A recent guest post by Mike Kavis at the IT Project Failures blog underscores that the reason IT projects fail has little to do with IT and everything to do with change management and leadership.
Most large business transformation projects fail because IT leaders don't acknowledge, or at least underestimate, the impact of change on the workforce. These managers focus entirely on technical issues while failing to address the human side of change.
Driving change successfully requires creating a sense of urgency, communicating a clear vision, and addressing WIIFM (what's in it for me) at all levels. Leaders must identify change agents throughout the company to battle resistance, while remembering success is about the people and not the technology.
You can read the rest of the post here.
And my advice on fostering better project leadership can be found here.