The Tech Disaster Awards: What You Can Learn from IT's Biggest Project Failures

By Jake Widman

1. IBM's Stretch project: Try to salvage something of lasting value from the wreckage, even if you don't meet your project's main goals.
2. Knight-Ridder's Viewtron service: Sometimes you can be so far ahead of the curve that you fall right off the edge.
3. DMV projects -- California and Washington: (a) Don't place your future in the hands of one supplier. (b) When a project is obviously doomed to failure, get out sooner rather than later.
4. FoxMeyer ERP program: Make sure your operation can survive the failure of a project.
5. Apple's Copland operating system: Keep your project's goals focused.
6. Sainsbury's warehouse automation: Problems that go unaddressed at rollout will only get worse, not better, over time.
7. Canada's gun registration system: Define your project scope and freeze specifications before the requests for changes get out of hand.