Most projects start out as great ideas. But, somewhere along the way, project management mistakes are made, communication breaks down, and, most projects—70% of them— end up late, over budget, and on the way to the project dumpster. These 8 projects failed epically, but therein are contained project management lessons any smart manager can benefit from.

1. The 8 Worst-Managed
Projects of All Time
How you can learn from
history with better planning,
communication, and foresight

2. An Introduction to Failure
Most projects start out as great ideas. But, somewhere
along the way, mistakes are made, communication
breaks down, and, most projects—70% of them— end
up late, over budget, and on the way to the project
dumpster.

3. An Introduction to Failure
The following 8 projects failed epically, but therein are
contained lessons any smart work manager can benefit
from, like:
• The value of getting project goals aligned
• The wisdom of controlling requirements and budget
• The need to set and adhere to realistic deadlines

4. When growth outpaced
communication, the once
unbeatable empire broke
into two empires: the
Greek in the East and the
Latin in the West.
# 8

5. The Outcome:
• Cultures were divided.
• Communities threw up
silos.
• Resources went unused.
# 8

6. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Focused on increasing
the quality and frequency
of their communication
• Regularly aligned their
priorities around shared
goals
# 8

7. The Takeaway: Misaligned
goals leave a project with
scattered priorities and
complicate communication.
To keep your project on
track, find a way to facilitate
healthy collaboration and
agree on a single target –
regardless of the distance.
# 8

8. The roofless Sinclair C5
was supposed to be a better,
more affordable way to
commute. Unfortunately, it
went into production
without considering one
immutable fact: its market
was in the rain-heavy
United Kingdom.
# 7

9. The Outcome:
• The vehicle couldn’t
reverse or steer.
• Consumers bought only
17,000 units of the rain-
vulnerable design.
• Sinclair Vehicles filed
for bankruptcy 11
months later.
# 7

10. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Taken more time to
understand customer
requirements before
starting
• Put proper quality
assurance checkpoints
in place during the
project
# 7

11. The Takeaway: Successful
projects have complete
visibility into the quality of
their products and the needs
of the customer. If the
Sinclair team would have
spent more time prioritizing
these requirements, they
might have sold more than a
paltry 17,000 units.
# 7

12. What would be the world’s
largest commercial aircraft,
the Airbus A380 required
production in facilities
across the globe.
Unfortunately, these teams
were using different CAD
programs.
# 6

13. The Outcome:
• During installation, they
discovered the parts
designed by different
teams didn’t fit together.
• As they went back to the
drawing board, the
project was set back two
years and $6.1 billion
over budget.
# 6

14. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Aligned the different
teams on one software
to ensure design.
• Communicated more
regularly from team to
team, instead of waiting
for installation to see if
parts would match.
# 6

15. The Takeaway: Many
successful projects avoid
failure in large part by
implementing these two key
differentiators: a single
system of truth and
collaboration among teams
whether they share the same
office or occupy hallways
across the globe.
# 6

16. Early on, the sort-of SUV
crossover drifted down a sad
road when the production
team failed to inform the
designers that the vehicle
had to be based on an
existing minivan platform.
# 5

17. The Outcome:
• It was dubbed “one of the
ugliest cars ever made.”
• The vehicle’s target
audience rejected its
look, price, and add-ons.
• GM sold only 27,322
units, short even of its
modest break-even
estimates.
# 5

18. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Taken more time to
understand their target
audience and their
requirements
• Increased communication
between the production
and design teams, which
came too little, too late.
# 5

19. The Takeaway: Successful
projects establish up front
who needs to know what and
who is responsible for
communicating that
information. The minivan
platform requirement
ultimately changed the entire
look and destiny of the
Pontiac Aztek.
# 5

20. The global warming epic’s
production was supposed to
be 96 days at $100 million.
Several script rewrites, one
tropical storm, and one
AWOL director later, the
shoot was way past due and
drowning in an overflowing
budget.
# 4

21. The Outcome:
• Shooting started without
a complete script,
resulting in lots of re-
shoots.
• The shoot stretched to 150
days and went $135
million over budget.
• Bad publicity doomed
the intended blockbuster
to only modest box office.
# 4

22. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Secured a finished script
prior to the start of
filming
• Performed meteorological
research on the area where
they would be filming
(the Hawaiian coast) and
how weather might affect
their filming schedule
# 4

23. The Takeaway: Successful
projects aren’t anomalies.
They, too, deal with shifting
priorities and resource swaps.
What sets them apart from
failed projects is the ability to
foresee problems and prevent
major disasters. Much of this
battle is won in the planning
phase.
# 4

24. Millions were spent to make
sure people knew Windows
Vista would be the greatest
thing ever. But constant
changes delayed its release,
and Vista fell short of inflated
expectations—slower, less
secure, and less popular than
its predecessor.
# 3

25. The Outcome:
• One-third of all new PC
owners abandoned Vista
in favor of Windows XP.
• Delays caused Vista to be
released in the slowest
selling season of the year.
• Existing software on the
market wasn’t
compatible with Vista.
# 3

26. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Nailed down a fixed set of
strategic objectives,
instead of fixating on
features
• Settled for a manageable
set of initial requirements,
then planned post-release
iterations to add the bells
and whistles
# 3

27. The Takeaway: Delay after
delay created an anticipation
to which few products could
measure up. In this high-
stakes context, project leaders
failed to manage
expectations, get complete
visibility into the real issues,
and follow a strict timeline
for the product’s release.
# 3

28. When Knight Capital was
brought on to work on new
code for a new SEC program,
an aggressive deadline was
set. It’s highly likely, experts
say, that Knight Capital, short
on time, went to production
with test code.
# 2

29. The Outcome:
• A glitch cost the company
$440 million in the first
30 minutes of trading—3x
their annual earnings.
• Company stock fell 75%
in just two days.
• The company nearly went
bankrupt and had to take
out a $400-million line of
credit.
# 2

30. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Invested in better resource
management to forecast
how long the project
would feasibly take and
avoid setting an arbitrary
deadline
• Established a more robust
quality assurance process
# 2

31. The Takeaway: Successful
projects utilize the resources
they have and outsource work
they can’t complete if they’re
on a deadline. Successful
project managers build in
time for proper QA.
# 2

32. Malfunctioning rings. Hotels
missing floors. The worst
case of pink eye ever.
Runaway deadlines and
nonexistent transparency took
the 2014 Olympic Games
way over budget and under-
whelming in front of a global
audience.
# 1

33. The Outcome:
• Hotels, venues, and the
Opening Ceremonies
were riddled with
embarrassing faux pas.
• From an original $12-
billion budget, the Sochi
Games ballooned to an
astonishing $51 billion—
4x the original budget.
# 1

34. It could’ve been different if
they had:
• Based project completion
deadlines on historical
project data
• Made real-time reports
on all projects and tasks
transparent to all team
members and stakeholders
• Invested in increased cost
management measures
# 1

35. The Takeaway: Successful
projects account for all things
planned and unplanned.
Building in buffer time for
unanticipated problems and
fire-drill requests will keep
projects on track, on budget,
and on time—a lesson the
Sochi Olympic team learned
the hard way.
# 1

36. A Conclusion to Failure
Yes, hindsight is 20/20. However, with rare exception,
even the biggest project failures can be avoided by
improving requirements-gathering, alignment, and
estimates during the planning phase and increasing
communication and reporting during production.