Projects Don't Fail, People Do

Projects don't fail; the people who manage project managers fail.

Not only Software Business is a gambling area, but several others. Starting with the Initial Idea or identified Problem, the concept and design of a Software Project is a labyrinth, where each decision might weight more than anyone involved might imagine. It all depends on people a lot.

Even if the above quote represents a reality, this is not something new and it is not entirely true. In most of the cases a project "fails" because of people, but there are cases when project fail by circumstances: economics, client's financial state, competition, ...

Still... the obvious fact is that a software project is based on people more than anything. Use not prepared managers or not trained resources or not skilled architects or not inspired marketing guys.... and there are more chances to fail.

http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,1752663,00.asp