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The accumulated effects of repeated failures will make it next to impossible to win managerial support and trust for future projects because all managers will see are dollar signs being flushed into a toilet. This is the real coup de grâce: You lose managerial support, and everything will fall apart.

Loss of Developer Motivation and Morale

Nothing sucks the life out of a developer more than having to repeatedly witness the death of projects they pour their blood and sweat into. This is especially true of bigger projects that take months or years to build and implement. Sure, there are those who take no pride in their work and only do what they do for the paycheck. Most of us, however, like to have some sense of accomplishment at the end of a project.

Having worked in an environment where revolving door systems was the norm, I know firsthand how demoralizing it is to work on consecutive projects that, for whatever reason, don't see the light of day. Developers will eventually become passive aggressive, ambivalent, and apathetic toward everything they work on. This results in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy where developers will be asking themselves, “This is just going to fail like everything else I did, so why bother?” And by adopting this attitude, consciously or sub-consciously, they become the cause of the very thing they hope to avoid.

It's Not Only About the Dollars

Project failure and unmet expectations can have protracted soft consequences long after hard losses are corrected. Newly procured hardware and software can always be redeployed and used for other purposes, or even used to take another crack at the project they were originally purchased for. But the real question is whether the intranet development team will be given the chance to do it, and will users and management place any faith in the development team's ability make good on their promises.

There will always be circumstances beyond your control, but the important thing to keep in mind is that people actually expect a positive outcome when promises are made. So how often do you think villagers will tolerate your cries before you're eaten by a wolf?

Paul Chin (www.paulchinonline.com) is a freelance writer and journalist. He has previously worked in the aerospace and competitive intelligence industries as a software developer and intranet specialist. He currently writes on a wide range of IT topics, including systems development and security, digital communications and media, content management and web design.

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