Strategic scanning project failure and abandonment factors: lessons learned

This article aims to explore factors contributing to the failure and abandonment of strategic scanning projects and operational systems. Thirty–nine projects that were studied using action research methods are analyzed. The results suggest that failure and abandonment are provoked by combinations of factors relating to stakeholders' qualifications and experience, to the management and organization of the project system, as well as to strategic alignment and changes in the organization's internal structure. These factors include poor project impetus, uninvolved management, unqualified people, inaccurate expectations, project mismanagement, strategy misalignment, poor participation, hostile culture, insufficient budget, conflating technical and managerial problems, previous project trauma and underestimated complexity.