IT Projects Keep Failing At Unacceptable Rates Despite Strategic Alignment; 12 Common Culprits Are Identified
CIO, Monday, August 31st, 2026
Why IT Projects Still Fail
Even with alignment between IT and business leadership, technical initiatives still fail at concerning rates, with estimates ranging from one-third to 70% of projects not delivering expected benefits.
Key failure factors include insufficient project management expertise on smaller initiatives, misalignment between IT and business objectives, undefined success metrics, and inadequate business sponsor engagement.
Additional challenges involve poor stakeholder inclusion, slow decision-making processes, inadequate resource allocation, and weak change management strategies.
The article highlights how AI tools, while accelerating delivery, can introduce hidden errors and create bottlenecks when human teams cannot keep pace with automated outputs.