ERIC Number: ED284990
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1987
Pages: 69
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Why Development Projects Don't Work as Planned: Pitfalls and "Solutions." Special Studies Series on Global Development No. 5.
Lackey, Alvin S.
Although this paper identifies the various reasons for project failure, it also highlights the principles and practices related to project success. The paper attempts to strike a positive note concerning steps to take to increase the probability of successful project implementation and to suggest more realistic attitudes and expectations toward project outcomes. Various reasons for project failure are discussed within 10 separate but not necessarily mutually exclusive categories. The first category deals with the database on which projects are designed. Sections follow on assumptions, externalities, communication and miscommunication, time and cost estimates and predictions, variables, corruption, probabilities, evaluation and measurement, and bureaucratization and goal displacement. Because the categories overlap and are highly interrelated, they are treated as equal in their effect or explanatory force regarding project failure. A 66-item reference list concludes the document. (YLB)
Publication Type: Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: World Academy of Development and Cooperation, College Park, MD.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A