Thanks, I appreciated all the comments and opinions.
I'm sure that no project or program leader plans for his or her project or program to fail. Unfortunately, despite a large and proven project management body of knowledge (BOK), too many expensive IT projects continue to fail.

If you are one of the many outstanding project/program managers who routinely manage successful projects, you probably already do most of what this article describes. The "million dollar" question here is "why does so much of the IT industry still accept failure as the norm?," or to quote Pete Seeger, "when will they ever learn?"

I wish you all much success. I thank my mentors and coaches, and teams, for I have enjoyed a very successful career. ...and I will continue to mentor, coach, and train others.