Understanding project failure: using cognitive mapping in an insurance project

Robertson, S. and Williams, T. (2006) Understanding project failure: using cognitive mapping in an insurance project (University of Southampton Discussion Paper Series: Centre for Operational Research, Management Sciences and Information Systems, CORMSIS-06-05) Southampton, UK. University of Southampton 43pp.

Abstract

The proportion of projects, especially IT projects, failure is very high. The only way that companies can get better at performing projects is by learning from the projects that they have carried out. This may not always be as simple as it sounds. The traditional project management practice of holding a lessons learned session during or following a project may not allow organizations to examine the deep and “messy” reasons why projects fail, particularly with complex projects. Complex projects can best be understood by modeling. One tool is cognitive mapping, which is a technique designed to aid investigation of messy problems. It aids identification of causal chains, and, in particular, where these close in on themselves to form positive feedback loops. These positive feedback loops represent the dynamic behavior of the project, and aid in understanding not only what went wrong, but also why it went wrong. Cognitive mapping is used to understand the impacts of management decisions on a project, both the intended results and the unintentional outcomes. This approach is used here to examine a large software development project carried out by an insurance company. This project overran its original plan by several years. Causal mapping helps to identify some of the events and management responses that contributed to the overrun, and some suggestions are made both for using such methods and lessons to be learned for future projects.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics