the key
Actually the key is that projects usually fail because they couldn't succeed. There is a tool from the construction industry which can predict success or failure with an 80% accuracy rate. The last step in the review is the hiring of the project manager. Basically it measures the quality of your approval process and how open you are to a quick dose of reality.
Unless you are willing to admit that project as approved is impossible you can't be prepared to modify your expectations to meet reality.
The other piece is that you need to be prepared to stop the project until you have identified what the real project is and then approve that.
Many management teams are unwilling to accept the loss of face involved in stopping a project let alone accept the possibility that the project should never have been started in the first place. And that the product/scope needs to be heavily reduced in order to achieve a doable project.
Glen Ford
