problems facing project delivery today. Categories have been established which reflect the most common project problems. What are they, in what ways do they most often affect teams and how can they be mitigated are just a few of the questions to be addressed. Project problems exist within all enterprises, even those with strong project management foundations and disciplines. What businesses are doing about it will be explored along with applications as viable solutions for mitigating these project problems.