472 ◾ The 12 Pillars of Project Excellence
10.3.1 System-Level Failure
A “system-level failure” mode of a project can be
defined as the failure of a project caused by the gaps
in overall constitution, strategy, organizational culture,
expertise, corporate readiness, or a gap in organiza-
tional or project leadership. This mode of failure is the
most serious as it can affect all the projects and initia-
tives within an organization. Also, the root cause(s) of
this mode of failure are not readily visible and have
to be investigated carefully. To find the root cause of
system-level mode of failure, the question to ask is:
“Why Did It Fail?”
Consider a situation in an aggressive sales-driven software organization where
the project leaders are consiste ...